25 years ago as my high school job (****, has it been that long?!?) I worked for a computer shop building computers, tech support for dial up, etc. I had the job through college and got to use every brand of motherboard there is. ASUS was my favorite, especially the old T-Bird mother boards.
I’ve been using ASUS though sheer inertia for 10 years at this point... maybe it’s time to branch out against for my new Ryzen 5950 build?
what I want:
Solid VRM solution for a triple Rad WC build running folding 24x7 when not gaming or working
Integrated fan control
Multi pcie 4 NVME
Linux support for required apps, to change boost profiles
nice to have, not critical
10gbit nic
Bios flashing tools (ex: flash back)
what I don’t want
WiFi (Wired for life)
Disco lights
LN2 support
Integrated audio (seriously, I’ve never used it in a single build - moved from a sound blaster to USB head set years ago)
I’m sure I’ll think of more, but this is the high level stuff
VRMs
If you want a solid VRM solution and want to stick to ASUS, you will have to spend a lot of money to do it. It's reserved for their highest end motherboards. Unfortunately, while I wouldn't say ASUS makes a totally bad VRM on any board, the less expensive options are not the most robust solutions and not the best choice for a 16c/32t CPU. You are going to have to be pretty careful here unless you buy pretty high end. For the most part, any motherboard under about $300 is going to cut corners in a few places to hit that price point. There are a couple exceptions like the MSI X570 Tomahawk, but they are few and far between.
Having said that, pretty much any X570 motherboard will be fine if you do not intend to overclock your CPU. However, when run hard for too long, cheaper VRM solutions may run hot and will therefore be less efficient. Its possible that this could impact boost clocks, although only slightly. The
ASUS TUF GAMING X570 PLUS [WiFi] (Yes, that's really it's name) ran most tests slightly slower than other X570 boards we've tested and it has a pretty basic VRM. Then again, other reviewers didn't necessarily have this problem, so it could have been a fluke with my test sample.
PCI-Express Gen 4.0 NVMe Support
Any X570 chipset based motherboard will have support for PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe slots. As long as you use a CPU that supports PCIe 4.0, your good to go. X570 is the only chipset in the mainstream segment that can do this today. X470 doesn't support it. B550, A520 and even Intel's Z490 do not support PCIe 4.0 today. B550 gives it to you on a single slot, but that's because the primary PCI-Express x16 slot's lanes and an additional 4x lanes for NVMe storage are supplied by the CPU's PCIe 4.0 controller. Thus, they don't come from the chipset at all. A520 doesn't even do that, effectively crippling the Ryzen 3000 or 5000 series to force them down to PCIe 4.0.
Fan Control
All motherboards have integrated fan control. All of them can be controlled via the UEFI BIOS. There isn't a single motherboard using the X570 chipset today that does not offer this. ASUS has the best fan control interface in my opinion, but MSI, ASRock and GIGABYTE are all more than capable on this front. EVGA probably is too, but frankly I haven't worked with one of their motherboards in a very long time.
Linux & Something About Clocks
As for Linux support, I can't help you on that. I do not know if there is any application support for adjusting boost profiles. Frankly, it's probably not needed. A 24/7 stable overclock will be capable of handling anything you throw at it, regardless of the workload. This can be done easily in the BIOS with profiles created for using stock boost or an all core manual overclock. Because I haven't tested any Ryzen 5000 series, I can only speculate as to how they'll work on that front. If history is any guide, then you will sacrifice single-threaded performance when using an all core overclock because you haven't a chance in hell of doing an all core overclock that matches the maximum boost clock of the CPU. It's doubtful that there will be more than one or two cores on the entire CPU that can do this. AMD has been binning these things pretty close to the edge of what the silicon can do.
Suck it up Buttercup (Things you will hate and some workarounds.)
