Revo Posted December 7, 2021 Posted December 7, 2021 The best X570 motherboard will of course bring the chipset’s primary new features, like PCIe 4.0 support (which doubles the bandwidth over previous-gen PCIe 3.0), more and faster USB ports. The chipset also comes with a higher power draw and higher prices than previous-generation X470 boards. It takes more juice and more copper to power those faster PCIe lanes. This means that almost all the best X570 motherboards will have built-in fans to cool the chipset, unless you opt for one of the new X570S chipset models, which do away with the fan. All that said, after some initial worries about fan noise on early X570 boards, companies have tweaked their BIOS settings. At this point even if you opt for a non-S X570 board, you won’t likely notice the noise of these small fans over other components in your case, unless perhaps you have an extremely quiet cooler like Noctua's Colossal NH-P1 passive cooler and a zero-RPM graphics card. Higher prices are still a sticking point with the best X570 motherboards, although Intel's Z590 and now Z690 motherboards are also pricier than their predecessors as well. If you don’t need lots of speedy lanes for multi-GPU setups or several of the best SSDs, you may want to consider one of the best B550 motherboards instead. If you don’t plan on adding a super-speedy SSD or a high-end next-gen graphics card (which you still can't really find at prices anywhere close to reasonable now anyway), in most cases you can certainly get by with an older X470 motherboard. But as AM4 CPUs have accumulated, there have been increasing compatibility issues between CPU and motherboard generations. So be sure to double-check CPU compatibility closely with whatever board you’re considering before buying. We noted in our Ryzen 5000 RAM Guide that the sweet spot for memory performance on X570 is DDR 3600. So you’ll also want to pair one of the best X570 motherboards with some of the best RAM you can buy. And with PCIe 4.0 support, the best SSD for X570 is undoubtedly a PCIe 4.0 drive. But for gaming and many other common tasks, you won’t likely notice the speed difference between a faster drive and a good PCIe 3.0 NVMe model. So choose wisely based on your storage speed needs--or desires. For more on the X570 chipset, see our X570 explainer from back when the chipset launched in 2019. And for more general tips about what to look for when buying a motherboard, check out our motherboard buying guide, as well as our feature covering the eight motherboard features you probably don’t need. The Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is the first AMD Extreme board since the X370 days, and it doesn't disappoint. In addition to its premium appearance, the board comes with one of the most capable VRMs we’ve seen. So its overclocking ability is only limited to your cooling capability and the limitations of your silicon. Other features are also top-notch, including the latest Realtek/Supreme FX audio codec, 10 GbE and Wi-Fi 6E. The Thunderbolt 4 ports and front-panel USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C ports give you plenty of fast connectivity as well. And if you need a lot of fast storage, you’re well taken care of with up to five M.2 modules that can work simultaneously. If you’ve got $800 to spend on an X570 motherboard, the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme should be at the top of your list. Packed with 12 USB ports (eight of which are USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds), a 2.5G LAN port, eight SATA ports, and integrated Wi-Fi 6, he Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi is a good base for a high-end build. The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Ultra focuses on doing basic things very well, such as its twelve 40A core voltage MOSFETs and triple PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 storage slots. With nothing more than a 2.4Gb/s Wi-Fi 6 module to add to its basic Gigabit Ethernet, the paucity of premium add-in features helps Gigabyte to maintain a sub $300 price despite the cost of PCIe 4.0 compliance. Though it’s not ideal for some of the fancier graphics and storage options of the high-end market, the X570 Steel Legend offers Ryzen 3000 buyers great stability and efficiency at a reasonable price. The primary added features it delivers beyond what’s offered by the X570 chipset are the 2.4Gb/s Wi-Fi controller, some onboard lighting, and some extra RGB headers. The rest of this $200 board includes solid basics such as its 10x50A CPU voltage regulator. And if you don’t want to pay for the WiFi, ASRock offers an otherwise-identical X570 Steel Legend without that controller for $10 less. The primary sacrifice compared to pricier boards is that the second x16-length slot has only four lanes, because the top x16 slot can’t share its lanes. Both viewpoints describe a basic design that eliminates a few pathway switches to save money: Anyone who didn’t need those pathways to be flexible will surely be fine with this. And keep in mind that these are PCIe 4.0 lanes, so even at x4, there’s still quite a bit of bandwidth available to that second slot. The lesser sacrifice of this board’s design is that its two M.2 covers are built as a single unit that’s integrated with the PCH fan shroud. This means if you want to have a fan shroud, you won’t be able to install any M.2 SSD that has a heat spreader of its own. Uncovering a single M.2 slot while leaving the over covered is likewise not an option. The recent release of the X570S chipset update (nixing the need for a chipset fan) allowed motherboard partners to update their product stacks and get something new out for AMD builders before the arrival of Zen 4 sometime next year. ASRock was the first company to get an X570S board to us for testing, and it's still our favorite in the sub-$200 price range. The Riptide offers a better design aesthetic than most similarly priced X570 options, and improves upon the power delivery, utilizing 10-phases at 50A versus others running 6-phase at 50A. The Riptide also includes Killer-based 2.5 GbE, where the original X570 boards at this price included a 1GbE port. In the end, the Riptide offers more capable power delivery, a faster integrated NIC, and of course, the silence that some want. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and silent X570S motherboard, the X570S Riptide makes for a solid budget option to build your AMD Ryzen based system around. The MPG X570 Gaming Plus is unmistakably cheap, yet it's eight 46A core voltage regulators still provide enough CPU power to cover the full range of AMD's recent AM4 processors. Fixed PCIe pathways follow a simplified rout to eliminate the need for costly re-drivers, and the board has only one pathway switch that enables its second x1 slot by disabling the first. Its included software couldn't even monitor our hardware, and the firmware menu that's supposed to display connected devices disabled our keyboard and mouse, but buyers who are satisfied by mere adequacy should be pleased by its exceptionally low price. The Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro WiFi performed well at stock and when overclocking. Dual M.2 slots on the ITX form factor is its claim to fame, and it also includes two USB3 Gen 2 ports (one Type-C, the other Type-A) and four USB3 Gen1 ports on the rear IO. This tiny board offers users a great assortment of features and is a well-rounded solution for its small form factor, and comes at moderate price that undercuts the competition.
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