Hardware Unboxed Giant B650 Roundup

For my cheap-arse self? The Gigabyte DS3H seems juuuuuust right.
 
HUB always seems to go out of their way. The amount of dickin around all that must've taken is mind boggling to me. I couldn't do it and wouldn't want to, it'd sap the life right out of me. Still nowhere close to even considering an AM5 setup myself though.
 
I don't have an AMD system nor am I planning on 'switching' or building a new PC - but, I have an interest in stuff like this.

Does anyone want to comment on how well the Gigabyte boards did? Jeez, it figures with all the negative publicity Gigabyte has had lately - cracked pcbs with gpus and really bad CS regarding RMAs - of course, they'd have some decent B650 boards, right?

Well, I guess it takes more than just some youtuber benchmarks - even if it's HUBs - one needs real world reviews and feedback from ppl who bought and used the boards, yes?
 
HUB liked a few gigabyte boards; of course, their ratings have nothing to do with customer service or return difficulty. If anyhting, they dumped on some of the lower end Asus boards.
 
pitingres said:
HUB liked a few gigabyte boards; of course, their ratings have nothing to do with customer service or return difficulty. If anyhting, they dumped on some of the lower end Asus boards.
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B650 Motherboard Roundup - Techspot also craps on lower end Asus boards:
Then, we have the Asus Prime series, which includes the Prime B650M-A WiFi, Prime B650-Plus, and Prime B650M-A WiFi II. Unfortunately, we must recommend avoiding these. Like the ultra-affordable Gigabyte B650M K, the Asus Prime boards all use discrete MOSFETs, resulting in poor VRM thermals.
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It looks like Asus may be past its prime.
 
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Techspot is just Hardware Unboxed's normal website isn't it? Either way, it feels like ASUS's lower end stuff is garbage, but the mid to high range stuff is still solid. If I had to go low-end, I'd choose ASRock. That's where they cut their teeth. As much as I like Gigabtye hardware, I despise their software and support. I still consider them the "if no other OEM's have something viable" option.
 
Domingo said:
Techspot is just Hardware Unboxed's normal website isn't it? Either way, it feels like ASUS's lower end stuff is garbage, but the mid to high range stuff is still solid. If I had to go low-end, I'd choose ASRock. That's where they cut their teeth. As much as I like Gigabtye hardware, I despise their software and support. I still consider them the "if no other OEM's have something viable" option.
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Yeah, I'd be tempted with the Gigabyte boards that was at the top of their charts/benchmarks - the low temps were intriguing - but, I'd be reluctant to pick one because of Gigabyte's RMA controversies and the rep of their poor CS. I'd want to look at reviews and how many have been returned/RMA'ed.... I also would be really hesitant to choose one early on in the release - yeah, if they've been out for a while and there's few issues - that would make it easier.
ASRock is probably more 'safe' - for the lower end stuff - and ASUS is good for mid or high end - but, are extremely expensive. MSI - they seem expensive too - although, not as expensive as ASUS? Also, MSI usually has good AMD motherboards but in the HUB's video - they seemed kind of mediocre (although, not bad) this time?
 
I ended up with the Aorus Elite AX after looking at that info. It was cheaper than the MSI boards and got it open box on Amazon for something like $140. Good enough for a 7700x. I'll probably upgrade to a different motherboard when Zen5 comes out anyway.
 