Water Cooling:
Now, here is where the bad stuff starts happening and I unfortunately have to be the bearer of bad news on multiple fronts. First and foremost, you will not need a triple radiator setup. This will not help you at all. A single 360 radiator should be plenty for most people. You could go bigger depending on your case. You really only need roughly a 240mm radiator per component. One for the CPU and one for a GPU if you were going to water cool that. If not, a single 360 would be fine and two would be overkill. Three would be a waste of money and resources. It would also be another failure point for no reason. If you want to do this for aesthetics, be my guest but understand you are literally wasting money on a rad and fans that complicate the system with absolutely ZERO benefit. You can't get sub-ambient doing this and your cooling capacity will already be beyond the what the CPU can generate, and what can be dissipated via the heatspreader, TIM and waterblock's surface area.
10GbE Network Controllers:
On the subject of 10GbE NICs, this is typically the domain of HEDT motherboards if you are lucky. This isn't something you see on the mainstream segment offerings unless they are focused on content creators or workstations. Few are. The DIY PC has basically fallen into a niche of being either a workstation platform for content creation or they are for playing games. The selection of integrated hardware and aesthetics are what separate these two domains unless you step up to workstation or HEDT motherboards. I'm not saying these don't exist, but its a foolish thing to pursue given how few of them exist. The consumer standard is all about 2.5GbE and 5GbE right now. 10GbE is more expensive and there just isn't a market for it in the home. The few users who do need it are more than capable of grabbing a 10GbE adapter and installing it.
These boards do have expansion slots. I would leverage one of those and buy some sort of Intel NIC. Having said that, there are some egregiously expensive options that do come with 10GbE NICs. However, these are not the server grade NICs from Intel. They are usually Aquantia's of some sort. They work, but you have to step up to something like an MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE, which I reviewed
here when the Ryzen 9 3900X launched a little over a year ago. But that board, will come with a lot of stuff you will hate and it costs
$641.06 on Amazon.
Integrated Audio - You are getting it, whether you like it or not.
Now, if what I've said has been disappointing, or infuriating, you are about to feel like I took a dump in your cereal bowl. You are going to get integrated audio whether you like it or not. Not having it hasn't been an option since the late 1990's or very early 2000's. Workstation oriented motherboards skimp on the audio as do lower end motherboards. That's just what has to happen to hit those lower price points. Onboard audio isn't the crap it used to be though. Even the basic Realtek stuff isn't bad. Even so, it's inclusion isn't optional so you are stuck with it. There are NO options where you can avoid it.
Disco Lighting - You are probably getting this too. It's the herpes of the PC world.
As for the RGB LED lighting, it's something you almost have no choice on either. Even content creation focused motherboards often have a glowing logo or something on it somewhere. They won't have the full gamut of RGB LED lighting but most options have varying levels of RGB lighting that ranges from subtle to looking like the Vegas strip at night. However, there are two things to be aware of. Most of them have an option to turn the lights off in the BIOS. You can just kill them right then and there. Secondly, there are a couple of options out there which have no RGB LED lighting whatsoever. The MSI MEG X570 Unify is one such example. It has a good, albeit not crazy VRM.
LN2 Features
LN2 features you will only get on purpose built overclocking motherboards and typically, they are the expensive ones that have many other things you hate. Honestly, an LN2 mode amounts to two things. The first is a jumper or switch on the PCB to enable or disable the mode. The second may be an LN2 mode in the UEFI BIOS itself. It's a feature that's really not invasive, doesn't really cost anything and is very easily ignored and forgotten. Some boards that feature this are actually quite desirable. Robust VRMs, voltage check points and other diagnostic tools that can help you if you have a problem. The boards that have this are overbuilt and while some are like the MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE I mentioned earlier, others are like the ASUS Maximus XII APEX, which are much more streamlined, stripped and purpose built. (They still have RGB lights, no 10GbE, and onboard audio.)
BIOS Flashback
BIOS Flashback functionality is something that you can certainly have on a variety of motherboards but it's usually not on the cheap side. That is, you usually have to spend more than $300 to get it. The MSI MEG X570 Unify does have this feature at
$312 from Amazon. I reviewed the Unify
here.
WiFi - It's a cancer, but it can be cut out.
WiFi is easily avoided. I hate it too as I think it sucks for gaming and blows harder for big file transfers. There are usually WiFi and non-WiFi variants of the same motherboard available. The WiFi suffix is usually added to the board model/name to make distinction easier. So, no problem there.
