Picking X670 seems to be a real hassle with neg reviews

JHFerry

Weaksauce
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Jan 29, 2007
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I am looking at getting the 7950x (Im not a gamer and dont need the x3d variant),

Anyway, there are multiple boards that meet the future proof requirement, I would put the ASRock X670E Taichi at the top of the list because:
1) It has a PCI5 M.2 slot
2) It has a PCI5 slot for a future GPU
3) It supports USB 4
4) It has SPDIF output

The reviews of this (and other X670 boards are mixed at best. Complaints of slow boot times and not supporting anything over ram speeds of 6000. Its been a long time since I've built so a lot of this is just confusing. Any other recommendations for a future proof board? I'd like to get a GPU and CPU upgrade cycle out of this board. Primary use is content creation, streaming, video editing in DaVinci.
 
The 6000 MT/s thing is a Zen 4 CPU issue, not a mobo issue. Likewise, slow boot times appears to be universal to AM5 at the moment. The Taichi is probably a good board for you, although to be honest I bet you won't ever really get good use of some of the features such as PCIe 5.0 SSD.

IMO, "future proof" is a chimera, but that's a whole different discussion.
 
MSI and Gigabye are using a "memory context" feature, to decrease boot times. Basically, after your computer does memory training, it saves that training data. And if you don't make any more bios changes, it will re-use that memory training data each time you boot up. So, the board won't re-train the memory during every boot up. It saves a lot of time. I assume Asus and Asrock will start using that feature. But, most of their boards are still using a bios from November/December. MSI and Gigabyte are using a January bios.
 
no usb4 on strix

The ASRock X670E Taichi Carrara AM5 EATX is a good choice, only gotcha on this is 5.1 onboard sound instead of 7.1 if it matters. The killer NIC is much better than the garbage intel i225/i226.

The Asus Crosshair Extreme fits the bill but has the junk intel i225/6 Ethernet on it and is a lot more expensive.

There are some good choices from MSI and Gigabyte but they all lack usb4.

The memory issue will get fixes eventually, personally I sleep to ram my on my boxes and just wake them up. Rarely do they need a boot.

I want usb4 and solid multigig ethernet for the future so probably just going to wait for better/more choices. I think I hear Zen5 calling next year if I can hold off.
 
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There were some early hiccups, and you have to be careful to make sure your XMP/memory settings are correct, but overall I don't think you can go wrong with the x670E Taichi. Best deal in the x670E lineup. We have one running video creation all day every day where I work with a 7950X and 4x32GB RAM and it is doing fine. The worst part was the RAM slot stickers that got stuck to the slots when you tried to peel them off. What a nightmare. I heard they fixed that.
 
no usb4 on strix

The ASRock X670E Taichi Carrara AM5 EATX is a good choice, only gotcha on this is 5.1 onboard sound instead of 7.1 if it matters. The killer NIC is much better than the garbage intel i225/i226.

The Asus Crosshair Extreme fits the bill but has the junk intel i225/6 Ethernet on it and is a lot more expensive.

There are some good choices from MSI and Gigabyte but they all lack usb4.

The memory issue will get fixes eventually, personally I sleep to ram my on my boxes and just wake them up. Rarely do they need a boot.

I want usb4 and solid multigig ethernet for the future so probably just going to wait for better/more choices. I think I hear Zen5 calling next year if I can hold off.
Unfortunately Killer is just Intel with extra software. They bought them a few years back. https://www.techradar.com/news/intel-has-acquired-the-company-behind-killer-wi-fi-cards

OP, I have the ASRock X670E Taichi and I cannot recommend it highly enough (pic). It is an awesome board. The reviews threw me, too. I think it was a lot of early adopter crap. Happy to help if you have any questions. I also have the ASUS STRIX X670E Gene, the ASUS STRIX B650E-F, and I'm about to build with the ASUS X670E ProArt. Yes, living near a Micro Center causes issues.
 
