Buying Ryzen? Share w/ us your upcoming build!

os2wiz said:
Get the Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero. No am4 adapter required for that motherboard as it has hoes for both AM4 and AM3. It is the board with best power phase control and vrms so stable overclocking is easy.
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Link please anyone can claim this but without a comparison and comprehensive testing it is still a crap shoot.
 
SsmB_92 said:
"Best" is a bit strong IMO, Titanium could kill it.... But then the price point is better on the XHair.
Click to expand...

I am not knocking the MSI Titanium, but what proof do you have that the Titanium has better vrm and power phase control than the ROG Crossjhair VI Hero??? Perhaps it equals it, but it "Kills" it ????
 
Pieter3dnow said:
Link please anyone can claim this but without a comparison and comprehensive testing it is still a crap shoot.
Click to expand...

Two of the three leaks about great overclocks were done on the Crosshair VI. I have had both the Crosshair IV and Crosshair V boards. The power phase and vrms have always been top notch. Source Paul , the Brit, on Red Gaming Tech.
 
os2wiz said:
Two of the three leaks about great overclocks were done on the Crosshair VI. I have had both the Crosshair IV and Crosshair V boards. The power phase and vrms have always been top notch. Source Paul , the Brit, on Red Gaming Tech.
Click to expand...

That is the same person whom stumbles on recommending pre ordering Ryzen while in all of his RGT video he can't shut up on how great Ryzen is looking.

He has exactly 0 motherboards at this point and 0 Ryzen cpu as well.

Asus in general is okay. But the range of unknowns does not make it the best , just the best known.

If you looked at his build you could have seen that it is far from overclocking minded. So unless you have very valid reasons for making someone purchase something pretty expensive I would say that he did right by ordering his chosen components..
 
Everything ordered or preordered:
Ryzen 1700X
Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero X370
Gskill 2x16GB 3200mhz 15-15-15-35
Corsair H110i extreme AIO
Samsung 960 Evo 500GB
EVGA Supernova G3 850w
Fractal Design R5 blackout

I really hope the 1080ti and Vega are announced very soon. Looking forward to my first all new build in 10 years.
 
Pieter3dnow said:
That is the same person whom stumbles on recommending pre ordering Ryzen while in all of his RGT video he can't shut up on how great Ryzen is looking.

He has exactly 0 motherboards at this point and 0 Ryzen cpu as well.

Asus in general is okay. But the range of unknowns does not make it the best , just the best known.

If you looked at his build you could have seen that it is far from overclocking minded. So unless you have very valid reasons for making someone purchase something pretty expensive I would say that he did right by ordering his chosen components..
Click to expand...

The board the Turks used to get a 4.5 GHZ overclock on a 1800X was the ROG Crosshair VI. The overlclock frequency was not specifically mentioned but was extrapolated by the scores they got on the benchmarks. Paul does not have to have a motherboard to report leaks. What he bought is probably determined by his budget, not necessarily his top preference. He did NOT get a review package. He paid for the items he is getting. I think you are skating around my argument and questions about the Titanium instead of giving proof. It is always easier to attack by inuendo. You have offered zero evidence to substantiate the MSI board will improve overclocking ability over the Asus. I would be willing to say both boards are equal in overclocking once I know more about Titanium vrms and power phase control, but I see you have said nothing definitive about them So if you want to be derisive and aggressive, I can match you tit for tat. Put up or shut up as the expression goes.
By the way I do not agree with Paul on his concern regarding B350 boards not having dual SLI support. They are not high end boards and most people with dual GPU's buy high end boards not $100 motherboards. That does not negate his accuracy in reporting. I have listened to others, and he is among the best on You Tube. He maintains objectivity while not obscuring the truth.
 
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os2wiz said:
I am not knocking the MSI Titanium, but what proof do you have that the Titanium has better vrm and power phase control than the ROG Crossjhair VI Hero??? Perhaps it equals it, but it "Kills" it ????
Click to expand...

