Hello,
Which of these two mobos are better?
Is one known to be better than the other?
I’m looking to see which has the best audio implementation.
Additionally, is it better to get a tb aic card for the aouris, or a 10gbe card for the porart.
I’m kinda on a budget and am hoping to keep this system for 6 + years.
Looking for both TB and 10gbe but it looks like the prices are still absurdly expensive for both.
I have a 4770k right now.
Hi, i´m sorry to tell you that none of those boards will work with your current cpu.
Because both are a newer platform one is AMD AM4 and the other board is intel Z590 different socket.
So i assume you are looking for a cpu + motherboard and memory upgrade?
What is your budget?
So we could help you with this one. 
…might as well mention country
I see the virtualization tag… what are you planning/hoping to do?
I am afraid that your question requires more input for a reasonable answer.
The two mobos are very different. They contain different sockets for CPUs - one supports current Intel gen CPUs (announced to be replaced soon), the other current AMD minus one.
The mobos are both higher-end mobos, but have different target customers/use cases in mind.
Your questions circle around audio, thunderbolt and 10G networking.
Re: audio
If best possible audio is required I would save money on the motherboard and invest in a ~$100 usb based DAC, which will be sonically superior. Otherwise, I have stopped hearing sound quality differences between motherboards a few generations back.
Re: thunderbolt
There are a bunch of killer apps that people go to thunderbolt for. E.g. external storage, external monitors, external other hw. Some insight into existing thunderbolt infrastructure you plan on using would be important. I would be looking for which thunderbolt version is required and if that is suppored by the Gigabyte as well we what it would take to add that thunderbolt version to the AMD board.
Re: 10G
Making good use of 10G networking requires some, at this point relatively expensive for home enthusiast (the typical user here), equipment. Can you please share what you have available vs. what you plan on using? Adding a 10G nic is relatively straightforward and requires typically a 4-lane PCIe card for ~$100. I also have a m.2 two-lane NIC card but that is more exotic and expensive.
I have a shitt hel, but it sounds very clinical to me. I’m upgrading from my haswell rig and just don’t know which platform/mobo to go with. In addition to multitasking cpu intensive apps, I’m hoping to play with hyper v and vms, as my current i7 I’m planning on throwing windows server or freenas on.
I have a asustor AS 5304 t with 2 2.5gbe nics. The hope is this is going to be a 6-8 year machine, and likewise that I can go 10gbe in a few years when switches are cheaper.
Intel is king when it comes to their nics, so it kinda leaves me to this: which vendor / board is likely to last longer and/or provide better value per dollar. Did aquantia get their s*it together or are the drivers still have. Likewise… Would it be more ideal to have 10gbe as a aic, or tb as an aic?
Finally should I be concerned about 8c 16t being the max core count of this platform?
I would avoid B550 if you plan you do extensive PCIe passthrough. There are workarounds, but they are workarounds.
Mobo makers for consumer desktop tend to put in Marvell/FastLinQ/Aquantia/AQtion (whatever it’s called now) for the onboard 10GbE NIC. It’s fine, but there’s no VLAN tagging support in Windows and it doesn’t support SR-IOV. I ended up putting an Intel 82599 in my ProArt X570 due to these issues.
The onboard Thunderbolt controller on the same board works great. Look for TB4/USB4 (Maple Ridge) for the best forward compatibility. An AIC is fine and possibly even preferable if you’re willing to give up an expansion slot.
I prefer Ryzen processors with two CCDs for virt use-cases because you can dedicate an entire CCD (and its L3 cache) to Windows or what have you. So maybe consider stepping up to a Ryzen 9 3000- or 5000-series processor. I know that’s overkill for some, but you asked. 
Hmm. If longevity is your primary driver, I am not sure either mobo/platform is the way to go.
I bought into X99 when it came out in 2014 because if introduced PCIe3 (to me) and DDR4. I only upgraded from there earlier this year.
Applying the same thought I’d look at DDR5/PCIe5 support in today’s mobos. Recommendations for mobos are discussed a lot here but the technology is still very new.
I think your thought about 10G is valid in the context of longevity and I expect that consumer grade electronics will finally advance to 10G within the next 6-8 years.
@BroadBandElf You say you are on a Budget, but you don’t give a max spending limit, making it kind of hard to make any recommendations. To fully take advantage of learning virtualization, plan on spending between 2,500 and 4,000 for a completely new system. If @BroadBandElf has parts, he can reduce his final purchase price will be closer to 2,5000 than 4,000. If money is tight, @BroadBandElf should buy used parts; the only problem purchasing used components is where to purchase them and not get scammed. I wouldn’t consider Ebay or Amazon a safe place to buy used equipment.
@BroadBandElf ask the question: Finally, should I be concerned about this platform’s 8c 16t being the max core count? To answer your question @BroadBandElf, I found my 8c Ryzen significantly limiting for my virtualization workloads. My 16c Ryzen X570 isn’t limiting; I have so much more room that I won’t have to consider upgrading my computer until AM6 or AM7 is released. Your virtualization workloads might not be as demanding as mine, but I wouldn’t think a CPU with less than eight cores. A good rule of thumb is whether I have enough processors to run this workload; half your core count goes to the hosts. The rest can be divided between your guest machines.
