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the_grinch
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Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:22 am

Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming vs. Asus Prime X470-Pro

The goal is to get the most out of a Ryzen 2600x for gaming and streaming. This will be my second PC build, but my first time overclocking. I've read that Asus boards are a little more friendly to amateur overclockers, but is it REALLY enough of a difference to justify the Asus price premium?

I'm not in a hurry to buy my new build, so as long as my patience withholds I'm going to try and wait for deals for as many components as possible. Newegg currently has a deal for $50 off the 2600x / Asus board combo. If the Asus board really is that much nicer and easier to use I may consider purchasing the combo now. Otherwise, I may just wait and hope for a CPU / MOBO combo deal that includes the Gigabyte board, for an even cheaper price tag.
 
DPete27
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:43 am

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the_grinch
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:54 am

DPete27 wrote:


I'm the noob. You tell me! =D

In all seriousness, though, I've read that the X470 boards better support overclocking. Since I'm so new to overclocking I don't fully understand all of the science behind the power components that make the difference in quality. I don't want my board to be a limiting factor and I DO want to be able to get the most out of my Ryzen 2600x.

Will a B450 hold back the 2600x at all? Or does that really just come down to the cooling? I plan on using the "Sweet Spot" recommended Noctua NH-U14S.
 
DPete27
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:12 pm

IMO, the only reason NOT to go with B450 is if you're going to be running more than one GPU.
Here's a link to AM4 chipset features. There's also a LOT of other helpful info in that article comparing various B450 boards.

The Gigabyte board I linked has a pretty beefy 8+3 phase VRM (at a high level, count all the grey boxes around the CPU and subtract 2 that are dedicated to RAM), other than that, the board is full of features and I like Gigabyte's UEFI layout.

Anymore for OCing these days, about the best you can expect to get is the "Max Boost" clock on all cores. Max boost clock is always given as the stock CPU frequency if only a single core is loaded. Any more than that, and you're off into the realm of expensive cooling and voltages that may cause premature death.
Last edited by DPete27 on Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Main: i5-3570K, ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, MSI RX480 8G, 500GB Crucial BX100, 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4, 16GB 1600MHz G.Skill @1.25V, EVGA 550-G2, Silverstone PS07B
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biffzinker
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:26 pm

DPete27 wrote:
The Gigabyte board I linked has a pretty beefy 8+3 phase VRM (at a high level, count all the grey boxes around the CPU and subtract 2 that are dedicated to RAM)

Gigabyte was caught faking the phase count on one of their B450 boards.

What’s new is that Gigabyte has axed a hi-side MOSFET on B450, resulting in 1 hi-side, 2 low-side, 2 chokes, and 1 driver. This makes the motherboard look like an 8-phase board, and Gigabyte marketed it as an 8-phase board, but it’s really not.

'Fake' VRM Phases on B450
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DPete27
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:28 pm

biffzinker wrote:
DPete27 wrote:
The Gigabyte board I linked has a pretty beefy 8+3 phase VRM (at a high level, count all the grey boxes around the CPU and subtract 2 that are dedicated to RAM)

Gigabyte was caught faking the phase count on one of their B450 boards.

What’s new is that Gigabyte has axed a hi-side MOSFET on B450, resulting in 1 hi-side, 2 low-side, 2 chokes, and 1 driver. This makes the motherboard look like an 8-phase board, and Gigabyte marketed it as an 8-phase board, but it’s really not.

'Fake' VRM Phases on B450

I figured about as much. AsRock does the same thing. Really whenever you see a board that's got significantly more chokes than any others, it's a red flag. I suppose I should've cautioned about that, but I'd still pick that board out of all the other mATX choices.
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the_grinch
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:50 pm

DPete27 wrote:
biffzinker wrote:
DPete27 wrote:
The Gigabyte board I linked has a pretty beefy 8+3 phase VRM (at a high level, count all the grey boxes around the CPU and subtract 2 that are dedicated to RAM)

Gigabyte was caught faking the phase count on one of their B450 boards.

What’s new is that Gigabyte has axed a hi-side MOSFET on B450, resulting in 1 hi-side, 2 low-side, 2 chokes, and 1 driver. This makes the motherboard look like an 8-phase board, and Gigabyte marketed it as an 8-phase board, but it’s really not.

'Fake' VRM Phases on B450

I figured about as much. AsRock does the same thing. Really whenever you see a board that's got significantly more chokes than any others, it's a red flag. I suppose I should've cautioned about that, but I'd still pick that board out of all the other mATX choices.


So it sounds like the B450 shouldn't limit what I can do with the 2600x, though? The other component to my original question was whether the price premium of Asus may be worth it for a first time overclocker. I am fine having to read, learn, and tweak as necessary to make a more affordable option (Gigabyte) work, as long as the quality is still there. But if Asus really does make a better product, then I may want to just spend the money on one of their B450 boards (especially since that'll end up being cheaper than the X470 that I was initially considering anyways).

Any thoughts?
 
DPete27
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:00 pm

Every mobo manufacturer has their own version of "automatic overclocking". The consensus is generally that you're better off leaving the CPU alone or doing it yourself manually. At that point, there's no difference between the vendors. For a day-to-day overclock you want to avoid increasing the voltage supplied to the CPU, so you're really only adjusting the CPU multiplier. The owner's manual will tell you how/where to do that.
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toki
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:57 am

I agree about the doing it manually part. Another thing you want to make sure of is the VRM. Make absolutely sure through others experiences that it's going to do what you want it to and another thing with the newer Ryzen chipsets is that they should have the RAM side of it figured out by now hopefully. One more thing you want to take notice of is the automatic features that the board has turned on when you first get it because alot of the X3xx boards came with a setting that was auto clocking it, but basically frying the chip. Some people had to return their chips for a new one because motherboard manufacturers weren't telling people this and people didn't realize what was going on.
 
Neutronbeam
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Tue Sep 25, 2018 9:07 am

If you can wait for November / December and if you are in the U.S., you can get some great deals from Newegg. Rakuten has some great deals as well.
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Krogoth
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Tue Sep 25, 2018 9:11 am

Neutronbeam wrote:
If you can wait for November / December and if you are in the U.S., you can get some great deals from Newegg. Rakuten has some great deals as well.


Around that time frame Intel is supposedly going to be launching its Coffee Lake refresh which will cause a price war with AMD. I suspect AMD will launch the "2800X" to counter it. "2800K" will really be just a cherry-picked 2700X with higher base and boost speeds akin to the i7-8086K. Expect a price cuts on the current SKUs and it should make the 2600X and 8600K very attractive options.
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MOSFET
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Re: Motherboard for OC noob

Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:54 pm

Asus for overclocking. Easy.
Be careful on inserting this (or any G34 chip) into the socket. Once you pull that restraining lever, it is either a good install or a piece of silicon jewelry.

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