Well it effectively had the best VRM components of any board for Intels, hopefully same on AM4. I have no proof though, I am a little nervous it won't have the deadly VRM or even a backplate (because I just preordered one). But by kill I just mean beat, to me if something is 5% better than other, other is dead :D
 
SsmB_92 said:
Well it effectively had the best VRM components of any board for Intels, hopefully same on AM4. I have no proof though, I am a little nervous it won't have the deadly VRM or even a backplate (because I just preordered one). But by kill I just mean beat, to me if something is 5% better than other, other is dead :D
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I know your board is built a little sturdier than all the other boards with steel reinforcement of memory slots. It is built like a professional board. It is not available from Micro Center and is sold out at Newegg, so I won't be able to get it in a timely fashion. I am getting the Crosshair board Thursday. It will suit my needs. Good luck. I am sure all work out for you.
 
Also, here is my complete rig. All-in for $2,500.

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
MSI X370 Titanium
G.Skill 32GB DDR4 3200
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000
Corsair Hydro H110i
PowerColor RX 480 x 2
Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB
Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB
Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV
 
That fan makes me wonder why the "Tip-Magnetic Drive" tech never took off and we're still using that bulky center motor that creates such a deadzone of air below it. :\ I mean, the reports are of low airflow, but surely that could've been overcome over time... Those, and GE's Piezoelectric Fans are the two fan techs over the years that have piqued my interest, but seem to have gone dark shortly after announcement :(
EDIT: Well, this is promising for the Piezo variant at least, with Aavid having things made from the design I hope that it'll get incorporated into laptop designs:
https://www.aavid.com/product-group/pulse-jets

But since that Wraith came out I'm really curious what the performance of it is compared to the old very very similar looking model that came with the Phenom II X6s. I should see if I can find a review that compares them (though wouldn't surprise me to find none).
 
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SsmB_92 said:
Well it effectively had the best VRM components of any board for Intels, hopefully same on AM4. I have no proof though, I am a little nervous it won't have the deadly VRM or even a backplate (because I just preordered one). But by kill I just mean beat, to me if something is 5% better than other, other is dead :D
Click to expand...

I reconsidered my motherboard choice as Micro Center for the first time is showing the MSI Xpower Titanium X370. I am going for it, not because I think it will over clock higher than the ROG board, but because like you said it has those steel supports for the ram slots, as well as the pcie slots, plus it has couple of nice other features, like an extra M.2 slot. Extra quality always impresses me. I wish it was a little bit cheaper though. Take care.
 
os2wiz said:
I reconsidered my motherboard choice as Micro Center for the first time is showing the MSI Xpower Titanium X370. I am going for it, not because I think it will over clock higher than the ROG board, but because like you said it has those steel supports for the ram slots, as well as the pcie slots, plus it has couple of nice other features, like an extra M.2 slot. Extra quality always impresses me. I wish it was a little bit cheaper though. Take care.
Click to expand...

I mean it's a cool motherboard, but steel supports for the RAM slots? Mother of god! They've finally made a motherboard sturdy enough for Linus @ LTT to handle!
 
I wonder if I should light mine up like a Christmas tree? Hang some ornaments and some mistletoe. Then take image and share it to the World on FarceBook? Not sure about the RGB lighting stuff in general except I like it on my keyboards :confused:
 
i was going to buy a new ryzen cpu as my next setup, but one thing is, i am going to wait for what youtubers are going to say about the new chips. i just dont trust on amd benchmarks, benchmarking their own cpus, i just dont trust them.
 
L1amrob said:
I'm pretty sure I've seen somewhere that Fatal1ty has 16 phases as well...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't put any stock in this until we've seen what the voltage design actually looks like. It's one thing if that's 16 phases delivered via phase doubling and using quality components. Its another thing it its four true phases that have been quadrupled badly. None of that really matters if the memory power phases are shit.
 
os2wiz said:
I reconsidered my motherboard choice as Micro Center for the first time is showing the MSI Xpower Titanium X370. I am going for it, not because I think it will over clock higher than the ROG board, but because like you said it has those steel supports for the ram slots, as well as the pcie slots, plus it has couple of nice other features, like an extra M.2 slot. Extra quality always impresses me. I wish it was a little bit cheaper though. Take care.
Click to expand...
I got cold feet over the Titanium, changed to Taichi. MSI aren't advertising the nicer VRM seen on the Intel boards or even a backplate. One early shot showed no backplate. The Taichi on the other hand, has the entire suite on the VRM side, reinforced PCI and better gold connector on PCI and RAM. It lacks the U2 port and the M2 shield, but it has 2 M2 also. 20 bucks cheaper than RoGs boards, and my favorite thing so far, doesn't cime with excessive amounts if bloatware. They have an APP store and (omfg) Norton trial thats optional however.

