Long time Intel user converted. Looking for a board for the new gpus and cpus

[lDreaml]

I have not done an amd cpu ever in my life and am incredibly weary on giving this a go as I usually build one rig a decade. Though given intel's recent failures and the new gpus essentially requiring pcie 4.0 to run at full, I'm left with no choice. So I'm giving into the hype and going AMD. Problem is I know nothing about AMD boards or ram. Wouldn't know where to start. Especially with the new power connector on the gpus being released soon. I trust Hardforums and it's userbase above all else as you guys have helped me with every pc related question I've ever had. So with all of that out of the way my question, or rather questions are:

What is the best mobo for the upcoming gpus and new AMD cpus? I'm looking for solid, quality future proofing and ease-of-use performance management as I am a novice when it comes to ocing. My usage will primarily be gaming and video editting. Not any kind of youtuber/streamer, just like to save and edit videos for my own personal collection and for friends.

Same question but for ram as well. Is Trident Z the best of both worlds? I'm looking to go 32 gigs at as fast as speeds as I can get them.

Oh and any suggestions on a PSU? This whole new connector thing has me beyond confused so anyone have an idea on which would be best?

The rest of what I have going into this build:

1x samsung evo 2tb nvme drive.

No budget restrictions atm. Just not looking for anything insane.

 

[Starfalcon]

Giving a budget for your rig would help deciding on what you can go with

 

[Denpepe]

Regarding requiring, PCIe 4.0 I took this from Nvidia's Q&A

"PCIE GEN4
Q: Will customers find a performance degradation on PCIE 3.0?
System performance is impacted by many factors and the impact varies between applications. The impact is typically less than a few percent going from a x16 PCIE 4.0 to x16 PCIE 3.0. CPU selection often has a larger impact on performance. We look forward to new platforms that can fully take advantage of Gen4 capabilities for potential performance increases. Note also, all benchmarks and performance data on our website and presented by Jensen was from a PCIE 3.0 platform."

Now regarding AMD and overclocking I would not realy bother as they have very little room for OC and do a pretty decent job on their own even more so if you have a good coolming solution.

Also AMD is supposed to launch new CPU's later this year so I would at least wait on those to arrive to see what's what. Memory wise I would check the motherboards QVL if you are worried about compatibility.

The new power connector is not realy something to be worried about you will get the adapter from Nvidia if you go with one of their cards, most third party cards will still use the old style connectors as far as I have seen just get a big enough one depending on the card you choose to go with, brands i would recommend are Seasonic, EVGA or superflower.

 

[lDreaml]

Giving a budget for your rig would help deciding on what you can go with

Updated the op. Have no budget limit for this build but also am not looking for crazy prices.

Regarding requiring, PCIe 4.0 I took this from Nvidia's Q&A

Looking to future proof for a couple years so definitely going pcie 4.0 or I'd go with the 10900k. Definitely going to be waiting for zen3 and some rumors say it might even be this month so I guess we will see. I am actually happy that I don't have to oc with amd. Legit don't feel comfortable meddling with a build I want to stay alive and stable for a long time. So basically just need a mobo from a brand that is both stable, will last and offers a bios or ui that offers ease of use. As for the ram, as stated 32 gigs at as fast as I can get them and yes based on the mobos preference. Either dual channel or whatever.

 

[Furious_Styles]

Updated the op. Have no budget limit for this build but also am not looking for crazy prices.


Looking to future proof for a couple years so definitely going pcie 4.0 or I'd go with the 10900k. Definitely going to be waiting for zen3 definitely and some rumors say it might even be this month so I guess we will see. I am actually happy that I don't have to oc with amd. Legit don't feel comfortable meddling with a build I want to stay alive and stable for a long time. So basically just need a mobo from a brand that is both stable, will last and offers a bios or ui that offers ease of use. As for the ram, as stated 32 gigs at as fast as I can get them and yes based on the mobos preference. Either dual channel or whatever.

You never have to OC, in fact you can save money by buying a non-K series cpu and still get great performance.

