Motherboard Moving from ASUS B760 I to z790, etc...advice needed on best modest price MB

[RAAM]

I meant moderate priced, not modest, at the most $200 but can got a bit higher, getting a more expensive one for a good deal is the aim.


I purposely went with the B series as was not interested on OC the CPU as the i5-13600k is far more CPU than I need and it is not running more than mid 50c on nearly all benchmarks, etc but did get up to around 89c yesterday the first time I ran furmark. Usually no more than 151 watts or so all the other benches I have ran which is most of the. I have an FE 3060 ti I have had great fun learning how to undervolt, etc and using the onboard memory OC...now I want to undervolt the CPU which is partly for fun and partly to save energy as full time in an RV and fan noise reduction, which is not bad as have 12 fans in a fractal ridge case so they seldom have to run at higher speeds.

I want a used, open box, etc MB and have around 25 years Ebay experience so know how to shop safely there but also open box from NewEgg, which sometimes they have no Ebay, is cool as I bought the B760 from them.

I am going to upgrade to a 3080 when the right deal comes along but also keeping my eye on the A770 as things progress there, specs seem to show it should still be much better than current results. My buddy just ordered one so I might get to play with it.

Please let this going to be 72 in a few weeks guy, having fun, need to get back into out major organic garden expansion project should be looking at for the best quality/value mini ITX MB.

Thanks
Rick

 

[RAAM]

Note:
I am aware of the 104 microcode but it does not appear I can switch it on this version of the MB, at least that is how I read it. I am also looking at prior releases of the Bios I am seeing posts about that would work to get to 104...Some of this stuff I am finding is rather vague with more than a few warnings about permanent bad effects....

 

[rfarmer]

Curious what your use case is for the PC. I have a 13600kf and if I am just browsing and watching videos it uses under 15W and when I am gaming it only uses 50-60W. If you aren't doing anything as intensive as benchmarks with your PC don't worry about benchmark temps or watts.

 

[RAAM]

I agree I do not need to do this, just want to as having fun with it. I am not likely to ever need what the whole system can do as it is, my buddy and I keep telling each other what we have done then go look for more unneeded upgrades

Edit: Took out a bunch of yak yak, looked up reviews on the AMD, etc and going to stick with the 13600k I am quite sure. I just want to be able to tune it a bit and I can get an open box, good used, etc Z790 MB pretty low in cost and sell mine which is basically new, will not be all that costly a mod.

Thanks!
Rick

 

[RAAM]

I am now looking more closely at the Z690 boards as can still tweak them, etc and new ones have DDR5 but it seems more limited in overclocking, etc but might not matter since I have the G.Skill 6000 that goes to 6400 with the current board but only up to 6600 with careful tuning which I am not bothering with since I know very little about it.

A few other differences but none that matter to me that I can discern.

I found an open box board for just $149 that seems rather good for the price, it was $350 when it came out.

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

I found an open box board for just $149 that seems rather good for the price, it was $350 when it came out.

Which one?

Some are good, but also some are more like .. meeh. Esp. the MSI one. Extremely disappointing for its regular price.
IF I'm upgrading - instead of continuing on the path of "how small can you go with workstation mATX" - I would pick the Asrock Z690 or the Z790 PG-ITX/TB4. The Z790 version solves a few issues of the Z690 version, while adding both another m2 slot and a second TB4 port.

cu, w0lf.

 

[RAAM]

The Asrock Z690 PG-ITX/TB4 is by far best price I have found and I very much appreciate your recommendation on it

UPDATE: On order, $170 shipped from NewEgg so if anything wrong with it full refund for 30 days. Usually do not have to pay shipping if over $100 but it was only $9.95, rest was tax/

The Z790 version is a great board but the lowest cost I found was $355 plus tax. I have no need for the added m2 slot or TB4 port.

I have read every review I could find on the Z690 PG and it seems a very good board for the money.

My main concern is how well it would work with the G.Skills Ripjaws 2x16 GB CL32 RAM I have. Seems it should be fine.

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More and smaller builds maybe far in the future, too many other things I need to get done first though love the idea of building them.

