X370 Motherboard Advice

[TStahler]

I am completing a system upgrade and need some motherboard advice. My system build so far is as follows.

Case: Corsair 780T
CPU: Ryzen 7 1800X
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair VI Hero
GPU: XFX R9 295X2
RAM: HyperXFury (16×2) 32GB 2666
PSU: EVGA 1600W Platinum
CPU Cooler: Liquid Freezer 360
Storage: 1TB Crucial SSD, Additional SSD and approximately 10TB in Hard Drives.

The build will be primarily used for a home based recording studio. Recording, Mixing, Mastering, Plug-Ins, Music Videos, and maybe some moderate gaming such as Battlefront 2 I had an FX9590 so this system is designed to be an upgrade. I plan to Overclock to 4GHz while hopefully keeping Voltage reasonable. Nothing really more or less. I am having second thoughts about the Crosshair Hero motherboard. I have heard negative reviews in reference to BIOS stability and crashes bricking the board, The weaker VRM than the AsRock Professional Gaming, and poor memory Compatibility. I am considering returning the board and getting the Asus Crosshair VI Extreme for added longevity as well as the system will be running several hours every day. The power stages in the Extreme are 60a while the Crosshair is only 40a dual mofsets. The Extreme seems to be also made of a thicker PCB with stronger thermal armor. I am also looking at the Asrock Fatal1ty Professional Gaming but have not heard great reviews on the Bios, memory clocking, or overclocking. I also looked at the Gigabyte AX370 K7 but it seems the VRM is even weaker on that board so I don't really know if what I have is enough or if these other options are better. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

ASUS make the most stable and reliable BIOS. It is also quick to fix the problems.
The VRM is not only about the number of phases. it's more about components quality, ability, cooling and actual doubling scheme. any of those boards exceeds the maximum number of phases supported by controller (8) and is using some kind of doubling. a more "decent" way is to use doublers that split the PWM signal from controller between two phases. the most "dumb" approach is simply putting two phases on the same line - seen it on MSI and ASRock boards. Though all those boards are priced high enough to have decent VRM and it should not be a concern.
You can check those videos for very detailed VRM analysis:
Asus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xfLYLRsPZ0
GB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZ-q59KIbM

I would stick with asus. you pay an extra, but you get better quality.

 

[TStahler]

Thank you for that advice. It makes sense. With that said, Would it be best for me to stick with the Asus Croshair VI Hero X370 or would spending more for the Asus Crosshair VI Extreme X370 be the better option?

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Personally, I do not see a reason to spend over 200$ on a MB
Those two are basically the same at the core with few extras added to the extreme like the addressable RGB header, Wi-Fi and BT. Is it worth 100$ - up to you.
Since you have chosen the 1800x, it is already binned for higher clocks. So you are going to achieve 4.0-4.1GHz relatively easy. Just put a decent cooler on it.
Most of your performance gains will come from memory overclocking - spend the 100$ (or part of it) on fastest compatible memory.

 

[vapour]

For 1700X with decent cooler, 4G is easy.
I will recommend X370 taichi for its quality and good features
Do you already own R9? If not, GTX will be better due to lower temp and voltage
I will try to find G SKill 3200 ram, which Ryzen loves and scales well.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

^^ and weird BIOS issues like dropping RAM latency settings if you change RAM frequency ? XD

 

[vapour]

^^ and weird BIOS issues like dropping RAM latency settings if you change RAM frequency ? XD

Any evidence to support that? Crosshair is not looking any better in reviews.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNc4q1kBwhE
those could be (and probably were) fixed since then, but I still find it quite amusing.
Don't get me wrong, after asus i'd probably choose ASRock over others. Not for the greatness, but for value for money. They do have semi decent MB layout and and mostly use decent components and those are priced very well compared to GB and MSI. The later is complete garbage when it comes to MB IMO. So If I couldn't afford ASUS, i'd be ready to swallow some BIOS quirks for the decent component quality.

 

[TStahler]

I would really like to get faster RAM than the 2666 but the Qualified Vendor List is extremely limited especially since I want to run 32GB RAM. I am getting my parts at www.microcenter.com. if someone sees a RAM kit there that is faster that will work at a faster speed with price not being an object, I would greatly appreciate it. I would prefer to run 2 16GB sticks of RAM if possible. Thanks.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

you are probably will be able to overclock the memory to some extent. just put an extra effort in it.
honestly, it is harder to overclock higher density RAM. same goes for more modules.
So even high frequency advertised modules might refuse to work at those high speeds.
here are some:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/468731/Vengeance_LED_32GB_2_x_16GB_DDR4-3200_PC4-25600_CL16_Quad_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit
http://www.microcenter.com/product/501729/Vengeance_LPX_32GB_2_x_16GB_DDR4-3200_PC4-25600_CL16_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit
http://www.microcenter.com/product/501687/Vengeance_LPX_32GB_2_x_16GB_DDR4-3000_PC4-24000_CL16_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit

 

[Ditt44]

Strongly recommend the ASRock Taichi with G.Skill Flare-X 3200 RAM. I built a system based on these with a 1600x in May 2017 and it has been flawless. RAM was at 3200 from the moment I booted. 960 Evo M.2 drive for the OS, which is Windows7, btw. SSD drive for apps/games/etc. Flawless. Love it. Crystal clear sound as well. Housed in a Corsair 760T and stable temps.