Thoughts on this PC?

[PCSUser54363]

Hey, also wondering what the big difference between the ASUS® ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING AND THE ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING is. Thanks.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hey, also wondering what the big difference between the ASUS® ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING AND THE ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING is. Thanks.

One is X570 (higher tier chipset) the other is B550 (mid range).

X570 supports the higher end processors which wouldn't run too well on B550.

 

[PCSUser54363]

One is X570 (higher tier chipset) the other is B550 (mid range).

X570 supports the higher end processors which wouldn't run too well on B550.

Would you recommend the X570-F GAMING or just the regular X570-PLUS GAMING for an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Would you recommend the X570-F GAMING or just the regular X570-PLUS GAMING for an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X?

The strix would be recommended.

 

[PCSUser54363]

The strix would be recommended.

I'll take this into consideration, thanks.

 

[PCSUser54363]

My updated specs:
Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

NOTE: I still have 1080p monitors although will be adding one 1440p monitor onto this later on in the year to take full advantage of the graphics card and am thinking about the SAMSUNG Odyssey G75 LC32G75TQSUXEN Quad HD 32" Curved Samsung G7, which is 240hz. I'm aware that on some games I'm not going to get 240 FPS at 1440p on a 3070 card although there are a few games that should run at this refresh rate just fine such as Minecraft (Java Edition) and Rocket League.
Let me know what you think! I was considering changing the motherboard to a X570 based model but honestly think the B550-F Gaming will do the job just fine considering I have no plans of overclocking.

 

[JUNI0R]

My updated specs:
Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

NOTE: I still have 1080p monitors although will be adding one 1440p monitor onto this later on in the year to take full advantage of the graphics card and am thinking about the SAMSUNG Odyssey G75 LC32G75TQSUXEN Quad HD 32" Curved Samsung G7, which is 240hz. I'm aware that on some games I'm not going to get 240 FPS at 1440p on a 3070 card although there are a few games that should run at this refresh rate just fine such as Minecraft (Java Edition) and Rocket League.
Let me know what you think! I was considering changing the motherboard to a X570 based model but honestly think the B550-F Gaming will do the job just fine.

Looks good! Just a couple bits I'd change, for the 5800X, you do want an X570 board, the TUF is perfectly fine, if you were going for asthetics then the STRIX is prettier (in my opinion), but not needed at all. I'd also split your SSD storage into 2 seprate drives, something like a 500GB 980 Pro and a PCS 1TB M.2 would be ideal. That means if you need to re-install windows for whatever reason, you won't lose all the data (most likely games) on the drive and have to sit through a lenghty re-download stage of everything that can be recovered. Also for your video editing uses you might want to consider 3600mhz RAM, it's a minimal £ increase but give a bit extra performance, although not my forte so you might want to wait for someone elses 2 cents on that.

 

[NoddyPirate]

for the 5800X, you do want an X570 board

Late to the party here as usual. Just wondering why an X570 would be necessary?

(EDIT - to explain my Q a bit further

The X570 and B550 are just chipset names. They both natively support all Zen 3 CPU's in the same way and only dictate the motherboard features. They have nothing whatsoever to do with processor functionality or operation.

The CPU communicates directly with primarily the RAM, the GPU in the first PCIe slot, the first M.2, and a handful of USB ports. The chipset has nothing to do with the speed or nature of these comms.

The chipset version will dictate the speed of comms to peripherals - such as the second 16 lane PCIe slot, the second M.2 and other SATA ports and so on - of these only the second M.2 is relevant to the majority of builds.

If we are saying that the OP should go X570 in case they want to maximise their peripherals speed with changes down the road then that's fair enough. But the B550 will work perfectly well and will maximise the operation of every component listed in the above specs as far as I am concerned.

 

[JUNI0R]

Late to the party here as usual. Just wondering why an X570 would be necessary?

Honestly, I’ve never been 100% sure why, it’s just what all the clever people have been doing since I started so I just stuck with it with the assumption they know what they’re talking about 😂 I beliveee it’s to do with the better VRM’s that come on the X570 board meaning it does a better job of managing power with the higher end CPU’s.

If someone that actually knows would be able to tell us if that’s correct and if there’s any other reasons, I’d be very curious to find out too!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Honestly, I’ve never been 100% sure why, it’s just what all the clever people have been doing since I started so I just stuck with it with the assumption they know what they’re talking about 😂 I beliveee it’s to do with the better VRM’s that come on the X570 board meaning it does a better job of managing power with the higher end CPU’s.

