What are some good value x670e motherboards, or boards with good features in general?

[ND40oz]

I'm a bit tempted by the Asus PROART X670E-CREATOR. It costs a small chunk more, while it generally has the same feature set as the Asus ROG Strix X670E-A / X670E-F, but with some trades.

The advantages it has over the Asus ROG Strix X670E-A are:

- two rear USB 4.0 ports
- a second full PCIe 5.0 x16 expansion slot, instead of the X670E-A's PCIe 3.0 x1 slot
- a 10G ethernet port in addition to the 2.5G ethernet port

The disadvantages it has are:

- it doesn't have a Thunderbolt 4 header, while the X670E-A does
- its PCIe 4.0x16 expansion slot shares bandwidth with one of the m.2 slots, which effectively means a person needs to choose between having one less usable PCIe expansion slot, or one less m.2 slot: "This M.2 (Key M) PCIe 4.0 x4 Slot shares bandwidth with the PCIe 4.0 x16 Card Slot. By default, the BIOS automatically activates the M.2 (Key M) PCIe 4.0 x4 Slot."


I wonder if the USB 4.0 ports mean it doesn't need a Thunderbolt 4 header. From what I think I've understood, the difference between USB 4.0 and Thunderbolt 4.0 is the certification process of the implementation, and so USB 4 could be implemented in an inferior manner... or it might not be.

If the ProArt's USB 4 ports have solid implementation, then the Thunderbolt 4 header of the X670E-A shouldn't be needed. And then the additional cost for the ProArt would be around the cost of Asus' Thunderbolt 4 add-in card. On the other hand, for around the price of the difference between the mobos, a Thunderbolt 4 add-in card can be bought without sacrificing a PCIe expansion or m.2 slot. But then there's more stuff going on in the case, perhaps more stuff creating heat and obstructing airflow, and there still won't be the 10G ethernet port.

I'd been waiting for this board to come in stock for a few months now and it looks like Asus has finally released another batch. Ordered one from Amazon last week and it showed up Tuesday and I got an alert that B&H just got some in stock too. Date of production on the box is Dec, so it's definitely not the initial batch that was shipped at launch. I specifically wanted this board because I plan on using the DP IN and using the USB-C on my monitor as a kvm with it as well as having 10GbE onboard so I didn't need another card.

 

[Delicieuxz]

I'd been waiting for this board to come in stock for a few months now and it looks like Asus has finally released another batch. Ordered one from Amazon last week and it showed up Tuesday and I got an alert that B&H just got some in stock too. Date of production on the box is Dec, so it's definitely not the initial batch that was shipped at launch. I specifically wanted this board because I plan on using the DP IN and using the USB-C on my monitor as a kvm with it as well as having 10GbE onboard so I didn't need another card.

Nice. It looks like a great board with features to last long into the future. If it came in a whitish or white and blackish colour theme, to match my white PC case, I'd probably have gotten one, too.

 

[Rev. Night]

Looks solid, to me.

The WD SN850X 2TB is currently $170 on WD's site:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-black-sn850x-nvme-ssd

bought! Man I cant wait until my rig comes together. This is a top drive, and its not even going to be my primary drive. Nope! Thats for a PCIe 5 nvme, which will be released probably when AM6 is out

on backorder until feb 3 2023. Which is fine, the zen 4 x3d chips still wont be out by then

 

[Delicieuxz]

A roundup of X670/E motherboards:



The only performance benchmark between them is for thermals. Basically, they should all be good.

Conspicuously, he didn't include an X670E ProArt in his roundup, despite it seeming to be a popular board. Maybe he couldn't find one available in Australia.

 

[OFaceSIG]

As a borderline fanboi of AMD (I use Intel too), I think I can fairly say, finding a good value 670E boards is going to be tough.

 

[chameleoneel]

big price drop on this ASRock X670E PRO RS

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-X670E...mzn1.fos.c3015c4a-46bb-44b9-81a4-dc28e6d374b3

 

[Delicieuxz]

Also for other ASRock boards.The Taichi is 23% off.

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-X670E-Support-Processors-Motherboard/dp/B0BGPF7K2P/

 

[Rev. Night]

holy shit this board is heavy. Here I am thinking that it will be lightweight and flimsy like all the other mobos i have had. I haven't yet turn it on (still need to go buy the cpu), but fuck this thing is worth every dollar of the OPEN BOX $277 normally $325

ASUS TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI

For those of you scared off by open box, it came with a sata cable, antenna, a screw/plug of some kind, static bag, manual and surrounded by foam. I also have it in writing from Asus techsupport that the standard 3 year wtty starts from when I bought the mobo.

