Looking for a new motherboard

I cant deal with this incessant bios error on my dell so Ive decided to look for another motherboard. I ve read that I should stay away from realtek. And I will probably go with a mb that has been out for a year or so. I want to do a ryzen 7 and a rx gpu but need to first decide on a mb. Looking for recommendations and pros and cons. Also what would be optimum specs/ features for eos?

I’m using a MSI PRO B650-S WIFI with Ryzen 7 and RX 7800 XT graphic card.
Bios can be updated right without any problems.

You’re going to be in pretty good hands with a decent Asus or MSI board. I base this on nearly 30 years of experience building PC’s, with those two brands having proved their reliability in very demanding workloads. I would not recommend Gigabyte, as it has failed in that regard. Which to get will also depend on compatibility limitations of your current gear and case.

You may need to be more specific as to your concern with Realtek, as they make many things (eg: audio, LAN, WiFi).

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That board seems decent. DDR 5 at that. I was expecting it to cost more.

MSI do deliver good bang for buck (an edge over Asus).

Oh. I meant wifi.

Hello!

Is Realtek that bad on Linux? If so could you tell me please why?

EdIt: I am asking because I wanted to recommend the TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI. But it has a Realtek Lan Chipset (RTL8125).

I think its like the nvidia problems many Linux users have. Thats why Im not going nvidia this time. Realtek wifi drivers seemed to be a problem back when I bought my dell. I made sure to get an intel and have had not one problem with it. Maybe its not a problem now…

My impression is that realtek got better over the years and intel got worse. I am speaking of Lan chipsets.

Intel network card are better supported then Realtek and don’t/less rely on CPU as Realtek does.
I own motherboards with Intel chipsets and never have any issues with that.

This does not necessarily mean that Realtek is bad but i’ve seen more issues with them as with Intel.

As for motherboard brands i use MSI or Asus. I have had Gigabyte in the past but there seems to be a lot more trouble with them (bios issues, issues with specific powersupply’s) and the have different hardware versions but don’t get fooled about that because they do this to cut corners and make later hardware versions with cheaper components.

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I’m extremely happy with my ASRock. Firmware updates are incredibly simple as well. Just write to usb, go to firmware and instaflash will update right there. I’ve literally never once had windows touch any part of this computer. It was very easy to build on.

I don’t know an incredible amount of about everyone, but I’d avoid MSI mobo just like I would avoid their computers.

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I recommend the following list of MB manufacturers:
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No, seriously, they are all bad. There isn’t a single consistently reliable and reputable one. Unfortunately, you have to buy one of them.

As for Realtek vs Intel network chips, it isn’t that cut and dried anymore. It depends on the specific model.
The one specific thing I can tell you to avoid is Asus AM5 boards with Intel 2.5Gbs ports. There is some issue there that Asus hasn’t fixed. Lots of reports of issues on both Linux and Windows.

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Tired of flakey extreme-spec boards from Asus and Gigabyte, I am back on AsRock B650E Taichi Lite and never going back.

My gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE V2 is completely acceptable for my needs. I use it with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700G, integrated graphics card only because my budget was not sufficient for a graphics card at the time. I later upgraded to an AMD Radeon RX 6600.
I can surf, play games, watch and edit movies and edit pictures. Updates are installed either with Q-Flash or via USB stick.
As several users have already pointed out above, each board has its pros and cons

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About 6 months ago, I did a ton of research on AM5 boards for my own purchase.

Here are some general things to consider:

  • Within reason, manufacturer doesn’t matter that much. It is more about the specific board.
  • Make sure you understand your needs before going on. Given AM5’s platform longevity consider if you should consider future needs as well.
  • The boards are often configured incredibly differently even within each manufacturer. Pay careful attention to what you are getting.
  • Some of the entry level boards have really poor power handling characteristics. Be sure to research this. Unless you are overclocking, you probably don’t need monstrous power handling but some of the boards can’t even hit the base specs which will throttle some of the faster CPUs.
  • For most use cases, B650E is more than sufficient. X670E is not always worth it. In most cases, a mid-range B650E board will be better than an entry level X670E board but that isn’t always the case so you need to do the research. For that matter, depending on your needs, an entry level B650E needs might be more than enough.
  • There is quite a bit of variation on how each board uses it’s PCIe lanes so be sure to understand that. Remember that AM5 only has 4 lanes connecting the CPU to the chipset so if a board hangs too much IO off the chipset, you may be bandwidth constrained. This is especially true if you want to run multiple high-speed NVMe drives or other PCIe devices.
  • Be sure to read reviews both consumer and professional reviews.

I have both an MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk and an ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-E GAMING WIFI and both have been fine for the respective use cases I had for them. The Asus board does have that Intel network issue I mentioned above but I knew about that before I purchased it. It was really hard to find a board that supported 4 nvme drives without bandwidth starving them.

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What model?

I go with one brand. Asus hardware has been good and has never given me any issues. I always work with PC hardware (my job used to be in this field). Asus and MSI gave me a lesser amount of problems compared to other brands. I would touch a gigabyte with a 10-inch pole.

Pick a model and do research as @dalto says if that doesn’t fit your needs pick the next one. It’s up to you we can only give you some advice but it falls on you. Because one model that works for someone here might not work well for you.

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Interesting. The Asus seems to be the winner on the versus site.

Versus is a meaningless clickbait site. The same is true of almost all those “comparison” sites.

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I use https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare for CPU comparison. It is the best tool I found for a decent comparison based on various industry-standard benchmarks, not user reviews. Also the data is presented in a very easy to digest way.

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