I think the general consensus is to just get the Tomahawk if you want to spend under $300 and the Nova if spending over $300, only worth spending more than that if you’re into serious overclocking.
I second this, as I have a hybrid Gaming/Workstation PC and my requirements are a bit unusual. I'd NEED: -4x M.2 slots, Not saying No to 5 though. -1xPCie x16, -1 PCIe X1 Slot for the Soundcard, maybe a second x1If I have to run a SATA Controller, -6x SATA Ports (internal SATA SSD+HDD+ Blu-ray Drive/Writer), I have a PCIe 3.0 Controller Card If necessary. -4 RAM Slots. I would also like to have: -2.5 Gbit/s LAN -1x PCIe x4 Slot, for Upgrades Like a 10 GBit/s LAN -decent amount of USB Ports, especially USB-As in 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 -Two digit Error Code display Nice to have but Not required: - USB 4.0 (might be able to use it in Card Readers in the Future.) Not required at all: -WLAN/Wifi (don't use it) -good onboard Sound (I have a Soundcard) Not averse to buying 600 Boards! Timeframe for buying, after Christmas to early next year.
Kinda looks like there might be a bit of a motherboard PCB lottery going on with getting DDR5-8000 work on AM5. The X870E-E and Crosshair X870E Hero have the exact same memory topology AFAIK. So it's odd to see such a big difference between them. Also my X870E Hero really doesn't like doing 8000 but yours does 8300. I wonder if MSI has some kind of extra validation step in manufacturing since all their boards got 8100 or if you just got lucky with their boards all getting the same results.
@@MrFatpenguin6000 with low latency is probably still the sweet spot, afaik the lower latency is still better than whatever the bump to 8000 would yield. But then again I'm no expert.
I always looked at the 120-150$ price range, now it feels the same features and quality can only be found at 250$. While getting a 130$ board rn basically equates in receiving a piece of carboard with rgb on it.
Ditto, I made the mistake of staying with the AM4 5800x3D when I should have waited a bit and gone with the AM5 7800X3D (I’m a Flight Sim Nerd). I want my last build to be the 9800X3D. Can’t wait to see the reviews with the new Gigabyte Bios.
I absolutely love this format of how you're showing the information. Please keep this format going forward. Also please keep the audio testing and add m more information like the DAC chipset model. That let's us know if we need to get an external DAC or not. This is amazing work, Steve!
Most of these boards do not have headphone output, only line out and mic in/line in. That means a separate device is necessary if you want to amplify the line out signals into actually listenable levels by headphones/IEMs. Given another purchase is already necessary, the best choice would be a good 60$ usb dongle (which has both dac/amp) which would perform better that even the top results listed on the audio charts of this video
@@Hardwareunboxed thanks for doing the roundup was looking forward to see the "utility" of that nitropath tech on the x870e-e but its just marketing in the end and its related to the whole motherboard PCB architecture instead as seen on msi and gigabyte mobos and the hero one..
Great job! And really very informative the new summary sheet of each motherboard. I think the data on boot times, max memory frequencies and ECC support in particular are very useful.
There is not much demand for ECC in gaming, but for a home server it would be nice. The double X16 slots; two sata adapters for your drive arrays or those 4 x M.2 cards.
@@marktackman2886yes exactly I 100% agree on that. As long as you have 4/5 usb 3.2 gen 2 or faster ports, some slow ports are fine, you will surely need some slow ports for things like mouse and keyboard or charging your phone while using it or some similar crap
The Asrock boards are the only ones (I've seen) that DO NOT lane-share with the GPU. Basically, with all the others, you cut your graphics card down from 16 to 8 lanes if you insert an M.2 into a certain slot on your motherboard . While this isn't an issue for the current nVidia and Radeons, as they are PCIe 4.0 and utilize 8 lanes, the new GPU's coming out in 2025 are upgraded to PCIe 5.0 and will need all 16 lanes. So, just make sure to check your manual before adding a new drive.
Fantastic work, Steve. No ones doing this on RU-vid, literally no one else. Hope this video hits 500K+ views to keep you motivated doing this sorta thorough testing.
I am sure it has been mentioned already, but the new slide format is excellent (both the I/O breakdown and the information slides). All the information is clearly visible and highlighted as you are talking making it super easy to follow along. One of your best videos to date and so much promise moving forward!
hmm, there really is something going down with the MSI, AMD relationship. They stopped making AMD graphics cards. Their PC gaming handheld uses Intel, not the obvious AMD choice, and they lagging behind on AMD motherboard choices. Someone should investigate this.
video was so good and so much effort was put into this, had to watch it twice, liked the video, saved it to my watch later, and shared it with a few friends and on twitter. DEFINITELY WANT THE PRICE POINT VIDEO! definitely want the audio testing to be including in motherboard testing as well going forward!
