Question What AM4 B550 with Zero overclocking features.

[Deleted member 2947362]

What really is a good AM4 B550 chipset motherboard built to high standards with Quality VRM's and what not?

I would just like an out of the box tuned to the nearest 00.001mv and and same with clock generators Hz to match the factory standard spec of any CPU, Ram or PCIe devices.

With no overlocking features required what so ever, None a Big Fat Zero.

I don't want the same issue I have with my current one, it's not an Overclockers board I don't need it or any of the features, and well was wanting upgrade to a B550 chipset motherboard anyway sooner or later.

I want one that when I set the volts to 1.2v it sustains a stable 1.2v or any other amount come to that like 1.35v and not decide to simpley ignor what you would like and chuck up to another 30mv on top just for the hell/burn of it and Void the warranty.

I haven't I mentioned I spoke to someone at crucial support (in the chat) I told them if I enable XMP my motherboard puts 1.38v in to them not 1.35v would that void the warranty?

The reply was

"If the memory is damaged due to the voltage going above the limit of 1.35v the ram is rated and tested for, then yes it would void the warranty."

Any recommendations from own experiences of a motherboard that fits the bill?

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
With no overlocking features required what so ever, None a Big Fat Zero.
...

That rules out all B550 motherboards as they all have overclocking features as well as all X570. If you're considering XMP as an overclocking feature then A520 boards too. In fact every one of every AM4 and AM5 board and probably all of Intel's boards too if they include XMP or something similar, such as AMD's EXPO.

All you have to do is simply not use them.

The question you asked Crucial was pure theoretical and their answer was equally theoretical. In actual practice, neither you nor they would ever know if the memory was overvolted and certainly not how much and positively absolutely never to the 6th decimal place (1uV). It means nothing, especially since any DDR4 DRAM has to be capable of operation at 1.5V, although nobody suggests operating there 24/7 unless it's one of a few voltage tolerant DRAM's. So what Crucial essentially said is the DRAM's they use are not compliant with DDR4 requirements since they can't handle 1.38V, which I don't think is the case. They're just covering their a$$ on a question that's pure speculation.

 

[CountMike]

What really is a good AM4 B550 chipset motherboard built to high standards with Quality VRM's and what not?

I would just like an out of the box tuned to the nearest 00.001mv and and same with clock generators Hz to match the factory standard spec of any CPU, Ram or PCIe devices.

With no overlocking features required what so ever, None a Big Fat Zero.

I don't want the same issue I have with my current one, it's not an Overclockers board I don't need it or any of the features, and well was wanting upgrade to a B550 chipset motherboard anyway sooner or later.

I want one that when I set the volts to 1.2v it sustains a stable 1.2v or any other amount come to that like 1.35v and not decide to simpley ignor what you would like and chuck up to another 30mv on top just for the hell/burn of it and Void the warranty.

I haven't I mentioned I spoke to someone at crucial support (in the chat) I told them if I enable XMP my motherboard puts 1.38v in to them not 1.35v would that void the warranty?

The reply was

"If the memory is damaged due to the voltage going above the limit of 1.35v the ram is rated and tested for, then yes it would void the warranty."

Any recommendations from own experiences of a motherboard that fits the bill?

Those are BIOS functions not tied to any particular motherboard and BIOS versions change several times thru it's operational life, mostly to enable anew CPU and/or to fix previous problems.

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

That rules out all B550 motherboards as they all have overclocking features as well as all X570. If you're considering XMP as an overclocking feature then A520 boards too. In fact every one of every AM4 and AM5 board and probably all of Intel's boards too if they include XMP or something similar, such as AMD's EXPO.

All you have to do is simply not use them.

