X670E AMD cards available for various systems.
X670E AMD cards available for various systems.
It's nearing Black Friday, so I wanted to double-check. I'm replacing my old 8700K with a 7950X and planning to upgrade to a motherboard along with RAM and a cooler—since my Kraken X6x doesn’t have a proper bracket. The main concern is finding suitable motherboards. I heard Wendell mentioned a link between NVME and CPU not being fully covered by PCIe standards, especially on Asus boards (possibly the Steel Legend). I found this review about the Steel Legend, which seems to be an ASROCK model. It’s pricier than the original Steel Legend but offers 10GBE—something I already have at home. I’m currently using PCI cards for that in all my laptops. What are good options for a 7950X that could match or beat the Steel Legend price? Also, should I worry about RAM compatibility? I checked some decent CAS DDR5 modules at 6000MHz, but it looks like AMD is more selective than Intel—can I just use any 6000MHz module and still get it to work?
Ram is mainly related to the motherboard. Choose a board you prefer, then look at the QVL for memory. You’ll need to purchase RAM with the EXPO mark, since that’s the AMD version this time for XMP. Following that should work fine. x670E boards have been quite expensive lately, honestly this has been the biggest letdown with the Ryzen 7000 series. Prices have gone up significantly and sales have been low.
Based on what I've learned, a $300 B650 (such as the Aorus Elite) covers everything you need, you're getting rid of the old PCie5 M2 slots without any issues.
I believe most components should work fine since there aren’t many DDR5 interfaces. Affordable options would be the low CL 5600C30 or similar models that come with Hynix M Die, which can support around 7200 and are likely compatible with nearly everything. I’m pretty sure the chipset is widely supported. Higher CL 5600-6400 models might offer Samsung DDR5 dies, but they usually cap around 6600, making low-capacity chips more reliable since they’re guaranteed Hynix M Die. The CPU itself doesn’t really boost performance much, so tuning is necessary to get the best results. Also, avoid going beyond 5600 with low-cap memory—you’ll still get the same chip but pay a premium for little gain. It seems AMD has noticeably slow RAM loading times at first boot, possibly a lingering issue; keep an eye on that.
I prefer strong power handling, usually found on high-end boards rather than hot-running ones, since I have 16 cores working at full capacity. I understand the 670E mainly uses PCI lanes and it works fine on my workstation. Running a Xeon lab setup becomes tricky because I don’t have enough PCI lanes. When I try to upgrade from X16 to X4 or X8 ports for HBA, 10Gbps, or GPU transcoding, it turns into a bandwidth challenge. Normally I opt for the "mid-range" chipsets, but the premium ones cost more. Still, I’m willing to keep going because the savings are significant and I’ve seen boards with excellent cooling thanks to better power management. The ability to adjust voltage to the CPU lets me run at 65-100 watts without much speed loss. It helps keep things cool—my RTX3080 has stayed nice around 58°C instead of overheating. Lower noise levels and a 100-watt reduction are plus points. Compared to a B650, a 7600X board would be better if I choose that path.