Question Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master or MSI Mag X570 Tomahawk

[Pumice]

Which Mobo would you choose and why?

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master . Retail price $360 but back ordered.

MSI Mag X570 Tomahawk. Retail price $219 but back ordered.


I am looking for a rock solid stable mobo, reliable and future proof to accept upcoming AMD Zen 3 CPU. Also want an overclock friendly mobo.
Going with a Ryzen 9 3900XT or 3900X.

What does the Gigabyte have the MSI does not and vice versa?

 

[Rigg]

Both are capable overclocking boards with flagship quality VRM's. The Tomahawk has VRM thermal performance on par with top end boards while having a mid range price tag which makes it stand out. It also has WiFi 6, 2.5 Gb LAN, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps Type-C internal connector which are all good features for it's price range. The x570 Aorus master has some features that the tomahawk doesn't however.

-Additional Intel GbE NIC
-Dual Bios with mode and select switches
-Post Code
-Clear Cmos button on rear I/O
-SLI support
-3rd M.2 slot
-ALC1220-VB Audio and ESS SABRE9118 DAC chip
-metal base plate for rear of board
-Shielded PCIE and memory slots
-LN2 mode

Those are nice to have features but certainly nothing I would personally consider must have features. I'm not sure I would pay an extra $140 for them anyway. The Tomahawk is an amazing value. It needed to be after the disaster that was MSI's entry level x570 launch lineup.

 

[Pumice]

Both are capable overclocking boards with flagship quality VRM's. The Tomahawk has VRM thermal performance on par with top end boards while having a mid range price tag which makes it stand out. It also has WiFi 6, 2.5 Gb LAN, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps Type-C internal connector which are all good features for it's price range. The x570 Aorus master has some features that the tomahawk doesn't however.

-Additional Intel GbE NIC
-Dual Bios with mode and select switches
-Post Code
-Clear Cmos button on rear I/O
-SLI support
-3rd M.2 slot
-ALC1220-VB Audio and ESS SABRE9118 DAC chip
-metal base plate for rear of board
-Shielded PCIE and memory slots
-LN2 mode

Those are nice to have features but certainly nothing I would personally consider must have features. I'm not sure I would pay an extra $140 for them anyway. The Tomahawk is an amazing value. It needed to be after the disaster that was MSI's entry level x570 launch lineup.

The metal base plate, do I need that if I am going with a heatsink+fan combo like the top of the line Noctua NH-D15 ?

Is there any tangiable benefit to the shielded PCIe and memory slots? How does dual bios mode help ? How does CMOS clear button help ?

 

[Rigg]

The metal base plate, do I need that if I am going with a heatsink+fan combo like the top of the line Noctua NH-D15 ?

All AM4 motherboards use a metal cooler back-plate. I think a d15 uses it's own anyway so it probably doesn't matter. That's not what I'm talking about though. The gigabyte has a large metal plate that covers most of the back of the board. It adds rigidity to the board and supposedly acts as a heat-sink for the PCB. Not a bad feature but isn't really a necessity.

Is there any tangiable benefit to the shielded PCIe and memory slots? How does dual bios mode help ? How does CMOS clear button help ?

The shielded dim slots MIGHT offer some benefits for RAM overclocks. I can't confirm or poo poo this since I don't own the board but I wouldn't be confident in that. The PCIE slots ad some rigidity to avoid damage to slots when transporting, installing, or removing a heavy GPU. Again not a must have feature. FYI the Tomahawk has its primary PCIE slot armored as well.

Clear CMOS is used to reset the BIOS if you are overclocking and enter a combination of settings that won't post or are extremely unstable. The rear button is really just a convenience. There is a jumper on almost all motherboards these days that can be shorted to accomplish the same thing. This can be a pain if the jumpers are hard to access in a fully assembled build. You can connect your reset button to this jumper as an alternative to shorting the pins with a screwdriver. Depending on how good of access you have to your rear I/O the reset button method may be preferable. Occasionally the CMOS battery may need to be pulled if the jumper or rear button cannot get the settings cleared. Usually holding down the button (or shorting the jumpers) for a while can accomplish the same thing as pulling the battery.

Dual BIOS can be used to keep a backup bios ready to go if your primary one gets corrupted or you wanted access to an alternative bios version without having to flash it. If your bios is corrupted you can usually use bios flash to bring it back so again...it has limited usefulness vs a board that has bios flashback like the tomahawk.