THANKS!!!
Rick

 

[RAAM]

I just read another review on the board and it seems to have poor VRM cooling so I will do some work on it before even installing it. Mainly take the I/O cover off and take a look into opening up for air flow and ducting the seemingly useless fan so it does something. If that is not enough then I can open it up between whatever fins, etc... and let the CPU fan blow through it.

I will check the BIOS version and update as needed, work around a few issues as I learn more about undervolt, overclock, memory tuning, etc.....

More fun

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

I just read another review on the board and it seems to have poor VRM cooling so I will do some work on it before even installing it. Mainly take the I/O cover off and take a look into opening up for air flow and ducting the seemingly useless fan so it does something. If that is not enough then I can open it up between whatever fins, etc... and let the CPU fan blow through it.

I will check the BIOS version and update as needed, work around a few issues as I learn more about undervolt, overclock, memory tuning, etc.....

More fun

Had this kinda fun in the S396 build, fixed it using a 80 x 15 mm fan, thats stuck in approx a 15 to 20ish degree angle, offset, above the CPU water block. VRM, NVMe etc. dropped from initially up to 49 C, down to 32 C in idle, and 35 C under full load.

I feel like pointing fans at specific spots that are getting hot easily should improve things the most. Its just, that I dont have that much space to do so, but in your case, with the Ridge, things might be easier

cu, w0lf.

 

[RAAM]

Thanks!
You sure went through quite the ordeal fixing issues making it work far better, on the S396, congrats and respect as well as empathy is due

Do you have a way to add one more S to make it SS396, like the Chevelle or Camaro muscle cars? that would be cool.

I found some good pics of the fan used on the VRAM cooler/ I/O cover, terrible design but should be pretty easy to make it far better. I am not one to take or post pics often which is not really a good thing for others and especially since I learn so much from what they have done, I will just have to on this issue.

I am still waiting on a few more things before I post pics of the FR build, liking how it looks mostly, have to clean up a few things so not embarrassed when I post them.

Rick

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

Thanks!
You sure went through quite the ordeal fixing issues making it work far better, on the S396, congrats and respect as well as empathy is due

Do you have a way to add one more S to make it SS396, like the Chevelle or Camaro muscle cars? that would be cool.

in Germany, we avoid using names like SS or SA, for obvious reasons. The rather naive usage of such abbreviations has always astonished me quite a bit.

I am calling it the S396, because its based on the S300, and recently, there has been a new case released, called the S450, which is based on the S400.

I originally wanted to do my liquid cooling mod with the S400, but after several tests, and thorough measurement, I wasnt able to keep its end size below my goal of 11L at max (it would be 12.6L). So I looked for other options, and the S300 cought my eye. After some careful planning and calculations, I decided to go with cutting up a hole in the S300 and dropping the Silverstone Vida 240 on top. The resulting size would most certainly stay below 11 L.

TL;DR: Calculations show that the end size is going to be around 10.5 L, which is approx. 96% of the S400. Hence S396.
So, no car brands involved.

I found some good pics of the fan used on the VRAM cooler/ I/O cover, terrible design but should be pretty easy to make it far better. I am not one to take or post pics often which is not really a good thing for others and especially since I learn so much from what they have done, I will just have to on this issue.

well, I snap an astonishing amount of photos, but since the demiss of my original gallery system (it got hacked because the original developer decided stopping to update it / fix security issues, so I had to put it offline permanently), I've rarely posted images elsewhere. I tried using my blog, but it struggled to keep up when uploading more than 50 images at once (because of the nasty habit of WP to resize everything right after upload), so I stopped that quickly.

But Instagram seems to be a good workaround, at least for now

I am still waiting on a few more things before I post pics of the FR build, liking how it looks mostly, have to clean up a few things so not embarrassed when I post them.

If its because of "unclean" cable routing, just forget about it, and go ahead
Thats a job by itself - as long as things work, no cables are caught in fans, decent amount of airflow etc. all is well

Personally I prefer selected pictures from the building process, with several ones to highlight specific issues or challenges, plus a few ones showing off the end or final intermediate stages, over fancy super-professional, ultra-clean photo shots, that dont depict reality.

cu, w0lf.

