Question Best MoBo's for the new 3950x?

Nov 19, 2019
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So I'm looking at getting a new MoBo for the upcoming AMD Ryzen 3950x.

(and ah what the heck, might as well a whole new build alltogether, been a few years)

First question: Is there a big enough difference between this $500 MSI Prestige here and this MSI MPG Gaming Edge here to justify the $300 difference?

Happy to pay the extra $300 but ONLY if it's a justifiable gap in features/performance.

Intended components are the 3950x, a few SATA drives, an M.2 2GB for the OS, maybe 64GB RAM, RTX 2080ti, no special cooling or any other special needs or anything... Usage: love me some gaming, but main priority is rendering video in Premiere and After Effects while multitasking with a bunch of other stuff. What do you think, is there much need for the $500 MoBo vs the $200?


OR...

Is there another Motherboard I haven't thought of that you think would be even better for then 3950x?

Thanks in advance,

MrEntrepreneur
 
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It's been much discussed elsewhere in these august forums... but anything with the combination of 'X570', 'budget', and 'MSI' in play appears to be something that is to be avoided at all costs. That because of the toasty hot VRM's they have, so add in this 16 core behemoth and it gets even dicier.

If this MSI board is in that 'budget' class, I'd not trust my brand new $750 CPU to it.
 
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Intended components are the 3950x,....
You might find this worth the effort to watch. It's EXTREMELY limited review of AM4 boards but if you pay attention to what he rules out with a 'just don't' you'll have a really good idea what to avoid for a 3950X processor.

Buildzoid's an overclocker with a lot of detailed knowledge about VRM construction and design. He can hate on a lot of boards that would be good enough for a 3600, but when he dislikes a board you have to consider that a good reason to avoid it for a 3950X.
 
Nov 19, 2019
2
0
10
You might find this worth the effort to watch. It's EXTREMELY limited review of AM4 boards but if you pay attention to what he rules out with a 'just don't' you'll have a really good idea what to avoid for a 3950X processor.

Buildzoid's an overclocker with a lot of detailed knowledge about VRM construction and design. He can hate on a lot of boards that would be good enough for a 3600, but when he dislikes a board you have to consider that a good reason to avoid it for a 3950X.

Thanks! But do you have a link to the video you mentioned? :D
 

jon96789

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Aug 17, 2019
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Do NOT even consider any of MSi's MPG line of motherboards. All of their MPG line of boards have a crappy VRM design which can reach temps of 95-125 degrees C which is ridiculously high when used with the AMD 3900x. I had the MSi X570 Gaming Pro Carbon it hit 95-100 degrees at which point my 3900x was throttled down in speed until the VRMs cooled back down. When it cooled back down, the CPU would hit max speed until the VRMs hit the critical point and again throttled the CPU... This process repeated itself every minute or so. My guess that the boards will do even worse with the AMD 3950X with its increased core counts and resulting higher operating temps under load.

I consulted with MSi and their solutions were idiotic. My cooling solution was inadequate (I have the 280mm Corsair H115i RGB Platinum cooler) or that I did not have a case with sufficient airflow (I have a full sized Corsair 750D tower with five fans). They said that they tested "my" configuration and had no problems, except that a) they did not have the X570 board in stock and used the X470 board (which has a slightly better VRM design) and b) they only had an AMD 3700X to test with, which is a 65-watt CPU and the 3900X is a 105-watt CPU. I would not consider that to be a valid comparison in any way...

I ended up buying the ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero for $360 (non-WiFi version). This board thermals were a lot better, the 14+2 phase VRMs barely surpassed 55 degrees under load compared to the MSi 5+2 phase VRMs. The ASUS board has a lot more ports, a dozen USB on the rear panel, eight internal SATA ports (some MSi only have four) but "only" two M.2 ports (some boards have three).

The issues on the ASUS board are minor. The memory is a bit difficult to insert into their slots; the onboard RGB lights are ridiculously dim and flashing the BIOS is a bit more tedious than others (it requires two-three reboots). Also, apparently the onboard VRM sensors read low by ~10 degrees with HWiNFO64 (at idle, the VRM temps shows 25 degrees but my IR temp guns shows 35 degrees). I guess it depends where the sensor is placed on the board... Some VRM modules are cooler than others. Plus at $360, you will save $140 from the $500 you were thinking of for a better board...
 
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