This seems like kind of a big deal wrt ASUS

JayzTwoCents (the YouTube channel) is “firing” ASUS for lack of motherboard quality control, lack of responsiveness to warranty claims, etc. This distresses me because I always considered ASUS to be rock solid for about the last twenty years. Now whose stuff should I look to for the mainboard in my new system?

Thus far, it seems like ASRock is the most scandal-free (although they’re not historically the best hardware manufacturers).

They’ve all had various missteps over the years, just google Asrock for an immediate example. MSI is probably the worst of 'em, and I’m personally boycotting Gigabyte.

Yeah, agreed on MSI; only reason I have one of their GPUs is the beggar/not chooser GPU shortage we went through.

My board before this one (an ASUS Z170-A) was a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R that was super solid.

I guess the best one can do is wait till a board is fairly mature (at least nine months past launch) and see what the consensus is about it.

EDIT: Actually my previous mobo was the ASUS P8Z68-V-LE and the one called out above was the one before it.

ASRock was spun off from ASUS 20 years ago, they took the rock solid with them. ;)

I am on my 3rd ASRock board with no issues so far.

I’ve got a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master; the board is very good, but the stories about the company are terrible so I can’t blame anyone for keeping clear of them and I agree with Stusser that one doesn’t have to look hard to find issues with any manufacturer. Faith in a brand seems like a trap; whomever seems awful this generation may have a halo the next. That’s not to say reputation is useless, just rather to use it in a “trust but verify” manner.

Honestly the real mistake was buying a new AMD CPU with a new chipset and socket. AMD’s QC sucks. I have a 5950X and it was an absolute nightmare at release-- and that wasn’t a new socket.

It’s been 6 years since I built a system, so I’m woefully ignorant of the CPUs to avoid or buy. It seems that there’s a plethora of CPU models these days, whereas back in 2017 it seemed pretty straightforward: Intel had its Core i3, i5 and i7 lines with about three or four CPUs each. I didn’t look at AMD CPUs then but I assume the situation there was similar.

I’m still leaning toward Intel 12th or 13th gen. i5 or i7? DDR4 RAM still OK? Push for 32 GB or is that overkill?

Hope I can re-use my FD Define R5 case, but it has no USB-C port in front. OTOH I could use a front accessible optical drive bay to house a couple of ports there with the right kit.

If I was building a gaming PC right now I’d go for an AMD value build with a 5800X3D and 32GB DDR4.

Zen4 is too new and has major QC issues. Intel is fine but much less power efficient.

In a month zen4 will be fine and then I’d go with a 7800X3D. Still much more expensive and not really appreciably faster for gaming, but I do love my shinies.

Yeah, I’ve heard that about Intel these days. Wasn’t that the rap against AMD processors a while back, that they were very power hungry and ran hot?

Regardless, I’ll probably have to upgrade my power supply which is I think 8 years old (I did a half-upgrade in 2015 of case, PSU-- a Seasonic 650W-- a GTX 970 and an SSD for a boot drive). I think 850W is the minimum prudent wattage now, right (obviously 80+ Gold and all that for efficiency)? Or go straight to 1 kilowatt?

I would choose the other parts first and size the PSU last. 650MW would probably be ok for all but top end machines, though 8 years is getting on a bit.

PSU really depends on your GPU. If you were to go with a 4070 it’d be perfectly fine. If you feel compelled to buy a new one yes I’d go with 850w.

5800X3D is extremely performant in games. Don’t think of it as settling. Sure the motherboard and memory can’t be reused if you upgrade, but would you really do that anyway?

Thanks for the recommendations and your patience with all these questions. I haven’t had an AMD CPU since the Athlon XP 3500 (IIRC) days, but why not. My current GPU is a 1.5 year-old (roughly) 3060 Ti which I’m pretty happy with for now. I do have four (somewhat aging) HDDs and am one of those weirdos that still has an optical drive (used only rarely).

And thanks, @Alistair. That sounds like a sensible strategy.

650w won’t be a problem for that config. Zen 3 is very mature now, nothing to worry about. Definitely do upgrade your mobo bios though.

That 5800X3D will probably outperform anything short of a 13900K or of course 7800X3D in games. It’s an outstanding value.

BTW @Alistair I would hope that 650 Megawatts would be plenty for even the highest-end PCs! ;-)

1.21 gigawatts should get it done.

Nice.

Luckily my 5900x hasn’t had issues since I got it about months after release.

I’m seriously contemplating a Mac for my next system, not that they haven’t had issues at times. I think my wife has had 2 iMacs flat out replaced, and we also got a big discount to upgrade to a new model when another had an issue, and was no longer available.

Every Asus and MSI motherboards I have owned have been perfect. Currently using an MSI that has stayed on for almost two years.

Gigabyte and AS Rock were both pieces of crap that didn’t hold up more than two months.

Thus, AS Rock and Gigabyte make crap motherboards.