Asus B550-I Strix vs Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX/ax. Which is the better board overall after factoring in latest BIOSes?

I have the latter board without CPU on hand. Found another store selling B550-I and with CPUs bundled at RRP. Thoughts?

I know the reputation is Asus has the best BIOS, but the Asrock B550 is better built than the Asus and has nicer rear I/O among other things. Just wondering if the Asrock board here specifically is plagued with BIOS issues and instability, that's all.

Home users probably more susceptible to miners and ransomware hidden in pirated game downloads

nrw was selling a bunch of 2x16GB DDR4-3200 Crucial kits last month, all pre-tested to hit 3800 speeds with stability tests, so you're a bit late to the party

You could try and pick up these on Amazon - the prices there drop very low on occasion to make it worth grabbing even after shipping and tax. IIRC Black Friday prices went below $100 for the black non-RGB ones.

Does old AM2/AM3 coolers using the clip mechanism still fit with AM4? Going to piece together a new Ryzen build for testing + BIOS updates soon, but would rather not move my NH-C14S from my existing rig to test. Don't have a spare Wraith cooler at the moment, although I did dig up an old Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer from years and years ago in an old box. I'm wondering if it can still fit.

Anything I'm missing out on the latest AGESA updates?

Currently working off a B550 Phantom Gaming ITX, current BIOS is "AGESA 1.1.0.0 patch C". Haven't had much time to mess with the BIOS but so far it's been unable to push RAM beyond 3733 with 1866 IF Clock. I suppose SOC voltages could be increased, but I've done 1.1V already and I reckon that should be sufficient?

No chance of a 2021 launch. Apple has apparently booked out almost all 5nm capacity at TSMC, and once you factor in Zen releases tend to be systematic to every 5 quarters...

Q1 2017 Zen
Q2 2018 Zen+
Q3 2019 Zen2
Q4 2020 Zen3
Q1 2022 is the most probable release date for 5nm Zen4.

To be fair, there isn't much wrong with Ice+Tiger Lake with ultraportables from a performance standpoint, apart from the exorbitant prices Intel charges for those chips vs Coffee/Comet Lake.

There's a lot of specially binned Xeons with almost all cores disabled but the fastest ones, so you end up with ultra fast 4-8 core HEDT chips and a crapload of cache. These chips have no equals in the AMD sphere for the niche tasks they're excellent at (some specialty databases, high frequency trading software, etc).

But when it comes to mass number of VMs, AMD is king here in price/performance by a huge margin.

Since everyone was talking about PBO2 Curve Optimizer... What negative offsets are you guys using? Currently attempting to tune at a per-core level, and using Cinebench R23 10mins MT run + 6 hours Prime95... reckon this is sufficient for stability testing based on what everyone here has experienced so far?

TBH 99% of people who post comments like yours usually are fanboys blowing air on their products and actually don't know anyone behind the scenes. If your sources are right, you can link back to that and say "told you so" once the news actually comes out lol.

DDR4-6000 on air sounds great nonetheless. revE or B-die though?

At any rate that poster on 4650G and the RAM LN2 pot shows one huge advantage monolithic has over chiplet design - RAM speeds can go higher on Zen2/3 APUs vs the Zen2/3 7nm + 12nm IO die design. I'm struggling to get my 5800X + Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX + Ballistix 3200C16 dual rank to 3800 in coupled mode. The RAM does 3800 easily when decoupled from IF, I can boot IF on 3800 and pass TM5 anta777 config with my RAM kit on XMP timings too, but can't seem to do both together. Not sure if it's down to CPU, or BIOS at this point.

This post has been edited by yimingwuzere: Jan 23 2021, 07:05 PM

It's just an epeen contest with high RAM speeds. Although IIRC Anandtech did review a Corsair 5000 kit that showed a small improvement over the fastest kits for Ryzen in spite of the decoupled IF/uncore to RAM clock.

Gotta hit their release cycle every 5 quarters for Zen...

All the workload dumped on a tiny 7nm CPU die, no surprise. Saw that with my 5800X on prime95 too. NH-C14S isn't too efficient at cooling it, only 3/7 heatpipes are properly utilised on that one. My old CPU (3770K) also had similar problems vs Sandy Bridge at high clockspeeds too - the smaller die led to less efficient heat transfer to the IHS even with lower power draw vs Sandy, and Intel compounded the issue by switching from solder to paste too.

Another reason monolithic is better on consumer CPUs - the IO/SOC section on the same die can help transfer heat from the cores to the IHS better.

