Just bought a 10850K. What's a good motheboard for it?

Jack Of Owls

Weaksauce
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Header says it. Couldn't resist the recent BH Photo sale ($338.99). My budget for a motherboard is around $200. What do you guys suggest? Asus (heard there is a LAN issue on certain model #s)? MSI Tomahawk? This will be my last upgrade for a few years, I suspect (last cpu/MB upgrade was about 6 years ago) so I want to make it count. Will be carrying over many of my older components from my previous build, including video (GTX 1070 until 3060 becomes more availalble), storage, case, PSU, etc.
 
The lan issues are with the Intel 2.5G ports. If you get a realtek 2.5G it's fine as well as regular 1G port.

Are you looking for M-ATX, ATX or ITX boards?
 
The lan issues are with the Intel 2.5G ports. If you get a realtek 2.5G it's fine as well as regular 1G port.

Are you looking for M-ATX, ATX or ITX boards?

You can resolve the issues on newer production motherboards with Intel i225v network controllers. I have one on my ASUS Maximus XII Extreme. It was problematic at first, but I fixed it by updating the ME and BIOS firmware. I also updated the controller's firmware and the drivers. This resolved the issues. It's been running solid for awhile now.
 
You can resolve the issues on newer production motherboards with Intel i225v network controllers. I have one on my ASUS Maximus XII Extreme. It was problematic at first, but I fixed it by updating the ME and BIOS firmware. I also updated the controller's firmware and the drivers. This resolved the issues. It's been running solid for awhile now.
Mine has been okay, though I still get random latency spikes once in a while after the updates with the Asus ROG STRIX Z490-E Gaming. Did those updates in mid January. I was having major issues before the updates.

Packet Loss, disconnects, wouldn't detect lan cable until reboot, all that fun stuff. Almost returned the board honestly.
 
The lan issues are with the Intel 2.5G ports. If you get a realtek 2.5G it's fine as well as regular 1G port.

Are you looking for M-ATX, ATX or ITX boards?
ATX. All this discussion I hear about the 2.5G LAN ports on Asus boards is troublesome.
 
ATX. All this discussion I hear about the 2.5G LAN ports on Asus boards is troublesome.

It shouldn't be. If its a newer production board you should be fine. If you have issues, they are software / firmware based and can be remedied. I would say easily, but there are a few steps to it that make it tedious, but not too difficult.
 
If Intel LAN or Foxville IPG is an issue try these no mention of budget but

GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS Elite AC​


ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming Velocita

ASRock Z490 Taichi
 
I have a MSI Unify and it works well with my 10850K. You didn't mention what you plan to do with it tho. If staying stock with just turbo boost, any mid grade mobo should be fine. If OCing the piss out of your 10850 (all 2-300 mhz...), then a more premium board's better VRM may help.
 
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You can resolve the issues on newer production motherboards with Intel i225v network controllers. I have one on my ASUS Maximus XII Extreme. It was problematic at first, but I fixed it by updating the ME and BIOS firmware. I also updated the controller's firmware and the drivers. This resolved the issues. It's been running solid for awhile now.
Exactly the same for my Asus Z490-A Prime which is about $211 on Amazon.
Asus Z-490A
 
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I have a MSI Unify and it works well with my 10850K. You didn't mention what you plan to do with it tho. If staying stock with just turbo boost, any mid grade mobo should be fine. If OCing the piss out of your 10850 (all 2-300 mhz...), the a more premium board's better VRM may help.
That MSI Unify looks great. Just slightly above my budget however. But maybe with the new stimulus check coming in I might splurge a bit here ;) Otherwise, I might go with the MSI MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE. How's the BIOS with MSI these days and how does it compare to Asus? That's one thing I loved about my old Asus Sabertooth Z87's BIOS - very smooth and slick compared to the Gigabyte board I bought (and promptly returned because of its flaky BIOS). A reservation I have about MSI though is the memory of that MSI GTX 660TI OC edition video card I once had that used to crash frequently with gpu-intensive games at the time, and, ironically, I had to use their Afterburner software to underclock the goddamed thing by 10-15% just to play newer games like AC: Black Flag. I'd never go with a factory OCed GPU these days because of that.

One other question about these new mainboards with built-in 5.1 bluetooth and the option for external antennas - are they any good? Still using an old 4.0 BT dongle and I have to run it from a USB extension cable from my desktop just to prevent interference from the MB and degraded BT quality.
 
