X370 or Z270

[JDG14]

Hi All,

Just a quick discussion, I'm planning to upgrade my CPU by replacing the Motherboard, Processor and RAM.
Here is my current build

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA970A-DS3 rev.3.0
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0 ghz
RAM: Gskill Ripjaws 4gb 1333 Single Stick
GPU: ZOTAC GTX 780 Reference Cooler
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
PSU: Aerocool VP Pro 500w PSU 80plus
Chassis: Aerocool Strike X One
Cooler: Deepcool Maelstrom 240L

And now my choices for the Motherboard are:

Intel:
MSI Z270 SLI PLUS
ASRock Z270 EXTREME 4
ASRock Z270 FATAL1TY GAMING K4

AMD:
MSI X370 SLI PLUS
ASRock X370 FATAL1TY GAMING K4

And for the Processor:
Intel Core i3-7350K or i5-7600K
AMD Ryzen 5 Series

My plan for the RAM is that I'll go for a 16GB Single Stick first.
I just dont know what frequency would be the best.

So my question here is, should I go to AMD's X370? or Intel's Z270?
Take note that the same boards but with different chipsets have the same price in my country.
The reason also on why K series only on Intel is that I also want to overclock in the near future.

If I'm going on AMD's side, would it be a good choice to go to R5 1400 or should I go for R5 1600?

Also if some of you notice my crappy PSU, no worries. Will be upgrading that first before the Board+Procie+RAM.

Thanks in Advance, Cheers! 😉

 

[chemmajorp53]

Ryzen 5 1600 (or 1400/1500X, flip a coin they're all good) and a B350 board with 3200MHz Gskill RAM. By far the best option here. X370 is only useful if you want to use SLI, the 7350K makes no sense because it's slower than an i5 7500 and costs more when you factor in an the extra cost of z270 and a cooler, and the 7600K is just too limited nowadays with only 4 threads. Basically, in my opinion with intel there's really no reason to buy anything in between the G4560 and the 7700k because Ryzen offers more for the same price.

 

[JDG14]

Ryzen 5 1600 (or 1400/1500X, flip a coin they're all good) and a B350 board with 3200MHz Gskill RAM. By far the best option here. X370 is only useful if you want to use SLI, the 7350K makes no sense because it's slower than an i5 7500 and costs more when you factor in an the extra cost of z270 and a cooler, and the 7600K is just too limited nowadays with only 4 threads. Basically, in my opinion with intel there's really no reason to buy anything in between the G4560 and the 7700k because Ryzen offers more for the same price.

Nice choice, was about to lean on AMD already until I saw that there are same Identical Motherboards from X370 to Z270. 😀

The main reason why I chose X370 over B350 (Don't hate me because of this), is because of the shroud in the rear I/O panel. Which is really cool that's all. :lol:

So which of the two you think is Better? Asrock X370 FATAL1TY GAMING K4 or MSI X370 SLI PLUS?

But still thanks for your advice on getting a B350, I might take a look again for some B350 boards.

 

[raisonjohn]

Definitely go with the AMD Ryzen platform. Lesser cost, more performance, better upgradability/longevity. But I will seriously consider getting the B350 motherboard than the X370 motherboard.

Among all B350 motherboards available today, there are only 2 models that have an I/O shroud: the MSI B350 Gaming Pro Carbon (currently costs ~$128 in Newegg) and the MSI B350 Krait Gaming (currently costs ~$107 in Newegg).

If its only the shroud that makes you lean towards purchasing a more expensive X370, despite not being able to utilize its features (SLI and more SATA ports), then consider any of the two aforementioned B350 motherboards as they will offer the best price/performance (looks, of course, would be subjective to you) over the X370s.

But, assuming you don't like any of the B350 motherboards with I/O shrouds mentioned above, between the Asrock X370 FATAL1TY GAMING K4 or the MSI X370 SLI PLUS as the only boards to consider based on your preference, the better motherboard would be the ASRock.

