How much of a difference does the motherboard make?

[nuclearrabbit17]

Hello all,

I'm looking to build the most beastly possible music production rig that I can afford. I'm planning on building it in September because I'm waiting for the 3950X. My question, as seen in the title, is how big a difference does the motherboard make? By FAR my biggest system resource used is CPU, which is why I'm getting the best I can afford. When it comes to RAM, 16GB is probaby plenty, though I'll likely get 1 16GB stick if I want to upgrade to 32GB at a later date. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles, and while I may put a graphics card in at some point, I'm not a hardcore gamer, and that is NOT the purpose of this machine.

Will I suffer performance issues if I shell out for the CPU but cheap out on the motherboard? As long as it's AM4 compatible it should be good right? Or is it more complicated than that? (As it often is).

Also, I plan on doing my first liquid cool, as opposed to air cooling to squeeze out as much performance as possible. Are there any motherboard considerations I need to take into account for liquid cooling vs air cooling?

Any advice that anybody can give me is very much appreciated!

 

[bassnut]

3950X does not have onboard graphics so you will need a graphics card. In the end if you do not want to Overclock your CPU you can buy a lesser board but considering you are planning on a 16 Core 32 Thread 3950X you will still need to make sure you have something solid enough to handle that chip..... it won't be cheap. When choosing ram don't mix and match buy 2 sticks at the same time.

 

[EarthDog]

You'll want 2x8gb to run dual channel...

If you're running it at stock, any x570 board will do really.. but the more robust the vrm the better off you are. With that monster cpu, you cant cheap out on the motherboard and go x470.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

I'm looking to build the most beastly possible music production rig that I can afford.

Also, I plan on doing my first liquid cool, as opposed to air cooling to squeeze out as much performance as possible. Are there any motherboard considerations I need to take into account for liquid cooling vs air cooling?

If all your going to do is music production, you don't need to go liquid, air will do the job nicely, your CPU will barely break a sweat. With a TPD of 105W, any high end air cooler will do.

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

3950X does not have onboard graphics so you will need a graphics card. In the end if you do not want to Overclock your CPU you can buy a lesser board but considering you are planning on a 16 Core 32 Thread 3950X you will still need to make sure you have something solid enough to handle that chip..... it won't be cheap. When choosing ram don't mix and match buy 2 sticks at the same time.

Good to know! I’ll factor in a graphics card into my purchase. I would like the option to over lock if needed. I had a core i7 from 7 years ago and over clocking it did help it a little bit.

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

You'll want 2x8gb to run dual channel...

If you're running it at stock, any x570 board will do really.. but the more robust the vrm the better off you are. With that monster cpu, you cant cheap out on the motherboard and go x470.

Any recommendations? If it will help I’m perfectly willing to spend the extra money but I do t really know what I’m looking at. Any features you think I should look for?

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

If all your going to do is music production, you don't need to go liquid, air will do the job nicely, your CPU will barely break a sweat. With a TPD of 105W, any high end air cooler will do.

Oh trust me I will push this thing to it’s limits with “just” music production. Liquid cooling is definitely preferred. I’ve had too many problems with throttling

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

Oh trust me I will push this thing to it’s limits with “just” music production. Liquid cooling is definitely preferred. I’ve had too many problems with throttling

Seems to me you did not disable the energy saving features on your past MB's. For AMD, cool & quite, all C States and Turbo needs to be disabled.
For Intel it's about the same but Intel does not have cool & quite. Now I can't stop you from going water if that's what you want and you have the big bucks to spend but your not going to use all 16 cores/32 threads on that CPU you want to get, at most 3 maybe 4 threads.

I had a FX8350 system cooled with a Nepton 280L AIO and with 100% load, max temp was 29-30c, but the pump gave out so I had to put a V6GT air cooler on it.


As you can see not much difference on the V6GT

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

Seems to me you did not disable the energy saving features on your past MB's. For AMD, cool & quite, all C States and Turbo needs to be disabled.
For Intel it's about the same but Intel does not have cool & quite. Now I can't stop you from going water if that's what you want and you have the big bucks to spend but your not going to use all 16 cores/32 threads on that CPU you want to get, at most 3 maybe 4 threads.

