I've been reading reviews and watching VRM summaries for all the new X570 boards. I upgrade my CPU once every 8 years or so (See current 2500K) but I upgrade my video card every 2-3 years. X570 is the obvious choice because of the PCIE 4 and faster NVME drive support. My usage case doesn't require anything fancy, all I do is game and overclocking looks pretty much impossible on all the new AMD chips.
I've narrowed my selections down to the following, which would you pick and why?
MSI Performance Gaming MPG X570 Gaming Plus
Best chipset fan reviews on Reddit. Users say it's idle until the chipset hits high 50s temp and is super quiet. I can see where the chipset power fan connects to the motherboard so I suspect it may be replaceable, that's a critical feature if you plan on keeping it for 8 years! Looks like a really elegant board layout. Has optical and USB-C which I'll use for sure. The M2 is ABOVE the GPU, again smart design. VRMs sound good enough for a 3700x and 3900x, not certain about 3950 but the chances that I upgrade the CPU are pretty much non-existent. Only downside is only 6 Sata ports.
GIGABYTE X570 GAMING X
Heard a lot of concerning things about high fan speeds and noise on the chipset on reddit but apparently Gigabyte is working on a firmware update to correct this. I don't love the board layout because I don't see a front USB connector. I have an ancient Fractal Design Define XL (V2) that I want to keep using. It doesn't have optical audio out or a USB 3 V2 type B connector which are both stupid things to exclude. I'd have spend another $30 CAD to have those features which is annoying.
ASRock X570 PHANTOM GAMING 4
The Taichi has horrible fan noise and negative feedback on reddit so far. This board layout looks similar, like the fan is underneath the GPU which is pretty poor design.
ASUS Prime X570-P
Again, stupid to put the chipset fan and M2 under the GPU! These new 5000 MB NVME drives create LOTs of heat! It does have 8 sata though which I like a lot. No optical out, no usb-c... stupid.
TLDR: I'm leaning towards the MSI board. The others all seem to be missing critical features or have poor board layouts.
I've narrowed my selections down to the following, which would you pick and why?
MSI Performance Gaming MPG X570 Gaming Plus
Best chipset fan reviews on Reddit. Users say it's idle until the chipset hits high 50s temp and is super quiet. I can see where the chipset power fan connects to the motherboard so I suspect it may be replaceable, that's a critical feature if you plan on keeping it for 8 years! Looks like a really elegant board layout. Has optical and USB-C which I'll use for sure. The M2 is ABOVE the GPU, again smart design. VRMs sound good enough for a 3700x and 3900x, not certain about 3950 but the chances that I upgrade the CPU are pretty much non-existent. Only downside is only 6 Sata ports.
GIGABYTE X570 GAMING X
Heard a lot of concerning things about high fan speeds and noise on the chipset on reddit but apparently Gigabyte is working on a firmware update to correct this. I don't love the board layout because I don't see a front USB connector. I have an ancient Fractal Design Define XL (V2) that I want to keep using. It doesn't have optical audio out or a USB 3 V2 type B connector which are both stupid things to exclude. I'd have spend another $30 CAD to have those features which is annoying.
ASRock X570 PHANTOM GAMING 4
The Taichi has horrible fan noise and negative feedback on reddit so far. This board layout looks similar, like the fan is underneath the GPU which is pretty poor design.
ASUS Prime X570-P
Again, stupid to put the chipset fan and M2 under the GPU! These new 5000 MB NVME drives create LOTs of heat! It does have 8 sata though which I like a lot. No optical out, no usb-c... stupid.
TLDR: I'm leaning towards the MSI board. The others all seem to be missing critical features or have poor board layouts.