@@GewelReal Inflation is not greater than 150% in the past 8 years. (Clearly "greater" since indeed the 150% more expensive boards still lack the functionality.)
Incredible work and information, the community is lucky to have you! You did fail to mention (understandably) that the ASUS X870E Crosshair Hero has a SlimSAS port allowing for another m.2/u.2 SSD from the chipset which is a feature no other board has.
In case like me you care about having a POST code display then here are the timestamps for boards with POST code displays: 06:31 - Asrock X870E Nova WiFi 07:54 - Asrock X870E Taichi / Taichi Lite 15:47 - Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi 17:08 - Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero 22:48 - Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 24:26 - Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro 25:18 - Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master 28:51 - MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi 30:42 - MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi X870/X870E boards with a POST code display not featured in this video: Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7, MSI MEG X870E Godlike Edit: added MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi as I missed it when making the original list.
so basically jus taichi lite or nova wifi since everything else is too expensive. jeezus these mobo prices are too crazy, literally paying more for less.
After the first X870 bord reviews were out, I pulled the trigger on a B650 board. BIOS Flashback ran through no problems; Ryzen 9000 is up and running. Much more luxurious boards would be available; but looking back at what I did and didn't with my previous DIY PC, I knew I could safely cut back on things like wifi or PCIe 5.0, or SATA, or a huge number of USB ports.
The quantity of boards times the amount of detail for every board is astounding here - I don't anyone needs any more videos on these boards other than this. I really appreciate de USB tests and also the DDR5-8000 stress tests. And I don't pass over the audio tests either, I keep a look there as well.
3 дня назад
This format is super! A detailed and incredibly nice comparison. I am also happy that you included the boot times!
I know in the podcast you said you had to be faster on these to make the video short enough but i almost do wish there was longer version with your full thoughts and descriptions etc incase you had more to say. still tons of info in this video which is nice even if im not upgrading my x670e board. Also love the info card with all info such as audio, boot time, ram etc in one spot. Edit: did notice you didnt mention the vrm specs for a few boards though
Great work Steve ! A side note - with each subsequent chipset release I see less and less pcie slots, specifically with 4+ lines. Manufactures try to integrate everything, which hurts options for further upgrade or modify the system.
In reality, these motherboards are ultimately limited by the AM5 platform design. Theres only so many configurations you can achieve with 24/28 PCIE lanes.
You know the funniest thing Ive read lately?? The Gigabyte claim that their new X3D Turbo Mode feature will boost gaming performance by up to 35% on AMD Ryzen 9000X3D 3D V-Cache CPUs. If this is true im gonna eat my hat but it seems 110% total bullcrap. Prove me wrong Gigabyte. Prove me wrong.
I bet it's just marketing. They even reduced the number of layers in their PCBs to cut costs (6 instead of the 8 recommended with PCIE5), I highly doubt their boards can do something others cannot...
🥰Best MB testing I have seen in a long time. Power, VRM temps, ECC support, Max Memory speed, USB speed and Boot time. This is very useful. And it might help push the companies to due better. I love it. ❤
Gigabyte has stopped offering DualBIOS on their motherboards since at least the 600-series motherboards. AFAIK the reasoning is that most cases of BIOS corruption can be corrected using BIOS Flashback. As for the motherboards with a POST code display, I posted a comment with the timestamps to all motherboards featured in the video that include a POST code display.
Thanks, I'm happy for ASRock - and then I remember that I've left the brand for almost a year now but always supporting them still, because they do have great stuff!
ASRock really stepped up their game. Not just in motherboard segment, rather in all of them. Their stuff is just amazing and I am glad they are becoming the choice of many.
@@PsyRox1112 ASRock has fantastic engineers. They're not perfect across the board, pun intended, but their good stuff can be really good. I still rock a few of their boards and absolutely loving them.
@@venomus9286 correct, their marketing and branding is far from the other big guys but their engineering team is actually superb, their key people are of engineering background. The brand has much potential, and their existing lineup is far better than what they were before. In my time my with them the issue is always branding part, product quality wise we were just as good as AMG, perhaps even better.
@@goldfries I hope my ASRock x870e Taichi performs well. I was a MSI fan, but this time I ditched it because I heard that ASRock did a really good job with the X870E motherboards. So I went for an ASRock product this time.
I know in your podcast episode you said you were going to try a new way of displaying the data, and I think you absolutely nailed it. As you went through each board, I was really hoping you were going to show a comparison between all the boards afterward in each data point, which you also did. Excellent Excellent job Steve, this was all very easy to take in and also an extremely handy guide to return to if prices ever go down and we find the need to buy an 800 board in the future. Great video, and thank you for all the hard work you guys do.