I had a FX8350 system cooled with a Nepton 280L AIO and with 100% load, max temp was 29-30c, but the pump gave out so I had to put a V6GT air cooler on it.
View attachment 206483

As you can see not much difference on the V6GT
View attachment 206484

Hmm that does make me rethink my position a bit on air cooling vs liquid.

In regards to how many cores I’ll be using, according to my research, the DAW software I use (Ableton live) can handle up to 32 threads, giving each individual track it’s own thread (though if they go to a bus then any track under the bus is shared by 1 thread). I can DEFinitely see myself using at least 10 threads, and hopefully the rest used on OS and browsers to facilitate multitasking. So I can definitely see it getting hot

 

[Mr.Scott]

105w processor. It ain't gonna be that hot.

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

105w processor. It ain't gonna be that hot.

Can you explain why? I thought higher volts/watts would make it hotter?

 

[Mr.Scott]

It does, but 105 isn't that much. FX was a 140w processor before overclock. After overclock 200+w was not uncommon. Those were hot.
It's not a good comparison is what I'm saying. Hell, most of AMD's 4 core processors were 125w and they weren't hot. A junk stock cooler kept them under 60c.
Not telling you not to water cool mind you, cooler is always better.
Besides, Whitehawk's temps are skewed. Nothing below 40c is accurate at all on FX, and I highly doubt he was at a 13c ambient.

If you intend to OC the 3950X, you'll only get a few hundred MHz anyway. There is no point. You would barely notice a difference, if at all.
Put a decent AIO on it and call it a day. You'll be fine.

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

Thank you for the advice!! I’ll just keep it simple/cost effective and go with air cooling.

 

[Mr.Scott]

For air cooling, get as many heat pipes as you can within your budget.

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

I was just looking at prices of x570 motherboards what features would I lose going with an x470 board?? The ONLY thing I care about is CPU speed. I do not give a **** about pcie 4.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Unfortunately, sometimes you have to over buy on the do-dads to get a reliable stout board.
570 board is most likely a must.

 

[bassnut]

I was just looking at prices of x570 motherboards �� what features would I lose going with an x470 board?? The ONLY thing I care about is CPU speed. I do not give a **** about pcie 4.

We won't know till after some reviews and a few of us buy some chips.

 

[trents]

My understanding is that the top tier Ryzen 2 CPUs will need the extra cooling of the built-in chipset fans that the X570 boards will possess. And if you are overclocking on top of that, thee is no question about it.

nuclearrabbit17, what is your budget anyway? Will you be carrying over components from your present system such as case, video card, drives and PSU? Please make a list of components you already have that might carry over.

 

[nuclearrabbit17]

My understanding is that the top tier Ryzen 2 CPUs will need the extra cooling of the built-in chipset fans that the X570 boards will possess. And if you are overclocking on top of that, thee is no question about it.

nuclearrabbit17, what is your budget anyway? Will you be carrying over components from your present system such as case, video card, drives and PSU? Please make a list of components you already have that might carry over.

I wish I had more that COULD carry over! The only things that I’m keeping are the power supply (650 watt Corsair) and the case. Otherwise my last build was an intel with ddr2, and my late 2013 MacBook Pro outperforms it in terms of music production.

My budget is as high as it NEEDS to be, and as low as I can get away with for my needs. If spending 2,000$ is what it takes to build me my music production rig capable of doing what I want (Lots of high CPU useage effects, and lots of tracks), then I will do it without hesitation. Likewise if all I need to do that costs me 1,000$ I will also not hesitate.

I’ll probably spend no more than 100$ on a graphics card. Some ddr4. The CPU/MOBO will by far be my largest expense for the computer. I’ll probably pick up a 1tb SSD as well.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

It does, but 105 isn't that much. FX was a 140w processor before overclock.

Besides, Whitehawk's temps are skewed. Nothing below 40c is accurate at all on FX, and I highly doubt he was at a 13c ambient.

The FX8350 is a 125W CPU, now the FX9370 and FX9590 was a nightmare and the screen shot with HWM was not about how cool it was, but that the same CPU & MB had the same temp readings with 2 different coolers +/- 1c.