[SOLVED] When is the right time to upgrade your motherboard?

Jan 3, 2021
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Hi!
I am broadly asking and wondering when I should upgrade my motherboard.

For clarity, I have the B450 Tomahawk and started out w/ a Ryzen 3rd 2200. In the last 6-ish months I upgraded my CPU to a Ryzen 5th 3600 and kept the same motherboard. The caution of upgrading the CPU for the same motherboard was to update the BIOs, which I did and has been running very well. No issues or anything, but it got me thinking, is this something I should upgrade to the B450 Tomahawk MAX or PRO for? Or something else?

Its been a good while since I've dabbled in builds and looking for any advice. Thanks!
 
Solution
In this case few more possible reasons for upgrading to (much) better MB:
PCIe v4, More SATA or M.2 ports or general equipment as well as possibility of upgrading to Zen3 12/16 core cpu.

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
Hi!
I am broadly asking and wondering when I should upgrade my motherboard.

For clarity, I have the B450 Tomahawk and started out w/ a Ryzen 3rd 2200. In the last 6-ish months I upgraded my CPU to a Ryzen 5th 3600 and kept the same motherboard. The caution of upgrading the CPU for the same motherboard was to update the BIOs, which I did and has been running very well. No issues or anything, but it got me thinking, is this something I should upgrade to the B450 Tomahawk MAX or PRO for? Or something else?

Its been a good while since I've dabbled in builds and looking for any advice. Thanks!

Generally:

  • Is there a CPU you can't use on the motherboard?
  • Is there a feature a new motherboard has that you need that is not on the old one?
  • Is the motherboard broken or failing and out of warranty?

If you can't say yes to one of these, there's usually no purpose in upgrading.
 
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