Anandtech didn't OC that RAM kit, but the point is that when RAM is fast enough it's possible to outperform 1:1 memory on Ryzen. Just not feasible for most users since it has to run at ~4800++ speeds.

Can't wait to see RKL in action anyway.

Maybe next step is the der8auer offset mount for AM4 so the AIO's centerpoint is closer to the CPU die instead of the center of the IHS? Assuming it fits your ITX board of course.

i5 quads to Ryzen will show a far bigger difference than i7 quads upgrading, assuming the i7s were decently clocked (4.4-4.6GHz). HT does make a difference nowadays, even if it didn't for gaming back in 2013.

Intel better not screw this one up again with value Core i5s.

8 series got away with it due to Zen/Zen+ arch being less competitive in gaming. Built a few 8400 rigs for friends with that, bypasses the need to overclock a 2600 + RAM all the way and end up consuming more power.

9 series i5s was pretty weak vs 3600.

10 series i5s at least added HT, even then B460 locking memory speeds to Intel's CPU max official support meant that 3600 and a decent 3200 kit still trades blows with 10400 and 2666 RAM while being better at non latency-sensitive workloads.

Is B560 going to be like B460 and still use Intel max official support, but Intel will allow DDR4-3200? Or is it full overclocking for frequency too? Can never be too sure with tech journos reporting about it saying it's the latter when RKL supports >2666 RAM officially.

This post has been edited by yimingwuzere: Jan 25 2021, 07:26 PM

I've seen Z490 boards at RM7xx-8xx price range before, but those look super dodgy. Maybe good enough for 10400 since they look useless for CPU overclocking. Even then, for the limited feature set apart from memory overclocking, it's still a bad buy vs B460 boards considering how few ports they have, not to mention other potentially downgraded features (e.g. maybe Realtek 887 instead of 1220). Was fun watching HWU roast the entry level Asrock Z490 boards for being utter garbage, and then getting blacklisted as a result of that review.

Meanwhile, still struggling to hit 3800 RAM speeds and 1:1 with IF clock with my 5800X and B550 Phantom Gaming ITX. Not sure if motherboard or BIOS issue, or maybe my CPU's IMC is a lemon. Strangely enough I can run it stable with either 1900 IF Clock or 3800 RAM in decoupled mode just fine, just not both in tandem.

Wrong thread, post in Nvidia section?

Ivy Bridge doesn't need excessively fancy VRM in Z77, not to mention MYR3-3.40 vs the US dollar back then instead of 4.xx over the past 4 years. VRM doesn't need to be fancy as long as you know what you're going to do with that board. I'd rather manufacturers make cheaper VRMs but block those boards from running 10700K/5900X or faster designs. Even then, paying RM800 for a Z490 Phantom Gaming 4 is a ripoff - garbage VRMs and hugely cutdown ports and features makes that board worth less than many B460 chipset mobos. I personally chose the B550 board I have only (Asrock Phantom Gaming ITX) because it fits a NH-C14S, has a USB-C front header, and more usable USB ports than the only other board that meets the first criteria (Asus B550 Strix-I) - although its VRM is just a bit worse than the Gigabyte B550, it wasn't a factor in me buying it.

Speaking of mobo designs - even then quite a few Z97 boards had VRM downgrades over some of the preceding Z87 boards they're replacing, IIRC. Middle of last decade was quite disappointing for tech apart from graphics cards - so many downgrades in designs (cases and mobos), or barely any incremental updates over previous years (Intel CPUs thanks to AMD Faildozer being utterly uncompetitive).

Lots of components used in motherboards have shot up in price or are simply unavailable, Gigabyte had to release v2.0 boards with revised VRM designs for many of their range due to that.

This post has been edited by yimingwuzere: Jan 27 2021, 03:17 PM

Wonder what RAM kit are you using. Can it go to 3733 or even 3800?

We need an Intel thread... maybe Intel gurus here like @cstkl1 can make one.

This post has been edited by yimingwuzere: Jan 26 2021, 08:10 PM

At least you can hit 3800. I can get 3733 very easily but I can only get 1900 IF clock or 3800 RAM, not both together.

Micron revE here, still working on the finishing touches on tightening tertiaries then reducing voltages at 3733. Lowest primaries that is TM5 anta777 stable is 16-8-19-15-23, although tRAS might incur a performance penalty at that low numbers since it should ideally match tCL+tRCDRD.

Sweet config. If I may ask, which board + CPU are you using?

I've still no idea if the inability to hit 3800 is due to CPU or mobo/BIOS issue. Wondering if swapping the CPU would help.

Good to know. I presume my CPU's SOC is a dud then?