5950x best MOBO for non gaming workstation?

professional loser

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Messages
141
I am looking for a rock solid MOBO for Ryzen 5950x. Will be using it for design work. I keep going round is circles and can't pick a MOBO!
MOBOs in $300-450 price range ok for me as it needs to serve me for minimum 3 years! Lot of GPU and CPU rendering!

  • 4 x 16GB RAM (G skill probably?)
  • 2 x GPUs (3080s)
  • 1-2 M.2
  • 4 x 4TB Spinning HDs
  • PSU? 1200W Corsair?
Any help please?
 
I personally would go with ASUS mobos. Something like the ASUS X570 TUF if you're budget conscious or step up to a Crosshair 8 if you can find it cheaper than what it's retailing for otherwise a Dark Hero IMHO.
 
where you getting a 5950 and 2 3080s??

i have my 5950 on a gigabyte x570 elite wifi. its fine, but if i knew i would have been getting a 5950 i would have bought a better board.
 
Honestly most X570 boards should be more than good enough for that. If you're actually having dual 3080s, you'll probably need to worry more about M.2 location and PCI-E lane splitting than anything else. You'll be using up all 24 lanes with that build, but, yet again, pretty much any X570 board with adequate VRMs should be able to handle it.
 
If I said I want to be able to add 3 GPUs for 3d rendering task, which MOBO would you recommend?
Note- Non of the SLI stuff is required for 3d rendering.
 
I am happy with the ASUS AMD AM4 Pro WS X570-Ace ATX Workstation Motherboard I purchased at the start of the first lockdown.
 
If I said I want to be able to add 3 GPUs for 3d rendering task, which MOBO would you recommend?
Note- Non of the SLI stuff is required for 3d rendering.
Same list as above, although your last will be limited by x4 link through the PCH. I'd add back in the godlike or creation, as they're designed for that kind of spacing, I think. If you want full lanes to all the GPUs, you'd need to move up to threadripper.
 
Is it ever appropriate to use a B550 motherboard such as the ASUS STRIX B550-F With a 5950x? I'm being told on another forum that it's not a good choice to cheap out on the motherboard and that I should get a decent X570. I don't care for the 2nd m.2 gen4 slot.
 
Is it ever appropriate to use a B550 motherboard such as the ASUS STRIX B550-F With a 5950x? I'm being told on another forum that it's not a good choice to cheap out on the motherboard and that I should get a decent X570. I don't care for the 2nd m.2 gen4 slot.
That would be taking advice from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. B550 can hardly be considered cheap and there is nothing X570 gives you that would make it better for that CPU assuming equally beefed power regulation which is offered by both options.
 
I just setup a Crosshair VIII build with a 5950X - happy to help. I am extremely happy so far...it is my first AMD build. 25+ years with Intel. I am old.

I am running a 3080, two NVME SSDs, and two SATA SSDs...all good.
 
That would be taking advice from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. B550 can hardly be considered cheap and there is nothing X570 gives you that would make it better for that CPU assuming equally beefed power regulation which is offered by both options.

While I do agree with you, x570 does give you a bit more pcie/usb/sata flexibility. For a workstation that would be the most important difference.

Many b550 power regulations are more than adequate for a stock 5950x. I assume the above poster has probably made his choice (assuming they were able to get a 5950)
 