 

[SmokeRngs]

Since it's best to wait for the new Zen3 CPUs to come out and you're planning on doing that anyway, it's going to be best to wait on picking a motherboard until that time as well. Even if there isn't a new x670 chipset there are definitely going to be new boards out and it may be worth waiting to get one of them. They should have support for the new CPUs day 1 and it's likely they'll have better or upgraded features. Even if the new motherboards and possible new chipset don't tickle your fancy you'd probably be able to pick up an older x570 motherboard cheaper then.

RAM may also be worth waiting on. It's less about compatibility or quality than what the new CPUs will prefer or get the best performance out of. Each iteration of Ryzen CPU and motherboards has had better RAM compatibility and I doubt that will change with the new stuff so any RAM which works well on current boards and CPUs shouldn't be any issue. The main reason I'd wait is to see if higher speed RAM might be a better option especially if Infinity Fabric speeds go higher and works best at a direct 1:1 ratio with the RAM. If memory serves the sweet spot for Zen2 is 1800 IF and 3600 RAM with tight timings. If that changes with Zen3 it would be worth waiting to see.

Going Gskill for RAM seems like a good decision. I have a cheap Gskill Ripjaws 3200 kit on my Ryzen 2600x and it works just fine with the XMP settings despite the RAM being "optimized" for Intel. The RAM is sort of on the QVL for my motherboard. The 8 gig kit of my RAM is on it but the 16 gig kit isn't despite the RAM kits being the same except for capacity. That said, few people have problems with Gskill RAM with Ryzen. If I was replacing my RAM right now I'd go with a Gskill Triden Z Neo kit simply because I like the way it looks. Do keep in mind you can spend quite a bit less in most cases by going for a Ripjaws kit that is effectively the same except for no RGB and different heatsinks. Just make sure the timings match up. And from many people relaying their experiences here, avoid Corsair like the plague. They tend to need more voltage to get to rated speeds and have issues booting until the memory voltage is set manually.

As someone else already said, don't worry about the new nVidia power connector and PSUs. While there will be PSUs coming out with the connector included it's not important as the cards which have the new connector will come with an adapter and not all cards will be using the new connector anyway. The only recommendation is to go with a quality Seasonic PSU. They're simply some of the best PSUs out there and I'm a fan of them. I have the Seasonic Focus GX-650 Gold in my system and my son's and I expect to get quite a few years of use out of them. You'll definitely want a higher capacity but it gives you a place to start looking. There are also at least two lines higher than the Focus Gold line you may want to look into.

Definitely start looking for a PSU now. Getting quality PSUs can be a real pain in the ass right now especially if you don't want to pay a shitton over MSRP. Figuring out what model or models you would want is important so you can keep an eye out for stock of them and grab one at a decent price.

 

[lDreaml]

.

Thank you so much for this incredibly informative post. In regards to a mobo choice, do brands essentially stay true as far as user-friendlyness and reliability on both fronts? I guess what I'm trying to ask is would a Asus ROG board provide the same perks (ease of use and low wattage consumption) as it does on the Intel side of things? Or should I be looking elsewhere for that? What would you say would be the best board brand(s) out of the bunch for what I have in mind? Just to give me an idea what to go for when they are released. Oh and would you say the Seasonic PSU's are better than Evga PSUs?

 

[SmokeRngs]

Thank you so much for this incredibly informative post. In regards to a mobo choice, do brands essentially stay true as far as user-friendlyness and reliability on both fronts? I guess what I'm trying to ask is would a Asus ROG board provide the same perks (ease of use and low wattage consumption) as it does on the Intel side of things? Or should I be looking elsewhere for that? What would you say would be the best board brand(s) out of the bunch for what I have in mind? Just to give me an idea what to go for when they are released. Oh and would you say the Seasonic PSU's are better than Evga PSUs?

The quality between Intel and AMD motherboards of the same manufacturer aren't always the same. In the main motherboard subforum you can find a thread on cold boot issues with AMD Gigabyte motherboards. A lot of people have experienced the issue and it's a pretty bad one. However, most people seem to find Gigabyte motherboards on the Intel side have few, if any issues. It will come down to reviews of the individual boards in most cases. I don't know about the Intel side but on the AMD side there were quite a few issues with low end and midrange MSI motherboards. In many cases it was due to weak VRM implementations.