Exactly the same for my Asus Z490-A Prime which is about $211 on Amazon.
Asus Z-490A

I am not too worry about LAN........wireless is the way to go and now with WiFi 6, why bother with wires?

My suggestion for an ASUS Z490 would be the STRIX GAMING Z490-H. I like ASUS too and just bought a Z490 STRIX-E, from Best Buy, don't think I'll ever go wired again.

Also, if you keep waiting, chances are the Z490s will be out of stock, everything is just running out of stock. Never had I thought that I was going buy a MoBo from Best Buy.

BIOS? yes GIGASUCKS is the worst now, it's a shame they went downhill. And yes, BT 5.0 is good, at least in my ASUS Z390, but I still use the dongle the hardware came with, not worry about using extra AA batteries.
MSI is great for video cards still have my GTX 960, but I wouldn't use them for Motherboards............but that's me.

Okay, I haven't upgraded in 6 years so could you explain what WiFi 6 is? I have a PCIe wireless 2.5 & 5.0 GHz adapter (about 3 years old) in my current z87 desktop windows box that I used for wi-fi and my PC is only about 7' from from my cable modem (with dual-band built in 2.5 & 5.0 GHz wifi) and I only get 65 Mbps downstream using wifi yet if I use an ethernet cable to connect my setup directly I get 115 Mbps. So you're saying that wifi has adavanced to the point that I'd now get 115Mbps using WiFi 6 with the same distance from my cable modem with a motherboard that supports WiFi 6? I'm still heavily leaning towards the MSI z490 Gaming Edge but haven't pulled the trigger. I've got my Google Shopping alerts setup to notify me if the board I'm eyeing dips below $200.
 
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Wifi 6 is like wifi on adderol where it can basically understand more of the spectrum mess and get you a cleaner and faster connection to your network. Works really well in a crowded spectrum than legacy AC or other tech. Honestly I would not stress to much about wireless chip as you can get a m.2 pcie AX201 card and pcie adapter from Amazon for way cheap ~ 20$. If your board has an exting wifi card it is easy to replace as well. Personally I would shoot for a z590 board now that they are trickeling into the market so you can get the Rocket Lake chips as an upgrade path. I have had great sucess with Asrock boards for a lower cost with a ton of features but I am sure that opinion is mixed.
 
Okay, I haven't upgraded in 6 years so could you explain what WiFi 6 is? I have a PCIe wireless 2.5 & 5.0 GHz adapter (about 3 years old) in my current z87 desktop windows box that I used for wi-fi and my PC is only about 7' from from my cable modem (with dual-band built in 2.5 & 5.0 GHz wifi) and I only get 65 Mbps downstream using wifi yet if I use an ethernet cable to connect my setup directly I get 115 Mbps. So you're saying that wifi has adavanced to the point that I'd now get 115Mbps using WiFi 6 with the same distance from my cable modem with a motherboard that supports WiFi 6? I'm still heavily leaning towards the MSI z490 Gaming Edge but haven't pulled the trigger. I've got my Google Shopping alerts setup to notify me if the board I'm eyeing dips below $200.
  • Wi-Fi 6 to identify devices that support 802.11ax technology
  • Wi-Fi 5 to identify devices that support 802.11ac technology
  • Wi-Fi 4 to identify devices that support 802.11n technology
WIFI is still bad for the same reason it was always bad, it's a hub so it's a collision domain and is half duplex.

6E is the new 6GHz version to try to alleviate the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands lol.
 
That MSI Unify looks great. Just slightly above my budget however. But maybe with the new stimulus check coming in I might splurge a bit here ;) Otherwise, I might go with the MSI MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE. How's the BIOS with MSI these days and how does it compare to Asus? That's one thing I loved about my old Asus Sabertooth Z87's BIOS - very smooth and slick compared to the Gigabyte board I bought (and promptly returned because of its flaky BIOS). A reservation I have about MSI though is the memory of that MSI GTX 660TI OC edition video card I once had that used to crash frequently with gpu-intensive games at the time, and, ironically, I had to use their Afterburner software to underclock the goddamed thing by 10-15% just to play newer games like AC: Black Flag. I'd never go with a factory OCed GPU these days because of that.

One other question about these new mainboards with built-in 5.1 bluetooth and the option for external antennas - are they any good? Still using an old 4.0 BT dongle and I have to run it from a USB extension cable from my desktop just to prevent interference from the MB and degraded BT quality.
MSI MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE is what I had originally for about a week while trying to work through what ended up being ram incompatibility issues, so I didn't have it long enough to say. Has good reviews though. Bios works fine for me coming from an Asus.