Unfortunately Killer is just Intel with extra software. They bought them a few years back. https://www.techradar.com/news/intel-has-acquired-the-company-behind-killer-wi-fi-cards

OP, I have the ASRock X670E Taichi and I cannot recommend it highly enough (pic). It is an awesome board. The reviews threw me, too. I think it was a lot of early adopter crap. Happy to help if you have any questions. I also have the ASUS STRIX X670E Gene, the ASUS STRIX B650E-F, and I'm about to build with the ASUS X670E ProArt. Yes, living near a Micro Center causes issues.
I have this in my cart now. Does the lack of 7.1 bother you? Im usually on headphones or a 2.1 speaker set up. I pulled the trigger on the 7950x CPU last night. Thinking of pairing it with this MB, DDR5-6000, WD SN850X, Thermaltake - Toughpower GF3 1000W and a Lancool 216.

I might hold out for a 4080 to see if it drops but that is probably the GPU. What brand RAM did you use?

I might have gone for that ProArt board if it had SPDIF. I don't plan to bling it out with RGB, Im too old for that lol
 
I have this in my cart now. Does the lack of 7.1 bother you? Im usually on headphones or a 2.1 speaker set up. I pulled the trigger on the CPU last night. Thinking of pairing it with this MB, DDR5-6000, WD SN850X, Thermaltake - Toughpower GF3 1000W and a Lancool 216.

I might hold out for a 4080 to see if it drops but that is probably the GPU. What brand RAM did you use?

I might have gone for that ProArt board if it had SPDIF. I don't plan to bling it out with RGB, Im too old for that lol
No - but I game with headphones and use virtual surround, if anything. Sound is great on the board FWIW!
 
You used GSkill huh? What case is that?
Haha. It's an old one, man. From a 2019 9900KS build. The combo prices at Micro Center are my weakness. Been upgrading every rig that I have.

Cooler Master MasterCase H500M

Just had to add a Noctua industrial fan since it's glass on two sides and basically a heat box with the 7900 XTX Red Devil LE that I have in there. LOOOVE that AIO - it's the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 280MM...cool AF 7900X tops out at like 75 C after gaming which is my coolest by far.
 
If not an expert I'd recommend watching Bullzoids videos on YouTube. Lots of reviews online but he instead goes through the manufacturer lineups and talk about the PCB layout and features. You get much better insight into what you are looking at than normal reviews alone in my opinion. Here's one about Gigabytes lineup but there are of the other big manufacturers too (except Asus I think):

 
anyone know for definite ifthe asus strix itx is just a b650 witha chipset upgrade that adds little to the actual board, i wanna upgrade my ghost S1 froma x570 strix with a 5800x3d to a nice 7950x3D but from the new egg reviews to the other leaks it looks like this x670 itx from asus is garnering a ton of hate to a point i may just wait for 8950x3D as it seems its just too many issues packing into the board.
 
anyone know for definite ifthe asus strix itx is just a b650 witha chipset upgrade that adds little to the actual board, i wanna upgrade my ghost S1 froma x570 strix with a 5800x3d to a nice 7950x3D but from the new egg reviews to the other leaks it looks like this x670 itx from asus is garnering a ton of hate to a point i may just wait for 8950x3D as it seems its just too many issues packing into the board.
Asus has 2 ITX boards for AM5.

One is B650-E and the other is X670-E

The main differences between the two, are that the X670-E has 2 USB 4 ports. An even more powerful VRM setup. And all of the sound is routed through an external USB pod thing, which sits on your desk.
 
hmm i got a great Amp/Dac Already so the question is do i need 2xUSB 4 Ports for the extra $$$$ seems like a easy answer thank you.
 
Asrock is rolling out bios updates
yolo
taichi_firmware.png
 
Does it have the 'memory context" feature?

IIRC, it was in the DRAM timings menu, for Asus.

It saves the memory training data. And if you don't make any bios setting changes, it won't have to retrain after each boot. Will simply load the saved data. Improving boot times.
I don't see it.

OC Tweaker > DRAM Timing Configuration > All looks standard - "Gear Down Mode" is there but doesn't seem like what you're talking about.
 
Here's an exact location i found on the internet, for a Gigabyte board:
AMD CBS > UMC Common Options > DDR Options > DDR Memory Features > Memory Context Restore
 
I have this in my cart now. Does the lack of 7.1 bother you? Im usually on headphones or a 2.1 speaker set up. I pulled the trigger on the 7950x CPU last night. Thinking of pairing it with this MB, DDR5-6000, WD SN850X, Thermaltake - Toughpower GF3 1000W and a Lancool 216.

