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Workstation build, some gaming. Almost 100% decided that I'm going with the 3950X rather than Threadripper, although I'm still having brief debates on that. VMs, video editing, normal office-work stuff, and some podcast recording.
Need:
6x rear USB (key/mouse/cam/headset/mic/USB backup drive)
3x NVMe (Boot/VMs/Video)
2-4x SATA (Video dump, working space for a couple of things, probably in RAID1 or 5).
2.5-5-10G networking (NAS1 has 1G, but NAS2 has 10G, and I have 10G switching, although I'm not doing a ton of throughput so 2.5/5 is good enough).
Good audio DAC - I have a good 2.1 system I use when I'm not using the headset.
Wireless + Wired networking, wired networking I'd prefer to have 2.5/5/10G, but it's not technically ~required~.
Will have 64G of RAM, highly clocked if possible (I'm trying to figure out if this is going to play nice or not with the IMC, or if this is going to be what pushes me to TR).
May go AIO, may go hardline WC (why not?), haven't decided. GPU is a 5700XT that I already have.
I DO like shields on the motherboards - various reasons, but I do. Especially rear IO shields that I don't have to fuck with.
Here's what I've narrowed down to
MSI x570 Prestige Creation - 4x NVMe is nice, although it's an add-in card for the second 2. 10G is also nice built-in, rather than an add-on card. Expensive though, and I don't know how much effort MSI puts into their creation line vs the others. Bad - EATX, which becomes a pain in the ass to fit.
MSI x570 Meg Ace - 3x NVMe, enough rear USB, 2.5G LAN.
Skipped - Unify and Tomahawk, both look a bit cheaper but less on the wired networking, and worse quality on the DAC.
Asus - None have 3x M2 built-in, which sucks. I would have to copy the Prestige creation and buy an add-in card (several M2 -> PCIE slot adapters exist), and trust that it works well. Doesn't add a ton of cost, but mildly annoying.
Crosshair VIII Formula - Loaded, WC for the VRMs, but expensive
Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi - See Formula, minus the water cooling cost. Still need the add-in card though.
Strix Gaming E - See above, more affordable still.
Gigabyte - I don't buy Gigabyte for AMD boards. (And before anyone questions - I buy them for Intel all the time, but I've had excruciatingly bad luck with them and AMD for over 18 years).
ASRock- Barely enough USB on any of them, and no advanced networking except on the Aqua (unless I missed something), and often no shielding - given that I don't have a ton of experience with ASrock outside of the server market, I tend to set these aside for this project.
Generally I'm leaning towards one of the MSI boards, with Asus as a close second (and just pick up an M2 adapter and put scratch space on it, or add some SATA SSDs in RAID). Anyone have any thoughts?
Need:
6x rear USB (key/mouse/cam/headset/mic/USB backup drive)
3x NVMe (Boot/VMs/Video)
2-4x SATA (Video dump, working space for a couple of things, probably in RAID1 or 5).
2.5-5-10G networking (NAS1 has 1G, but NAS2 has 10G, and I have 10G switching, although I'm not doing a ton of throughput so 2.5/5 is good enough).
Good audio DAC - I have a good 2.1 system I use when I'm not using the headset.
Wireless + Wired networking, wired networking I'd prefer to have 2.5/5/10G, but it's not technically ~required~.
Will have 64G of RAM, highly clocked if possible (I'm trying to figure out if this is going to play nice or not with the IMC, or if this is going to be what pushes me to TR).
May go AIO, may go hardline WC (why not?), haven't decided. GPU is a 5700XT that I already have.
I DO like shields on the motherboards - various reasons, but I do. Especially rear IO shields that I don't have to fuck with.
Here's what I've narrowed down to
MSI x570 Prestige Creation - 4x NVMe is nice, although it's an add-in card for the second 2. 10G is also nice built-in, rather than an add-on card. Expensive though, and I don't know how much effort MSI puts into their creation line vs the others. Bad - EATX, which becomes a pain in the ass to fit.
MSI x570 Meg Ace - 3x NVMe, enough rear USB, 2.5G LAN.
Skipped - Unify and Tomahawk, both look a bit cheaper but less on the wired networking, and worse quality on the DAC.
Asus - None have 3x M2 built-in, which sucks. I would have to copy the Prestige creation and buy an add-in card (several M2 -> PCIE slot adapters exist), and trust that it works well. Doesn't add a ton of cost, but mildly annoying.
Crosshair VIII Formula - Loaded, WC for the VRMs, but expensive
Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi - See Formula, minus the water cooling cost. Still need the add-in card though.
Strix Gaming E - See above, more affordable still.
Gigabyte - I don't buy Gigabyte for AMD boards. (And before anyone questions - I buy them for Intel all the time, but I've had excruciatingly bad luck with them and AMD for over 18 years).
ASRock- Barely enough USB on any of them, and no advanced networking except on the Aqua (unless I missed something), and often no shielding - given that I don't have a ton of experience with ASrock outside of the server market, I tend to set these aside for this project.
Generally I'm leaning towards one of the MSI boards, with Asus as a close second (and just pick up an M2 adapter and put scratch space on it, or add some SATA SSDs in RAID). Anyone have any thoughts?
