Choosing A Motherboard Advice Needed

[sakers92]

Hi, im planning a new build this year and just wanted to know if this will be as i expect, i have tried researching compatibility to death, however i thought that last time and didnt make great choices when i specced it on the website. This time i will be building it fully by myself.

I have had major issues choosing a Motherboard, all of the ones i looked at seem to have common, ongoing issues with either BIOS, RAM (despite being on their QVL lists) or storage devices. ASRock seem to be the best option.
I wish to run the GPU on PCIe 5.0x16. Two M.2 drives on PCIe4x4 and a SATA SSD. I want them to be running at max speeds without sharing lanes.

The Motherboard im planning on getting is: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asro..._across_google

The RAM: https://www.gskill.com/product/165/3...238G32GX2-TZ5N
On the QVL list, this kit has an R added, this appears to just determine whether its an RGB kit or not, so that should be fine?

The Storage Drives: 2x https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-bl...hd-58g-wd.html
1x Buy 2TB 870 EVO SATA SSD Card MZ-77E2T0B | Samsung UK

I know a 2TB drive is overkill for just the OS and standard programmes, but from a price and availability point of view, its the most cost effective PCIe4 drive on the QVL list i think. Id rather have matching brands whether relevant or not. I couldnt find a 500GB or 1TB thats was both in stock AND on the QVL list.

Full intended build list here: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/QXGprM

Thanks for reading.

[veeg]

Hello

Is your new build for a gaming pc or just normal use ?

[sakers92]

Hi, it will be used for gaming 99% of the time. Intentions are a super solid 4k gaming system. Other use would be light and minimal, web browsing, movies, music etc.

[veeg]

OK

Let me get you some help..

@Pyro @Malnutrition

[phillpower2]

DDR6 Release Date: Is Next-Gen Ram Coming Out in 2025?

I have had major issues choosing a Motherboard

You decide on the CPU and then the MB and only once you have settled on both do you move on, the next hardware to be chosen is the RAM and you must make sure that any RAM is compatible with both the CPU and the MB, the RAM on your parts list is not compatible with your CPU with AMD only guaranteeing compatibility with RAM up to DDR5 5600MT/s, you can confirm this for yourself here.

Overall a very nice parts list but at a cost and with a lot of waste.

[sakers92]

Thanks for the reply, the chosen CPU is definitely the one I will be using.

In regards to the RAM, I had no intention of using EXPO or XMP which Is why I thought the selected kit would be ok.
There are no 64GB 5600MT/s kits at all on the QVL list for this Motherboard. I looked at other boards, and aside from the official forums having countless issue threads, all the 64GB 5600MT/s compatible kits had a high CAS latency, 38 or 40, which (correct me if I’m wrong) have an impact on gaming. Is 64GB overkill?

What items would you consider ‘waste’ ? Because if I can cut cost on the build I’m more than happy to do so.

The components I ultimately want 100% are the CPU and GPU. And my Games to run from an M.2 drive. I’m open to change anything else.

[phillpower2]

Go here and you will find Kingston jedec 5600MT/s RAM that has your ASRock MB on its compatibility list Show all systems that work with this memory

The lower the CAS latency the better and while 64GB is overkill now already having it will save you upgrading later.

You don`t need all those SSDs, the cooling fan pack, any cooler will have compound pre applied, regarding coolers, you may want to read the article here

I`m not too sure on the prices of the latest GPUs and thought that none were available for the RTX 5000 range as of yet.

[sakers92]

Thanks for that link to the RAM, I was purely looking at compatibility from the Motherboard list, I thought it would be more accurate than the individual RAM vendor, but I’m no expert and it shows.

Isnt a CAS of 46 quite poor though? Again, this may show my lack of knowledge but the majority of places I looked for info said to not bother with any ram with higher than 40, for DDR5 when it comes to gaming, obviously for normal use there’s noticeable difference.