Never had ASRock before, but it seems they are making some nice stuff these days. Would have got the Pro board but not available in Aus.
 
Dan_D said:
I wouldn't put any stock in this until we've seen what the voltage design actually looks like. It's one thing if that's 16 phases delivered via phase doubling and using quality components. Its another thing it its four true phases that have been quadrupled badly. None of that really matters if the memory power phases are shit.
Click to expand...

Man. There's some cold water dashed on my plans. I had heard AsRock had moved out of the budget tier, and spec wise I was going to go with them for the dual m.2, 10 SATA, and 5gb Ethernet, since on paper the power management seemed on par with the Crosshair.
Reading reviews of their 270 boards seem vrms and overclocking continue to be less than ideal...
Now to decide if I return one of my m.2 drives I just bought, or try to find a pcie adapter card...
 
SuicideKing said:
Man. There's some cold water dashed on my plans. I had heard AsRock had moved out of the budget tier, and spec wise I was going to go with them for the dual m.2, 10 SATA, and 5gb Ethernet, since on paper the power management seemed on par with the Crosshair.
Reading reviews of their 270 boards seem vrms and overclocking continue to be less than ideal...
Now to decide if I return one of my m.2 drives I just bought, or try to find a pcie adapter card...
Click to expand...

Essentially, ASRock is still somewhat of a budget motherboard manufacturer. To an extent, they have always offered a range of products in various price points but they always under cut the more established brands. ASRock motherboards undercuts the costs of similar alternatives from MSI, ASUS and GIGABYTE and it isn't hard to understand how this is done. Many people would like to think that it's just because ASUS and its ilk are just fucking greedy but that's not the case. Profit margins in computer hardware industry have become very lean over the last twenty years. In order to sell motherboards at lower prices than everyone else, ASRock has to cut corners. Every manufacturer does it, but not in the same way. ASRock tends to do it in the PCB and some other areas depending on the price point of a given motherboard. Everyone cuts prices differently because they don't all run their businesses the same way. Many companies outsource PCB production or other facets of manufacturing. If company A has to buy PCB's from another company but company B doesn't, then company B can charge less for the same quality PCB assuming they are doing a good job of controlling their processes internally. Ultimately, PCB, component and feature sets determine the price. Cheap ASRock motherboards are cheap because they cut corners everywhere. They source components from the lowest bidder that meet their specs. You may find a lot of variance in these lower priced boards from one batch to the next. These motherboards generally work well enough but they are somewhat of a crap shoot when you start thinking about longevity.

You can design an inexpensive solution that will still be reliable and if executed properly you shouldn't have too many issues. The trick is cutting the corners in the right areas and in the right way. Use older, or less expensive components that compete against more expensive and more well known options. You need to reduce the complexity of the design wherever possible. A thinner PCB in a simple design can work because the motherboard complexity is low. You aren't having to imbed as many trace paths in it or as many surface mount components. This just forces end users and system builders to be a little more careful during installation. If you buy components in large enough quantities, you can control your costs even more. ASRock makes a lot of low cost motherboards which will sell in far greater quantities than some $400+ ROG motherboard from ASUS. Those premium components may get the job done more elegantly and efficiently, but at the end of the day its hard to tell at the end user's level so long as everything works. ASRock cuts corners on the PCB, and while they aren't super cheap on the voltage hardware they don't build their motherboards as well as say GIGABYTE does. GIGABYTE tends to overbuild on the electrical systems and ultimately you have to pay for that.

