Help Picking MOBO: Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX ICE vs MSI X670E MAG Tomahawk WiFi +Others***

KYSOMT

I mostly use my computer for audio production, but I game from time to time.

Things that do not matter.
-on-board sound
-wifi
-more than 5 total USB (preferred is 1 fast lane that I can use a dongle/dock)
-flash bios bottoms

Things that do matter
-PCIE x16 4.0 GPU
-PCIE x4 Random sound production hardware like bus cards (UAD cards for example).
-M.2
that connects directly to the CPU (helps with latency at times. I
install my OS on its own drive. I have a second m.2 that keeps samples I
use in projects. Having 2 M.2s connected to the CPU lanes is really
nice. It keeps things simple. The MSI Mag is quite dumb in terms of
lanes, as they're designed around someone connecting a PCIE adapter,
over just having a second m.2 connected  directly to the CPU.

In all importance, m.2 is quite high on that list and/ or PCIE.


I
bought the MSI Mag Tomahawk, but not really a fan of it yet. If I
change the RAM settings in the BIOS, it takes 3 mins to boot ( it
doesn't like change it seems).

I'm
also not a fan of the MSI center, as it includes ad marketing software
from Microsoft with OneDrive, and Adobe. First time ever using MSI,
might be my last.

Does
anyone have opinions between these two boards that can help me pick a
motherboard for my workflow? I could use this MSI, but to get what I
want in m.2 usage (without using chipset), I have to purchase a PCIE to
m.2 adapter or just take it back and get the Gigabyte one.

Three boards I'm currently looking at.

MSI X670E MAG Tomahawk WiFi AMD AM5 ATX Motherboard (I Have This One, But not a real fan yet. Takes forever to boot sometimes, plus PCIE lanes are design odd)
Gigabyte X670E AORUS Pro X AMD AM5 ATX Motherboard

Gigabyte B650 AORUS ELITE AX ICE AMD AM5 ATX Motherboard

PowerSpec_MikeW

@KYSOMT

CPU is 28 lanes. 24 usable. So you get at least one M.2 and one x16 direct to the CPU. Last four depends on the vendor. They can use it for high bandwidth USB or Thunderbolt. Or they can just pin it out as another M.2 direct to the CPU. Looks like the Gigabyte Ice went with the latter.

Training time on DDR5, especially on AM5 can be a problem. And it will generally retrain frequently. Retraining without a change is usually 40 seconds or so on the MSI board. The initial training can take several minutes. The Gigabyte boards do train faster in my experience. The training time does make memory overclocking a lot less fun than it was on DDR4.

KYSOMT

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/55151#Comment_55151

​Hello,

First thanks for responding so quickly. I honestly didn't think anyone
would respond. I returned the MSI mobo and got the Gigabyte X670E Pro X.
Everything was super simple and glad I chose to do it (knock on wood).

Install was super simple as just plugging in everything, and not a single issue
I can remember during setup at all. Plus the fact that Gigabyte has
hotswap basically everywhere on this board just makes it amazon to
configure, like moving out certain m.2s for others during install.

I'm happy I got the 2x gen 5 m.2s and 1x 16 gen 5 for the GPU in the Gigabyte
(even though I don't have any gen 5 items). I've been out of the loop
for computer parts for a while, so I originally assumed that MSI's X670E
would actually be a top-ish board built around being extreme, but it
was more like a budget board that felt really heavy with odd PCIE lanes.

I guess the MSI would be nice if someone had more external expansion, but really threw me a curve ball once I got it together.

So all happy now, and have the RAM on its OC profile with everything reporting correct numbers. Thanks again for the fast reply. Have a nice day.