If someone that actually knows would be able to tell us if that’s correct and if there’s any other reasons, I’d be very curious to find out too!

That supposition is correct, it’s the VRM regulation.

Now that the 5800x is a 125w part unlike 65w on the 3800x, the VRMs on X570 are just so much more capable generally than B550.

 

[NoddyPirate]

Late to the party here as usual. Just wondering why an X570 would be necessary?

(EDIT - to explain my Q a bit further

The X570 and B550 are just chipset names. They both natively support all Zen 3 CPU's in the same way and only dictate the motherboard features. They have nothing whatsoever to do with processor functionality or operation.

The CPU communicates directly with primarily the RAM, the GPU in the first PCIe slot, the first M.2, and a handful of USB ports. The chipset has nothing to do with the speed or nature of these comms.

The chipset version will dictate the speed of comms to peripherals - such as the second 16 lane PCIe slot, the second M.2 and other SATA ports and so on - of these only the second M.2 is relevant to the majority of builds.

If we are saying that the OP should go X570 in case they want to maximise their peripherals speed with changes down the road then that's fair enough. But the B550 will work perfectly well and will maximise the operation of every component listed in the above specs as far as I am concerned.

See my edit to my post above lads - the chipset has nothing to do with it. I think you are confusing the motherboard build quality with the chipset version. Perhaps X570 boards tend to come with better VRM's and so on, but that is not a feature of the chipset at all.

 

[SpyderTracks]

See my edit to my post above lads - the chipset has nothing to do with it. I think you are confusing the motherboard build quality with the chipset version. Perhaps X570 boards tend to come with better VRM's and so on, but that is not a feature of the chipset at all.

It’s not a feature of the chipset, but the tier of the board, X570 is premium, B550 is mid range and A520 is entry level.

As such B550 uses lower end capacitors etc in its design.

 

[Steveyg]

If we are saying that the OP should go X570 in case they want to maximise their peripherals speed with changes down the road then that's fair enough.

This is critical mate, you never build for what you currently need but what you may need in future. If you're putting a 5800X in there you're going to be going for the same standard of products in the next gen by assumption which may need more than what is currently available. Hence the recommendation for the X570 generally with the 5800X, yeah sure the B550 will work but will it be enough to support the higher end of the CPU spectrum to come next? That remains to be seen, so why not spend a little extra to give you a better shot of being able to make that leap without complications

 

[NoddyPirate]

It’s not a feature of the chipset, but the tier of the board, X570 is premium, B550 is mid range and A520 is entry level.

As such B550 uses lower end capacitors etc in its design.

I entirely disagree Spyder - we mixing up the two concepts here. The motherboard tiers are PRIME, TUF, STRIX, ROG and so on. A520, B550, X570 are chipset standards only:

A520 Gamers Nexus

B550 vs X570 Gamers Nexus

Maybe why you consider the chipsets as indicative of 'tiers' is actually a function of the features pitched at target markets. Selling an A520 chipset on a board with top end components would make no sense. It gives PCIe 3.0 support only and NO overclocking. That's why you'll never see it in a high end board pitched at people looking for max performance. Vice Versa for the X570 - why put the most capable chipset in a board aimed at people who don't need the features it provides?

So you might not see an A520 on a Crosshair board or an X570 on a PRIME, but it would be entirely possible to have those products. They just wouldn't sell at all.

Incidentally, all the AMD ASUS boards available from PCS use Japanese capacitors too!

This is critical mate, you never build for what you currently need but what you may need in future. If you're putting a 5800X in there you're going to be going for the same standard of products in the next gen by assumption which may need more than what is currently available. Hence the recommendation for the X570 generally with the 5800X, yeah sure the B550 will work but will it be enough to support the higher end of the CPU spectrum to come next? That remains to be seen, so why not spend a little extra to give you a better shot of being able to make that leap without complications

That's a whole other conversation and one I agree with @Steveyg. It's also the point I was trying to make - if the claim is that X570 is better for future proofing, then that's perfectly fine. But to suggest that a B550 chipset can't handle a 5800X or take an upgrade to a higher end 3rd Gen 5000 series CPU later is just simply incorrect. A future upgrade path still exists. Yes, who knows if AMD will keep the AM4 socket into the future - but if they do I don't think you will be seeing 200W general use CPU's from them anytime soon.