 

[Delicieuxz]

holy shit this board is heavy. Here I am thinking that it will be lightweight and flimsy like all the other mobos i have had. I haven't yet turn it on (still need to go buy the cpu), but fuck this thing is worth every dollar of the OPEN BOX $277 normally $325

ASUS TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI

For those of you scared off by open box, it came with a sata cable, antenna, a screw/plug of some kind, static bag, manual and surrounded by foam. I also have it in writing from Asus techsupport that the standard 3 year wtty starts from when I bought the mobo.

I said the same thing of my Asus X670E-A. It's heavy! Must be all the heatsinks motherboards come with these days.

 

[Rev. Night]

I could fucking kill a man with this.

Just tempt me I swear

 

[Randall Stephens]

As a borderline fanboi of AMD (I use Intel too), I think I can fairly say, finding a good value 670E boards is going to be tough.

Drew, I agree with you. But people buy up the 13900k and 13900ks because they’re top of intels line. Same thing with x670e. No value, except for e-peen. Is e-labia a thing? I just want to be inclusive here.

 

[OFaceSIG]

Drew, I agree with you. But people buy up the 13900k and 13900ks because they’re top of intels line. Same thing with x670e. No value, except for e-peen. Is e-labia a thing? I just want to be inclusive here.

Oh I get it. But the original ask was a "value" board.

 

[sk3tch]

Posting this again - this is why AM5 is so expensive - and why it's so heavy.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/why-amds-ryzen-7000-and-motherboards-cost-so-damn-much

Drew, I agree with you. But people buy up the 13900k and 13900ks because they’re top of intels line. Same thing with x670e. No value, except for e-peen. Is e-labia a thing? I just want to be inclusive here.

Different definitions of value than you, perhaps? Not everyone is on a budget.

 

[philb2]

Different definitions of value than you, perhaps? Not everyone is on a budget.

I would rather say that everyone has some kind of budget, but that specific amounts can vary a lot.

 

[mvmiller12]

I have the Asus ROG Strix x670e-A mainboard and a Ryzen 7950X CPU (and the required DDR5 RAM, of course). I got them during Black Friday as a Christmas present to myself to replace my x370 Crosshair VI Extreme and Ryzen 5950X setup. I do a LOT of video transcoding on my machine which takes up all of the CPU power I can throw at it (especially now that I am doing occasional 4K and HDR encodes) and AM4 has served me very well. I've had the 1700 (overclocked to all-core 3.8GHz), 2700X, 3900X, 3950X, and 5950X processors (stock) on the Crosshair VI Extreme board that I got "refurbished" for $180 - I've definitely gotten my money back out of it . If the prices had not dropped so much on the AM5 CPUs at the time, I would have been very content with this setup - initial AM5 prices were definitely hard "nope" territory.

The x670e-A mainboard was the least expensive Asus x670e board at the time. I am one of those unicorn buyers that buys the base platform once and rides it out a looooong time, upgrading processor and RAM from time to time as those upgrades become more affordable. I only buy Asus for my personal rigs because in the past I have found them to be the most reliable boards, and Asus has traditionally been very good with firmware updates supporting newer processors on their older AMD boards so long as the new chip still fits in the old socket (I have been a mostly AMD user since the 5x86-133P75 and Super 7 K6 days). Since I will have this board a very long time, I wanted one with a fair bit of PCIe 4 and 5 support, and enough slots to run my add-in cards (GPU, SoundBlaster AE5-Plus, and 10G NIC). This one met my requirements. There are a few "nice to haves" I am missing (extra USB3 header for front panel because my case has 4 USB3 ports, Thunderbolt support), but this gets the job done. It was also $400, and while I balk at that, again, I will be running this thing for quite some time. Looked at in that light, it's not terrible.

The Ryzen 7950X had that big $200 price drop, and the DDR5 RAM had come down to reasonable pricing. I had considered the $700 asking price for the 7950X CPU to be reasonable for what it is, but the mainboard cost made it untenable. That $200 price drop on the chip made up for the $200 price increase over what I consider to be reasonable for a good mainboard. The 7950X is also not a downgrade to my existing 5950X, even when running the chip in 105W Eco Mode. This tipped me over from "nope" to "buy." On top of this, I was running 2 NVMe m.2 drives on the Crosshair VI Extreme board (1TB for OS and apps, 2TB for storage and video processing - both PCIe 3.0 drives). The downside of doing that was that my 6800XT video card was capped to 8x PCIe 3.0 lanes. There are games I play where that handicap can be felt (4K monitor). The full PCIe 5.0 x16 lanes available to it now (running at PCIe 4.0 speed, of course) means I also indirectly upgraded my video card while not having to sacrifice any of my NVME storage - as a matter of fact, I added another NVME drive to the rig, this one PCIe 4.0 to take advantage of any future software that can utilize DirectStorage. I had also looked at getting a newer x570 mainboard for the 5950X to help with this, but decent x570 boards of roughly equal quality to my Crosshair VI Extreme are EXPENSIVE. Dropping that kind of money onto x570 just for PCIe 4.0 and a few more PCIe lanes over the Crosshair seemed... dumb.

