Help choosing motherboard for the 2700X

[gonza1207]

I've been trying to decide for the last couple of hours whether I should buy a b450 or x470 chipset motherboard for the 2700x CPU, searching on the internet for reviews and opinions.

However, i have seen good arguments for buying either type of chipset.

On paper, the difference between the x470 and b450 chipset is the number of usb and pcie ports, which i do not mind, so it would be a good argument to go for b450 and save some bucks.

However, i've also found that the VRM of b450 motherboards is generally bad, and that hinders performance of the CPU.

I do not plan to do extreme overclocking, but i also do not want the motherboard to bottleneck the CPU performance, i plan on using precision boost and Overclocking profiles to get the most out of the CPU.

The motherboards i am considering, that i have seen have a discount during BF are the following:

ASRock b450 PRO4 $60

ASRock X470 Master $100

ASRock X470 Fatal1ty Gaming K4 $115

ASRock X470 Taichi $160

If you think that i should consider a board that i have not listed and is in that price range feel free to suggest.



As i said, on paper b450 and x470 have the same features, which makes me want to buy the 60 USD board. However, if its worth it to buy a more expensive board im willing to do it, but not because of some extra usb and sata ports.

PS: Ive also been considering the B450 TomaHawk and the B450 Carbon, the only drawback i see with these cards is that they do not support voltage offset so PBO is useless. I want to overclock but i dont want to have to manually set the values thats why PBO seemed like a great feature.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

Go for the a MB with 470 chipset, you may not need all the bells and whistles to start with but sure beats upgrading later if your needs change.

 

[EarthDog]

What would one need to upgrade to from b450?

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I'm running an Asus Prime B450M-A motherboard with the 2700X. It handles it pretty well. If you need additional overclocking essentials and a better VRM package, you want the X versions.

In reality, you won't be going over 1.4v respectively while it'll take 1.5v roughly to achieve any clocks over 4.3ghz. And then you'll want a water cooling system to deal with the heat.

 

[notarat]

I'm running a 2700X on a CH Hero and I'm quite pleased with it thus far.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I'm running a 2700X on a CH Hero and I'm quite pleased with it thus far.

How does your setup overclock? Can you hit 4.4ghz with it??

 

[notarat]

How does your setup overclock? Can you hit 4.4ghz with it??

Do you mean the dynamic overclocking that the chip does on its own (turbo) or do you mean manually overclocking to set it at 1 speed (4.4)? I let the 2700X run defaulted to turbo. My 1600X is manually set to 4.190GHz.

 

[DaveB]

The ASRock B450 Pro4 looks to have a decent 6+3 power configuration. I used several B350 Pro4 and B450M Pro4 motherboards when Ryzen came out and they OC'd fine without any VRM overheating issues. The only issues were the typical the early release memory issues which were solved about a year ago.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Do you mean the dynamic overclocking that the chip does on its own (turbo) or do you mean manually overclocking to set it at 1 speed (4.4)? I let the 2700X run defaulted to turbo. My 1600X is manually set to 4.190GHz.

If you run that auto (stock turbo) then you purchased too much motherboard.
I meant 4.4ghz manually. Was curious your settings and voltage if you did achieve that frequency.

Here's 4360Mhz about 1.5v with power savings enabled stock cooler on B450M-A

 

[Niku-Sama]

The ASRock B450 Pro4 looks to have a decent 6+3 power configuration. I used several B350 Pro4 and B450M Pro4 motherboards when Ryzen came out and they OC'd fine without any VRM overheating issues. The only issues were the typical the early release memory issues which were solved about a year ago.

i would question that VRM, i know this link is a b350 asrock board how ever they keep doing this with newer boards too:

 

[DaveB]

i would question that VRM, i know this link is a b350 asrock board how ever they keep doing this with newer boards too:

I read another analysis last year that criticized the power section design, but I had both the ATX and mATX versions of the Pro 4 running Ryzen 7 1700s at 4 GHz with no problems. The only AM4 B350 board I used that had any issues was the Gigabyte B350 Gaming 3 ATX, which although it ran fine, did show high VRM temps running a 1700X at 4 GHz.

 

[bignazpwns]

I avoid AStrash i mean Asrock like the plague.

Price range i would look at the X470 strix. Great mobo but i had typical Asus problems software they cant do at all. Had some major bios problems. If you can get one that does not have that its a great mobo. I picked up a Gigabyte Gaming 7 and i love it. Out of all the X470 mobos i used this is the best. Overclocks the best and the memory that hit walls at 3200 no matter what hit 3266 on this mobo.


You gain some things with the x470 over the b470 so if those are things you wants then there is no question. VRM should be fine on most. Example my Gigabyte is way over built. Even with a 1700g at 4.2ghz it barley gets warm. 42c under load.

 

[Alaric]

Buildzoid did a comparison for Gamers Nexus. Timely and informative.

 

[JRZoid]

Tough Call I don't know just pick something...They have the Abundance of gigabyte and MSI mobos...I did see a Tuf board though almost got that.
But I settled on the MSI X470 entry one and they said it's fine and probably is and hope my memory works with it. And the 2600x and found some Barrow like Block for it.
The Arsenal is ever Increasing lol.