The Ryzen 5 5600x features six cores, and all of these cores are centralized to a single CCX design which enables the processor to communicate with peripheral devices much faster while also improving the latency speeds. Paired with a decent motherboard, the 5600x is a beast and will not disappoint you whether you use it for gaming, streaming, 3D design, video editing, or anything else. The processor features high overclock ceilings, along with low TDP performance. However, you’ll need one of the best motherboards for Ryzen 5 5600x to bring out everything the processor has to offer.
The Best Motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600x – Our Picks
Why you should trust us
We live, breathe, and eat motherboards here at appuals.com. Whether it’s the latest Intel or AMD chipsets, we know our way around a motherboard. We’ve been reviewing them for years, and our experience shows in our detailed, comprehensive reviews. Our leading PC hardware expert, Hassam Nasir, boasts a tremendous experience in the field of motherboard reviews which spans back to the days when Nvidia used to add an extra SLI chipset to motherboards! One can say that he loves to get into the nitty-gritty details of PC hardware such as PCB analysis, VRM performance, memory/core overclocking potential, cooling potentials of AIOs, and the list goes on and on. His expertise does not come as a surprise, since he has been obsessed with PC hardware from the era of Opterons and Smithfield Pentium processors. However, we don’t just rely on our experience – we also put every motherboard we review through a rigorous testing process. We test for stability, compatibility, overclocking potential, and more. Our team’s key expertise lies in the area of VRM testing, both for quality and long-term reliability. Of course, we also take into account the user experience when writing our reviews. Whether you are looking for a budget-friendly option or the absolute best motherboard on the market, we can help you find what you need. ASUS is well known for its top-quality products, and if you’re looking for a motherboard for the 5600x that offers great performance, and has all the good features while also being reasonably priced, then the ASUS ROG Strix X570-E would be the best choice for you.
A similar ASUS option was selected in our list of the best motherboards for Ryzen 5 3600 as well. This motherboard comes with a 12+4 power phase VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) that can efficiently distribute the voltage across the board for the best and most stable performance. The motherboard can easily take your RAM speed up to 4400MHz and can also take your Ryzen 5 5600x’s maximum clock speed up to 4.6 GHz without any issues. The board also features passive VRM cooling to keep the temperatures stable. The board also features a postcode LED that lets you diagnose any problems easily. However, it is important to note that the board doesn’t feature a power/reset button to check if there are any issues with the hardware while building or fixing a PC. The ASUS ROG Strix X570-E also features two heatsinked M.2 drives. But, you’d expect more M.2 drives from a motherboard in this price range. ASUS dominates the Intel motherboard market too, as their premium option was selected in our roundup of the best motherboards for i9 12900K. This high-end board comes with the ROG-patented I/O shield. You’ll also find a total of 5 PCIe expansion slots on the board, and 3 of them are dedicated full-sized 16x Graphic card slots. It also has the high-quality SupremeFX S1220A audio chipset, which can deliver up to 113dB RMAA performance. Despite being an excellent premium motherboard, the ASUS ROG Strix X570-E does have some features missing that you’d expect from a motherboard with a similar price tag, such as the NVIDIA SLI and AMD’s CrossFire. The board comes with a 3-year warranty, so it’s a good investment overall. If you’re looking for a beast of a motherboard for your mini ITX PC case that could go well with your Ryzen 5 5600x, then the ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Gaming is the absolute best option for you. It comes at a fairly reasonable price, but the performance it offers can easily compete with the performance of most high-end ATX motherboards.
The matte-black motherboard with an aluminum backplate is built with Zen 2 architecture and features an 8+2 VRM, making the board powerful enough for stable overclocking. The board looks aesthetic on its own, but the Aura Sync RGB lighting makes it even more attractive. The ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Gaming comes with a heatsink for the VRM, chipset, and a separate heatsink for the M.2 drives. You also get a 40mm fan in the box when you purchase the motherboard. This cooling fan emits low noise while delivering an efficient cooling performance, which is great for PC users who dislike loud fan noise coming from their PCs. If the previous-gen motherboards tickle your fancy, then be sure to explore our selection of the best X470 motherboards as well. Despite all the onboard cooling features, this motherboard is known to run quite hot, so you’ll need a well-ventilated case with a high flow rate to keep the temperatures in check. Being an ASUS ROG motherboard, the X570-I is excellent for overclocking despite the board’s small stature. You can easily pump the RAM up to 4800MHz. Since the board is mini ITX, it only has two memory slots, limiting you to 64 GB of RAM at maximum. If you want any more RAM, you’ll have to switch your motherboard. Our selection of the best mini ITX motherboards for i9 9900K can also be helpful for users of that Intel platform. The board doesn’t have any onboard buttons. The ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Gaming also features a Supreme FX S1220 audio chipset for high-fidelity audio for all your competitive gaming needs. Overall this premium quality motherboard is a technological marvel since ASUS managed to put together so many high-end features on such a small board. If you’re short on budget, but don’t want to settle for anything less than a premium quality motherboard, then the MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK Gaming Motherboard is the best option for you. MSI’s MAG (MSI Arsenal Gaming) series is known for its great price-to-performance ratio, which also makes it a decent candidate for a great entry-level board.