Motherboards like the Z270X Gaming 9 are $500 because they have to be. It isn't simple greed that does this. There are things in its design that make it expensive. GIGABYTE could have gone with 4 power phases and doubled them to 8. They could have gone with 4 and quadrupled those to 16. Instead they went with an excellent 8 phase design and doubled those to 16 using quality hardware that is more than capable of phase doubling. The inclusion of an Alpine Ridge controller, PLX chip, dualBIOS ROMs, hybrid air / water block, SoundCore 3D, and triple OP-AMPs are why that monster is so expensive. That's also why it will never see a major discount. Again, profit margins are lean. When you see a design that looks to have the same or similar features on paper with a lower cost, know that the price was achieved through cost cutting. That doesn't mean that those lower priced products won't work or won't do the job just as well. Academically, the GIGABYTE motherboard might last four times longer (say 8 years) but what does that matter if you only keep that ASRock board 2 years or less?

You get what you pay for and there is a certain amount of increased risk by any budget cutting you do in your system. ASRock motherboards work and tend to make it through my reviews unscathed but I wouldn't be remiss if I didn't express some concern over some of their motherboards standing the test of time. There are plenty of other ASRock motherboards like the Z77 OC Formula and the X99-WS that I have no doubt will last for many years of service. It's a bit like comparing the AK-47 to the M4 carbine. The latter provides a nicer shooting experience as it has less recoil and greater accuracy. The platform is far more modular and more easily adapted to do more things. The AK-47 is inelegant but it works. If all you need to do is kill soldiers at 200m then it's arguably better because its reliable and far cheaper. You could also look at it with a car analogy. Compare a Mustang GT to an Aston Margin DB-9. Both are coupes. Both travel on the same roads. The latter is 5 times more expensive but its also nicer in virtually every way you can imagine. However, the Mustang GT will still take you to work and take you around town just as easily at the same speeds assuming you follow the speed limit to some extent.

No one would question that the Aston Martin is nicer. Few people can afford it compared to the Mustang GT. Even some people who have the means to buy the Aston Martin won't because the experience it provides isn't worth the cost to someone who doesn't fully appreciate it. At the other end of the spectrum, some people wouldn't be caught dead in that Mustang no matter how cool people think it is. Motherboards are the same way. Overclocking capability aside, its features, fit and finish that separate them but they all do basically the same job when they work.
 
Thanks for the in depth response Dan. I had figured since they're pricing the AsRock Fatal1ty pro right around the Asus Crosshair that they were able to cram in the extra features by leaving out support for the APUs, since it didn't look like the AsRock had any video out in the i/o panel.

Since I'm hoping to hold on to the board for a while, and I'm water-cooling, think I'll switch to the Crosshair to make sure I give the chip the best chance to shine.
The MSI has the extra m.2 but fewer SATA, while costing around an extra fifty.
Think I'll just return the mydigitalssd bpx, and if need be, pick up another nvme drive along with a pcie adapter later.
Had planned on keeping my 980ti for another year or so since I only game at 1080p, maybe I'll just earmark the saved 200$ from the drive towards that GPU.
Have to say though, GPU pricing is a pain when you have to factor in a new 100-150$ water block every time.
 
Ryzen 1800X
ASRock X370 Fatality Pro (ASUS Crosshair as a second choice, really depends on what Microcenter has on the shelf tomorrow)
Corsair H60

The rest is reused from my X99 rigs:
Corsair 750D Airflow
32GB Corsair Vengence
Fury X
Bunch o' Samsung SSDs
Couple 5TB Toshiba spinners
128GB Samsung SATA m.2 for OS
Corsair AXi1200
 
Dan_D said:
Essentially, stuff.
Click to expand...

Nice write up Dan. It sometimes makes me laugh when friends of mine buy the Asus MAXIMUS ULTRA SUFFIX edition ~400-500 dollar mobo and then run their CPU and memory at stock clocks while also not using most of the extra features. It's an absolute waste of money for them, but you know if you want the best....
 
Furious_Styles said:
Nice write up Dan. It sometimes makes me laugh when friends of mine buy the Asus MAXIMUS ULTRA SUFFIX edition ~400-500 dollar mobo and then run their CPU and memory at stock clocks while also not using most of the extra features. It's an absolute waste of money for them, but you know if you want the best....
Click to expand...