The question you asked Crucial was pure theoretical and their answer was equally theoretical. In actual practice, neither you nor they would ever know if the memory was overvolted and certainly not how much and positively absolutely never to the 6th decimal place (1uV). It means nothing, especially since any DDR4 DRAM has to be capable of operation at 1.5V, although nobody suggests operating there 24/7 unless it's one of a few voltage tolerant DRAM's. So what Crucial essentially said is the DRAM's they use are not compliant with DDR4 requirements since they can't handle 1.38V, which I don't think is the case. They're just covering their a$$ on a question that's pure speculation.

Quote "All you have to do is simply not use them."

yea I know that lol

It just seems the feature's are baked in to all motherboard's and are force on to the purchaser, if they don't offer and sell Motherboards without those features baked in.

You can Prob's say at least 80% of people who own a PC does not use any overclocking features because they don't need them and are not Overclocker's.

The problem is these features are baked in, with some if not many of the features enabled out of the box PBO for example is set to auto and not Disabled.

How many of these motherboards are overvolting Ram like my motherboard?

With XMP already overvolting the ram from 1.2v to 1.35v and being tested at that voltage, with my board adding another 30mv making it 1.38v Corsair have told me if the ram is damaged due to the extra Volts my motherboard is putting in to them, that will not be covered by the warranty.
Which is fair enough because they have already overvolted the ram to it's max guaranteed and test Voltage.

I just want a motherboard that can stick to the rules and not void the warranty due to overvolting, even when you manually set it to the correct voltage.

The features offered on these motherboards should be an option at the point of purchase if you need them.
Which most people don't so why not sell/offer Basic boards built with quality parts keeping everything within manufacturer spec.

Over Pushed features (not saying pointless) I don't want or need.

The only reason these boards are soaked with these features is because they are pushed on to the purchaser as they offer you nothing else.

If anyone knows of a good B550 chipset that has good voltage regulators and clock generators that can stick to the official spec's of the device's connected to it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CountMike]

Quote "All you have to do is simply not use them."

yea I know that lol

It just seems the feature's are baked in to all motherboard's and are force on to the purchaser, if they don't offer and sell Motherboards without those features baked in.

You can Prob's say at least 80% of people who own a PC does not use any overclocking features because they don't need them and are not Overclocker's.

The problem is these features are baked in, with some if not many of the features enabled out of the box PBO for example is set to auto and not Disabled.

How many of these motherboards are overvolting Ram like my motherboard?

With XMP already overvolting the ram from 1.2v to 1.35v and being tested at that voltage, with my board adding another 30mv making it 1.38v Corsair have told me if the ram is damaged due to the extra Volts my motherboard is putting in to them, that will not be covered by the warranty.
Which is fair enough because they have already overvolted the ram to it's max guaranteed and test Voltage.

I just want a motherboard that can stick to the rules and not void the warranty due to overvolting, even when you manually set it to the correct voltage.

The features offered on these motherboards should be an option at the point of purchase if you need them.
Which most people don't so why not sell/offer Basic boards built with quality parts keeping everything within manufacturer spec.

Over Pushed features (not saying pointless) I don't want or need.

The only reason these boards are soaked with these features is because they are pushed on to the purchaser as they offer you nothing else.

If anyone knows of a good B550 chipset that has good voltage regulators and clock generators that can stick to the official spec's of the device's connected to it would be greatly appreciated.

Ridiculous.

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

Ridiculous.

Thank you that adds a great level of detail and helpful info lol

anyway


Out of the box and default settings for a not really recommended overclocking motherboard as it's just a basic motherboard with a few features thrown in to justify the price, like my mine for example, runs everything out of spec right out of the box.

My CPU is 3500mhz - 4400mhz
Motherboard out of the box, 3600mhz -4450mhz

Default auto 1.2v for standard ram my motherboard haha whatever and set's it to
1.24v

XMP 1.35 motherboard set's it to 1.38v

why ? if I just want it to run the hardware at default specs.

so anyone know of a board? other than wanting to steer the post in a different directions, which is not really helpful, would be handy.