Yeah. I was already set on the Aorus Master until I saw Steve's RMAA audio test results. Seems Asus' SupremeFX isn't just some marketing BS, but something that really works! Can see Asus boards significantly outperforming other brands in the audio department.
Looks like ASUS nailed the audio performance top slot. I am using a Topping DAC to drive my headphones. I am using optical audio from the motherboard but BT also would work. In the audio specifications we headphone people would like to see the output power and impedance range. My old AKG 271s were 55 ohms, not your typical loading for transistor amps on motherboards. Love that you are going all in on the MOBOs testing, nerd audio commentary has been missing!
Does the sound card even play a part in your case? Aren’t you just pulling a digital signal out of a usb port and bypassing the sound card all together?
@@cosmic5789 yes, the digital audio is all i am using. I would pay for a discrete on board solution if it could run the cans! I used to use Sound Blaster cards, then, didn't care for awhile. I have an MSI X570 Unify and have tried to run my headphones with on board sound. It works fine but cannot drive the headphones at volume.
@@Jual2AudioSeken DX-3 Pro! It's an antique, best purchase for an audio interface, not a big amp in it but it drives my Beyerdynamic headset, the one with adjustable bass ports on the cans.
Awesome work! One thing I am missing is the mention of 7-segment displays in the summary table. The only good thing about these boards is that 7-segment displays seem to be included in the somewhat "cheaper" models also.
the second one is an gen4 x4 slot, with the lanes coming directly from the CPU. It is sadly impossible to have two full x16 slots on AM5 (or any current non-HEDT platforms), as the CPUs only have 28 (24+4 to chipset) lanes. So either 8+8 or 16+4 are the best configurations you can get for two slots.
Really appreciate your testing of ECC memory support. I however cannot find any ECC UDimm memory available at the 6400 MT/s speed you tested (unless you are overclocking). ECC memory is typically available in much more modest speeds. I wonder whether testing at that speed affected the pass results and if so is not a true reflection of a motherboards ECC memory support. Could you provide some info on the memory spec. you used for testing ECC and why 6400 MT/s was chosen?
34:21 Is there something wrong with this chart? It's the first time the "Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7" (ie. non-Ice) is included, but is called "Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite WiFi7" (notice the E after X870) and it's supposedly able to run DRAM at 8000 MT/s whereas the "Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice", that's the same board but with a different color, is supposedly able to run DRAM only at 7600 MT/s?
@@Koozwad I don't understand why? 99% of built systems will get only GPU. No one needs additional slots - for what? Lan, audio, wifi all is built in. ATX motherboards are a waste of money and pcb. They make cases bigger and that's also pointless. I guess B650 is my only option.
@@mc_sim I really don't know and yes it doesn't really make sense my only theory is that ATX has always been the most popular form factor and companies are getting too lazy to cater to various form factors really considering just stepping over to ATX as you also get more air flow and general options/space I liked the minimalist m-ITX and mATX builds but it's not practical at least for gaming/workstation systems
Not as bad as most speakers the majority connects to them. 😂 personally i could not care less about audio. I connect digital output to my hifi receiver.
@@M.F.-lq7jb HDMI isn't actually the best for audio. Obviously it's better for the new surround uncompressed formats, but it's not the best for 2.0 audio
@Hirnlego999 well you won't hear a difference no matter how much you spend on cables, connectors and other audio voodoo stuff, as blind tests with industry "gold ears" have shown. So it really does not matter. And both is miles ahead in measurements compared to analog. What matters is that hdmi supports more formats. What's nice about spdif is the slim optical cable. I used toslink for years but more convenient is hdmi (especially hdmi earc)
One thing to double-check on each board is which PCI slots do what depending on what NVMe slots are used. Only the ASRock boards guarantee x16 for the GPU but they make other compromises.
The MSI Tomahawk also allows all 4 m.2 slots to be used while keeping the main graphics card slot at 16x. It cuts the bandwidth of the 3rd pcie slot and then the usb4 ports for using the 3rd and 4th m.2 slot.
Would love to see also some testing with 4 dimms (4x kit or 2x2 kits) @128-192gb. Some of us do high ram workloads and we know how painful it is to even make it work @3600mhz with b650/x670
Ended up getting an x670 instead. Will be dropping a 9800x3d soon when that drops most likely unless it has something terribly wrong with it. The new boards just pretty much do the same thing but with higher cost. Was able to snag a board for 200 usd with the full 44 PCIe lanes. Main thing I need is a bunch of SSD expandability for and capture card for video work. Thunderbolt 4 is uneeded. USB 3.2 is good enough if I need to plug in an external hard drive.
Great vid, and I appreciate all of the hard work. I was able to snatch up an ASRock Nova Wifi before the stock ran out again, and based on what I've previously seen, and seen more of here, I'm really looking forward to building with it 😃
