Topic solely for selection of motherboard for your AM4 Ryzen CPU based system.
Focused on video editor needs
I'll be adding systematic info post by post.
Ideal modern video editor motherboard must allow:
Best CPU info
We are searching board for 8-16 core CPUs, it is not much reason to look for other CPUs.
Ryzen is gaming/consumer CPU with serious IO shortcomings by design (but less serious compared to Intel consumer line).
Note Actual Ryzen 1xxx or 2xxx die has full 32 PCIe 3.0 lines, but it had been decided that it will be too nice to allow consumer PCs to use them all. References that somehow AMD does not have free pins in socket is absolute bullshit.
Note! Ryzen 2200G or 2400G are designed such way that they provide only 8 PCIe 3.0 lines to GPU instead of 16x and they can't be split.
So, forget about idea of using them for any advanced tasks.
Chipset difference
If you look carefully you understand that you must avoid B350/B450 chipsets at all cost, not mentioning A320.
Note about bifurcation/split. As usual in capitalism - it is artificially removed and disabled feature. On Asrock ITX B350/B450 boards such options is present and works. It had been done due to large request from users/buyers and some other companies do this (keeping silence so it won't become open knowledge among too many, yet you still need to modify BIOS to enable SLI). But even with such options it is horrible life as you need custom impossible to find riser and turning GPU card into vertical state or such.
SSD performance limits on Ryzen
Second M.2 slot on almost all boards where it is present will be using PCIe 2.0 x2 or x4 mode (except x570 chipset!).
PCIe 2.0 per-lane throughput is 5GT/s or 500MB/s of actual data transfer per lane. x2 will be capped at 1GB/sec recording/reading and x4 at 2GB/sec recording/reading, no matter if the limit of SSD you put in it is higher.
First M.2 slot uses four dedicated v3.0 lines. Single PCIe 3.0 lane at 8GT/s, can send 985MB/s. This limit is close to 4GB/sec.
For x570 chipset all lines will be PCI 4.0 lines, double the bandwidth of PCI 3.0.
Network stuff
Ideally we want 10Gbit adapter, but most probably you will need free x4 slot for one - check https://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/21364/making-10gbit-network-using-sfp-adapters-for-cheap#Item_11
Among 1Gbit always aim for Intel, it is not much difference but saves little CPU load and lot of your nerves.
Temperatures
Lot of X370 and X370 boards can run hot if you use overclocking on 8 core CPUs or 12-16 new Ryzen 2 CPUs.
Main reason for this is simpler and cheaper VRM and also bad heatsinks being just slab of aluminium made be designer without any fine fins.
Heatsink designs
In present day it is usually designers who make heatsinks even for expensive motherboards.
They are made for looks, and not to be efficient in their real function.
Bad small one (ASUS TUF x470-Plus)
Better one (ASRock Pro4 boards)
Almost good (Asrock X470 Taichi Ultimate)
Really nice (Gigabyte Aorus X470 Gaming 7 WiFi)
Nice construction features to look for
Armored PCIe x16 slots
Nice feature, as it makes it impossible to accidently damage slot pulling big card and forgetting the slot lock.
Armored memory slots
Not so important, but makes slots much more reliable and prevent damage during some accident during big cooler mounting. Or if you try to pull stick in small full case.
AMD B350 Chipset Issues on AsRock B350 Pro 4 motherboard sample
This motherboards is affordable and frequently recommended by people, so let's see that is main issue.
You installed good powerful GPU with good cooling, it takes x16 slot and also makes really unusable one PCIe x1 slot.
You also like fast NVMe SSD for your system drive. So, top M.2 Slot will be filled with it.
But due to this second x16 looking slot having same PCIe 3.0 lines will be disabled.
Won't be able to install second GPU, or 10Gbit adapter, or second M.2 adapter.
Second M.2 is ... SATA only (same on all their B350 boards, they made it better on B450).
Locations of both M.2 slots are good from thermal point of view.
Board lacks USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, and you also won't have free slot to put suitable adapter if you use NVME SSD.
Realtek 1Gbit is not at all bad, but Intel is little better with lower CPU load and drivers.
Finally - VRM, AB350 Pro4 ISL95712 based 3 x 2 phase design, 3 real phases with double of elements in each one, average coolers. Not bad for cheap MB, but not top solution by far.
Overall - nice cheap board for gamers, but really bad for any editing guys.
Example of really bad AMD x370 board - AsRock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming X
Lacks USB 3.1 Gen 2 still.
Big difference is that now if you took up top M.2 slot with SSD you can split x16 slot and into two x8 ones.
If you do not work with raw 6K/8K it won't be noticeable, otherwise it'll hit performance some.
Now we go into humble low M.2 slot and it's PCIe 2.0 x2 mode.
PCIe 2.0 per-lane throughput is 5GT/s or 500MB/s of actual data transfer per lane. So, it is capped at 1Gb/sec recording/reading.
For comparison - top slot uses four v3.0 lines. Single PCIe 3.0 lane at 8GT/s, can send 985MB/s. It is 4 times more maximum possible speed for SSD, good SSD's are close to this numbers in sequential reading speeds.
For this board you have to kill a lot of wishes. Can have one high speed NVMe SSD, but forced to use second low speed NVMe SSD, can add 10Gbit network adapter, but forced to use USB 3.1 Gen2 port on your NAS/server.
Locations of both M.2 slots are good from thermal point of view.