Comparing the ASRock and the MSI,

We have these similarities:
Both have I/O Armor
Both have 4x RAM slots up to 64GB max. cap.
Both support 2-Way Nvidia SLI or 2-Way AMD CrossFire
Both have 6x SATA ports (all oriented 90-degrees for better cable routing)
Both have 6x Audio Jacks at the rear panel
Both have 8x total USB rear panel ports (both having 1x USB3.1 Type C and 1x USB3.1 Type A ports)
Both have 2x USB3.0 internal headers and 2x USB2.0 internal headers
Both require a 24-pin ATX and an 8-pin ATX12V/EPS power cable from your PSU

What sets them apart are these salient differences:
ASRock has an Audio Armor/Shroud | MSI has none
ASRock has RGB ambient lighting | MSI has none
ASRock has 12 (8 + 4) power phases for better OC | MSI has less at only 10 (8 + 2)
ASRock has 2x PCIe x16 slots (x16 or x8/x8 modes) | MSI has 3x PCIe x16 slots (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4 modes *but the x4 speed can downgrade to x1 if a PCIe x1 slot is used)
ASRock has 4x PCIe x1 slots | MSI has 3x PCIe x1 slots
ASRock has 2x M.2 sockets | MSI has only 1x M.2 socket
ASRock uses better LAN controller (Intel I211AT) | MSI uses only Realtek (RTL8111H)
ASRock uses better Audio Codec (Realtek ALC1220) | MSI uses only Realtek ALC892
ASRock has 2x PS/2 ports at rear panel | MSI has 1x PS/2 port at rear panel
ASRock has 6x USB3.0 (but no USB2.0) rear panel ports | MSI has 4x USB3.0 + 2x USB2.0 rear ports
ASRock has 5x total fan headers | MSI has 6x total fan headers
ASRock has 3x RGB LED strip headers | MSI has only 1x RGB LED strip header
ASRock uses a 2-Digit Code LED Display for Diagnostics | MSI uses Debug LED indicators for Diagnostics
ASRock currently costs ~$150.00 (Newegg) | MSI currently costs ~$130.00 (Newegg)

 

[JDG14]

Definitely go with the AMD Ryzen platform. Lesser cost, more performance, better upgradability/longevity. But I will seriously consider getting the B350 motherboard than the X370 motherboard.

Among all B350 motherboards available today, there are only 2 models that have an I/O shroud: the MSI B350 Gaming Pro Carbon (currently costs ~$128 in Newegg) and the MSI B350 Krait Gaming (currently costs ~$107 in Newegg).

If its only the shroud that makes you lean towards purchasing a more expensive X370, despite not being able to utilize its features (SLI and more SATA ports), then consider any of the two aforementioned B350 motherboards as they will offer the best price/performance (looks, of course, would be subjective to you) over the X370s.

But, assuming you don't like any of the B350 motherboards with I/O shrouds mentioned above, between the Asrock X370 FATAL1TY GAMING K4 or the MSI X370 SLI PLUS as the only boards to consider based on your preference, the better motherboard would be the ASRock.

Comparing the ASRock and the MSI,

We have these similarities:
Both have I/O Armor
Both have 4x RAM slots up to 64GB max. cap.
Both support 2-Way Nvidia SLI or 2-Way AMD CrossFire
Both have 6x SATA ports (all oriented 90-degrees for better cable routing)
Both have 6x Audio Jacks at the rear panel
Both have 8x total USB rear panel ports (both having 1x USB3.1 Type C and 1x USB3.1 Type A ports)
Both have 2x USB3.0 internal headers and 2x USB2.0 internal headers
Both require a 24-pin ATX and an 8-pin ATX12V/EPS power cable from your PSU

What sets them apart are these salient differences:
ASRock has an Audio Armor/Shroud | MSI has none
ASRock has RGB ambient lighting | MSI has none
ASRock has 12 (8 + 4) power phases for better OC | MSI has less at only 10 (8 + 2)
ASRock has 2x PCIe x16 slots (x16 or x8/x8 modes) | MSI has 3x PCIe x16 slots (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4 modes *but the x4 speed can downgrade to x1 if a PCIe x1 slot is used)
ASRock has 4x PCIe x1 slots | MSI has 3x PCIe x1 slots
ASRock has 2x M.2 sockets | MSI has only 1x M.2 socket
ASRock uses better LAN controller (Intel I211AT) | MSI uses only Realtek (RTL8111H)
ASRock uses better Audio Codec (Realtek ALC1220) | MSI uses only Realtek ALC892
ASRock has 2x PS/2 ports at rear panel | MSI has 1x PS/2 port at rear panel
ASRock has 6x USB3.0 (but no USB2.0) rear panel ports | MSI has 4x USB3.0 + 2x USB2.0 rear ports
ASRock has 5x total fan headers | MSI has 6x total fan headers
ASRock has 3x RGB LED strip headers | MSI has only 1x RGB LED strip header
ASRock uses a 2-Digit Code LED Display for Diagnostics | MSI uses Debug LED indicators for Diagnostics
ASRock currently costs ~$150.00 (Newegg) | MSI currently costs ~$130.00 (Newegg)

