ASUS PRIME X370-PRO or ASUS ROG STRIX B350

[GeorCa]

Hello guys (and girls) I would ask you for advice in my dilema. As title says I am deciding between these two motherboards for my new PC with AMD Ryzen CPU (probably R5 1600).

Info about those two motherboards was found here:
https://uk.hardware.info/comparisontable/products/386634-400375

https://www.asus.com/uk/Product-Compare/?products=56eUBZiyCwpkrxRK,s7csF4UqmJykbmtW&b=0

What I learned:
1) Prime is entry level but with top chipset
2) Rog Strix is higher class but with lower chipset
3) Number of ports - roughly same
4) Both overclockable
6) 6 (B350) vs 8 SATA (X370) ports
7) Audio - same audio chips
8) B350 doesnt support SLI only CrossFire

What I am thinking about:
A) Is there any difference in built up quality between Prime and ROG Strix (i.e. shieding etc.?)
B) As average user I have currently connected one SSD, one HDD and one DVD-ROM to SATA ports, so even if I connect another 1 or 2 storage drives to SATA ports I should be OK with 6 SATA ports. I am right or are there other goodies to be connected via SATA?
C) Since only chance I am going to SLI/CF GPU is MAYBE after mining rush ends and people will sell their cards for good prices...maybe... So SLI/CF is not bothering me much but still...
D) At hardware.info I am wondering what Stroomcircuit parameters means? What is better? What is the difference?
E) At hardware.info is Strix better in Audio test but is it negligible or significant difference? The same question rises in Benchmark section with few interesting results in Strix favor.

I want ask, what do you think? What do you suggest?

 

[raisonjohn]

I think that Item C) SLI/CF is the main (and probably the only) deciding factor for you between choosing the X370 PRO or the B350-F.

Item A) doesn't matter as both don't have any I/O or Audio armor/shroud/shields.

Item B) also would not matter, as based on your current requirements, you'd only use up 4x SATA ports and have 2x more available in the Strix B350-F (or 4x more on the X370 Pro). Both also have an M.2 socket which you can use with an M.2 NVMe SSD in PCIe x4 speeds, in case you would want that for a storage device.

Item D) pertains to the electrical circuitry of the motherboards. More power phases usually means better voltage regulation. It also specifies the types of transistors/semiconductors and ampere ratings of such. Note that both motherboards have good power circuitry compared to most other models/brands.

Item E) pertains to the audio codec difference of the motherboards. Although both use good audio codecs (Realtek ALC1220), the Strix B350-F is slightly better as it includes SupremeFX drivers that improves audio quality even more, hence, the slight difference in the Audio Test section.

Personally, I would choose the Asus Strix B350-F as it has all the ports/connections I would need and the features/OC/looks I want. I wouldn't bother (personally) doing multi-GPU as most games do not play well with such (tests show that in certain games, it even results to worse fps/performance than a single GPU), and only a few games actually support it, and multi-GPU setups will also consume more power and generate more heat in my PC.

 

[ohenryy]

It seems the better ones for B350 line is MSI's and Asrock, for overclocking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGrxhf_xZWI

 

[GeorCa]

Thanks for info guys. I personally prefer ASUS over other manufacturers (even I have Gigabyte now) so I will go Strix B350-F (just want to be sure about quality, dont want to buy cheaper MB for whatever cost).

BTW Strix wasnt even mentioned in that video and Prime is lower level so I think it will be only better and even with Prime being OK.