WiFi on the Unify is good, but my only comparison data point is my recently retired 2600K vintage system, so I suspect anything would be an improvement.
 
Alas, my cable modem w/ dual band wifi is an Arris SurfBoard SBG6700-AC which doesn't support WiFi 6 so I doubt I'd see an improvement in wifi throughput but I suppose if I wanted to get the maximum of my ISP's broadband service (115-120 Mbps) I could get a router that supports wifi 6. I took a look at the Asus ROG Strix z490-E Gaming and it seems to be the direct counterpart to the MSI z490 Unify but is missing several features I really like, ie an extra m.2 slot for a total of 3, so I might go with the Unify. Oh, decisions, decisions! I haven't ruled out the MSI z490 Gaming Edge but I understand that if I don't use low-profile ram and intend to use a decent air cooler (like the Noctura NH-U12S) it can be very cramped and hard to access ram slots. I'm used to the luxury of a decent sized deluxe ATX MB like my old Sabertooth where I have some breathing room, so I'm currently leaning towards the Unify (z590 is still under consideration however). I won't get the nifty RGB lighting with the Unify but I have an RGB strip in an unopened box that I impulse-bought about 3 years ago that I can probably use.


Thanks for your help and suggestions, guys.
 
Having second thoughts on going MSI this time for my build. Deciding to go with the devil I know, which has been Asus on my last 3 builds going back 10-15 years. Now eyeing the Asus ROG Strix z490-E Gaming. Asus has never steered me wrong and has always been a solid, reliable choice for me. The only question is: will it be worth the hassle if I get a board with the Intel 2.5G Ethernet issue? Also, what memory would you recommend? My budget is about $150-$175 for two sticks of 16GB (32GB total). Would prefer CAS 16 @ 3600 MHz but this might not be realistic at that price. Leaning towards G.Skill.
 
Having second thoughts on going MSI this time for my build. Deciding to go with the devil I know, which has been Asus on my last 3 builds going back 10-15 years. Now eyeing the Asus ROG Strix z490-E Gaming. Asus has never steered me wrong and has always been a solid, reliable choice for me. The only question is: will it be worth the hassle if I get a board with the Intel 2.5G Ethernet issue? Also, what memory would you recommend? My budget is about $150-$175 for two sticks of 16GB (32GB total). Would prefer CAS 16 @ 3600 MHz but this might not be realistic at that price. Leaning towards G.Skill.

I think most boards have firmware updates available for the ethernet issues. I know the Strix Z490-G board I have has a firmware update.

As for memory, I bought this cheap ass Timetec stuff. It has Hynix CJR like a lot of other stuff does and it tightened to 16-19-19-38 on my AMD setup after enabling the XMP profile.
 
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I think most boards have firmware updates available for the ethernet issues. I know the Strix Z490-G board I have has a firmware update.

As for memory, I bought this cheap ass Timetec stuff. It has Hynix CJR like a lot of other stuff does and it tightened to 16-19-19-38 on my AMD setup after enabling the XMP profile.

Hmmm. Price is certainly sweet. Sick and tired of overpaying for Corsair all these years. I wonder if these sticks will work in the Strix z490-E with an XMP profile (I don't overclock the cpu these days). I'm finding the Asus board fairly hard to find online compared to the MSI Gaming Edge. Newegg for example doesn't have new Strix z490-E's for a reasonable price, and it's almost similar for Amazon. Best Buy still has them in stock for $300 so I might have to go with them. At least they have a half-decent RMA policy. Thanks for the recommendation.
 
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Jack........the STRIX-E has the Intel AX200 chipset, the WiFi 6 and I ordered mine Saturday from Best Buy, I used the BB CC and pay 0% APR for 12mo, only $30 a month....ha! The motherboard is coming today.
-Corsair modules have a higher price because of the market and demand and Corsair always work, I was going to get the DDR4 3600 16GB kit for $99, then Newegg lowered them to $86.99 and went out of stock the next day so unfortunately, I'm getting Crucial sticks, same speed though and price. But Corsair is my #1 choice. We'll see how the Crucial do.
* Get the STRIX-E from BB, it's a far superior motherboard IMO and from the years of experience, I've had with ASUS.

