Discussion Next gen will be expensive whether you go X670E or Z790...

[IEC]

Zen 4 and Raptor Lake are going to be expensive at the high end.

MSI X670E Pricing

You want the "future proof" PCIe 5.0 graphics lanes *and* your PCIe 5.0 storage lanes? Don't spend all those Benjamins in one place...

PCIe 5.0 increases complexity of manufacturing (e.g. more PCB layers) which in turn increases cost. These manufacturers have seen that at the high end people are NOT price sensitive, so they will gladly use early adopters to subsidize the cost of bringing next gen products to market.

Me? Going to wait until the early adopter tax expires. Whenever the X3D chip(s) launch should allow plenty of time for the dust to settle...

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

One thing I am not a fan of is a lot of the good looking boards have massive VRM heatsinks, particularly the top of the board, and are very tall. I've already had to disqualify several boards I would otherwise like to use because the ridiculously tall VRM heatsink won't clear the top fans/rad. Did the board partners just forget about case clearence when they designed these?

 

[IEC]

I guess it also remains to be seen how significant PCIe 5.0 would be for anything other than storage (my guess is, not much for GPUs).

Outside of some content creation workflows it doesn't add much for the average consumer either.

My guess is the majority of B650 boards will be more than sufficient even for the 7950X given how insanely overkill a lot of these VRMs seem to be.

 

[Markfw]

Yes

OK, so what GPU and HSF are you going to be using ? I assume the 6600c34 we both have for memory. I kind of went big on the best 420 AIO there is and 3090TI FTW. You are probably doing custom water ? And the same video card ? (guessing)

 

[Dave3000]

For this generation B650E will probably be the best option... Maybe when Zen5 arrives we will get Gen 5 lanes from the chipset as well? The CPUs already support a 4X Gen5 link to the chipset that's being downgraded to Gen 4 when connecting to this generation's chipset.

I right now have an Asus B550-F Wi-Fi motherboard with a 5800X. Next system upgrade, I won't be buying a B-series motherboard. I'm considering an Asus X670 Strix, MSI X670 Carbon, or Gigabyte X670 Master. I don't like cheaping out on a motherboard but I can't justify paying over $400 for one either.

 

[In2Photos]

I right now have an Asus B550-F Wi-Fi motherboard with a 5800X. Next system upgrade, I won't be buying a B-series motherboard. I'm considering an Asus X670 Strix, MSI X670 Carbon, or Gigabyte X670 Master. I don't like cheaping out on a motherboard but I can't justify paying over $400 for one either.

What's wrong with the B550 board?

 

[AdamK47]

OK, so what GPU and HSF are you going to be using ? I assume the 6600c34 we both have for memory. I kind of went big on the best 420 AIO there is and 3090TI FTW. You are probably doing custom water ? And the same video card ? (guessing)

No custom water. Will use my existing 3090 Ti. I'll either use my G.Skill 6600 memory or my Corsair Dominator 6200. I will probably get a 420mm Corsair AIO.

 

[Markfw]

No custom water. Will use my existing 3090 Ti. I'll either use my G.Skill 6600 memory or my Corsair Dominator 6200. I will probably get a 420mm Corsair AIO.

Well, now this will be interesting. Almost the same cooling and video card, memory and of course CPU. The motherboard may be the determining factor. I also have another set of memory coming. It all depends in fit, which will fit in the motherboard.

 

[AdamK47]

Well, now this will be interesting. Almost the same cooling and video card, memory and of course CPU. The motherboard may be the determining factor. I also have another set of memory coming. It all depends in fit, which will fit in the motherboard.

The 3090 Ti won't be in my system for too long. I'll be getting a 4090 at release. Storage will be upgraded early next year. A 2TB PCI-E 5.0 nvme system drive and three 8TB PCI-E 4.0 nvme drives in RAID-0.

 

[sdifox]

$480 and $700 for consumer grade socket is reasonable? I still remember when everyone was aghast at $699 price tag for MSI x570 Godlike just two years ago. Since when $700 price tag has become reasonable? Asus ROG Crosshair used to top out around $400, now it's low midrange all of a sudden?

I get that PCIe5 requires more traces and more layers, but damn, that is a steep motherboard price increase.

I mean I'm fine if someone can afford to throw that kind of dough on motherboard, personally I'll wait and see if there are more affordable options/if prices come down in few years time.

I paid 1K for Pentium 60 and 750 for a DFI board. And that is in 1993 dollars. It's expensive to buy fresh stuff.