Quick Summary:
- VRM - Yes. It's not cheap though.
- Fan Control - Yes. All boards have this.
- PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe - All X570 boards have this.
- Linux - No ****ing idea.
- 10GbE NIC- Not unless you want to spend $500+ on a motherboard. Just buy a 10GbE NIC and save some money.
- BIOS Flashback - Yes, but only after about $250-$300 or more.
- WiFi - No problem. You can avoid this easily.
- RGB LED Lighting - Can be shut off on any motherboard. Only a few options spare you from this. It's not worth avoiding in my opinion.
- LN2 Support - Easily avoided, but not a big deal. Really.
- Integrated Audio - You will take it and like it. Even if you don't, too bad. You are getting it anyway.
Some thoughts and Recommendations.
- ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE
- MSI MEG X570 Unify
I wasn't a big fan of the RGB craze when it hit. It's overplayed, but I actually like it. Other trends, not so much. I have never liked some of the consumer networking solutions. I hate WiFi, as its basically crap for gaming or doing real work. You can get a good VRM, but it costs you a little bit of money. There are a couple options out there like the MSI X570 Tomahawk and MSI MEG X570 Unify for that price. Other boards like the ASUS TUF GAMING X570 PLUS WiFi and MSI X570-A Pro are good enough to get by using 8 core CPU's or even 12 core chips at stock speeds. You can overclock the 8 core CPU's all you like with that, but when you step up to an 16c32t CPU, you have to understand that those were HEDT territory just a year ago. They really require beefy VRM's and you just don't get those unless you spend some money.
I used to hate integrated audio. In some instances I still do as I've seen otherwise great motherboards brought down by it. As someone who has been building, upgrading, servicing and reviewing computer hardware in various capacities for two decades, I've been dealing with it a long time. When it first hit the scene I was offended by it. I felt obligated to buy sound cards for systems and I hated having ports on the back of the system that were useless or redundant without having a real purpose. I hated the confusion it brought people trying to figure out which ports to use when there was a sound card in the machine as well. However, we end up with HDMI audio devices, USB headsets have their own cheap DACs in them, and so on. We have tons of audio devices to ignore.
On the subject of 10GbE LAN and a lack of RGB audio, you do have some choices. But there are very few that really give you what you want. I've never looked at one in person but there is always stuff like
ASUS' Pro WS X570 ACE. It's another terrible name but you can find them on Amazon for just under
$400. I can't speak to the VRM off hand. ASUS says it's a 12+2 phase VRM, which sounds good but ASUS literally can't be trusted to tell you the truth about how many power phases their boards have. Many are 4 or 5 phase with two power stages per phase. They aren't true phases by themselves. They give lots of reasons for this, but it's cost cutting primarily. I have to look at the PCB of each one and research them to know what they are doing with each board. I like their products but its hard to speak for their VRM's with their deceptive practices regarding their marketing.
The ASUS Pro WS X570 ACE is probably closer to what your looking for than the others. It's a more mature and reserved design that at least has some more professional focused features. It advertises having a form of IPMI, but doesn't fully commit to saying that. As I understand it, its rudimentary at best. Having said that, it's closer to a workstation board than the gaming boards you will find so prevalent now. It's probably not a great overclocker as most of those features are used on the gaming boards. Though it can do that too. The audio won't be stellar. But it has no RGB LED's. You won't get 10GbE NICs with it though. The MSI MEG X570 Unify is another great option. It's a gaming board but still far more reserved and adult looking. It also lacks RGB LED lighting of any kind.
I know this was a long post, but the industry has changed a lot. Much of what you are asking for simply isn't possible anymore. Onboard audio is here to stay and it costs almost nothing for manufacturers to integrate it. Same with the RGB LED lighting. All of this stuff you don't want can also be turned off. But you can't get rid of it. Sure, ASUS and MSI
(and EVGA I think) have non-RGB models, but most are still focused on gaming.
If you want to narrow this down further, it helps to know your budget and whether or not you have overclocking goals. If you aren't overclocking, you have some more wiggle room on price but if you are overclocking that wiggle room generally goes away and puts you onto the MSI X570 Tomahawk or maybe the Unify.