Question Help me choose a Ryzen 7 3800x board

[Lee_s]

I'm planning a new Ryzen 7 3800x build and I've narrowed it down to the boards below which best suit my needs in terms of features/connectivity, but as I'm not overclocking is there really any vast differences in these boards that would make you choose one over the others, or would you just go for the cheapest.

The boards I'm looking at are:

Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite V2
Gigabyte B550 Gaming X
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus
MSI B550-A Pro

Previously I've always used Asus boards for the last 10-15 years but I keep seeing more and more on forums about build quality issues, so I've ruled them out altogether, they don't seem to have the reputation they once did.

Also, what's the tech support like from MSI and Gigabyte? Good, bad, non existent?

 

[drea.drechsler]

I would not know what MSI's tech support is like as I've not had to use it for my B350 and B450 Mortar's.

Any of those boards would work great with a 3800X, but the Gigabyte boards have high phase count VRM's constructed of efficient DrMOS power stages that makes them a considerably better if you ever upgrade to a 5900 or 5950X.

The last GB board I had was...well...the last. It was horrible with a funky 'ultra-durable', unswitched, dual BIOS that kept switching to backup and locking up my system. I had no idea how to update the backup to a BIOS that worked with my memory and CPU.

Tech support was terrible and no help either...they didn't even understand how a switchless dual BIOS with automatic failover could be a problem if you can't update it for a newer CPU that the failover BIOS doesn't support.

I'd go for an Asus...one of the B550 ROG-Strix boards. They also have superb high phase-count DrMOS VRM's and a very good Asus BIOS. Also, a HUGE and active ROG forum that pretty much makes 'tech support' redundant. Too bad you've ruled them out.

 

[Lee_s]

I would not know what MSI's tech support is like as I've not had to use it for my B350 and B450 Mortar's.

Any of those boards would work great with a 3800X, but the Gigabyte boards have high phase count VRM's constructed of efficient DrMOS power stages that makes them a considerably better if you ever upgrade to a 5900 or 5950X.

The last GB board I had was...well...the last. It was horrible with a funky 'ultra-durable', unswitched, dual BIOS that kept switching to backup and locking up my system. I had no idea how to update the backup to a BIOS that worked with my memory and CPU.

Tech support was terrible and no help either...they didn't even understand how a switchless dual BIOS with automatic failover could be a problem if you can't update it for a newer CPU that the failover BIOS doesn't support.

I'd go for an Asus...one of the B550 ROG-Strix boards. They also have superb high phase-count DrMOS VRM's and a very good Asus BIOS. Also, a HUGE and active ROG forum that pretty much makes 'tech support' redundant. Too bad you've ruled them out.

I'm happy for someone to convince me otherwise on Asus boards, I'm only basing my decision on what I keep seeing. My own experience with Asus boards has always been very good, the board I run now H97-Plus has been a good board, I've not had a single issue with it. It just seems that whilst I've been researching boards I keep reading a lot where people are returning their Asus boards. Or maybe it's just a specific issue they've had with one particular range of boards that I'm seeing.

 

[ocer9999]

I had bad experience with MSI in the past, so I could only recommend Asus, but also a alternative would be a B550 Extreme4, excelent board and I never had one their boards failing on me.

 

[drea.drechsler]

... It just seems that whilst I've been researching boards I keep reading a lot where people are returning their Asus boards. Or maybe it's just a specific issue they've had with one particular range of boards that I'm seeing.

DEFINITELY pay attention to what drove them to return the boards. Especially AM4 boards as there have been some issues because of AMD's CPU upgrades. If you got a board with a BIOS that only supports Zen1, it would not boot on a Zen1+ processor even to update the BIOS, for instance. Same Zen1+ to Zen2...and to Zen3. For people new to the platform, that can be frustrating and probably lead to returns for BIOS' to be updated. It's made me realize there's probably more than one reason Intel doesn't do that.

There may be any of a number of specific issues that aren't present in the B550 platform where all the mfr's have definitely stepped up their game from prior AM4 boards.