 

[CountMike]

Thank you that adds a great level helpful info lol

anyway


Out of the box and default settings for a not really recommended overclocking motherboard as it's just a basic motherboard with a few features thrown in to justify the price, like my mine for example, runs everything out of spec right out of the box.

My CPU is 3500mhz - 4400mhz
Motherboard out of the box, 3600mhz -4450mhz

Default auto 1.2v for standard ram my motherboard haha whatever and set's it to
1.24v

XMP 1.35 motherboard set's it to 1.38v

why ? if I just want it to run the hardware at default specs.

so anyone know of a board? other than wanting to steer the post in a different directions, which is not really helpful, would be handy.

You are welcome !
Off the shelf MB manufacturers make their products to suit many processors, RAM etc with widely varying requirements and that's reflected in BIOS settings.
XMP is not in BIOS or MB but in RAM itself and each RAM has own specification including Voltage. BIOS just reads them and sets it accordingly to XMP-

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

You are welcome !
Off the shelf MB manufacturers make their products to suit many processors, RAM etc with widely varying requirements and that's reflected in BIOS settings.
XMP is not in BIOS or MB but in RAM itself and each RAM has own specification including Voltage. BIOS just reads them and sets it accordingly to XMP-

So do you know of a good quality motherboard that is good at sticking to correct voltages and spec's of the hardware?

I just need a basic full ATX motherboard that when all the bells and whistles are turned off runs the hardware at it's correct Voltages and frequency's

at around the £100-150 price range

It would be handy to hear from people who own B550 chipset based motherboards that can confirm their board make and model can and does run and keep all voltage and frequency at the correct rated spec's, if you don't want to use the overclocking features.

 

[CountMike]

So do you know of a good quality motherboard that is good at sticking to correct voltages and and spec's of the hardware?

I just need a basic full ATX motherboard that when all the bells and whistles are turned off runs the hardware at it's correct Voltages and frequency's

at around the £100-150 price range

It would be handy to hear from people who own B550 chipset based motherboards that can confirm their board make and model can and does run and keep all voltage and frequency at the correct rated spec's, if you don't want to use the overclocking features.

For instance my Asus Prime x470 pro, with latest BIOS in never exceed any values in automatic settings and my Kingston RAM works at 3600MHz at 1.34v as directed by it's XMP.

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

I would prefer my board to run XMP at 1.34v than 1.38v at least your board is not taking the ram voltage over it's rated voltage like mine I find that at the very least acceptable.

best I can get mine if i manually set it to 1.330v it will be 1.356v set by Bios which I thought great,
(XMP has pre programmed SPD with timings and voltage if the board deviates from that then that's down to the motherboard not XMP I know that much)
until windows loads up and the voltage fluctuates between 1.32v-1.38 🙁

I just want something I can afford and does what it supposed to do really.

To be fair this board has been rock solid when using my old 4xr1/4gig DDR4 2400 1.2v stuff, that is up until I bought this Corsair Ram, I don't think it's the ram but more likely my motherboard?

if you want an in depth look at how ram can be configured by manufacturers

https://media-www.micron.com/-/media/client/global/documents/products/data-sheet/dram/ddr4/32gb_ddr4_x4x8_2cs_twindie.pdf?rev=abdcaf48ae7b4da98651680daa3d9eb3

If you look through the site you can find pdf's that go in detail on bin codes ratings and setting up the SPD if you can understand the info.

Products

Discover Micron Technology's products and technologies, providing leading memory and storage innovation supporting breakthrough customer solutions.

www.micron.com

here for example if you wanted to find out in depth info about certain Micron IC's

DDR4 SDRAM

DDR4 SDRAM is a mainstream generation of DRAM, offering high performance, high reliability and flexible stacking capabilities.

www.micron.com

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

The question you asked Crucial was pure theoretical and their answer was equally theoretical. In actual practice, neither you nor they would ever know if the memory was overvolted and certainly not how much and positively absolutely never to the 6th decimal place (1uV). It means nothing, especially since any DDR4 DRAM has to be capable of operation at 1.5V, although nobody suggests operating there 24/7 unless it's one of a few voltage tolerant DRAM's. So what Crucial essentially said is the DRAM's they use are not compliant with DDR4 requirements since they can't handle 1.38V, which I don't think is the case. They're just covering their a$$ on a question that's pure speculation.