Motherboard manufacturers actually do a bunch of market research. According to ASUS, few of the ROG motherboards ever get overclocked. When people are questioned as to why they spend so much on them the answer often boils down to peace of mind (due to the perceived quality) or the possibility that the buyer may use some of those features down the line. They want the option even if using some of that capability is unlikely.
 
Dan_D said:
Motherboard manufacturers actually do a bunch of market research. According to ASUS, few of the ROG motherboards ever get overclocked. When people are questioned as to why they spend so much on them the answer often boils down to peace of mind (due to the perceived quality) or the possibility that the buyer may use some of those features down the line. They want the option even if using some of that capability is unlikely.
Click to expand...

That's a nice way for them to put it. Fools getting duped is what I'd call them. And mainly because of your point that so many boards can get the job done for less. And as you know you can still buy an excellent gigabyte board for half the price.
 
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I'm a fool then. I may not overclock but I'm overbuilding on the possibility I may eventually try.

I do like the extra mounting holes though. Sure saved me a whole lot of hassle since Corsair dragged their feet on a bracket.

PS: When would you like to race my mustang in your aston martin? I'll smoke that 540hp 200,000$ car.
 
os2wiz I don't know about you, but I plan to be in line at Microcenter at 10am when they open. Figure I'd have a better chance of nabbing a board that way. Luckily, I have 2 Microcenters and 2 Frys in the area. Hopefully one of them will have something.
 
Must be nice. The closest Frys here is 100 miles away in Oxnard, CA and the closest Microcenter is 190 miles away in Tustin, CA. This is as close to either that I've ever been. Frys doesn't show anything Ryzen related on their website. I always here about these stores but they don't cover much of the country geographically.

Curl said:
os2wiz I don't know about you, but I plan to be in line at Microcenter at 10am when they open. Figure I'd have a better chance of nabbing a board that way. Luckily, I have 2 Microcenters and 2 Frys in the area. Hopefully one of them will have something.
Click to expand...
 
mlcarson said:
Must be nice. The closest Frys here is 100 miles away in Oxnard, CA and the closest Microcenter is 190 miles away in Tustin, CA. This is as close to either that I've ever been. Frys doesn't show anything Ryzen related on their website. I always here about these stores but they don't cover much of the country geographically.
Click to expand...

To be honest Fry's isn't all that. At first they were all about amazing deals, now... not so much. It's like a more run down version of Best Buy.
 
Dan_D thank you for that writeup! I had gotten the ASRock 870FX back in the Phenom II days and quite liked it, and that was back when they were DEFINITELY still considered a true-blue 2nd tier maker (I'd definitely call them 1.5, or dare I say 1.25, now though heh). Over the years I've really been wondering how far they've actually come. Feature wise they talk the talk, and visually they look like a bad ass, but at the end of the day I wasn't sure if they could walk the walk. I had my reservations, so I'm glad to hear they aren't unfounded. As you said, they likely would last just fine, and for the typical person who will probably upgrade every 2 years they'll perform admirably.

However, as I'm someone who has ran systems literally into the ground from prolonged use, I just am not sure I wan't to take that risk. That's exactly why I opted for the Titanium. It's more than I need, and I'd rather have it been given two extra SATA ports instead of the U.2 port (or even a SAS port heh) but I still am glad it's there, just in case. Who knows, maybe there's an m.2 to u.2 adapter and I can put it to use that way... :)

Funnily enough, if I'd have to pick a loyalty, it'd be to Gigabyte... They've been the boards that I've ran and ran and ran for years, and I mean only 3! I had an Athlon MP SMP board by them that I ran for I don't know how many years as my daily driver, letting it run 24/7, and it eventually croaked of Swollen Cap Syndrome. My S939 board I rocked since the day the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ came out up until 2009 when the Athlon MP's PSU fried it (dried up caps). I ran a Gigabyte 890GPA-UD4H for awhile before I got that ASRock, but in ~2011 I had gotten a Gigabyte A75-UD4H FM1 board for review, and I've been running that ever since with an A8-3850... lol Yet, as you said, they've put most of their money into the quality side, and being as I like to run my system in a Tech Bench setup so I can see my hardware, Gigabyte just hasn't really done anything for me visually. That Titanium sure is pretty, though! :love: Which is why I made it a point to get it. lol


