Do or don't, B350 vs B550

[Minotaurtoo]

-How I ended up in this situation:

Ok so I'm one of those guys who bought a B350 early on in the Ryzen experience, and paired it with a R7 1700... then upgraded to a 2700x.... and now running a 3900x in it... 

 

I can get the latest greatest B550 version of my current board for 100$ right now (sale price, normally 160$)

 

-What I'm asking:

Should I do it?

I'm leaning to NO, but am I missing something?  

 

-Pro's of the switch:

NVME support of PCIE 4.0 drives for possible future upgrades as well as native support for 2 NVME drives (currently using an adapter for my second NVME)

 

Better VRM's should I ever decide to take advantage of my custom loop and go for a crazy overclock.

 

Opens up the possibility of CPU upgrade in future as well as faster RAM upgrades (although this is unlikely for me until AM5 comes out)

 

-Cons:

$$ I really don't like spending money for something that probably won't show any real benefit

 

Possibly having to reinstall windows... actually I would likely do it anyway

 

Possibly introduce issues that I don't have, my system now is very stable, as is folded for a week on cpu and gpu without crashing stable.

 

-Side points:

I'm not suffering from overheating VRM's (don't recall ever seeing it go over 60C under stock settings)  oh and I have checked by other than senor methods just to make sure.

 

My current board (asus tuf B350M plus gaming) was one of the many who's vrm's were rated as good enough for the top tier 3000 series cpu's at stock and even overclocking so long as good fans were cooling the VRM's... clicky  For those wondering, I have always and will always dedicate a fan to my VRM's so long as I am using a custom loop

 

The RAM speeds are limited on this board however due to the poor traces, but I am able to run my RAM at it's rated speeds with significantly tightened timings

 

I don't do all core OC'ing although, I have tested and can hit 4.3ghz with no trouble on this board... and although I don't leave it on auto, PBO on auto will usually push an all core of 4.2ghz on it's own

 

Normally I opt for a more power limited scenario just for the point of not using to much power, usually undervolted and power limited to 110w or less... at these settings I get near stock PBO performance but CPU and VRM temps rarely cross 50C under full load.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Minotaurtoo

[Bastiaan_NL]

I don't have an expert opinion on the subject, but if you don't like spending money on something that you might not feel performance wise than I would keep the money in my pocket for something that does make a significant difference. 
On the other hand, $100 is not too expensive and you could sell your B350 for whatever they go for. 

[ENTERPRISE]

Reading your post the benefits to upgrading are:

 

1. PCIe 4

2. Extra NVMe 

3. Future CPU pathway.

 

It sounds like you have a nicely tuned system as it is and you are not having any issues with it. Unless you really want or need any of the above 3 points, I would not upgrade.

 

I mean the upgrade is relatively cheap but you have to factor in time to re-tune the system as well. Not always just about the cost in $.

 

I would personally leave it. Your only missed benefit is PCIe 4, but unless you are needing faster NVMe drives, there is no point. GPU,s do not really benefit from PCIe 4 yet in and meaningful way.

 

[Minotaurtoo]

That's what I was thinking, but wanted to ask just in case I was missing something major... I've been known to not know everything lol... Honestly, the dread of retuning a system is nearly enough to keep me from upgrading even when needed, and right now, thanks to Ryzen my PC is actually exceeding my needs. 

[damric]

I'm not impressed by any of the 500 series boards really. The good ones are way overpriced. Keep that 300 series board until you absolutely must upgrade it for something you actually need.

 

I have three B450 rigs and two X470 rigs and they do what I need. One of the X470s now runs a 5800x with 64GB of RAM without any issues. The other runs a 3600 with 32GB RAM.

 

I don't need faster NVMe drives, I need MORE NVMe drive slots and more USB ports, and that's about the only reason I could see swapping any of my boards out.

[pio]

A little late to the party, but my 2 cents......

I bought a B450 board myself even though X570 and B550 boards were available (got it cheap).  Honestly, those couple of reasons aren't worth an upgrade to me personally.  Adapters work fine for NVME drives if you really have a need for it.  CPU expansion, you've already got a 3900x you said.  My philosophy in this particular instance is going to be, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  Unfortunately with Ryzen CPU's, there's such a limited margin for tuning and overclocking, its just not worth the hassle and cost of upgrading a motherboard alone....in my opinion.

[Minotaurtoo]

well my question may have answered itself today... turned on the pc... boot started... turned off... press power button... turned on but with device digital signature error... powered off and unplugged.... turned on again and voila normal boot... ran some tests (sfc, stress, mem, etc) and no failures... hmmm maybe just a random glitch... turned off and back on... started booting, turned off... ok, this is annoying... tried to get into bios... no go... unplugged, turned on, into bios no issues... turned off fast boot and secure boot... booted into windows just fine.... then power off and power on.... started booting, turned off... tried to just power back on... no good, weird black screen error about possible corrupt file... power off, unplug and power on,  booted normally... soooo... sound like motherboard failing to you?

 

Edit:  now that I think about it I may have been missing some warning signs earlier... about 3 weeks ago one of my USB hubs went out, or so I thought.... I bought a new hub... no good... gave up and just ran wires to the back of the pc, still had issues... finally managed to get everything plugged in a place that it worked.... and my dumb but blamed it on the devices being stubborn and bad connections.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Minotaurtoo

[UltraMega]

I have two B550 systems and neither board was over $100. I don't see much point in spending that much on B550. If you want to spend that much on a motherboard you should be looking at 570 boards imo. 

[Minotaurtoo]

well... despite the fact that I had decided not to do it... the fate gods spoke and said... your motherboard is going to take a dump....so it did... (details above)... like literally right after I had made my mind up not to buy it....

 

I bought the newer version of my board... a much improved one too I might add... kind of impressed actually... many features that I wouldn't really expect on a B550 board...like bios flashback.  There is also a weird "performance enhancer" apparently designed by The Stilt... and it works... not sure if it's stable or not, but it'll hold an all core of nearly 4.3ghz during a cinebench run and under light loads hits and holds over 4.4ghz... and single core it will hit and hold 4.6+ (usually 4.65)... for actual demonstrable improvements, it's only a little bit, but given it actually uses less wattage than PBO and yields better results, I'm impressed....

Thanks again to all who responded, and had I not started having problems, I would have certainly kept my old board

 

TLDR, is it worth buying a new motherboard if you don't have issues with your old board?... Nope.