B550 or X570
B550 or X570
I'm looking to purchase components for setting up my new PC. I'm planning on a 5600X and probably a 3060 Ti or 3070, though I haven't finalized the choice yet. I'm interested in comparing opinions about choosing a solid B550 board—like the MSI Tomahawk—versus a mid-range X570 such as the ASUS TUF gaming series. I'll be using an NVME drive for the operating system and some games that load quickly or are played often. I'm not sure if the main advantages of going with the X570 are beyond its multiple Gen4 PCIe lanes for storage, but I want to know more. Ideally, I'd prefer the X570 Tomahawk, though it's currently out of stock at the MSRP I can find.
Playing games and possibly streaming if I get more comfortable with it.
I've already selected B550. If costs matched, I'd choose X570, but for most users B550 covers everything well. For heavy USB usage, boards like the X570 ROG are ideal, though I haven't felt much draw to a motherboard nearly priced like the CPU unless you really need it. Opting for a lower-end X570 gives you some PCI-e speed, but misses other key features. The extra bandwidth seems unnecessary unless you're running several graphics cards.
The B550 tomahawk is an excellent board. For RGB enthusiasts, the B550-F Gaming is another solid option. I believe the B550 is the best choice unless you're looking at a very high budget.
Key distinctions include bigger BIOS chips on X570 and compatibility with Zen+ X570 chipsets that use PCIe Gen4. This allows multiple PCIe Gen4 M.2 slots—some B550 boards list 2-3 slots, but those extra slots rely on a split PCIe 16x channel so your GPU can run at Gen4 8x when using more than one NVMe in the proper slot. X570 models with active fans tend to have more USB ports on the rear panel, whereas B550 models usually lack them. Generally, if you're unsure about these features, you likely don't need them and should opt for the B550 instead.