Whats the difference betwen AMD Motherboards?

[SenditMakine]

I was looking for a motherboard to buy recently for a friend and I started thinking what's the difference between A B X Z on AMD motherboards, I already know what the numeration stands for (the cpu generation), and that Z and X motherboard usually have more expansion slots and newer stuff (like NVMe with pcie gen 4 and 802.11ax) but what's the difference between A and B motherboard? does anyone have a chart explaining what the names of the motherboard stands for? i searched online but didn't found very much, and what I did found was conflicting information. thanks

 

[NoJuan999]

They are basically designations for the chipset used on the motherboard:
A320 - fairly barebones (for older Ryzen 1000 CPUs)
B450 - mid level (for Ryzen 2000, 3000 and 5000 CPUs)
X470 - higher end (for Ryzen 2000, 3000 and 5000 CPUs)

And the newer ones (developed for better compatibility and performance with Ryzen 5000 CPUs):
B550 - mid level with newer B550 chipset for Ryzen 3000 and 5000 CPUs
X570 - higher end with newer X570 chipset for Ryzen 3000 and 5000 CPUs

Obviously, the higher end boards with higher end chipsets usually have better features as well (better Audio, LAN, etc).

To see exactly what the differences are between two motherboards you will need to look on the manufacturers sites for those boards and compare the spec sheets.
I have an Asus Strix B450-F (with a Ryzen 2600) and an Asus Strix X470-F (with a Ryzen 3700x) and there are very few differences in the features on my motherboards.
ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING | ROG - Republic Of Gamers | ASUS USA
ASUS ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING | Gaming Motherboard | ASUS USA

 

[SenditMakine]

They are basically designations for the chipset used on the motherboard:
A320 - fairly barebones (for older Ryzen 1000 CPUs)
B450 - mid level (for Ryzen 2000, 3000 and 5000 CPUs)
X470 - higher end (for Ryzen 2000, 3000 and 5000 CPUs)

And the newer ones (developed for better compatibility and performance Ryzen 5000 CPUs):
B550 - mid level with newer B550 (chipset for Ryzen 3000 and 5000 CPUs)
X570 - higher end with newer X570 chipset (for Ryzen 3000 and 5000 CPUs)

Obviously, the higher end boards with higher end chipsets usually have better features as well (better Audio, LAN, etc).

That I kind of understand, I was asking like specifically, whats the difference between an A320 and an B350, both are from the same generation and have similar price ranges, I was looking for an datasheet or something specifically about what the letter means

 

[Selaya]

A520 - barebones, no CPU OC support (due to shitty VRMs, presumably), CPU lanes limited to 3.0 (iirc)
B550 - full featureset except PCIe 4 from the southbridge (you do get 4.0 from the 16+4 direct CPU lanes) - most reasonable choice for the average user
X570 - full featureset with PCIe4 from the southbridge - would only recommend if you have a specific usecase that requires PCIe 4 from the southbridge.

the 400 and 300 series are obsolete now and can safely be ignored if you do not own one of those already.

 

[NoJuan999]

That I kind of understand, I was asking like specifically, whats the difference between an A320 and an B350, both are from the same generation and have similar price ranges, I was looking for an datasheet or something specifically about what the letter means

You would need to look at specific board models to answer that.
Like compare these two similar boards and see what differences they have:
PRIME A320M-K - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA
PRIME B350M-A - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

And an Asus ROG Strix board will even have different features than an Asus Prime board:
ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING | ROG Strix | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG USA (asus.com)

 

[SenditMakine]

A520 - barebones, no CPU OC support (due to shitty VRMs, presumably), CPU lanes limited to 3.0 (iirc)
B550 - full featureset except PCIe 4 from the southbridge (you do get 4.0 from the 16+4 direct CPU lanes) - most reasonable choice for the average user
X570 - full featureset with PCIe4 from the southbridge - would only recommend if you have a specific usecase that requires PCIe 4 from the southbridge.

the 400 and 300 series are obsolete now and can safely be ignored if you do not own one of those already.

hmm, thanks that actually explains a lot

You would need to look at specific boards models to answer that.
Like compare these two similar boards and see what differences they have:
PRIME A320M-K - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA
PRIME B350M-A - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

And an Asus ROG Strix board will even have different features than an Asus Prime board:
ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING | ROG Strix | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG USA (asus.com)

So in the end it comes down to the specifics of each manufacturer, ok

 

[Selaya]

Yes, the A520/B550/X570 is just the southbridge/PCH chip; it does dictate certain featuresets as I've explained above but beyond that (additional) features are up to the specific board manufacturers.