SsmB_92 said:
How can I tell if the ASRock Taichi has 4x4 or 8x2 phases?
Click to expand...
Best way to tell? Find a nice board shot w/o any VRM cooling.
Once upon a time you could count the Chokes, though. If it was a "16 Phase" design, it'd have 16 Caps, but if it was doubled, it'd have only 8 Chokes. I presume, if that still holds true, it'd then have only 4 Chokes for a quadrupled configuration. I don't know if they still employ a "quad-pumped' power phase anymore do they? I kinda thought those went away with the old Intel systems from back around/before the X58 days, with 24 to 32 power phase designs, where the CPU socket area was littered with capacitors two to three rows deep. lol Reviewers, no doubt just like Dan, started outting them on it and telling folk that these really aren't worth it. That these 32 phase designs aren't any better than a good-quality 10 or even 8 phase design. However, that may also have been when MOSFETs were going through a transition where the Driver was its own chip, before being integrated into the MOSFET package. I remember that being a big deal, or at least a big selling point (though, it is a big deal as far as PCB real-estate goes).

heh Hopefully Dan can clear all this up though? :oops:
 
Formula.350 said:
Dan_D thank you for that writeup! I had gotten the ASRock 870FX back in the Phenom II days and quite liked it, and that was back when they were DEFINITELY still considered a true-blue 2nd tier maker (I'd definitely call them 1.5, or dare I say 1.25, now though heh). Over the years I've really been wondering how far they've actually come. Feature wise they talk the talk, and visually they look like a bad ass, but at the end of the day I wasn't sure if they could walk the walk. I had my reservations, so I'm glad to hear they aren't unfounded. As you said, they likely would last just fine, and for the typical person who will probably upgrade every 2 years they'll perform admirably.

However, as I'm someone who has ran systems literally into the ground from prolonged use, I just am not sure I wan't to take that risk. That's exactly why I opted for the Titanium. It's more than I need, and I'd rather have it been given two extra SATA ports instead of the U.2 port (or even a SAS port heh) but I still am glad it's there, just in case. Who knows, maybe there's an m.2 to u.2 adapter and I can put it to use that way... :)

Funnily enough, if I'd have to pick a loyalty, it'd be to Gigabyte... They've been the boards that I've ran and ran and ran for years, and I mean only 3! I had an Athlon MP SMP board by them that I ran for I don't know how many years as my daily driver, letting it run 24/7, and it eventually croaked of Swollen Cap Syndrome. My S939 board I rocked since the day the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ came out up until 2009 when the Athlon MP's PSU fried it (dried up caps). I ran a Gigabyte 890GPA-UD4H for awhile before I got that ASRock, but in ~2011 I had gotten a Gigabyte A75-UD4H FM1 board for review, and I've been running that ever since with an A8-3850... lol Yet, as you said, they've put most of their money into the quality side, and being as I like to run my system in a Tech Bench setup so I can see my hardware, Gigabyte just hasn't really done anything for me visually. That Titanium sure is pretty, though! :love: Which is why I made it a point to get it. lol



Best way to tell? Find a nice board shot w/o any VRM cooling.
Once upon a time you could count the Chokes, though. If it was a "16 Phase" design, it'd have 16 Caps, but if it was doubled, it'd have only 8 Chokes. I presume, if that still holds true, it'd then have only 4 Chokes for a quadrupled configuration. I don't know if they still employ a "quad-pumped' power phase anymore do they? I kinda thought those went away with the old Intel systems from back around/before the X58 days, with 24 to 32 power phase designs, where the CPU socket area was littered with capacitors two to three rows deep. lol Reviewers, no doubt just like Dan, started outting them on it and telling folk that these really aren't worth it. That these 32 phase designs aren't any better than a good-quality 10 or even 8 phase design. However, that may also have been when MOSFETs were going through a transition where the Driver was its own chip, before being integrated into the MOSFET package. I remember that being a big deal, or at least a big selling point (though, it is a big deal as far as PCB real-estate goes).

heh Hopefully Dan can clear all this up though? :oops:
Click to expand...