All-in-all, I spent about a grand on this, but the way I handle my PC upgrades means that I will be set up for a good long time before I have to worry about this again. I've never spent quite so much to make a platform jump like this before (parts are usually cheaper and I have also been able to migrate the RAM over on occasion), but even so, I feel like I am going to get my money's worth out of it over the next few years. I paid more at the start, but this is "Value" to me.

Edit: corrected typos.

 

[mvmiller12]

Side note: Asus, you have the ROG Strix x670e-A, x670e-E, x670e-F, and x670e-I mainboards that all cost different amounts of money... and finding a clear reference as to exactly what is different between some of them is a pain in the ass. Fuck you.

 

[philb2]

Side note: Asus, you have the ROG Strix x670e-A, x670e-E, x670e-F, and x670e-I mainboards that all cost different amounts of money... and finding a clear reference as to exactly what is different between some of them is a pain in the ass. Fuck you.

Newegg has a great comparison tool. It's really not a big deal to compare these different models.

 

[PilotKD]

I picked up an ROG Strix x670e-A last week from Micro Center, but I think I may return it. I haven't opened it yet. I have been reading more and more reviews complaining about the Intel NIC. I don't plan on using the WiFi and need a reliable NIC.

 

[sk3tch]

I picked up an ROG Strix x670e-A last week from Micro Center, but I think I may return it. I haven't opened it yet. I have been reading more and more reviews complaining about the Intel NIC. I don't plan on using the WiFi and need a reliable NIC.

I can’t tell what specific model of 2.5Gb Intel NIC that board has (or what the Gene has, for that matter, from the specs on ASUS' site) but my Gene has the same one it seems. I haven’t had a single issue. From google it looks like a hardware issue from like 2 years ago that has been long solved with newer boards?

Intel I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet

 

[jerry8169]

They just may being that FiOS and Google fiber are offering 1 gig Ethernet

In some areas, AT&T is offering up to 5 Gigabit internet, so faster speeds will be available, just depends on area and adoption rates, I'm sure.

 

[PilotKD]

I can’t tell what specific model of 2.5Gb Intel NIC that board has (or what the Gene has, for that matter, from the specs on ASUS' site) but my Gene has the same one it seems. I haven’t had a single issue. From google it looks like a hardware issue from like 2 years ago that has been long solved with newer boards?

Intel I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet

View attachment 545119

Strange because a lot of these reviews are recent.

 

[sk3tch]

Strange because a lot of these reviews are recent.

If I learned anything from my X670E Taichi..the reviews from users have to be taken with a grain of salt. Lots of worrisome stuff about the Taichi but it is a fantastic board.

 

[pitingres]

From what I've read of more recent i225-V complaints, they seem mostly to happen when connected to a 2.5Gb or better switch/router (which makes me wonder if it's the Intel NIC actually at fault). If you're running a traditional 1gbit LAN, I suspect you'll be OK.

FWIW I've had no problems with an i225-V in an Asus Rig Strix B550-F for the last couple years now. My LAN is almost entirely 1gbit.

 

[Delicieuxz]

Strange because a lot of these reviews are recent.

How recent? Can you link to some examples?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/kppyoi/psa_asus_motherboards_with_intel_i225v_25gb_nic/

December 2021:

The issue is hardware related and Intel have made 3 hardware revisions to the I225-V. The newest B3 stepping is problem free however some retailers may have old inventory. As recently as December, ASUS shipped out an affected motherboard to me with the B2 stepping of the Intel I225-V.