I only added the fan cooling pack because the case comes populated with 3 140mm fans, and i will have space for 5 120mm after the GPU and CPU rads are fitted, the airflow provided works out more via 4 120mm front intakes than 3 140mm at the cost of noise, and fan noise is irrelevant to me personally due to my audio setup.

In regards to the SSDs I agree, the Samsung Sata is already loaded up with my movies and music though so i have that already.
Is there any benefits to having the OS on its own drive? Otherwise I can drop one of the M.2s.

The 5000 series released yesterday, however I have no hope of getting one in the UK anytime soon, I really want the Suprim Liquid but next batch is expected in 3-16 weeks, and i may miss the next pre order slot anyway, so il settle for the 4000 series.

I’m disappointed about the cooler, il have a look into other options there.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for that link to the RAM, I was purely looking at compatibility from the Motherboard list,

You are welcome but sorry to say that is the wrong approach, for as to why please see my canned info below;
A CPU must be compatible with a MB whereas the RAM has to be compatible with both the CPU and the MB, this because a MB can be compatible with faster CPUs than the one in your list of parts and MB manufacturers often state RAM speeds that far exceed that which any compatible CPU can handle, this is misleading at the least or dishonest at worst.

[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]Isnt a CAS of 46 quite poor though?
[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]

In regards to the RAM,[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)] I had no intention of using EXPO or XMP
[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]
Already answered above in my reply #7 but to add to lower CAS Latency being better I will mention that the above is limiting your options;

I only added the fan cooling pack because the case comes populated with 3 140mm fans,

The case already has very good cooling so all you should need is a decent CPU cooler and the often overlooked good cable management.

In regards to the SSDs I agree, the Samsung Sata is already loaded up with my movies and music though so i have that already.

Being that the drive was listed on your parts list and you made no mention of it we were not to know.

Is there any benefits to having the OS on its own drive? Otherwise I can drop one of the M.2s.

Again see my canned info below that covers this, something that I will mention here is that you should not keep all your eggs in one basket as in rather than have numerous internal storage devices always have at least one external where you can create regular back ups to, for data that you truly value you should always have a back up elsewhere such as the Cloud etc.
Reasons why Windows should always be installed on either its own drive or on a separate partition on a larger drive;

It reduces the amount of free space that is required to be kept available + it makes creating a regular back a whole lot easier.

It helps avoid corruption and malware attack.

Windows will boot up quicker on its own partition as it does not need to install drivers for any third party programs.

A 256GB SSD or separate partition on a larger capacity drive should be the minimum capacity allowed for.

The 5000 series released yesterday, however I have no hope of getting one in the UK anytime soon, I really want the Suprim Liquid but next batch is expected in 3-16 weeks

Not sure why it was included on your parts list then

You are potentially spending a lot of money here so I need to be straight to the point, I don’t think that you are ready just yet, you want a 5000 series GPU but can[ICODE]t get one just yet and the next best 4000 cards are still right up there in price so if me I would wait until you can get a 5000 series card, you will regret it if you don[/ICODE]t after having spent a big chunk of cash on something like a 4080 or 4080 Super while really wanting an MSI RTX5090.

Also worth keeping in mind is that you should not purchase a PSU until all hardware has been decided on and availability 100% confirmed.

The cooler I will leave with you while you consider alternatives.[/color][/color]

[sakers92]

Thanks a lot for the very detailed break down, iv read it all, and gone away and reconsidered my options.

I’ve made an updated decision which I will go into more detail in my next post.
Apologies this is a bit of a ‘non relevant’ update but I’d logged onto the site a few times and didn’t want it to appear as though I’d abandoned the thread.

[sakers92]

Ok so in regards to not using EXPO, this was because i know that the original ram i selected was over the CPU max recommended, so i planned to just set it to 5600 for compatibility. It was the only way i could seem to configure a lower CAS at that speed, as no native 5600 kits are lower than 40.

