[SOLVED] ASUS Motherboards MCE Intel i5-11400 LGA1200

[Peter_249]

Hi everyone. I am preparing to build a new PC using an Intel i5-11400 cpu which I have already purchased.
I prefer ASUS motherboards. I was planning on using the ASUS TUF gaming Z590 PLUS WiFi ATX Motherboard For Intel 11th Gen CPU priced at NZ$415 in New Zealand

My questions are, "Do all ASUS motherboards have "MCE" (multicore enhancement)?
I believe my i5-11400 will benefit from having MCE enabled. I am aware that overheating is a problem with MCE enabled and I am planning on using a Noctua NH-U9S chromax black cooler.

There are less expensive options than the TUF gaming Z590

ASUS PRIME H510M-A WIFI MATX NZ$179

TUF GAMING B560-PLUS WIFI ATX NZ$285

ROG STRIX B560-A GAMING WIFI NZ$335

ROG STRIX B560-F GAMING WIFI ATX NZ$360

I am not actually a Gamer. I probably do not need a system as fast as I am building.
I currently use an Intel i7-7700 cpu with 16Gb memory on an ASUS H110M-A/M.2 board with a SAMSUNG 960 EVO NVMe hard drive.
With a NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card. Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

What will I miss out on by using a less expensive option? Do they all have MCE capability?
Do they all have PCIe 4.0 for the NVMe drive? Because I may one day install a PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive.

Really I am future proofing.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[velocityg4]

Any x10 series motherboard is using Intel's junk chipset. They usually have a barebones feature set. I avoid those.

Here's B560 vs Z590. As your CPU doesn't support overclocking. That doesn't matter. For most users. Even gamers. The other differences don't matter.

B560 vs Z590 Motherboards : What’s The Difference?

We compare the B560 chipset motherboard against the Z590 motherboard and discuss the features of both to see which is best for you.

www.wepc.com

	B560	Z590
CPU Chipset Uplink	PCIe Gen 4	PCIe Gen 4
CPU Graphics Support	x16 PCIe Gen 4	x16 PCIe Gen 4
Dual Graphics Support?	mostly single x16 PCIe, some models have dual	mostly dual x16 PCIe
CPU Storage Support	mostly 1x M.2 PCIe Gen 4 with additional M.2 PCIe Gen 3	More M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slots
USB Port Support (model dependent)	USB 3.2 Gen 2	USB 3.2 Gen 2
CPU Overclocking Support	No	Yes
RAM Overclocking Support	Yes	Yes

MCE: I find no mention of this in the tech specs of any of them. It shouldn't be a matter for an i5-11400 anyways. It doesn't turbo boost very high. They have to contend with much more power hungry processors. Which the 11400 won't come close to their limits with a 4.2Ghz all core and 4.4Ghz single core turbo. I'd worry with an i9 and maybe a higher end i7 for max sustained turbo not this i5. All you really need is good cooling. I've got a pretty basic Z590 Gigabyte motherboard and have no problems sustaining max turbo with a good heatsink (Scythe Mugen 5 Rev B).

Motherboards: I didn't even bother looking at the H510. Those are junk models. I view them as don't buy unless you have no other option. Maybe on just some low cost basic use desktop.

There's too many little differences to compare all the boards. The Strix B560-F, B560-A and TUF Z590 have the best audio chipset, while the B560-Plus is the worst. So, if audio quality is important and you aren't going to spend extra on a card. Go with the Strix B560-F or TUF Z590.

The B560-Plus is pretty bare bones. It doesn't offer USB 3.1 Gen 2x2 while the others do and fewer ports.

All of them have a PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot. Other basic slots, ports and headers are pretty comparable. Really any of the B560 models should be fine for you.

Only the Z590 supports RAM faster than 3200Mhz. So, get this if you want to use 3600Mhz RAM. It also has more NVMe M.2 slots. Only one of them is 4.0 the others are 3.0.

The B560-A has the fewer USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports than the B560-F or Z590.

The Z590 is the only one with a TOSLINK audio connector.

Overall I don't think you'll notice much difference between the B560-A, B560-F or Z590 for your described setup. I'd avoid the B560-Plus do to the lower quality audio and wouldn't ever consider an H510 for a gaming computer. Really what the Z590 offers is an extra M.2 slot and 3600Mhz or faster memory support. None of which is really relevant as the faster memory has minor performance implications and will you really need 3xM.2 NVMe slots?

 

[Peter_249]

Any x10 series motherboard is using Intel's junk chipset. They usually have a barebones feature set. I avoid those.

Here's B560 vs Z590. As your CPU doesn't support overclocking. That doesn't matter. For most users. Even gamers. The other differences don't matter.

B560 vs Z590 Motherboards : What’s The Difference?

We compare the B560 chipset motherboard against the Z590 motherboard and discuss the features of both to see which is best for you.

www.wepc.com

	B560	Z590
CPU Chipset Uplink	PCIe Gen 4	PCIe Gen 4
CPU Graphics Support	x16 PCIe Gen 4	x16 PCIe Gen 4
Dual Graphics Support?	mostly single x16 PCIe, some models have dual	mostly dual x16 PCIe
CPU Storage Support	mostly 1x M.2 PCIe Gen 4 with additional M.2 PCIe Gen 3	More M.2 PCIe Gen 4 slots
USB Port Support (model dependent)	USB 3.2 Gen 2	USB 3.2 Gen 2
CPU Overclocking Support	No	Yes
RAM Overclocking Support	Yes	Yes

MCE: I find no mention of this in the tech specs of any of them. It shouldn't be a matter for an i5-11400 anyways. It doesn't turbo boost very high. They have to contend with much more power hungry processors. Which the 11400 won't come close to their limits with a 4.2Ghz all core and 4.4Ghz single core turbo. I'd worry with an i9 and maybe a higher end i7 for max sustained turbo not this i5. All you really need is good cooling. I've got a pretty basic Z590 Gigabyte motherboard and have no problems sustaining max turbo with a good heatsink (Scythe Mugen 5 Rev B).

Motherboards: I didn't even bother looking at the H510. Those are junk models. I view them as don't buy unless you have no other option. Maybe on just some low cost basic use desktop.

There's too many little differences to compare all the boards. The Strix B560-F, B560-A and TUF Z590 have the best audio chipset, while the B560-Plus is the worst. So, if audio quality is important and you aren't going to spend extra on a card. Go with the Strix B560-F or TUF Z590.

The B560-Plus is pretty bare bones. It doesn't offer USB 3.1 Gen 2x2 while the others do and fewer ports.

All of them have a PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot. Other basic slots, ports and headers are pretty comparable. Really any of the B560 models should be fine for you.

Only the Z590 supports RAM faster than 3200Mhz. So, get this if you want to use 3600Mhz RAM. It also has more NVMe M.2 slots. Only one of them is 4.0 the others are 3.0.

The B560-A has the fewer USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports than the B560-F or Z590.

The Z590 is the only one with a TOSLINK audio connector.

Overall I don't think you'll notice much difference between the B560-A, B560-F or Z590 for your described setup. I'd avoid the B560-Plus do to the lower quality audio and wouldn't ever consider an H510 for a gaming computer. Really what the Z590 offers is an extra M.2 slot and 3600Mhz or faster memory support. None of which is really relevant as the faster memory has minor performance implications and will you really need 3xM.2 NVMe slots?

Thanks for the information.

Audio shouldn't be a problem because I use an iFi DAC connected to a Marantz receiver by a USB connection to my computer.

Some time in the future I may want to replace the i5-11400 with an i9......