How to do I check if my motherboard is affected

If you've installed the motherboard, you can find the Intel I225-V revision in device manager. The physical silicon on my board has the reference SLNJY aka B2. The NIC in device manager with a number in brackets appears to correspond with the revision. Thanks /u/shm0_88

If you're looking at getting one of these motherboards in the table at the bottom or have one already but haven't installed it yet, look out for the I225-V chip near the NIC. The easiest way to physically check on an ASUS boards is:

1. Remove the heatsink to the left of the CPU socket. This is partly covered by the I/O shield which you can remove for better access but it can be fiddly putting it back on
2. Undo these two screws on the back of the board, making sure you are gripping the heatsink with your free hand in order to prevent it from falling out. This should reveal the I225-V chip albeit at an awkward angle. You can easily take a photo with your phones camera with the flash light on and visibly see the chip reference or alternatively, remove the I/O shield
3. Cross reference the reference on the chip with the table below

Chip Reference	Stepping	Affected
SLN9D or SLN9C	B1	Yes
SLNJX or SLNJY	B2	Yes
SLNMH or SLMNG	B3	No

If this information is correct, then boards made towards the end of 2022 should probably not be affected by it.


Something related: https://community.intel.com/t5/Ethernet-Products/Intel-I225-V-connection-issues/m-p/1322195

 

[PilotKD]

How recent? Can you link to some examples?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/kppyoi/psa_asus_motherboards_with_intel_i225v_25gb_nic/

December 2021:




If this information is correct, then boards made towards the end of 2022 should probably not be affected by it.

Micro Center reviews:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/651471/X670E-E_ROG_Strix_Gaming_WiFi_AMD_AM5_ATX_Motherboard

They seem recent, however, I can't tell when they actually bought the board or when the board was manufactured so they could very well have purchased a board without the update. I will look at mine and see if I can find a manufacture date on the box. I think I will be returning mine anyway because I decided to go with an all black theme instead of white. I went into Micro Center last week wanting to just walk around and browse for a while. I was confronted by a very motivated employee and I wound up allowing him to kind of rush me through some decisions I wasn't completely ready for ( like a 7950x 🙄 ) so I want to return this stuff before the 14-day limit.

 

[sk3tch]

Micro Center reviews:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/651471/X670E-E_ROG_Strix_Gaming_WiFi_AMD_AM5_ATX_Motherboard

They seem recent, however, I can't tell when they actually bought the board or when the board was manufactured so they could very well have purchased a board without the update. I will look at mine and see if I can find a manufacture date on the box. I think I will be returning mine anyway because I decided to go with an all black theme instead of white. I went into Micro Center last week wanting to just walk around and browse for a while. I was confronted by a very motivated employee and I wound up allowing him to kind of rush me through some decisions I wasn't completely ready for ( like a 7950x 🙄 ) so I want to return this stuff before the 14-day limit.

Concerning, for sure.

The article mentioned in one of the reviews - https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...igabit-ethernet-controllers-up-to-2-5gbe.html - basically outlines the fix. Either you will have a BIOS from the manufacturer of the mobo that will update the NVM or there will be a tool within the latest NIC drivers.

I'd still rather have Intel than any other brand for a NIC. Mine have worked flawlessly.

 

[Delicieuxz]

Look at this thread from a week ago:

Raptor Lake Motherboards Allegedly Hit with Ethernet Controller Flaw: Intel I226-V 2.5GbE Has a Connection Drop Issue, No Fix Currently

"The I225-V was plagued by many network connection problems that led to connectivity loss and performance deterioration. The issues could only be fixed at the hardware level, so Intel eventually released the I225-V2 controller."

If it's a hardware-level issue that can't be fixed with a software update, and if the Asus AM5 motherboards don't have the 1225-V2 controller, there could be a lot of RMAs. I'll be wanting to RMA my November-manufactured Asus X670E-A motherboard if it has this issue / doesn't have the V2 controller.

 

[Rev. Night]

Funny enough the open box Asus tuf I just got has a loose wifi connection antenna so I'm going to rma it.

May as well investigate this too

 

[sk3tch]

You can buy the ASRock Taichi - uses Killer Ethernet (just rebranded Intel). lol.

I haven't been getting any disconnect issues (I have gig Ethernet, not full 2.5Gb, yet). Remember - they also revised the I225-V - this has been going on for two years so even if you have one onboard it doesn't mean it is faulty.

 

[Rev. Night]

I haven't read the last page or so about this issue.

Any problems with this intel part and just using WiFi?

 

[Delicieuxz]

I contacted Asus support to ask about this issue, and I was told they haven't had any reports of the issue with the X670E-A motherboard.

And I see that Asus updated their LAN drivers for the X670E-A on December 20, 2022: https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-x670e-a-gaming-wifi-model/helpdesk_download/

I haven't been getting any disconnect issues (I have gig Ethernet, not full 2.5Gb, yet). Remember - they also revised the I225-V - this has been going on for two years so even if you have one onboard it doesn't mean it is faulty.

Is there a way you can test 2.5Gb on your system, maybe transferring files from one PC to another?

 

[sk3tch]

I contacted Asus support to ask about this issue, and I was told they haven't had any reports of the issue with the X670E-A motherboard.

