Question Motherboards for the new Threadripper, how do brands and motherboards compare? MSI, ASUS, AS Rock, Gigabyte

[spikeysonic]

Looking to get a creative content workstation and have been eyeing up the incoming Threadripper systems comming at the end of the Month.


Now I can see specs for the different manufactures but what are peoples real experience and opinions on the motherboard brands and boards themselves such as those made by ASUS, As Rock, MSI , Gogbyte etc and others.

Do they works as well as marketed, what do they miss out or hide or not tell you? how easy are they to work, most importantly how reliable, and how efficent are they really, are they exactly as it says on the tin regards things like VRMS etc

 

[jon96789]

Whatever board you buy, make sure they have a decent power supply design (i.e. VRMs) because a lot of the new X570 boards are sorely lacking in that department, causing the VRMs to get really hot. There is a 60+ degree C difference in the VRMs from the better boards and the worst boards. Some are so bad, the CPU throttles down in speed until the VRMs cool down.

 

[logainofhades]

If the quality of their new threadripper boards, matches that of their higher end x570 boards, Gigabyte would be my pick, this time around. Asrock Taichi boards are also traditionally solid options as well.

 

[jimmyh1776]

I'm building a rig for a 3900x cpu. I can't make up my mind as to which motherboard to purchase. I'm not a gamer and will not be overclocking. It will be air cooled with a Noctua 15.
In view of vrm temps, I'm skipping MSI, but I want pci4 and long term reliability.

 

[jon96789]

I am ditching my MSi Gaming Carbon Pro WiFi and ordered a ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero. It's $360 for the non-WiFi version and has one of the best VRM designs out there. It was tested and hit 60 degrees C compared to my MSi board which hit 95 degrees which throttled the CPU.

 

[TJ Hooker]

No way to know until they're out and people have had time to analyze and review them. One manufacturer can have excellent boards for one socket/chipset lineup only to release a bunch of sub-par boards for another lineup.

E.g. MSI's generally quite good B450 (and X470), followed up by mostly poor-to-mediocre X570 as alluded to above.

 

[spikeysonic]

Whatever board you buy, make sure they have a decent power supply design (i.e. VRMs) because a lot of the new X570 boards are sorely lacking in that department, causing the VRMs to get really hot. There is a 60+ degree C difference in the VRMs from the better boards and the worst boards. Some are so bad, the CPU throttles down in speed until the VRMs cool down.

How exactly do I do that and what do I look for... whats fact and whats marketing BS. Kinda heard that not all VRMs are the same and just as the marketing says it has 16 vrms as opposed to 8 does not always fix things in this area

Thinking both the TRX40 and x570 boards for Rizen 3000 and Threadripper 3

 

[spikeysonic]

No way to know until they're out and people have had time to analyze and review them. One manufacturer can have excellent boards for one socket/chipset lineup only to release a bunch of sub-par boards for another lineup.

E.g. MSI's generally quite good B450 (and X470), followed up by mostly poor-to-mediocre X570 as alluded to above.

Thanks will look at this especially as being sold on the multi m2 sd drive cards. Need to make sure its not a gimmick to sell poorboards

 

[spikeysonic]

Anyone know anything about the bus transfer speeds in relation to board quality, brands and motherboard models?

Was told this is often hidden and is a key determiner as to how well and fast or poor a board is even if it appears to have lots of good features

 

[TJ Hooker]

Thanks will look at this especially as being sold on the multi m2 sd drive cards. Need to make sure its not a gimmick to sell poorboards

Having multiple M.2 slots is fairly common on midrange and up boards, wouldn't really consider it a gimmick.

Anyone know anything about the bus transfer speeds in relation to board quality, brands and motherboard models?

Was told this is often hidden and is a key determiner as to how well and fast or poor a board is even if it appears to have lots of good features

No idea what you're referring to here. What bus?

 

[spikeysonic]

Any Updates on the TRX40 3rd gen Threadripper brand boards now they are out.?

Now with (not sure if you get the full comparison chart I get as may be set for me

https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/compute...trx40-socket-trx4-atx-and-larger-motherboards

But it can be recreated here if you pick them to compare

Now I can see specs listed here but its more what is not mentioned like reliability, endurance, tendancy for bugs, build quality, customer service etc and how do I would out how good the VRM situation is? Is it a case of which one has more ie 16 as opposed to 8? Also bonus features like the bonus PCiE 4 boards, thunderboltetc that can add several m2 ssds etc.

IE what is missing form the comparison charts that helps to note.


Any of the boards or board brands poor quality and best avoided?



So think its more a case of what people have experienced. Anyone tried the new trx40 board in particular their mid and top range ones from ASUS, ASroc, Gigabyte, MSI

Anyone know why firms like Scan tend to only list ASUS in the build configurators/customisers?

 

[TJ Hooker]

If you want detailed VRM info it might take longer for that data to be available. There are VRM specs for a few gigabyte boards here, not sure where they got the info from though: https://forum.level1techs.com/t/new-3rd-gen-threadripper-trx40-motherboard-talk/149585

In general more phases is better, but that's not the only factor. The effectiveness of the heatsink can be important, which unfortunately is basically impossible to tell short of finding a review of the board where they measure VRM temps.