I went with the ASUS B650E-F. It sounded like the best high'ish end 650 option on paper and, apparently, it is. I normally go with MSI, but they didn't have any 650E options. I wanted the option for PCIE 5 down the line just in case it actually matters at some point. Plus, I knew it had a good Bluetooth radio. That's actually shockingly important if you use gamepads.
 
kirbyrj said:
I ended up with the Aorus Elite AX after looking at that info. It was cheaper than the MSI boards and got it open box on Amazon for something like $140. Good enough for a 7700x. I'll probably upgrade to a different motherboard when Zen5 comes out anyway.
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I just bought a Best Buy combo with this Aorus Elite AX board and it says I payed $154.99 new and $134.99 for the 7600x new with Starfield for free, so I guess Hardware Unboxed will need to adjust pricing pre frame!

edit, it is up and running https://valid.x86.fr/xjcx1b with
  • Wraith Prism Cooler
Here is the build with that Wraith Prism Cooler installed on the 7600x, cpu is still in 105w form and does not run 95c gaming! as what I bought it for was gaming and nice to know you don't need a 360 AIO. Afterburner was turned on at 9:00min mark to show clocks.
 
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Interesting that the second round of these boards are mostly trash. It'll be funny if the first batch of B650E boards (and lower-tier X670E) end up carrying most people through the end of the AM5 era.
 
Domingo said:
Interesting that the second round of these boards are mostly trash. It'll be funny if the first batch of B650E boards (and lower-tier X670E) end up carrying most people through the end of the AM5 era.
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If you bought a solid one to start I don't see why not at this rate.

I plan to grab Zen5 and whatever comes after on AM5 (if anything), I see no reason why my Taichi won't be just fine.
 
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^^ did they post the hard copy on their other site yet? I'm not going to watch a video but I'll look through the web pages.
 
kirbyrj said:
^^ did they post the hard copy on their other site yet? I'm not going to watch a video but I'll look through the web pages.
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Not yet, just the older version of the B650 round up, this is an update with 15 new boards.
Should be soon I would think with it being released 5hrs ago, but they are down under. ;)
 
I've got two Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX. I think they are great boards.
 
THUMPer said:
I've got two Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX. I think they are great boards.
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Yeah the version 2 of that board is at the top of the charts for thermals and it only costs $185.
If I decide to upgrade to the 7800X3D, that is the board that I will get.
 
THUMPer said:
I've got two Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX. I think they are great boards.
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The only real difference between revisions is the Wifi module. I had both the mATX and ATX versions and they were both solid.

I have the MSI Mortar board now. It's also a solid board.
 
The opinions on the boards are subjective based on specs. The compilations of specs is useful but I would prefer seeing how they compare performance wise. The only data I saw beyond specs was VRM thermals.
 
I would not import an Aussie Asus Prime B650M-A AX6-CSM but it would also have very cheap audio for Asus to save money?
 
owcraftsman said:
The opinions on the boards are subjective based on specs. The compilations of specs is useful but I would prefer seeing how they compare performance wise. The only data I saw beyond specs was VRM thermals.
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That's because VRM thermals is one of the limiting factors in the new world of max boost algorithms instead of manual overclocking. All things being equal, there likely isn't a lot to compare performance wise as long as the CPU is the same between tests as the silicon lottery is more of a factor than the motherboard in most cases.
 
owcraftsman said:
The opinions on the boards are subjective based on specs. The compilations of specs is useful but I would prefer seeing how they compare performance wise. The only data I saw beyond specs was VRM thermals.
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As mentioned above, a motherboard SHOULDN'T affect performance. if performance is doing way better on one board versus all others, it's most likely that the board is doing something shady or out-of-spec, possibly creating instability.

Overclocking is a feature that is mostly moot nowadays, gone are the days of taking a 2.6Ghz chip up to 4.5Ghz and nearly doubling your performance. Now we have a 5.5Ghz chip that can boost to over 5.8Ghz, and we manually overclock it to 5.3Ghz and wonder howTF the in-built turbo gets so high.

Reliability, features, and compatibility. That's what you want from a board: Performance isn't on the list. as long as the chip and RAM can perform how they should.
 
I ordered the below because it was what I could get quickly on prime day and it works fine. I got it and a 7900x3d to replace the 14700k/z790 msi itx board due to the abomination that is 13th/14th gen intel.

ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-I GAMING WIFI AM5 Mini-ITX Motherboard​

 
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