I think we all get carried away with this sometimes being totally honest. Ryzen CPU's are amazingly efficient. The 5800X, 5900X and 5950X are all 105W TDP rated CPU's. They all have the same max peak power draw of 142W. By comparison, a 10900K, which a PRIME B560 PLUS motherboard will happily support - will draw well over 200 Watts stock - more than an overclocked 5800X or 5900X - using the same fundamental VRM and cooling setup as the PRIME B550 PLUS for the AMD version.

The most limiting VRM function on my PRIME board is EDC - but even a 5950X would require a theoretical maximum of only 70% of that EDC capacity - it makes it a rubbish choice if you want to overclock of course - you should get a better board for that - but claiming these CPU's would not work on these boards is sometimes ignoring the facts I think.

Would a higher end board be better? Yes of course. Working less hard to do the same job is always better! Would it last longer? I think that's conceivably likely yes. Can you overclock on a low end board? Well, you really shouldn't! But I also think that DDR5, PCIe 5.0 and all the other new things coming down the road will make even a Crosshair VIII Hero owner want to change their setup long before my boards VRM gets tired of running nowhere near it's limitations.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I entirely disagree Spyder - we mixing up the two concepts here. The motherboard tiers are PRIME, TUF, STRIX, ROG and so on. A520, B550, X570 are chipset standards only:

A520 Gamers Nexus

B550 vs X570 Gamers Nexus

Maybe why you consider the chipsets as indicative of 'tiers' is actually a function of the features pitched at target markets. Selling an A520 chipset on a board with top end components would make no sense. It gives PCIe 3.0 support only and NO overclocking. That's why you'll never see it in a high end board pitched at people looking for max performance. Vice Versa for the X570 - why put the most capable chipset in a board aimed at people who don't need the features it provides?

So you might not see an A520 on a Crosshair board or an X570 on a PRIME, but it would be entirely possible to have those products. They just wouldn't sell at all.

Incidentally, all the AMD ASUS boards available from PCS use Japanese capacitors too!



That's a whole other conversation and one I agree with @Steveyg. It's also the point I was trying to make - if the claim is that X570 is better for future proofing, then that's perfectly fine. But to suggest that a B550 chipset can't handle a 5800X or take an upgrade to a higher end 3rd Gen 5000 series CPU later is just simply incorrect. A future upgrade path still exists. Yes, who knows if AMD will keep the AM4 socket into the future - but if they do I don't think you will be seeing 200W general use CPU's from them anytime soon.

I think we all get carried away with this sometimes being totally honest. Ryzen CPU's are amazingly efficient. The 5800X, 5900X and 5950X are all 105W TDP rated CPU's. They all have the same max peak power draw of 142W. By comparison, a 10900K, which a PRIME B560 PLUS motherboard will happily support - will draw well over 200 Watts stock - more than an overclocked 5800X or 5900X - using the same fundamental VRM and cooling setup as the PRIME B550 PLUS for the AMD version.

The most limiting VRM function on my PRIME board is EDC - but even a 5950X would require a theoretical maximum of only 70% of that EDC capacity - it makes it a rubbish choice if you want to overclock of course - you should get a better board for that - but claiming these CPU's would not work on these boards is sometimes ignoring the facts I think.

Would a higher end board be better? Yes of course. Working less hard to do the same job is always better! Would it last longer? I think that's conceivably likely yes. Can you overclock on a low end board? Well, you really shouldn't! But I also think that DDR5, PCIe 5.0 and all the other new things coming down the road will make even a Crosshair VIII Hero owner want to change their setup long before my boards VRM gets tired of running nowhere near it's limitations.

Motherboards come in tiers. That’s how it’s always been.

For AMD, x570 is top tier, aimed at premium gamers and creators, has better overclocking support. This is where you’ll find LN2 support for exactly that purpose.

B550 is mid range. B550 made significant strides in how well designed they were and this was reflected in the price, but they are without question a mid range board. They have a lesser feature set and connectivity options.

A520 is really aimed at entry level office builds.

Its the same with Intel, Z590 is premium tier, B560 is mid tier and H570 is entry level.

Its always been this way since I started building PCs in around 2000

so for AMD X boards are top tier, B boards a mid tier and A boards are entry level.