I might hold out for a 4080 to see if it drops but that is probably the GPU. What brand RAM did you use?

I might have gone for that ProArt board if it had SPDIF. I don't plan to bling it out with RGB, Im too old for that lol
Asrock just addressed every issue and pain point in its newly yesterday released bios. XMP works perfect for 6000mhz 64gb DDR5 and post times (from power on to BIOS splash screen) went from 20 seconds to 5 seconds.
 
Here's an exact location i found on the internet, for a Gigabyte board:
AMD CBS > UMC Common Options > DDR Options > DDR Memory Features > Memory Context Restore
Nice! There it is. Thank you. Enabled by default fyi (all I did was turn on EXPO).

For future Internet people:
Advanced > AMD CBS > UMC Common Options (wtf?) > DDR Memory Features > Memory Context Restore

For ASRock BIOS 1.18.AS03

F8B83145-D0C1-4471-9F20-1A0E614E770A.jpeg
 
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Asrock just addressed every issue and pain point in its newly yesterday released bios. XMP works perfect for 6000mhz 64gb DDR5 and post times (from power on to BIOS splash screen) went from 20 seconds to 5 seconds.
Nice, I did read one review where he had a pretty bad issue"
"I only get 8x with one card installed. 4x in the first slot if 2 cards are installed. The second slot gets 8x which is right. no nvme drives in the m2_1 slot so i know it's not a config issue"

How do you test this exactly?

What case/cooler/ram are yous guys using?
 
Asrock just addressed every issue and pain point in its newly yesterday released bios. XMP works perfect for 6000mhz 64gb DDR5 and post times (from power on to BIOS splash screen) went from 20 seconds to 5 seconds.
Which 64GB kit are you using?

I've been buying these:
F5-6000J3040G32GX2-TZ5N
Trident Z5 Neo
DDR5-6000 CL30-40-40-96 1.40V
64GB (2x32GB)
AMD EXPO
https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-64gb/p/N82E16820374443?Item=N82E16820374443

Real happy with them.

The price has been dropping like every day. It is hilarious. I have had NewEgg match the price 3-4x so far. They say they will only match once but I just tell them OK, I will return them and re-buy and they issue me a gift card. Good enough!
 
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Another problem is a lot of complaints of USB disconnecting with X670E boards that dont seem to exist for B650. I wonder if it has to do with its implementation of PCIE 5.
 
Rumor has it that BIOS fixes have mitigated the USB disconnects, I have no first hand experience however.
 
I really hope they get the USB thing resolved before I jump into AM5. I dealt with that for a while on other AMD boards last gen and it went away eventually. I don’t think I can deal with that again, it’s especially annoying with a USB DAC.
 
I really hope they get the USB thing resolved before I jump into AM5. I dealt with that for a while on other AMD boards last gen and it went away eventually. I don’t think I can deal with that again, it’s especially annoying with a USB DAC.
One thing to note is if you really want a system that you like otherwise but it has USB issues, it isn't all that much to get a really good USB PCIe card. The Sonnet Allegro Pro is about $140 and it is known to be very stable with pro audio stuff. So while it isn't cheap, it isn't that big a deal to get a really high quality card if you need one.
 
One thing to note is if you really want a system that you like otherwise but it has USB issues, it isn't all that much to get a really good USB PCIe card. The Sonnet Allegro Pro is about $140 and it is known to be very stable with pro audio stuff. So while it isn't cheap, it isn't that big a deal to get a really high quality card if you need one.
doesn't help if the front i/o for your case ports are having problems ;)
 
doesn't help if the front i/o for your case ports are having problems ;)
Don't see why it wouldn't help -- the Sonnet card doesn't rely on any of the existing USB support, it's a PCIe USB card with its own rear ports. Has nothing to do with the front case ports.
 
Don't see why it wouldn't help -- the Sonnet card doesn't rely on any of the existing USB support, it's a PCIe USB card with its own rear ports. Has nothing to do with the front case ports.
Point is, a PCI card doesn't fix your front I/O.
 
I've heard of these USB issues with AMD but I've used both AM4 and AM5 extensively and I have never experienced it. What is the trigger, usually?
 
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