I don't have a recommendation on brand. In over ten years the only two systems I've built are mine and my son's systems. I ended up going with Asus due to price and getting a CPU/motherboard discount at Microcenter. If it hadn't been for that I probably would have gone with a different motherboard brand because I had nothing but trouble with reliability with Asus motherboards back in the AMD socket A days. I just hope the experience is different this time as my previous experiences resulted in me RMAing every single Asus motherboard due to sudden death out of the blue. A lot of people swear by Asus, though. They probably have the best quality consistency between motherboard lines. You still need to check reviews on them as they do have the occasional board you want to avoid.

As for PSUs, I simply go with quality Seasonic units because they build all their own PSUs and they tend to be some of the consistently highest rated PSUs. EVGA doesn't make their own PSUs and instead rebrands PSUs made by actual manufacturers but that's the case for almost all companies selling PSUs. Some of their PSUs are likely made by Seasonic. Quality can be hit and miss depending on the model because most companies don't make their own PSUs. You simply have to check reviews to find good ones and there are plenty out there. While I definitely recommend Seasonic's higher quality lines of PSUs you should wait for some others to chime in about other quality PSUs and take a look at them. Just make sure to check out some reviews on them, though.

 

[Budwise]

Every generation brings some changes in general so it's not really a good idea to make generalities about them before release. I've been building for 20+ years and the brands I've used have varied through the years. Asus has always been a go-to but since they raised the entry level price of the ROG boards to stupid high I've kinda left their camp. I remember when the Hero boards were $200 and offered everything you could want! Then I went Asrock for a while due to the Taichi boards being so solid and without a ton of blingy RGB but their X470 Taichi kinda just committed suicide a few days ago thanks to their poor BIOS's and the lack of BIOS flashback on a $300 board kinda shocks me so I'm still going through an RMA with them. I've since bought my first MSI board in probably 15 years and it's surprisingly nice and stable compared to the Taichi. No cold boot issues, no praying you get a BIOS that works with my ram, it just works and without a ton of RGB or flash and for $220. Now when the X670 comes every manufacturer will roll the dice again and who knows what will happen.

You also can't say Seasonic PSU's are better than eVGA PSU's because for all you know Seasonic makes the eVGA PSU as they are a supplier. You'll have to do some homework on this front.

 

[E4g1e]

True. Although all of the Seasonic-branded PSUs are manufactured in-house, Seasonic also supplies other brands in addition to itself. For eVGA, you'll have to look at the potential quality on a model-by-model basis. And although Seasonic had made a few models for eVGA in the past, its higher-end (and thus better-quality) PSUs all come from SuperFlower. FSP and HEC also make PSUs for eVGA.

 

[x509]

And from many people relaying their experiences here, avoid Corsair like the plague. They tend to need more voltage to get to rated speeds and have issues booting until the memory voltage is set manually.

As someone else already said, don't worry about the new nVidia power connector and PSUs. While there will be PSUs coming out with the connector included it's not important as the cards which have the new connector will come with an adapter and not all cards will be using the new connector anyway. The only recommendation is to go with a quality Seasonic PSU. They're simply some of the best PSUs out there and I'm a fan of them. I have the Seasonic Focus GX-650 Gold in my system and my son's and I expect to get quite a few years of use out of them. You'll definitely want a higher capacity but it gives you a place to start looking. There are also at least two lines higher than the Focus Gold line you may want to look into.

My experience with Corsair has been not so great. I've had to RMA the Corsair RAM on two different builds now, not out of the box but years later. Fortunately Corsair has lifetime warranties. So for my most recent build I went with Crucial. And, merde alors, that RAM had a problem at the get-go (weird Windows crashes). Crucial RMA'd that memory without any hassle.

My Corsair AX 850 PSU also needed a replacement after a short time, but the new one has been rock-solid for years now. As far as I can tell, this PSU is a relabed Seasonic. I'm still rocking a Corsair 800D case, which was a replacement (free) from Corsair for a 750D case that had issues. Fortunately, I could drive to their warehouse, because they wanted the old case back. So, great products, but iffy quality control.