PCs and Steam: Thread 01

[MartyG]

The main difference between the two is that all PCIe lanes on a X570 are Gen 4, on the B550 boards the PCIe Gen 4 is serviced by the CPU, so the 16 x PCIe lane for your graphics and (usually) one NVME Gen 4 slot. The rest will be PCIe Gen 3.

I have an MSI MAG MSI X570 Tomahawk which has been very reliable paired with an R7 5800, but I don't think they're still in production. The Auros boards are definitely decent enough, and the ROG Strix boards.

[fishbowlhead]

Hmmm, right, might have to spend a bit more on the board then to future proof it.

[briareos_kerensky]

Just a heads up about AMD motherboards: AMD will introduce a new socket for Zen4 processors, which will release the second half of 2022, so at least on the processor side you'll have limited upgrade potential.
Intel pretty much launches a new socket for every new CPU family, so going with them won't really be much more future-proof.

[fishbowlhead]

Not sure i want to wait that long, guess it won’t be very future proof then on the cpu side, not a lot i can do about that.

[briareos_kerensky]

That was just a heads-up. If Zen4 goes the same way as the Zen2 launch, there will be a small number of CPUs available and dedicated mobos could be even scarcer.

[MartyG]

Zen 4 is also DDR5 which is next to impossible to buy currently.

There's still years of life in Zen 3 yet.

[fishbowlhead]

Im still running an fx4300 🤣

[MartyG]

Then upgrading to Zen will be like jumping to lightspeed.

[fishbowlhead]

Bless its old cotton socks, still troops along and then promptly falls over when exporting loads of photos out of lightroom.

[fishbowlhead]

Case turned up, very nice, little wider than I imagined but I can make it work on the desk. Think im going to go for the mobo suggested, little more expensive than I initially wanted to spend but better off with some wiggle for the future. Whats a good PSU to go with?

[MartyG]

Depends on what GFX you're planning to put in it in the future - if you're planning on purchasing a high-end card in the future, then I would go for something like the ASUS ROG Strix 850W or the Corsair RM850.

If you're not going for something that's going to pull a lot of power when you're loading the graphics up, then a 600/650W PSU from one of main brands (ASUS, MSI, SeaSonic, Corsair) will be fine. I hesitate to say look at Gigabyte because although only one of the PSU variants caused explosions they didn't deal with the situation very well. Their Aorus PSUs are well regarded tho.

PSUs are something I'd consider worth spending a bit more money on rather than going for bare minimum to do the job. It's not just about the power rated, but the ability to do that without a lot of ripple will give you a much more stable system.

[fishbowlhead]

Year think ill go for an 850w so i have the option in the future of a beefier gfx card in the future, whenever they become available again that is.

[briareos_kerensky]

If you can, get a Seasonic unit. Seasonic are OEMs for a lot of other good-to-premium brands, and they have their own line of excellent products. They might be hard to find though. Corsair is a solid choice.

[fishbowlhead]

I have an MSI MAG MSI X570 Tomahawk which has been very reliable paired with an R7 5800, but I don't think they're still in production. The Auros boards are definitely decent enough, and the ROG Strix boards.

This the mobo? Seems reasonably priced for the spec.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-TOMAHAWK-Motherboard-Channel-Bluetooth/dp/B09BYZ9J93/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=VBC3CC5IFNNL&keywords=msi+mag+msi+x570+tomahawk+atx+am4&qid=1643665625&sprefix=MSI+MAG+MSI+X570+Tomahawk%2Caps%2C277&sr=8-1

[MartyG]

Not quite the same, that's the revised model that doesn't have the active fan (the S is Silent ). But yeah, they're a pretty decent mobo for the price.