Has Intel network adapter, it is little better with lower CPU load and drivers.
Finally - VRM, AB350 Pro4 ISL95712 based 4 x 2 phase design, 4 real phases with double of elements in each one, below average coolers. Not so good, typical for mainstream x370/x470 boards.
Example of almost good affordable board - MSI X370 Gaming Plus / Pro
It is really affordable board and mostly suit our needs.
Two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports are present and it uses good ASMedia ASM2142 x2 PCIe 3.0 controller.
So, we now need to find place for GPU, pair of NVMe SSDs and 10Gbit controller (as on board we have only 1Gbit Realtek).
First SSD goes to M.2 slot - and location of this slot is biggest shortcoming of this board, as it is directly under hot GPU. You need either good heatsink for SSD or can use solutions that use M.2 cable and mount in 2.5" place like some Intel Optane drives.
Second SSD can put into x8 split PCIe second slot and keeps full x4 speed.
Third PCIe 2.0 x4 slot is good for 10Gbit network adapter.
Finally - RT8894A based 4 x 2 phase design, 4 real phases with double of elements in each one, average coolers. Typical for mainstream x370/x470 boards.
And all this for real cheap (price during sales for this is ala $100).
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-Gaming-Ryzen-X370-Motherboard/dp/B06XQ5V3R4
Best affordable board - MSI X470 Gaming Plus
It is really affordable board and changes made compared to x370 are very good.
Two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports are present and it uses ASMedia ASM1143 x2 PCIe 2.0 controller.
So, we now need to find place for GPU, pair of NVMe SSDs and 10Gbit controller (as on board we have only 1Gbit Realtek).
First SSD goes to top M.2 slot - location of this slot is good and it won't be hot as on older board where it is directly under hot GPU.
Second SSD can put into x8 split PCIe second slot and keeps full x4 speed.
Third PCIe 2.0 x4 slot is good for 10Gbit network adapter.
You can also use second M.2 slot for SSD - it is x4 PCIe 2.0 one, not fastest but if your drive is slow it can save you little money on PCIe-M.2 card. Note - second M.2 slot use same lines as lowest of cards slots (PCIe 2.0 x4 one).
Finally - RT8894A based 4 x 2 phase design, 4 real phases with double of elements in each one, average coolers. Typical for mainstream x370/x470 boards.
And all this for real cheap $129 retail non sales price.
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-X470GPLUS-Performance-Graphics-Motherboard/dp/B07CF31C1Q/
Little hidden secret - aka front USB 3.1 Gen2 connector and USB speed
If you like to have USB-C Gen2 or USB-A Gen2 connectors you need board with such internal connector.
Otherwise will need to make some custom good elongation cables and it is easy to mess stuff at 10Gbps.
Asus for now is best among companies who support such connectors. Usually it is also top and last boards that have it.
None of board mentioned above has such connector.
Also around 99% of cases lack build in ports with such connector, so you will need to get separate one.
or for type A
Note that some or all ports can be also implemented using ASMedia ASM1143/AMS1142 chips
They can't reach USB 3.1 Gen2 speed limit due to bus constrain.
for comparison ASM2142 is better and AMS3142 is best
On some Asus boards you have rear ports using slower ASMedia controller and front header using internal AMD chipset lines.
List of all X370 and X470, only ATX sized motherboards
I do not include Biostar here.
Red - something not good or missing feature.
Blue means - ok or average.
Teal - above average.
Green - really good for us.
Boards go from worst to best in the list for each brand and same chipset.
AsRock
Gigabyte
MSI
Asrock and Asus completed two last to follow soon.
GREAT. THANKS FOR THIS
All heatsinks info added.
Useful video on thermals (include actually multiple x470 boards results)
Offset voltage and its usage
X470 Aorus Gaming Wi-Fi 7 motherboard is first that officially got Gen 4 PCI support if you use Ryzen 2.
Update (AMD decided to disable such features to sell more very profitable X570 boards):
Almost all MB with 128Mb BIOS chips will have old Bristol Ridge CPUs excluded to make room for new Ryzen 3000 models.
How to use list above to select MB that will also work nice with 12-16 core Ryzens
It is all simple, just look for boards where VRM part is colored green, like
And after this check for BIOS update, as far as I know all 100% green boards will get proper support, and many will get even PCIe 4.0.
X570 boards
ASRock
ASUS
Some ASUS boards support PCI-Express 4.0, as manufacturer did not followed AMD recommendations for now
After it had become known that PCI-Express 4.0 work fine on most boards for two important slots - top PCIe x16 and M2 one (even x370) AMD and leading vendors went into marketing panic mode.
As they made special cartel agreement to keep X570 board margins around 5x (yes target point had been 5 times more profits for both AMD and companies) compared to X470 ones.
So having 4.0 working could impact x570 sales a lot, as around 5% of people use second GPU now. And only around 0.2-0.5% will use two of them that support 4.0 version.
Also note that B450 boards actually have better x16 version working as all lines go direct, while on X470 boards half of signals go via Asmedia switchers, hence you can't have 4.0 working, as switchers can work only in 3.0 mode.
Updated VRM info to actual state for ASUS and Asrock X570 boards.
MSI and Gigabyte will be posted soon.
Updated all slots, audio and minor things with official specs for ASUS and Asrock X570 boards.
MSI and Gigabyte will be posted soon.
MSI X570
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