Thanks. On the pics for the Taichi, it has 16 chokes in a 8 on left and 8 on top config with each choke right next to each cap.
 
SsmB_92 said:
How can I tell if the ASRock Taichi has 4x4 or 8x2 phases?
Click to expand...

Pull the heat sink and look at the components. If you don't want to buy your own you need to find a picture of the motherboard naked.

Formula.350 said:
Dan_D thank you for that writeup! I had gotten the ASRock 870FX back in the Phenom II days and quite liked it, and that was back when they were DEFINITELY still considered a true-blue 2nd tier maker (I'd definitely call them 1.5, or dare I say 1.25, now though heh). Over the years I've really been wondering how far they've actually come. Feature wise they talk the talk, and visually they look like a bad ass, but at the end of the day I wasn't sure if they could walk the walk. I had my reservations, so I'm glad to hear they aren't unfounded. As you said, they likely would last just fine, and for the typical person who will probably upgrade every 2 years they'll perform admirably.

However, as I'm someone who has ran systems literally into the ground from prolonged use, I just am not sure I wan't to take that risk. That's exactly why I opted for the Titanium. It's more than I need, and I'd rather have it been given two extra SATA ports instead of the U.2 port (or even a SAS port heh) but I still am glad it's there, just in case. Who knows, maybe there's an m.2 to u.2 adapter and I can put it to use that way... :)

Funnily enough, if I'd have to pick a loyalty, it'd be to Gigabyte... They've been the boards that I've ran and ran and ran for years, and I mean only 3! I had an Athlon MP SMP board by them that I ran for I don't know how many years as my daily driver, letting it run 24/7, and it eventually croaked of Swollen Cap Syndrome. My S939 board I rocked since the day the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ came out up until 2009 when the Athlon MP's PSU fried it (dried up caps). I ran a Gigabyte 890GPA-UD4H for awhile before I got that ASRock, but in ~2011 I had gotten a Gigabyte A75-UD4H FM1 board for review, and I've been running that ever since with an A8-3850... lol Yet, as you said, they've put most of their money into the quality side, and being as I like to run my system in a Tech Bench setup so I can see my hardware, Gigabyte just hasn't really done anything for me visually. That Titanium sure is pretty, though! :love: Which is why I made it a point to get it. lol



Best way to tell? Find a nice board shot w/o any VRM cooling.
Once upon a time you could count the Chokes, though. If it was a "16 Phase" design, it'd have 16 Caps, but if it was doubled, it'd have only 8 Chokes. I presume, if that still holds true, it'd then have only 4 Chokes for a quadrupled configuration. I don't know if they still employ a "quad-pumped' power phase anymore do they? I kinda thought those went away with the old Intel systems from back around/before the X58 days, with 24 to 32 power phase designs, where the CPU socket area was littered with capacitors two to three rows deep. lol Reviewers, no doubt just like Dan, started outting them on it and telling folk that these really aren't worth it. That these 32 phase designs aren't any better than a good-quality 10 or even 8 phase design. However, that may also have been when MOSFETs were going through a transition where the Driver was its own chip, before being integrated into the MOSFET package. I remember that being a big deal, or at least a big selling point (though, it is a big deal as far as PCB real-estate goes).

heh Hopefully Dan can clear all this up though? :oops:
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Here is a good guide on VRM's and how to tell what's what and to give you an idea of how things work in layman's terms. I'm not an electrical engineer so some stuff on the electrical side is beyond me too. It takes a fair amount of research on each board to figure out how they are built. The guide I linked does a very good job of making things somewhat easier to understand. Typically motherboard manufacturers use phase doubling to take 4 to 8 phases or 8 to 16. Quadrupling phases can be done and GIGABYTE uses the IR3599 which acts a doubler but it can also be used as a quadruple phases. They simply choose not to. It gets hard to tell what's what because sometimes things are integrated now into a single chip. When I review a motherboard I have to make sense of what I see. Typically I have to get close to the motherboard and research what components are on it and what they are in order to tell you what it is we are looking at. I could do a better job of this if I were to disassemble each motherboards MOSFET cooling or remove it. I don't do this because we want to tell you how these things perform out of the box in an unmolested state. We only take the hardware apart if we have an issue with it and rarely even then. Typically if I've got a problem I go back to the manufacturer and they send me a new motherboard if they feel it's warranted. We pass along that information to you. Other sites will often remove the MOSFET cooling so sometimes I google pictures of those when I can find them to help me discern what's under there.

