I haven't got a good source for data on ASRock or Asus PCB layers. Your best bet for those motherboards is to ask on their respective forums and/or reddit. MSI and Gigabyte (and Biostar) published/leaked info on their board specs before launch, so you can read about them here:
https://www.overclock.net/forum/13-amd-general/1624051-vrm-new-am4-motherboards.html
Note that the thread maintainer is updating with new info wherever possible. He has info on a few Asus boards now.
Which is potentially the most bad-ass X570 mobo so far? Asrock Aqua? Asus Formula? MSI Godlike? Aorus Xtreme? I mean which one will give the 3900x the most potential headroom for PBO / Auto or even manual overclock?
Thanks!
So all the mid-range MSI boards only have a 4-layer PCB so one would have to splurge to get a MEG Ace which then has only 4 sata ports. Well my MSI board served me well but I guess with that line-up it's not for me.
In my opinion, Aorus Xtreme. 10Gb NIC, server-class VRM config, no chipset fan.
Regarding the VRM config - is it better since no use of doublers like MSI Godlike, etc?
And the common concern regarding all Gigabyte AM4 boards, RAM OC and BIOS, - did they fix the messy BIOS and RAM overclocking on Ryzen?
Yup. Both the Xtreme and Master have no doublers or "twinned" phases.
Aorus Master UEFI overview:
I haven't found a decent mem OC review of the Master yet.
Quite the opposite. RealTek makes a cheap 2.5GbE-T chipset, for USB3.x, PCI-E 3.0 x1 (*), and Aquantia makes a 5GbE chipset for USB3.x and PCI-E x1, as well as a 10GbE-T chipset for PCI-E x4.Exactly. I would've thought that almost all $300+ boards (and maybe even $250+ boards) would've had the 10 Gb chipset on them. I could definitely use 10 Gb but 2.5 Gb sounds like some sort of weird in-between network that won't ever see widespread adoption.
Quite the opposite. RealTek makes a cheap 2.5GbE-T chipset, for USB3.x, PCI-E 3.0 x1 (*), and Aquantia makes a 5GbE chipset for USB3.x and PCI-E x1, as well as a 10GbE-T chipset for PCI-E x4.
2.5GbE will be the "new" standard, pushing widespread adoption of 10GbE-T off for another 3 years, or more, probably.
Primarily because of cost, and the perception that 10GbE-T is "enterprise" (nevermind that they've gone to 40GbE and 100GbE), and also because you can do 2.5GbE-T and even 5GbE-T over Cat5e cable, that most people already have in their homes.
Plus, routers with 802.11ax, need 2.5GbE-T hard-wired for 2400Mbit/sec bandwidth over the wifi, etc., so that 2.5GbE-T is going to be a standard because of wifi that is faster than 1GbE-T wired equivalent.
(*) Syba / I/O Crest 2.5GbE-T capable PCI-E x1 cards (with LP brackets too), are available on Amazon and Ebay, for roughly $30 (+tax/ship?), so don't consider a mobo with 2.5GbE-T onboard, to be more than a $30 premium on the price. In most cases, assuming that you'll have an x1 slot free after your GPUs and whatnot are installed, and don't interfere with the x4 M.2 NVMe wiring too much, then you can always slap in a card, as "messy" as that may seem for aesthetics.
And what about Asus Formula? Does it have doublers or twinned phases?
Thanks! Will take a look. Regarding RAM OC - generally Gigabyte had somewhat worse RAM OC capability compared to MSI and ASUS, but it was the case for Summit and Pinnacle Ridges. Maybe they've improved on these grounds with Matisse.
Yup. Both the Xtreme and Master have no doublers or "twinned" phases.
Aorus Master UEFI overview:
I haven't found a decent mem OC review of the Master yet.
The sweet spot is somewhere around DDR4-3733 for Matisse since you still get to use 1:1 IF ratio (might be able to go higher, but I haven't seen much on that yet). Trying to get DDR4-4600+ seems pointless since you have to use the 1:2 IF ratio (1/4 DRAM speed) which is kinda lame.
I was hoping for higher IF speeds this time around.
BTW - haven't they completely revamped this case when IF was so damn dependent on RAM speed? Seems like the huge cache (64Mb in case of 3900X) gets the work done.
Buildzoid quick motherboard review. Goes over x470 and x570. Even quickly refers to 450.
If not such a fan of this guy. He leaves out important technical aspects over such he cares about. He completely ignores pcie slots and usb ports which cheaper boards generally have much less.
I agree with him that all manufacturers manage to somehow screw up. The mb I want simply doesn't exist. The asus prime-pro would fit well (pretty bare-bones) but it's kind of expensive for what it offers and lacks bios flashback or dual bios. Cheaper boards lack pcie/io and/or only have a 4-layer pcb (is it really an issue?). More expensive ones come with faster lan and faster wifi. (why do I need both? why is wifi even integrated on a desktop?)
Is that something to be worried about?
Overpriced crap. You'd better get CH8 HeroAnyone considering the Asus X570 workstation board?
Arocks memory recommendation
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.to...cpus-memory-recommendations-asrock,39756.html
With a major pet peeve of mine. No slight against AMD or Asrock since everyone does this.
How the hell do they get away with saying the board supports up to (I know up to is a nifty way of saying less than) ddr 4666 but then you look at what’s supported it’s ddr 3200.
How are they allowed to do such a thing and not lose a lawsuit?
*I know it likely supports faster memory just irritates me we support up to this number but then it actually turns out to be a different number
I don't quite know what you mean by "allowed to do this"? Why wouldn't they? It's just overclocking support, for the RAM.
Look at a (hypothetical) mobo's specs, for DRAM speeds, they list things like: 4600(*OC),4333(*OC),4000(*OC),3600(*OC),3400(*OC),3200,2667,2400,2133,1866. (*OC: Overclocked speeds. Also dependent on CPU/APU's memory-controller tolerance.).
That's just a contrived example, don't take it literally. But generally, they follow the same sort of pattern.
The listed speeds with (*OC), they've achieved with lab testing, and the listed speeds without the (*OC), are officially-supported JEDEC-standard speeds.
Four 32GB DIMMS that haven't been tested yet?Now that time has passed this is what I meant
MSI says supports up to 128GB!
Then memory support chart says it supports up to four 16BG modules.
That’s not 128...
from website:
https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-X570-GAMING-PLUS/Specification
To me this appears to be 64GB max not 128GB max
Four 32GB DIMMS that haven't been tested yet?
Lol that is hilarious. To be fair, that hilarity has existed for a long time.
Don't know. Other than ECC, it looks like 32GB has only been available for desktop for about a year. I see Gskill Trident Z RGB DC for ASUS Z390 only (3000/3200) and Corsair Vengeance LPX (2666) that says latest Intel motherboards.Then how does it support 128GB?