 

[RAAM]

Oh my, terribly sorry, huge mistake on my part.........please forgive me, totally uncalled for. I am not one of those jackass Americans, I have been in over 50 countries and always respect traditions, culture, history, etc. I also always made it a point to go out and meet the real locals, not the tourist sites, etc and found they were always very kind and generous everywhere I went.

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I did see the posts on why you called it the S396, read them all in fact and looked at the picture with the external mounted cooler.

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I do have some pics, just wanted to get a few issues sorted out from the custom work I did, not as clean as I usually do the job so I want to fix it up, make a bracket to secure the front fans a bit better and look better, etc....

I agree with posting pics of the process and issues sorted out which I am pretty pleased with so far overall. When the MB arrives is being installed I will address some of the smaller things I want to take care of then get it ready for final pics and anything that shows problems I ran into, etc...

I could not use my dremel so hacked some of the work to fit the front fans using way to be of tools, angle grinder and sander, need to clean it up a little more, and also look into any ducting which I have not needed so far though I thought I would of by now.

Thanks and again, sorry for the poor judgement I showed in the name suggestion.

Rick

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

Oh my, terribly sorry, huge mistake on my part.........please forgive me, totally uncalled for. I am not one of those jackass Americans, I have been in over 50 countries and always respect traditions, culture, history, etc. I also always made it a point to go out and meet the real locals, not the tourist sites, etc and found they were always very kind and generous everywhere I went.

oh, no, I wasnt offended at all
just wanted to point it out. I'm used to people, esp. from the US, not knowing about the topic, and then wondering why one would "dance around the topic", so to speak.

I could not use my dremel so hacked some of the work to fit the front fans using way to be of tools, angle grinder and sander, need to clean it up a little more, and also look into any ducting which I have not needed so far though I thought I would of by now.

Angle grinder feels like a valid option, too. At the end, the Dremel is just a miniature version of that (amongst all the other use cases, as a multipurpose tool).

cu, w0lf.

 

[RAAM]

Thanks for being understanding about this, makes me feel much better

I believe this world will finally sort things out, stop fighting, stop polluting, clean things up and live in peace and enough for all. I also believe this is starting to happen but it takes time and growing pains to take the power back in a peaceful manner. I just hope I get to see much more of this in my years left here, an exciting time to be alive!

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I sold my die grinders, etc when I sold my big air compressor and a few dozen air tools, just no longer needed. I can use a drill and carbide bits for some things, cordless angle grinder and the cordless dremel to do what I need. I have a lot of metal cutting planned, using finished steel roofing to build around 300 sq ft of raised garden beds then filling with 12" of organic soil on top of very deep river bottom soil, things grow great here.

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Just got the Z690 phantom gaming MB and installed it, now looking at tweaking things and trying to figure out if I need to update the BIOS as a year old but seems to run fine.

And checking out the Asrock Motherboard Utility for tuning or just use BIOS or if I need both.

As the B760 bought open box from NewEgg the Z690 looks brand new, just a basic box, a couple of cables, no manual but using the online one for a week already....so far it runs great.

The B760 ASUS their version of XMP set my RAM from 6000 to 6400, the Z790 is keeping it at 6000. I will have to figure out how to tune it up a bit as the board is supposed to support 6400, max the RAM can be tuned I have seen is 6600 but not on 600 series BIOS.

Nice little board, just need to learn more about it.

Rick

 

[RAAM]

The Asrock board works great but it took me awhile to figure out some of the tweaking on it.

 

[nightshift]

The Asrock board works great but it took me awhile to figure out some of the tweaking on it.

I can second that, ASRock's z790 itx board is very nice. It's not perfect as it's missing the bios flashback button (something their z690 itx board have), but if you awnt DDR5, then it's something we have to live with. But the fact that you can have two M.2 drives SIDE-BY-SIDE and in a low profile fashion is genious, perfect for sandwich-style cases where you don't necessarily want to put an M.2 to the rear - between the mobo, riser and gpu.
I like that it looks like an actual motherboard, so no gamery branding BS all over.

Regarding the tweaking, what did you actually do there? I remember when I first entered the BIOS, it was in chineese - so first, I had to find the option to switch language. But aside from setting XMP, the pcie to 3 or 4.0 and fan curves done, what else did you do?