@jode said, “Applying the same thought, I’d look at DDR5/PCIe5 support in today’s mobos.” I would have to disagree with @jode advice respectfully. I disagree with Jode because DDR5 ram is costly compared to DDR4 ram and remains so, in my opinion, until some time next year. I would stick with motherboards that support DDR4 unless a board can use both, but I don’t think there are any such motherboards.
Thanks for making this point.
The current market situation is in the early stages of transitioning to newer PCIe and DDR RAM standards.
I pointed out that to pursue the goal of longevity it may be worthwhile to invest in this new technology. @Shadowbane absolutely correct that this conflicts with the goal of reduced budget.
@BroadBandElf will be wise to weigh those goals in pursuit of the next rig.
I would like to point out that both the latest CPU generations of AMD (AM5) and Intel (13th gen) have shown or promise significant efficiency gains over the previous generations.
Eco mode on AMD (or BIOS downclocks) has shown to provide comparable performance to previous gen at 30%-50% of energy use.
This could factor in the decision if the rig is meant to run more like a server (24/7 hosting vms) rather than a daily driver that is turned on for just a few hours daily.
I mean your right ddr5 is the way to go of you want the cutting edge. I’d love to throw $ 1200+ on a CPU and mobo but afraid I’m on quite a budget ATM. Best thing about ddr4 is it’s going to get super cheap black Friday and on eBay with everyone buying ddrr5. I’m running ddr3 right now so anything is a welcome upgrade
Well AMD AM4 would not be a bad upgrade when you are on a budget with.
Another option could be intel 12600K (F) or 12700K (F) with intel Z690 ddr4 board.
But it depends on your budget really.
Here is a completely new system I would suggest for @BroadBandElf.
Not a bad selection. That’s one of the better AM4 mobos.
I would pick 2x 32G DDR4-3600 RAM sticks. E.g.
$175. Cheaper and two slots open for expansion.
Here is the CAS 16 version that is faster (lower latency) for $225
I understand your reasoning for the selected Intel 10G NIC. Given the current state of affairs I would still recommend the Aquantia 10G NIC for the savings. E.g.:
It supports the intermediate data rates (2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps) that not all 10G NICs do.
I think op would be getting a lot of use out of this before noticing the VM based limitations. Another option would to forego the 10G NIC until the time it is needed. I would expect the prices to go down over time on these items.
I was surprised to see 6x 120mm case fans for quite an air stream. I defer to your experience as I use 360 AIOs and never felt the need for that many case fans.
If budget is a concern, secondhand Intel X520, Mellanox ConnectX-2, Chelsio T420, etc. cards can be found for $60 on eBay, or even less on other forums like r/homelabsales. I’ve been buying X520-DA2 cards around $40 shipped but obviously YMMV. Don’t overpay for an Aquantia NIC with limited features just because it’s “new.”
Can’t comment on the rest of the thread, but I second this - if you need something faster than gigabit, just buy a used NIC… you can get a much better product for a lot less money. You can get a ConnectX-3 EN (CX311, CX312) for like $29 + an RJ45 10GBase-T SFP transceiver for $20, so $50 total for a lot better hardware. Or X520 has dropped a lot in price too, and if you really want to save $5 get a low-profile card - they’re cheaper because there are a lot more and fewer people want them - and pay $5 for a full-height bracket.
Great suggestions.
I would have an eye out for the PCIe lane requirement for such cards. To me the weakness of these consumer platforms is the limited number of PCIe slots and lanes available for expansion.
I know the ConnectX-3 cards are all 8-lane wide and would block one of the 16x slots.
The Aqantia is a 4-lane PCIe card and most mobos offer a 4x slot - even when connected to the chipset (instead of the CPU) that would be fine.
Not sure about the Intel X520 cards (and too lazy to look it up ) .
I have experienced that DDR4-3600 Ram sticks don’t work very well on the ASRock X570 Taichi; that has been my experience. Which is the reason I didn’t consider them. Also, I don’t think this motherboard supports 32GB DDR4 Ram Chips; that was the case when I got the ASRock X570 Taichi, but I suppose a BIOS update might allow 32GB Ram Chips.
Jode said, “I understand your reasoning for the selected Intel 10G NIC. However, given the current state of affairs, I would still recommend the Aquantia 10G NIC for the savings. E.g.,” I picked the Intel Nic because @BroadBandElf wanted Intel nic, and I wanted to give @BroadBandElf an idea what his bottom line budget would be. As you noticed, I was very close to my bottom-line estimate.
Jode said, “I was surprised to see 6x 120mm case fans for quite an air stream. I defer to your experience as I use 360 AIOs and never felt the need for that many case fans.”
I didn’t spend as much time researching the computer case because it doesn’t matter much. I don’t even know if there are spots for those fans. I picked six fans because I like three fans for air intake and three for exhaust.
so tempting
Is fiber channel really better than copper?