For the most part if you do not have a very specific use case any board should be good at this point, really.
Do note that cheaper/cheapest B550/X570s tend to come with inadequate VRMs, Gigabyte and ASRock are especially good at cheaping out there, but even MSI/Asus isn't a guarantee that their cheapest boards dont suck.

 

[SenditMakine]

Yes, the A520/B550/X570 is just the southbridge/PCH chip; it does dictate certain featuresets as I've explained above but beyond that (additional) features are up to the specific board manufacturers.

For the most part if you do not have a very specific use case any board should be good at this point, really.
Do note that cheaper/cheapest B550/X570s tend to come with inadequate VRMs, Gigabyte and ASRock are especially good at cheaping out there, but even MSI/Asus isn't a guarantee that their cheapest boards dont suck.

I just wanted to know if there's something specific from some chipset that is not listed on the system specs, was considering to buy an A520 but was afraid of loosing something I was not aware of, as far as I can tell my only limitation from those A520 motherboards is the pcie 3.0 (would really like to have NVMe 4.0)

 

[Selaya]

Unless you're prepared to drop $1,500 on an Optane P5800X PCIe 4.0 on your NVMe won't matter.
But if you want to check that checkbox, you can just go for a B550 - really good ones start as low as like $130.
(Tbf, if you are going for an 5600X that is the minimum tier I'd recommend in any case - a GPU upgrade a few years down the road may actually benefit from PCIe 4.0.)

 

[Zach_01]

You can find some info here:

- Αναζήτηση Google

Just go for B550, unless you’re willing to change the system soon. It will depend on the other components too. CPU and GPU mostly, number(and kind) of drives...

Series A boards are usually used for entry level systems with low performance CPUs(APUs) with no discrete GPU. Just an office system or for basics. Internet, movies and so on.

As said already B550 is nice for the majority of users. And even between let’s say all B550s you can find many differences in feature sets, power capabilities and other with a price range of 80 to 300$. Usually the 120~180$ range offers the best for the $$.

 

[SenditMakine]

You can find some info here:

- Αναζήτηση Google

Just go for B550, unless you’re willing to change the system soon. It will depend on the other components too. CPU and GPU mostly, number(and kind) of drives...

Series A boards are usually used for entry level systems with low performance CPUs(APUs) with no discrete GPU. Just an office system or for basics. Internet, movies and so on.

As said already B550 is nice for the majority of users. And even between let’s say all B550s you can find many differences in feature sets, power capabilities and other with a price range of 80 to 300$. Usually the 120~180$ range offers the best for the $$.

Ok, sounds more safe than to save some few bucks now and don't have room for upgrade later.
and thank you, that was the kind of link i was looking for

 

[Night]

Ok, sounds more safe than to save some few bucks now and don't have room for upgrade later.

Assuming you're saying there's no room for further CPU upgrades, you can still run a 5950X in there.

 

[Ruru]

B550 is a great chipset for most users. Personally I don't see any reason for me to get a X570 board, B550's only weakness is the low amount of SATA ports as some boards (like mine) has only 4 ports and some has more but they disable those when using M.2 drives.

I guess I need either M.2 drives or upgrade those 480GB drives for bigger ones.

 

[SenditMakine]

B550 is a great chipset for most users. Personally I don't see any reason for me to get a X570 board, B550's only weakness is the low amount of SATA ports as some boards (like mine) has only 4 ports and some has more but they disable those when using M.2 drives.

I guess I need either M.2 drives or upgrade those 480GB drives for bigger ones.

most of the B550 motherboards I was looking comes with 6+ Sata ports, my actual mobo has 8 and I love it, going back to 4 is just not good for me right now.
What I learnt from this thread is that B550 is a great purchase apparently

 

[Dragokar]

most of the B550 motherboards I was looking comes with 6+ Sata ports, my actual mobo has 8 and I love it, going back to 4 is just not good for me right now.
What I learnt from this thread is that B550 is a great purchase apparently

On the bottom is a table where you can see the differences in lanes, sata-ports and so on:

https://www.amd.com/en/products/chipsets-am4

 

[SenditMakine]

On the bottom is a table where you can see the differences in lanes, sata-ports and so on:

https://www.amd.com/en/products/chipsets-am4

thank you, now that's exactly what I was looking for, if only I searched in the manufacturer's site before...
feel like a dummy now