Question Should I upgrade from B450 mobo to X570?

sublime79

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Oct 22, 2001
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I have a MSI B450M-PRO M2 mobo, and I recently upgraded to a Ryzen 9 3900X. I flashed my BIOS with no problems and everything is working fine. I have been wondering, though, if I would benefit from upgrading to a X570 board (I'm currently looking at an ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Plus). The ASUS board has two more RAM slots and more PCIe slots, but would that be the only advantage? Any and all opinions are appreciated. Thanks!
 

Iron Woode

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I have a MSI B450M-PRO M2 mobo, and I recently upgraded to a Ryzen 9 3900X. I flashed my BIOS with no problems and everything is working fine. I have been wondering, though, if I would benefit from upgrading to a X570 board (I'm currently looking at an ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Plus). The ASUS board has two more RAM slots and more PCIe slots, but would that be the only advantage? Any and all opinions are appreciated. Thanks!
there can be other advantages but if your board works fine, why bother upgrading?

If you plan on a 5000 series cpu then I would recommend an x570 MB.

I personally use the Asus Prime X570-P, the TUF Gaming's little brother.
 

sublime79

Senior member
Oct 22, 2001
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there can be other advantages but if your board works fine, why bother upgrading?

If you plan on a 5000 series cpu then I would recommend an x570 MB.

I personally use the Asus Prime X570-P, the TUF Gaming's little brother.

I don't plan on a 5000 series for a long time lol. I guess I was just mainly wondering if somehow I wasn't getting all I could out of the 3900x with this board, or if there are any major advantages of the x570 that I'm not aware of.
 

Leeea

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I have a MSI B450M-PRO M2 mobo, and I recently upgraded to a Ryzen 9 3900X. I flashed my BIOS with no problems and everything is working fine. I have been wondering, though, if I would benefit from upgrading to a X570 board (I'm currently looking at an ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Plus). The ASUS board has two more RAM slots and more PCIe slots, but would that be the only advantage? Any and all opinions are appreciated. Thanks!

You will likely get more enjoyment out of an additional SSD, faster graphics card, more memory*, better monitor (you stare at it every day, might as well have something nice), mechanical keyboard, gamer mouse, bespoke speakers, noise cancelling headphones, premium microphone, high quality webcam, RGB lighting**, quieter fans, improved heat sinks, quiet water cooling loop, etc.


*yea, the ASUS board has more memory slots, but for the cost of said board + two more new memory sticks, odds are you could replace the memory you have with larger, faster, and lower latency sticks.
**you do not need aRGB on your mainboard, there are stand alone controllers with wireless remote
 
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Iron Woode

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I don't plan on a 5000 series for a long time lol. I guess I was just mainly wondering if somehow I wasn't getting all I could out of the 3900x with this board, or if there are any major advantages of the x570 that I'm not aware of.
well, most B450 boards are not as robust as X570 boards when it comes to power delivery systems. This may result in excess heat and/or instability when running high end cpus or when overclocking. A good quality PSU and a case with good cooling should help.

If you aren't pushing the system to it's max then I think it should work fine.

I believe X570 boards have more PCIe lanes available than B450 boards.
 

sublime79

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Oct 22, 2001
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You will likely get more enjoyment out of an additional SSD, faster graphics card, more memory*, better monitor (you stare at it every day, might as well have something nice), mechanical keyboard, gamer mouse, bespoke speakers, noise cancelling headphones, premium microphone, high quality webcam, RGB lighting**, quieter fans, improved heat sinks, quiet water cooling loop, etc.


*yea, the ASUS board has more memory slots, but for the cost of said board + two more new memory sticks, odds are you could replace the memory you have with larger, faster, and lower latency sticks.
**you do not need aRGB on your mainboard, there are stand alone controllers with wireless remote

Yep, all very good and valid points. I'm looking into 1440p monitors as we speak:)
 
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sublime79

Senior member
Oct 22, 2001
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well, most B450 boards are not as robust as X570 boards when it comes to power delivery systems. This may result in excess heat and/or instability when running high end cpus or when overclocking. A good quality PSU and a case with good cooling should help.

If you aren't pushing the system to it's max then I think it should work fine.

I believe X570 boards have more PCIe lanes available than B450 boards.

So far haven't had any overheating or instability issues, so I think I'll keep on trucking with this board for a while. I'm not much into overclocking or anything, and really this CPU is more than fast enough for me. All I'll be looking into is a graphics card sometime next year when they come back down to reasonable prices.
 
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Iron Woode

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So far haven't had any overheating or instability issues, so I think I'll keep on trucking with this board for a while. I'm not much into overclocking or anything, and really this CPU is more than fast enough for me. All I'll be looking into is a graphics card sometime next year when they come back down to reasonable prices.
you could always buy a good used card. I did get a 1070TI at a good price during the summer.
 

Leeea

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you could always buy a good used card. I did get a 1070TI at a good price during the summer.

Used graphics cards seem like a real crap shoot right now.

The miners are in their upgrade cycle, and the prevalence of non-stock BIOS on miner cards results in endless hard to diagnose problems for users who are frequently unprepared to deal with that. Miner cards also frequently have much more wear and tear on the fans and the caps*.

*On the cheaper brands they use non-brand name caps with a rated lifespan of 10,000 hours** @ 105 C. Unlikely to see that in gamer usage, but for a miner that is only 417 days. Yes, they last longer then that, but the failure rate climbs considerably.

**https://www.digikey.com/en/products...5TbTAGxdWtAMwQAukQAOAFyggAytIBOASwB2AcxABfXUA
**https://www.digikey.com/en/products...xTKdQDsneXHr0QAXSIAHAC5QQAZV0AnAJYA7AOYgAvvaA
 

Iron Woode

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Used graphics cards seem like a real crap shoot right now.

The miners are in their upgrade cycle, and the prevalence of non-stock BIOS on miner cards results in endless hard to diagnose problems for users who are frequently unprepared to deal with that. Miner cards also frequently have much more wear and tear on the fans and the caps*.

*On the cheaper brands they use non-brand name caps with a rated lifespan of 10,000 hours** @ 105 C. Unlikely to see that in gamer usage, but for a miner that is only 417 days. Yes, they last longer then that, but the failure rate climbs considerably.

**https://www.digikey.com/en/products...5TbTAGxdWtAMwQAukQAOAFyggAytIBOASwB2AcxABfXUA
**https://www.digikey.com/en/products...xTKdQDsneXHr0QAXSIAHAC5QQAZV0AnAJYA7AOYgAvvaA
I bought a mining card for my nephew's PC. It is an Asus Strix RX570 4GB. The mining BIOS threw me for a loop at first. TechPowerUp had BIOSs for the card and 2 flashes later I had a fully functional card. It still works fine for most games.
 
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Leeea

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It is an Asus Strix RX570 4GB.
I would argue Asus is very name brand :).

Glad it worked well for you. I worry about the average user picking those cards up used, and not knowing what is going on.


We get spoiled, but with most games running iGPU, any dedicated graphics card is going to be very effective. I am sure your nephew loves it.
 
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