I’ll not bother with the fans then. Il see how the temps are without first, i suspect you are right and cooling will be fine. However i will add a single extra 140mm as i cant look at the case with an empty slot :ROFLMAO: I have to route cables on occasion for work so cable management will be strict!

Agreed i wasnt clear with the SSD, my bad. i mainly added it to the parts list in case it would affect any of the motherboard lane speeds.

I kept 1 of the Western Digital 2TB M.2 drives, but found a cheaper 500GB M.2 for the OS. The ADATA Legend 850 LITE, its £60 and on the memory QVL of the board, as is the 2TB drive.

The 5000 series was on the list as i, along with many thousands of others expected there to be cards available to buy on release day, the USA had just over 200 5080/90s combined and the UK had half of that! maybe less.

I’v decided to get the 4090. I can get one for between the price of the 5080 and 5090, which is where its performance sits. The 5090 in such small stock will be in demand for months at a premium price over MSRP, my current TV for my sim rig isnt going to last that long, its failing me after 10 years, hence the upgrde to 4k and needing better than my current 3080. I will still have a watercooled 4090 GPU which is what i wanted for this build, and gains from the 5090 arent so much that i will be disappointed.
I’v spent the weekend thinking hard about this.
Current benchmarks for the racing titles i play, even allowing for future releases show that the 4090 will not be obsolete at 4k 120hz for a good few years. All non racing games i play will be at 1440p, which the card is overkill for anyway. I didnt add this point to my original post as i made it before the very dissapointing 5000 series launch day. And i didnt know how low supply was.

I could probably get away with a 1000w PSU for the build, but i figured a bit of extra headroom wouldn’t hurt. Prices between good rated brands 1000w and 1200w didnt seem to be alot. However i can try and find the cheapest option.

The cooler review on second glance doesnt seem to mention the 420mm variant of the cooler. In that size, the arctic seems to be the best from what i can find other than the corsair h170, but i dont want RGB though or needing any programmes to turn it off etc. The size of cooler is overkill you may think, but the case is big, i would like to utilise the space given, and the cooler fan size matches the case fans.

[phillpower2]

You are welcome and I must say that you appear to have everything in hand and pricewise I couldn’t find better for less when it comes to your choice of PSU.

Just a fwiw;

Ok so in regards to not using EXPO, this was because i know that the original ram i selected was over the CPU max recommended, so i planned to just set it to 5600 for compatibility.

Crossed wires there and in all honesty it would have been less confusing had you said the below;

In regards to the RAM, [COLOR=rgb(44, 130, 201)]I will be manually overclocking the RAM to 5600MT/s and have no intention of using EXPO or XMP which Is why I thought the selected kit would be ok.
[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgb(44, 130, 201)]
The reason why I went off and found RAM with a jedec of 5600MTs was because I thought you wanted such a RAM speed but without having to overclock it at all, doh [/color]

[sakers92]

The reason why I went off and found RAM with a jedec of 5600MTs was because I thought you wanted such a RAM speed but without having to overclock it at all, doh

Apologies for that, I’m absolutely terrible at converting brain to text clearly, I don’t know why it’s so different than brain to speech for me, wasting your time was not the intention!

I’m happy with the build now and massively appreciate the pointers and info given.

I have saved some canned info from you regarding the correct process to install windows, chipset and graphics drivers in the proper order etc.

Are there any other important things to know when building a fresh PC? Aside from the obvious of avoiding static, and being extra careful with installing the CPU into its slot?

I will have a search of the forum anyway just to make sure I have as much preparation as possible.

Thanks again

[sakers92]

I seem to have an error in editing my last post so just to add,

In regards to the topic, I have settled on my choice of motherboard so this is fine to be marked as closed.

[phillpower2]

wasting your time was not the intention!

No ones time was wasted, it was good exercise (y)

In regards to the topic, I have settled on my choice of motherboard so this is fine to be marked as closed.

Great but any questions along the way let us know.