Was about to pull the trigger yesterday, but I'm still seeing that troublesome issue with the Intel 2.5G ethernet on these z490 boards all over on reviews - even reviews as recently posted as a week ago - and from what research I've done, even firmware/BIOS/software workarounds (and "workarounds" disturb me as opposed to actual fixes) aren't typically entirely effective except for one thing that requires you to drop the LAN speed on that 2.5G port to 1G which isn't that drastic since I only have a max 120Mbps broadband connection anyway. But it chaffs my ass that if I'm paying $300+ for a board, it may have a hardware issue with its ethernet port (which I'll be using all the time). I wish Asus wiould fix this once and for all with the next revision of the board (or have they already? Newegg has the item listed out of stock but apparently still sells it. Will the new stock be revisions with fixed ethernet?).

So my options are: buy the Asus Strix- z490-E now (which I really want and is my first choice) from BB and risk getting a board with the bad ethernet port for $300 + taxes, or get the "safe" realtek-based ethernet MSI z490 Unify board with 30% off $300 + $10 discount code from Newegg? Meanwhile, my 10850K sits unopened in the back room waiting for a motherboard. This is easily the toughest decision I've faced in an upgrade, not helped by my undiagnosed OCD and/or autism spectrim disorder. lol.
 
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Was about to pull the trigger yesterday, but I'm still seeing that troublesome issue with the Intel 2.5G ethernet on these z490 boards all over on reviews - even reviews as recently posted as a week ago - and from what research I've done, even firmware/BIOS/software workarounds (and "workarounds" disturb me as opposed to actual fixes) aren't typically entirely effective except for one thing that requires you to drop the LAN speed on that 2.5G port to 1G which isn't that drastic since I only have a max 120Mbps broadband connection anyway. But it chaffs my ass that if I'm paying $300+ for a board, it may have a hardware issue with its ethernet port (which I'll be using all the time). I wish Asus wiould fix this once and for all with the next revision of the board (or have they already? Newegg has the item listed out of stock but apparently still sells it. Will the new stock be revisions with fixed ethernet?).

So my options are: buy the Asus Strix- z490-E now (which I really want and is my first choice) from BB and risk getting a board with the bad ethernet port for $300 + taxes, or get the "safe" realtek-based ethernet MSI z490 Unify board with 30% off $300 + $10 discount code from Newegg? Meanwhile, my 10850K sits unopened in the back room waiting for a motherboard. This is easily the toughest decision I've faced in an upgrade, not helped by my undiagnosed OCD and/or autism spectrim disorder. lol.
But you have working USB at least unlike AMD boards!
 
But you have working USB at least unlike AMD boards!

lol I think there's a story there, eh? USB ports are important, and the more the merrier. Man, how I remember the old days of upgrading when I'd have ZERO issues installing a new motherboard, which is why I prefer Asus and fear the unknown (ie MSI). But I see absolute horror stories in reviews all over the place about that Intel 2.5G port on z490 chipsets of poor bastards chasing their tails for days wondering why their internet connections are throttling, dropping connection entirely or refusing to even be recognized. Bottom line: if I'm going to pay $300 for a new motherboard - the most expensive purchase on a new MB I'd ever make, if I pull the trigger - I want it working as intended out of the box. I don't think that's too unreasonable a request. I'm noticing most retailers now (ie B&H Photo) also list the Strix-E as OOS and ETAs on new arriving stock is 2-3 weeks. I'm hoping this is because Asus is finally replacing that bad Intel port. Willing to wait a little longer. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that that 10850k chip I bought from B & H Photo last week is okay since I'm hoping I get a working motherboard before the 30-days are up on that B&H return option.

On a side note, I took a look at the Asus Strix z590-E board yesterday. Wow, nice board! 4 m.2 slots. But still Intel 2.5G ports, and two of them (and 2 X 0 is still zero) However, $400 is just too freakin' much for me.
 
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Don't know why would anyone still be using wired internet when wireless connectivity it's been around for so long. I haven't used wired connectivity since 2015 I think.


Jack........I haven't opened the box yet, but I'm sure Dan could be right.

I got the rest of my stuff coming tomorrow but won't start building the new system till Saturday or Sunday.

Until I upgrade my cable modem/wi-fi combo unit to wifi 6 or get a new router, I likely won't see any imporovement at all in transfer speed using wifi 6 with the new board I get. I literally get half of my ISP's adverstised broadband speed if I use wifi so I use an ethernet connection instead. Good luck with your new Asus board, though. Be sure to let us know how you made out.
 