I agree they most likely would only look into it if they started getting loads of failed ram that could cause the company great financial loss.

They would then find out the ram has been overvolted past it's tested safe voltage that they will give warranty to.

A lot of company's will refund or replace an item for good customer relations but if the company's finances are being hit hard they will use their right to refuse, and most likely say the fault/issue lays with the motherboard manufacturer.

If they have proved the motherboard has been overvolting the ram beyond spec which has accelerated and degraded the life expectancy of the IC they wouldn't be responsible for replacing the ram not their fault you aloud it to run beyond it's rated spec.

I'm not saying that's going to happen but that would depend on the state of any given company's financials at the time, I'm guessing.

I just want a motherboard that can stick to the rules, surly that's not much to ask for your money is it?

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
I just want a motherboard that can stick to the rules, surly that's not much to ask for your money is it?

Operate it in full stock mode, it will "stick to the rules". They just have to be rules that aren't made up and illogical.

One of the cardinal rules of engineering and design, btw, is to make parts that have ample tolerances for variations in manufacture and operation. That's why DDR4 DRAM has to be capable of operating up to 1.5V...so that excursions up to 1.38V (for instance) won't come close to harming it. It's the job (hobby?) of the overclocker to exploit those tolerances in the pursuit of extra performance. So don't enable any overclocking features and you'll be fine.

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

OK I can accept that I'm just iffy about voltages lol but if you say so then I shall take your word for it.

It just that all the builds I have done in the past (which is many over the years) I have never come across one that overvolts even at in stock mode with or without xmp types of ram or anything else O/C related enabled.

I want a new board anyway, maybe I'm subconsciously giving myself a reason to upgrade, I don't know lol

I have got the ram running at XMP settings but change the voltage manually to 1.340v in Bios

With windows up and running using Aida64 to monitor voltages,

currently 1.344v (with gear 5 running in back ground and me replying on forum)
min 1.344v
max 1.356v

Happy with that.

When Forza 5 is running sometimes it can use up to 16.1gig of system ram or normally 14-15gig

Volts can drop to 1.330v or start peaking at 1.384v

had the odd stability issue.

I will try leaving it on XMP's auto selected voltage 1.350v (motherboard sets it to 1.38v though) and see what the ram voltage peaks at.

I probs wouldn't be surprised if it peaks over 1.4v lol

I test just to find out.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...

I will try leaving it on XMP's auto selected voltage 1.350v (motherboard sets it to 1.38v though) and see what the ram voltage peaks at.

...

It's perfectly OK to undervolt if you want. But do some stability testing if you do: MemTest is simple, easy to run and very rigorous. But even Windows' Memory Diagnostics is decent enough (just type it in the task bar search box).

 

[Deleted member 2947362]

well it's a mixed bag really lol
With XMP auto setting the ram at 1.35v (Bios now sets it to 1.362v)
Tested under the below conditions Ram voltages are as follows
current voltage at desktop 1.368v

Min 1.344v
Max 1.380v
Avg 1.362.v


running forza 5 at 1080p with extreme graphics setting on my poor little 6gig RX5600XT (lol)

RX5600xt using 6.1gig although dropping back to 5.8gig of it Vram
With the computer's system ram at up to 16.2gigs when changing MSSA to x8
but dropping to 15.1gig once the benchmark is running.
(It's good to see if you have plenty of system Ram some games will make use of it)

I might as well set it manually to 1.340v and for get about it then lol

Still going to get a B550 chipset so I can disappoint my expectations even further lol
Because I'm guess all these motherboards most likely act like this with voltages to some degree.