It’s the same with most PC components. The first letter is the series, first number is generation

 

[PCSUser54363]

Motherboards come in tiers. That’s how it’s always been.

For AMD, x570 is top tier, aimed at premium gamers and creators, has better overclocking support. This is where you’ll find LN2 support for exactly that purpose.

B550 is mid range. B550 made significant strides in how well designed they were and this was reflected in the price, but they are without question a mid range board. They have a lesser feature set and connectivity options.

A520 is really aimed at entry level office builds.

Its the same with Intel, Z590 is premium tier, B560 is mid tier and H570 is entry level.

Its always been this way since I started building PCs in around 2000

so for AMD X boards are top tier, B boards a mid tier and A boards are entry level.

It’s the same with most PC components. The first letter is the series, first number is generation

I heard recently from someone that the TUF 570 board can't support 3200MHz RAM speed without overclocking the board but the B550-F can. Would someone be able to confirm or deny this claim as I can't really find a straight answer on the internet?

 

[NoddyPirate]

Motherboards come in tiers. That’s how it’s always been.

For AMD, x570 is top tier, aimed at premium gamers and creators, has better overclocking support. This is where you’ll find LN2 support for exactly that purpose.

B550 is mid range. B550 made significant strides in how well designed they were and this was reflected in the price, but they are without question a mid range board. They have a lesser feature set and connectivity options.

A520 is really aimed at entry level office builds.

Its the same with Intel, Z590 is premium tier, H570 is mid tier and B560 is entry level.

Its always been this way since I started building PCs in around 2000

so for AMD X boards are top tier, B boards a mid tier and A boards are entry level.

Yes motherboards come in tiers. I totally agree with that. But everything else is just totally disconnected from everything I have read Spyder - I don't know what else to say to be honest - I can't see how we are so far apart in our thought process? Maybe we are again talking about the same thing but don't know it? TLDR - go to the last paragraph here (before EDITs) and help me figure this out!!!

List of AMD Chipsets

AMD's own list of Chipsets

List of Intel Chipsets

Nothing in these lists of specifications tell you anything about the Motherboard features you will find - aside from those which the Chipset itself facilitates. No indication of VRM quality. No indication of component quality. No indication of BIOS support. Nothing.

The Motherboard manufacturer decides on all that extra stuff after they have chosen which chipset they will stick in their board. The chipset name then finds it's way into the Motherboard naming conventions. But it's called a B550 motherboard because it has a B550 chipset in it. That's all! It only makes sense that the higher functionality of the more capable chipsets means they will find their way into the higher end boards, so indirectly it may be generally the case that a B board is better overall board than an A board - but the A or B or X appendage is an indication of the Chipset features, not the motherboard quality!

Otherwise, why would there be any difference between a PRIME B550 PLUS and ROG STRIX B550 XE? Identical chipset, identical core features, but different planet quality. And the latter is basically an identical board in every significant way to the ROG STRIX X570 E - except for the additional features which the better Chipset provides!

(EDIT- Another example - A ROG STRIX A520 CROSSHAIR VIII HERO could completely and utterly exist. It doesn't because it would be a total waste of high end board components for a weak chipset. But again the Chipset name tells you nothing about the board quality - it's all the othe fluff on either side that does that. And did you know that my lowly PRIME B550 series board also has LN2 support???)

(EDIT Sqaured - a PRIME X570M would be a much worse board than a ROG STRIX GAMING A320 PLUS, but the PRIME X570 would have better features. This is fun!

Chipset Tiers - A, B, X.

Motherboard Tiers - PRIME, TUF, ROG.

You could mix and match as you wish in theory. Yes A will be found in PRIME mostly and X will be found in ROG, but that's exactly my point. They are two totally independent scales of quality and feature sets.)

 

[NoddyPirate]

I heard recently from someone that the TUF 570 board can't support 3200MHz RAM speed without overclocking the board but the B550-F can. Would someone be able to confirm or deny this claim as I can't really find a straight answer on the internet?

Everything above 3200 MHz is considered as board overclocking on all AMD boards I think.

 

[PCSUser54363]

Hmm, just wondering because of this:

 

[sck451]

I have the Tuf X570 and 3200MHz RAM ordered from PCS. It's fine. If it is overclocked (and precisely what that means with memory is complex), it's done by PCS and it works flawlessly.