Wow, thanks for the detailed comparison man, really appreciate it. 😀
It's just in i found out that there are "some" B350 motherboards with those shrouds, but unfortunately, both motherboard is not available in my country (I think for now).

So the ASRock X370 FATAL1TY GAMING K4 is clearly the winner between the two boards.

And I think it's a win-win for me if I choose ASRock because here, The ASRock FATAL1TY GAMING K4 (Php7720/$152) board is much more cheaper compare to MSI X370 SLI PLUS (Php8160/$161)

I guess all that's left is what processor should I choose. I'm kinda leaning over Ryzen 5 1400. But I'm also interested on Ryzen 5 1600, which has 6 cores and 12 threads.
the X series doesn't pleases me enough to buy them when I found out that all Ryzen Processor can be overclocked. :lol:

 

[raisonjohn]

That's great! Good choice on the motherboard and much better for finding the ASRock cheaper than the MSI

Definitely get the Ryzen 5 1600, if you can stretch your budget. It's only about ~$40 difference than the 1400, but will give you much better performance and "future-proofing" (as games start to utilize more cores/threads).
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-1600-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-1400/3919vs3922

 

[JDG14]

That's great! Good choice on the motherboard and much better for finding the ASRock cheaper than the MSI

Definitely get the Ryzen 5 1600, if you can stretch your budget. It's only about ~$40 difference than the 1400, but will give you much better performance and "future-proofing" (as games start to utilize more cores/threads).
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-1600-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-1400/3919vs3922

And that's it, thanks for the help, really appreciate it.
So my build will go down like this one:

MOBO: ASRock X370 FATAL1TY GAMING K4
Processor: Ryzen 5 1600
RAM: 16GB Single Stick 3200 DDR4 RAM (Probably Gskill Red)

Last question, is there any significant differences between Ryzen 5 1600 and Ryzen 5 1600X? :lol:
Stock cooler is not a problem to me, since I'll be using my Deepcool Maelstrom 240L.
If going to 1600X is not worth it, then I'll be opting on Ryzen 1600.

 

[raisonjohn]

Last question, is there any significant differences between Ryzen 5 1600 and Ryzen 5 1600X? :lol:
Stock cooler is not a problem to me, since I'll be using my Deepcool Maelstrom 240L.
If going to 1600X is not worth it, then I'll be opting on Ryzen 1600.

The 1600X is not worth it over the 1600. You can OC the 1600 to match the 1600X performance, but what is glaring (apart from the additional expenses) is the 1600X has higher TDP (at 95W) - more power consumption and heat - compared to the 1600 with only 65W TDP (but is still OC'able).

Here's a very good video you should take a look at regarding the 1600 versus the 1600X:
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4_4Tpa_cIQ"][/video]

 

[JDG14]

Last question, is there any significant differences between Ryzen 5 1600 and Ryzen 5 1600X? :lol:
Stock cooler is not a problem to me, since I'll be using my Deepcool Maelstrom 240L.
If going to 1600X is not worth it, then I'll be opting on Ryzen 1600.

The 1600X is not worth it over the 1600. You can OC the 1600 to match the 1600X performance, but what is glaring (apart from the additional expenses) is the 1600X has higher TDP (at 95W) - more power consumption and heat - compared to the 1600 with only 65W TDP (but is still OC'able).

Here's a very good video you should take a look at regarding the 1600 versus the 1600X:
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4_4Tpa_cIQ"][/video]

Thank you so much for the insight. I'm going for Ryzen 5 1600 then. Thanks 😀