Question New AM4 X570 ATX mobo, the ASRock Phantom Gaming X570 4S ($139.99 MSRP?)

[VirtualLarry]

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4S AM4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg.com

Buy ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4S AM4 AMD X570 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Looks kind of like a slightly stripped-down Phantom Gaming 4, also in the same vein as the ASRock Z170 Pro4S boards, of which I still own two of those, they were and are reliable boards. Basic, but reliable.

Unfortunately, unlike most other X570 boards, there doesn't appear to be a BIOS-flash button that works in conjunction with a USB port and a power supply. Something that is indeed nearly invaluable in the modern AM4 era. But at a $139.99 MSRP, I guess it's understandable that it would be left out. My guess is that this board may go cheaper "on sale", and thus be an industry-wide X570 somewhat "loss leader"-type board. (I think I paid roughly $80 ea., for my Z170 Pro4S ATX boards.)

It does appear to have 8 SATA6G ports, so it could serve as a cheap home-server / unRAID board for AM4.

 

[ao_ika_red]

With PCI-e slot spacing that wide, this should be good for GPU-heavy DC projects. That VRM setup is quite dismal though for X570 level. Let's hope it's 6+2 and not (3*2)+2.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Agreed, the VRM section seems puny. Look up HardwareUnboxed preview of the X570 Tomahawk from MSI, they claim those VRMs are among the best, and it's supposed to be $200. That probably the board that I'll end up with (X570 Tomahawk), but this particular board struck me as interesting (and I hadn't seen it before), as a budget option, for your basic Ryzen R5 3600 gamer with an RX 570 / RX 5500 XT / RX 5700 (XT).

Edit: The X570 Tomahawk comes with RealTek 2.5GbE-T and a BIOS flash button, two features that I really want, and the great VRMs are just icing on the cake, for me.

 

[ao_ika_red]

At less than $120 you can get B450 Tomahawk or B450 Aorus Pro and both can also run 3600 no problem, heck even 3700X should have no problem with them.

 

[VirtualLarry]

At less than $120 you can get B450 Tomahawk or B450 Aorus Pro and both can also run 3600 no problem, heck even 3700X should have no problem with them.

At present, that's true. But I wonder, in the near and far future, whether that will continue to hold true.

1) Are they even still making B450 chipsets, which were made by ASMedia, AFAIK.
2) PCI-E 4.0 may become more important for GPUs. (See the issue with the RX 5500 XT 4GB and gaming, when lacking PCI-E 4.0.)
3) Future CPU generations, that still fit into AM4 socket, may require X570 or newer chipset, and fogo compatibility with older chipsets (*).

(*) I hope that this isn't the case, but AFAIK, A320 chipset is not (at least officially) compatible with Zen 2 CPUs. Likewise, X570 is not officially compatible with Zen 1 CPUs, either.

 

[UsandThem]

I'd personally pay the extra $20 and get the Asus TUF X570 compared to that Asrock board. That board is way too stripped down, and it doesn't even have one USB 3.1 Gen 2 port on the back.

While a person doesn't need to drop $300 on a motherboard with all the pretty lights and plastic bling, sometimes you can go too far in the opposite direction, and get something that is so stripped down you'll regret not spending a few extra bucks.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'd personally pay the extra $20 and get the Asus TUF X570 compared to that Asrock board. That board is way too stripped down, and it doesn't even have one USB 3.1 Gen 2 port on the back.

While a person doesn't need to drop $300 on a motherboard with all the pretty lights and plastic bling, sometimes you can go too far in the opposite direction, and get something that is so stripped down you'll regret not spending a few extra bucks.

I'd kind of tend to agree, but by the same token, as long as your mobo has "enough" ports, PCI-E slots, NVMe slots, etc., and is compatible with your CPU and GPU, there's not that much more that you can ask of it (unless you're into RGB "bling"). Why bother to spend more?

To elaborate, if this thing is MSRP of $140, then I feel, sometime fairly soon, it will be marked down $10-20 off, maybe more in a combo with a decent CPU. (Remember too, low-budget Zen2 4C/8T CPUs are coming, the 3100 and 3300X. They'll need a corresponding low-budget mainboard. I feel this is one of them.) I could see, in due time, this board and a 3300X for $200 combo price.

 

[UsandThem]

I'd kind of tend to agree, but by the same token, as long as your mobo has "enough" ports, PCI-E slots, NVMe slots, etc., and is compatible with your CPU and GPU, there's not that much more that you can ask of it (unless you're into RGB "bling"). Why bother to spend more?

To elaborate, if this thing is MSRP of $140, then I feel, sometime fairly soon, it will be marked down $10-20 off, maybe more in a combo with a decent CPU. (Remember too, low-budget Zen2 4C/8T CPUs are coming, the 3100 and 3300X. They'll need a corresponding low-budget mainboard. I feel this is one of them.) I could see, in due time, this board and a 3300X for $200 combo price.

Once the B550 chipset boards launch, I think that people looking to use CPUs like the 3100 or 3300X will likely go that way (or even a left-over B450 or X470 board).

I don't really require a lot when it comes to motherboards, but something as basic as using an external hard drive, the board having a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port on the rear I/O is a must as the speeds are significantly higher. I agree some people might not care and this board could fit their needs, I'm just saying the person who is comparing a $140 board vs. $160 board, hopefully will know exactly what they are losing out on by saving $20.

 

[VirtualLarry]

but something as basic as using an external hard drive, the board having a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port on the rear I/O is a must as the speeds are significantly higher. I

I'm really curious why, as the drives themselves are no faster. Unless you're using an external SSD or something. Even those can push 400MB/sec over plain old USB3.0.

Edit: I also don't trust "connection reliability" with USB3.2 Gen2 devices. Nor USB-C devices. Give me good old Type-A USB3.0 devices anyday.

 

[UsandThem]

Here's a 65 GB write test of music files on my external 5400 RPM hard drive (first plugged into my I/O Gen 2 port, then my I/O Gen 1 port):





It took 9 minutes to finish on the first test, and 14 minutes on the 2nd test. The difference is much higher when I plug a SATA SSD into the same ports, but right now I gave my 1 TB SSD to my son, and use a regular HDD for my backups for now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hmm, I've never seen any marked improvement in transfer rates on my USB 3.0 drives (Gen1), when plugged into a Gen2 port.

Could it be down to different drivers for the different ports, and one supporting UASP and the other not?

Indeed, there's no theoretical reason otherwise, why a Gen2 port would somehow be faster with a USB3.0 (Gen1) device.

 

[UsandThem]

Hmm, I've never seen any marked improvement in transfer rates on my USB 3.0 drives (Gen1), when plugged into a Gen2 port.

Could it be down to different drivers for the different ports, and one supporting UASP and the other not?

I'm really not sure, honestly.

I first noticed the difference a few years back. My speeds weren't good on the SSD when I had it plugged in externally, so I eventually put it on a Gen 2 port, and it was much better/consistent.