The chokes generally indicate how many complete phases you have. Whether or not they were doubled or quadrupled is another matter entirely. It usually takes removal of the cooling hardware to find that out. With mainstream motherboards that have an iGPU, you may have to subtract out phases for the iGPU and anything else like a PLX chip. So even though there are 23 chokes on the GIGABYTE Z270X Gaming 9, there are only 16 phases that go to the CPU. The rest are split between the PLX chip and the VCCIO and VCCSA. GIGABYTE employed phase doubling on this one so if you look at it it's a true 8 phase design that's doubled for the CPU. There is nothing wrong with doubling but it has to be done right like a lot of things. Phase doubling is common place on the memory subsystem as well. Many times this doesn't get the same level of quality in it that the CPU VRM's have. You have to watch out for that as well. Vertical driver IC's, packaged driver IC's and other PWM / driver control schemes like DrMOS and what not complicate matters even further.

So when I bag on a really low end motherboard it's often because it's got drivers that are cheap, it may have quadrupled power phases and inductors that hold jack shit for current. Of course if they are so cheap as to be totally unmarked, then I've got no idea what I'm looking at much of the time. This is why motherboards like the Z68 Pro got slammed. (That and wavy, undercooked bacon-esque PCB's.)

In short, it's simple. A quality 8 phase design beats a shitty 32 phase design any day of the week. Usually you are good to go on most GIGABYTE, MSI or ASUS motherboards. EVGA does well on many of their motherboards as well but they tend to have quirks in other areas. EVGA doesn't sample motherboards to us so I rarely see them. ASRock is hit and miss but the general rule I go by is this: Cheap ASRock = No go, expensive ASRock = fine. Generally in the review process that logic has held up. I rarely think the better ASRock boards are the equal of its competitors but often times the places they cut corners are fine so long as you know what's being cut and why. Then you can make an informed decision about if that board is for you or not. They are not the only ones guilty of that, really cheap MSI motherboards or GIGABYTE's can be that way too. ASUS rarely does that unless you get into the boards that are cheaper than the ones we usually review.

Hope that helps.
 
this is my build so far. already ordered and coming (except for the 1800X which is still preorder). all that's left is the motherboard and the GPU:

AMD Ryzen 1800X
Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 CPU cooler
motherboard TBD (looking strongly at ASRock Taichi)
16 GB Patriot Viper 4 DDR4 (this may go up to 32 GB because I do a lot of 4K video editing)
Corsair 760T white case
Samsung 250 GB 960 Evo NVMe M.2 SSD
EVGA SuperNOVA 850G2 850W PSU
Windows 10 Home
graphics card TBD

originally, I was leaning toward the Gigabyte Gaming 5 board. but then people started to get me thinking of the ASRock Taichi... so I need help! I still have no MB!

other parts, I will scavenge from other systems I have such as HDDs, BluRay burner, etc.
 
Dan_D I tip my hat to you, fine sir! lol

But seriously, many kudos to you! The iGPU and Memory Controller were things I was aware of having phases right next to the CPU's, being that's what they're packaged on; however, I was not aware that the PLX had one up there, too. Quite informative! The whole MOSFEET aspect was also something I knew of, but I personally think too few end users are aware of it, and end up buying something thinking they're getting a much better product than they actually are.
 
onlysublime said:
originally, I was leaning toward the Gigabyte Gaming 5 board. but then people started to get me thinking of the ASRock Taichi... so I need help! I still have no MB
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Here's what I'd do... List off for us what aspects of the Gigabyte Gaming 5 you like and perhaps maybe don't like or wish were different. Then list off what it is about the Taichi that has you considering it instead.

Also mentioning your intentions for the system will help, for instance I noticed you mentioned video editing.
 
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