Need Modern MB advice, last build was 2008. Questions inside.

[PeterScott]

I have been running the Same PC since 2008. A P35 Gigabyte MB with Q9400 OC to 3.2GHz. I am looking to upgrade soon, I am a little out of date on MB state of the art.

I am looking to for an mATX MB, to overclock either a Ryzen 5 1600 or CL i5 8600K (I need to see reviews first).

Digitial audio out: Must have S/PDIF (why is this missing on most Ryzen MBs?).

Fan control: How good is it now? Can I control two case fans independently via MB headers, say the fan closesest to GPU on one parameter, and Fan closest to CPU on another. What is the state of the art in Fan control? Which MB manufacturer offers the best Fan control?

eSata: I have a couple of eSata drives. How do you set this up on modern MBs?

Anything else I should be aware of, that's changed in the last decade in MBs?


Suggestions?

 

[whm1974]

As far as I know, eSATA is being replaced or has been by USB 3.0 and 3.1 drives. Come to think of it, none of the modern boards that have looked at have any eSATA ports but that is not something I look for.

 

[LTC8K6]

You can always get an esata pcie card if you need those ports.

 

[Triloby]

There's two mATX AM4 motherboards that do have S/PDIF, but no built-in eSata support whatsoever. As for fan control, you do have at least two to three fan headers on these motherboards, but I don't know if they are PWM headers, or just regular 4-pin headers with no PWM control. It would be better to install software like SpeedFan, and be able to easily control all fans individually through that program instead.

MSI B350M MORTAR ARCTIC: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144046
MSI B350M MORTAR: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144026

They do sell PCI-E cards with eSata ports on them, which you can buy one for your Ryzen build. This one could work for you: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G15X3382

 

[ElFenix]

either a card or a bracket that just plug into the sata ports on the board would work.

newegg is selling 42 ryzen boards with spdif, so that doesn't seem to be that big an issue.

edit: missed matx requirement, so that's 3, not 42. but one of those is a 320 board and you don't want that, either. do you *really* need matx? the cases are often not that much smaller

 

[PeterScott]

either a card or a bracket that just plug into the sata ports on the board would work.

newegg is selling 42 ryzen boards with spdif, so that doesn't seem to be that big an issue.

edit: missed matx requirement, so that's 3, not 42. but one of those is a 320 board and you don't want that, either. do you *really* need matx? the cases are often not that much smaller

Well I started out wanting ITX, and a Fractal Define Nano, but there was even more limited choices there, so I grudgingly moved up to mATX and Define Mini C.

No way in heck am I moving up to full ATX, when really I only need one card slot. ATX seems absurd today, since almost no one does SLI/CF anymore an most card slots are all empty.

 

[ElFenix]

fair enough