Recommend AM5 motherboard for virtualization VFIO/GPU passthrough

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I need to replace my aging home server and unfortunately most of the recommended mainboards like Asus B650 ProArt are not available in my area. After checking that it will take a few weeks for any RMA, I’m not too keen on buying a board from overseas. While I could live with 1/2 RAM or even a degraded array during RMA, the server would be completely useless without a board.

I see myself putting 2x32GB RAM, 2x M.2 NVMe for primary storage, a dGPU for gaming VM (likely Windows), 2x SATA SSD for VMs and maybe 2x SATA HDD for bulk backup.

So what would you recommend from a sad list like this:

  • Asus TUF B650-Plus
  • Asus ROG STRIX B650-A Gaming / B650E-F Gaming
  • Asrock B650M PG Lightning
  • Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX
  • Gigabyte B650M Gaming X AX
  • MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk
  • MSI Pro B650-P Wifi
2

I think your selection/restriction to B650/B650M chipsets is sensible.

Without doing the detailed research on all boards I recommend looking for

  • total number of PCIe slots
  • total number of m.2 slots
  • number of electrically connected lanes / speed per slot and bifurcation support for those
  • peripherals (PCIe slots/m.2 slots/slimsas/USB/network/etc.) connected to CPU vs. chipset

In 2024, I recommend keeping SATA devices connected to legacy setups and focus on modern nvme storage. I see SATA connectors on current mobos as a way to enable a transition.

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Thanks for the reply, I had thought of all NVMe/SSD kind of setup as well. Unfortunately, the total cost is a bit on the high side for my intended budget and apart from the Windows VM for gaming, most of my home usage (some light dev work and experimentation) does not need a lot of high speed storage. Hence the thought of still using HDD for bulk backup/archived data like photos and videos.

4

How about Asus B650E-E?

5

I had looked at it earlier but it was about 17% more expensive than the E-F here. The additional features did not seem worth the money as I don’t think I’d need another x16 PCIe or the 4th M.2 slot

However, if it is known to have better IOMMU groupings or easier VFIO setup, then I’d consider it.

What are the reasons you would suggest using this over the B650E-F or other boards?

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More m.2 slots and 2nd pcie is also connected to cpu directly, only x4 though.

PS: one pcie slot from cpu for your gpu, another pcie slot from cpu for nic that supports sr-iov. Chipset pcie doesn’t work with sr-iov.

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Thanks for the additional info. I’ve not considered SR-IOV before and will take this into consideration.