NE has the Asus Strix z490-E back in stock so I'll be ordering it tomorrow. I plan on getting this memory kit and after I get everything working and stable (hopefully) I'll be adding this NVMe SSD (M.2) within a couple of weeks. However, I'll be using 2 NVMe M.2 drives and I'm confused by what gets disabled if I have both slots populated. The z490-E's manual says this:

Clipboard02.jpg


If I have both M.2 slots populated with the XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB SSD and my existing Samsung 250GB 960 EVO NVMe M.2 Internal SSD (my boot drive), do I still lose the SATA6G_2 port (I have about three other drives and HDD docks, all SATA devices, so I really need those SATA connectors)? Someone said in a review for the Strix that even if the device is NVMe in M.2_1 you still lose that SATA port.
 
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The way I read this is that

using m.2_2 in 4x disables sata 5,6
using m.2_1 will only disable sata2 if you use a sata m2 drive, using an m2 nvme should not disable this (As far as I can tell from the manual it should not).
 
The way I read this is that

using m.2_2 in 4x disables sata 5,6
using m.2_1 will only disable sata2 if you use a sata m2 drive, using an m2 nvme should not disable this (As far as I can tell from the manual it should not).

Okay, thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I knew I'd lose that sata 5,6 but wasn't sure about M.2_1. That should leave me with 4 working SATA ports which should be just enough. I'm sometimes confused about slots and bandwidth sharing and my goal is to have a system that doesn't populate any PCIe slots, for example, so I don't have to worry about it cutting into bandwidth of other important components, or even disabling them. I once hacked my Sabertooth Z87's BIOS to boot from a PCIe adapter card with my Samsung EVO M.2 SSD and discovered later that it cut my GTX 1070 video in the first PCIe x16 slot down to 8X speed (though it was only noticeable in benchmarks and not gaming).

Edited: I just discovered while reading specs that the XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 uses SATA 6.0 Gb/s as its hardware interface so I'll just have to be certain it's placed into the m.2_2 slot on the z490-E rather than m.2_1. But my old SAMSUNG 960 EVO NVMe 250 GB SSD drive uses PCI Express x4 so as long as I use it in the m.2_1 slot (this will be my Windows 10 boot drive, btw) I won't have to sacrifice that SATA6G_2 port. I'm feeling more positive about this new upgrade I think than I've ever felt about any upgrade because it will be such a beast and a significant improvement over my current Asus z77/z87 motherboard with an i5 cpu. Now I just have to wait for the Nvidia 3060s to get back in stock and I should be golden :shame:
 
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Okay, thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I knew I'd lose that sata 5,6 but wasn't sure about M.2_1. That should leave me with 4 working SATA ports which should be just enough. I'm sometimes confused about slots and bandwidth sharing and my goal is to have a system that doesn't populate any PCIe slots, for example, so I don't have to worry about it cutting into bandwidth of other important components, or even disabling them. I once hacked my Sabertooth Z87's BIOS to boot from a PCIe adapter card with my Samsung EVO M.2 SSD and discovered later that it cut my GTX 1070 video in the first PCIe x16 slot down to 8X speed (though it was only noticeable in benchmarks and not gaming).

Edited: I just discovered while reading specs that the XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 2280 uses SATA 6.0 Gb/s as its hardware interface so I'll just have to be certain it's placed into the m.2_2 slot on the z490-E rather than m.2_1. But my old SAMSUNG 960 EVO NVMe 250 GB SSD drive uses PCI Express x4 so as long as I use it in the m.2_1 slot (this will be my Windows 10 boot drive, btw) I won't have to sacrifice that SATA6G_2 port. I'm feeling more positive about this new upgrade I think than I've ever felt about any upgrade because it will be such a beast and a significant improvement over my current Asus z77/z87 motherboard with an i5 cpu. Now I just have to wait for the Nvidia 3060s to get back in stock and I should be golden :shame:
those are both PCI-E SSDs. The SX8200 is not a SATA drive.
 
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those are both PCI-E SSDs. The SX8200 is not a SATA drive.

Yeah, I got my original info from a vendor's spec sheet, then checked the official Adata specs and noticed the SX8200 was in fact using the PCIe interface. Even better; I won't have to worry about putting either in a specific M.2 slot. I'm still confused by the concept that any M.2 drive you use would be SATA. I thought they were all PCIe.
 
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