And I see that Asus updated their LAN drivers for the X670E-A on December 20, 2022: https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-x670e-a-gaming-wifi-model/helpdesk_download/


Is there a way you can test 2.5Gb on your system, maybe transferring files from one PC to another?

Not now - hopefully soon. I’m not sure if you’ve looked recently - but network gear (such as switches) over 1Gb in speed are insanely expensive. The QNAP QSW-M2116P-2T2S-US is what I have my eye on but it’s $800! My ISP > Firewall > WiFi is all 2.5Gb but my main switch is a 48 port Cisco 1Gb PoE.

 

[Delicieuxz]

When the Asus X670E-A ProArt says its two PCIe 5.0 expansion slots support either x16 or x8/x8, does that mean both can do x16 simultaneously, or that using both will necessarily force both to be in x8/x8 mode? It would suck if installing a PCIe 1 x1 card in the 2nd PCIe 5.0 slot would force the first PCIe 5.0 slot to be at x8.

"2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (support x16 or x8/x8 modes)"

"2x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (supporting Video Cards in x16 or x8/x8 modes)"

I'm wondering if I should just return the X670E-A to get a ProArt. The price difference between them is the price of a Thunderbolt 4 card, which I plan to get for the X670E-A anyway. But the ProArt also has USB4, 10GE, and a fast charging USB port. But its 2nd and 3rd expansion slots split bandwidth with other stuff, which sucks, too. I plan to use a sound card. That sounds like it'd cost me either a PCIe m.2 slot, or half the bandwidth of the graphics PCIe 5.0 slot. I also don't like the ProArt's brownness and the blurry, semi-translucent shroud over the rear ports. The X670E-A looks nicer, IMO.

 

[PilotKD]

Well I guess this makes the decision to wait for the new AM5 3D CPU's to hit the shelves easier. I have a WiFi 6 mesh system in the house, but most of my rooms are hardwired so I would rather not have issues with a NIC

 

[ND40oz]

The ProArt has a i225 network card for the 2.5GbE, I'm using the Marvell 10GbE card though so haven't had any issues with it.

 

[sk3tch]

Well I guess this makes the decision to wait for the new AM5 3D CPU's to hit the shelves easier. I have a WiFi 6 mesh system in the house, but most of my rooms are hardwired so I would rather not have issues with a NIC

Unless you have a 2.5Gb or faster Ethernet network I would not worry about it at all. That’s what most detailed reports associate issues with. I play Fortnite 100% so I’d be complaining for sure.

 

[chameleoneel]

When the Asus X670E-A ProArt says its two PCIe 5.0 expansion slots support either x16 or x8/x8, does that mean both can do x16 simultaneously, or that using both will necessarily force both to be in x8/x8 mode? It would suck if installing a PCIe 1 x1 card in the 2nd PCIe 5.0 slot would force the first PCIe 5.0 slot to be at x8.

"2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (support x16 or x8/x8 modes)"

"2x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (supporting Video Cards in x16 or x8/x8 modes)"

I'm wondering if I should just return the X670E-A to get a ProArt. The price difference between them is the price of a Thunderbolt 4 card, which I plan to get for the X670E-A anyway. But the ProArt also has USB4, 10GE, and a fast charging USB port. But its 2nd and 3rd expansion slots split bandwidth with other stuff, which sucks, too. I plan to use a sound card. That sounds like it'd cost me either a PCIe m.2 slot, or half the bandwidth of the graphics PCIe 5.0 slot. I also don't like the ProArt's brownness and the blurry, semi-translucent shroud over the rear ports. The X670E-A looks nicer, IMO.

The manuals should have some explanation of how the PCIe lanes are split when various ports are used.

But, x8/x8 sounds to me like split lanes, when using both. That's still the same bandwidth as PCIe 4.0, though. So, it may never be a real problem.

 

[Rev. Night]

Goddamnit, that open box great deal at Newegg that was defective and I had to return? Newegg gave me a refund, saying it didn't have any left.

I may just ask them to send it back so I send it to Asus for a new one.

I want that Asus tuf 670 for $277 damnit

 

[sk3tch]

Goddamnit, that open box great deal at Newegg that was defective and I had to return? Newegg gave me a refund, saying it didn't have any left.

I may just ask them to send it back so I send it to Asus for a new one.

I want that Asus tuf 670 for $277 damnit

Isn't it just $330 new? https://www.microcenter.com/product/651909/asus-x670e-plus-tuf-gaming-wifi-atx-motherboard

 

[Rev. Night]

$50 buys a lot of blow, man