Personally, I've been pleased with all my Asus boards and they worked well. Actually, really, really well. Beyond what they should have. I put a 6 core FX processor on a low-end AM3+ meant for Athlon an 2 or 3 core PhenomII processors and overclocked it to the stars but the VRM never smoked. It just throttled the processor when it overheated. Very nice.

If you're interested in MSI one of their better B550 boards is the Tomahawk or Gaming Plus Edge, if you've those available.

EDIT: got Plus and Edge mixed up again

 

[Lee_s]

DEFINITELY pay attention to what drove them to return the boards. Especially AM4 boards as there have been some issues because of AMD's CPU upgrades. If you got a board with a BIOS that only supports Zen1, it would not boot on a Zen1+ processor even to update the BIOS, for instance. Same Zen1+ to Zen2...and to Zen3. For people new to the platform, that can be frustrating and probably lead to returns for BIOS' to be updated. It's made me realize there's probably more than one reason Intel doesn't do that.

There may be any of a number of specific issues that aren't present in the B550 platform where all the mfr's have definitely stepped up their game from prior AM4 boards.

Personally, I've been pleased with all my Asus boards and they worked well. Actually, really, really well. Beyond what they should have. I put a 6 core FX processor on a low-end AM3+ meant for Athlon an 2 or 3 core PhenomII processors and overclocked it to the stars but the VRM never smoked. It just throttled the processor when it overheated. Very nice.

If you're interested in MSI one of their better B550 boards is the Tomahawk or Gaming Plus Edge, if you've those available.

EDIT: got Plus and Edge mixed up again

I've not looked at the Edge so I'll check it out, the Tomahawk is certainly within my price range, but I just wasn't sure if it was overkill for my usage. I've noticed it's a board that gets recommended quite a bit on here.

With regards to AM4 support on the boards, one of the features I looked for when making my choiced was the ability to flash the BIOS without having to install a CPU. It looks like a handy feature to have especially if you can't boot up or get to the BIOS.

This will be the first AMD build I've done, all of my previous builds have been Intel. The last AMD CPU I had was an Athlon XP about 20 years ago. That was the first time AMD had released a chip that could compete with Intel.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I've not looked at the Edge so I'll check it out, the Tomahawk is certainly within my price range, but I just wasn't sure if it was overkill for my usage. I've noticed it's a board that gets recommended quite a bit on here.

It might very well be more than you need...it's got a very good VRM setup. It's obviously designed to be capable even for overclocking a 16 core CPU. But as far as other features, it's probably not that much above it's competition. Thing is, all the B550 boards have come up considerably in quality and features from the B450 boards that preceded. I feel there's nothing wrong, though, in getting a board with an over-designed VRM section. I sure wish I had one.

BTW, Tomahawk's highly recommended largely (IMO) because of the B450 Tomahawk's reputation as cool-running even with a 3950X CPU.

 

[Lee_s]

I had bad experience with MSI in the past, so I could only recommend Asus, but also a alternative would be a B550 Extreme4, excelent board and I never had one their boards failing on me.

I've only ever had one Asrock board before and it wasn't great, but then again I didn't build the PC and I bought if off eBay, so not really a good comparison.

I noticed Extreme4 has an 8+4 socket for the CPU power, will it run with just the 8 pin connected?

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
I noticed Extreme4 has an 8+4 socket for the CPU power, will it run with just the 8 pin connected?

Yes it will. It's only provided in the unlikely event you'd try something crazy like overclocking on LN2, with crazy high voltage pushing for a 5Ghz all-core benchmark score. Most Ryzen processors are quite happy with a 4 pin providing the power.

 

[ocer9999]

Yes it will. It's only provided in the unlikely event you'd try something crazy like overclocking on LN2, with crazy high voltage pushing for a 5Ghz all-core benchmark score. Most Ryzen processors are quite happy with a 4 pin providing the power.

That's right, unless your trying crazy OC, you will be fine with the 4Pin.

 

[Lee_s]

I've still not been able to get started with this yet nearly 2 months on. But coming back to this now I decided to just go with what I know and what familiar with which is Asus, so I was pretty much set on getting the ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING, but then I came across this issue with the
Intel i225-V LAN chipset. It looks like it's been fixed now with the v3 chip, I just hope I don't end up with old stock from Amazon.