I am happy with the ASUS AMD AM4 Pro WS X570-Ace ATX Workstation Motherboard I purchased at the start of the first lockdown.
Something along these lines is what I'd recommend.
Same list as above, although your last will be limited by x4 link through the PCH. I'd add back in the godlike or creation, as they're designed for that kind of spacing, I think. If you want full lanes to all the GPUs, you'd need to move up to threadripper.
The MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE would be a good choice as well, and I can recommend that one since I reviewed it, used it for all my processor reviews of the Ryzen 3000 series and then ran it in my own personal machine.
Is it ever appropriate to use a B550 motherboard such as the ASUS STRIX B550-F With a 5950x? I'm being told on another forum that it's not a good choice to cheap out on the motherboard and that I should get a decent X570. I don't care for the 2nd m.2 gen4 slot.
The motherboard supports it, and depending on what you are doing with the system, that would prove adequate. For the OP's case, I don't think it is.
That would be taking advice from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. B550 can hardly be considered cheap and there is nothing X570 gives you that would make it better for that CPU assuming equally beefed power regulation which is offered by both options.
This is flat out incorrect. While there are higher end B550 boards, (such as GIGABYTE's B550 Aorus Master) B550 is a cheaper chipset than X570 and often the boards that utilize it are pretty low end. The STRIX B550-F, and all the STRIX branded boards qualify. They have pretty "meh" VRM implementations. That being said, it's not any worse than a lower end X570 board like the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 which only cost around $160, or MSI's X570-A Pro, which both have substandard VRM's that shouldn't be paired with higher end CPU's like the 5950X. While they technically "work", they are less than ideal. You can get away with it gaming where you wouldn't necessarily push the CPU in heavily multithreaded workloads, but it wouldn't be a good idea necessarily for what the OP is wanting to do with it.

If the OP wants to use two video cards for rendering purposes, then it doesn't make sense to put them on anything less than X570. Also keep in mind, that many cheap boards are not well suited to running multiple GPU's. Simply having the slots doesn't mean it's ideal for it. Granted, this is a much bigger deal for 3-way and 4-way configurations where the electrical demand on the motherboard will be excessively high.
 
Well the thread
That would be taking advice from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. B550 can hardly be considered cheap and there is nothing X570 gives you that would make it better for that CPU assuming equally beefed power regulation which is offered by both options.
Well the thread I posted is here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/motherboard-and-front-usb-c-port.79450/#post-581105 my name there is gohan2091. I'm not sure it the people there are making sense. They seem to be against B550 boards with 5950x cpus. I've always thought it I don't want a 2nf m.2 drive that a B550 is a good choice providing it's a good quality one. I'm probably going to get the Crosshair VIII Hero x570 even though it's very expensive. The website I'm ordering from has very limited selection of motherboards.
 
Last edited:
As the thread starter, I just wanted to update that I managed to get "ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII DARK HERO" just now! 10 came in stock, I got notification, and luckily I was next to the PC, by the time I pulled out my credit card, 8 had gone lol I am in Europe!
 
Well the thread

Well the thread I posted is here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/motherboard-and-front-usb-c-port.79450/#post-581105 my name there is gohan2091. I'm not sure it the people there are making sense. They seem to be against B550 boards with 5950x cpus. I've always thought it I don't want a 2nf m.2 drive that a B550 is a good choice providing it's a good quality one. I'm probably going to get the Crosshair VIII Hero x570 even though it's very expensive. The website I'm ordering from has very limited selection of motherboards.
Main guess: Why buy a $800 CPU with 16 cores if you're going to get a cheaper motherboard chipset that can't utilize all the power of the CPU? Get a cheaper CPU to pair with a cheaper board. It's not that it won't work, but with a 5950X, I'm generally thinking multiple NVMe, multiple other drives, more PCIE cards, etc.
 
Main guess: Why buy a $800 CPU with 16 cores if you're going to get a cheaper motherboard chipset that can't utilize all the power of the CPU? Get a cheaper CPU to pair with a cheaper board. It's not that it won't work, but with a 5950X, I'm generally thinking multiple NVMe, multiple other drives, more PCIE cards, etc.
I've now gone with the Hero VIII (non dark-hero) since that's all PCSpecialist had.
 
Does anyone have an opinion on the MSI Creation for a 5950x / 3090 combo? I game, but need more USB ports for a ton of peripherals I have ( speakers, DAC's, VR, etc, etc )

ROG Formula looks darn close but has a stupid 2.5gbe nic on it... I don't get why all these AMD boards don't have 10g like all the intel variants do. The Formula is also $100 more... why?

 
Good board from everything I read - bit pricey, but good. I almost got one several times before going threadripper in the end.
 
Back
Top