The MAG B550 Tomahawk from MSI was also selected in our shortlist of the very best B550 motherboards on the market. The board offers great performance and cooling capability. The board enables both CPU and memory overclocking. You can easily overclock your RAM up to 5100MHz with the help of this motherboard in ideal condition. The VRM on this gaming motherboard is also the absolute best that you can get in its price range. The motherboard’s PCB comes reinforced with copper, which makes the overall board quite durable. The board also features MSI’s Dual Rail Power System and a digital PWM controller that can automatically calibrate and adjust the best settings to maintain a stable voltage flow. With regards to cooling, the motherboard features several 7W/mK extended heatsinks which makes sure that your PC remains cool and can easily dissipate heat. If you want to improve the cooling, you can use the water pump header that comes included with the board. The best thing is that you can control all the fans, their noise, and flow with the motherboard’s software. The motherboard also features the 7.1 Realtek HD Audio Codec for high-quality audio. It is one beautiful motherboard, but you can make it even better using the Mystic Light Extension. A similar MSI option was also selected in our roundup of the best motherboards for i5 12600K. We think that the MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK Gaming Motherboard would’ve been much better if it had a few more USB ports instead of that 1 PS/2 port on the back, which has become obsolete these days. The board also features an HDMI 1.4b port instead of HDMI 2.0, so you can’t get 4K60Hz with it. Regardless of all that, it is still a good motherboard for its price. If you’re looking for the best of the best, and you’ve got the budget for it, then the ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula might just be the motherboard you need. It comes with a hefty price tag, but it has some of the best features that can help you build your ultimate gaming PC.
Keeping pricing to one side, we can safely say that the ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula is one of the best motherboards for gaming on the X570 platform. The motherboard features a strong 14+2 VRM. The power stages are able to withstand a load of 60A each. The motherboard also features water cooling blocks for VRM which can help you solve all the cooling issues with the board’s overpowered VRM and achieve the highest memory and processor overclocks. Overclocking using this motherboard is quite straightforward. You can pump up all the cores to 4.3GHz at 1.4V, while the memory can reach up to 4800+MHz through overclocking. The board also looks absolutely stunning. It has a solid steel backplate and a tough thermoplastic top cover that keeps your board clean and ensures its durability. You can further improve the aesthetic of your motherboard by using the Aura Sync RGB lighting. The board also features addressable Gen 2 RGB headers and a built-in OLED panel called LiveDash that displays custom graphics for maximum personalization. The board features 4x PCI x16 expansion slots. Two of these expansion slots feature multi-GPU, AMD CrossFireX, and NVIDIA SLI support. It could have used more M.2 slots, especially at this price range. For cooling, you get ProCool II power connectors for maximum temperature control. The board’s thermal design features integrated Crosschill EK III and several heatsinks to make sure you’re never above the temperature limit. The motherboard already comes equipped with 5-way optimization, which allows system-wide tuning and several cooling and overclocking profiles that are made to go together perfectly with your PC. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula comes with Supreme FX S1220 Audio Codec for high quality and immersive audio experience. However, it is important to note that this motherboard doesn’t come with an onboard graphic adapter. You’ll need a dedicated GPU to get the display to function. The GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Elite is an excellent entry-level option for you if you’re looking for a high-quality motherboard without having to spend a lot of money on it. It does lack some features that you’d want from a high-end motherboard, but regardless of that, it is still an excellent pick at the price range.
Speaking of budget offerings, you can also explore our selection of the best budget AM4 motherboards for more options on a strict budget. The 12+2 VRM is also decent for some overclocking. However, if overclocking is your goal, then you should go for a different option on this list. The board itself looks good, but the RGB software isn’t that great. You can install a couple of RGB fans on the board, which can be adjusted and customized through the board’s RGB software. The Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite doesn’t feature any wireless connectivity options. For audio, we have AMP-UP Audio with ALC1200, which is a fair option for good quality audio and supports 7.1 surround. The two onboard M.2 drives are protected by Thermal Guard, which prevents throttling by keeping your SSDs cool. It comes with a front-panel USB Type-C connector but doesn’t have any Type-C ports on the rear of the board. You can also easily update the BIOS of this board using the GIGABYTE Q-Flash Plus button. If you don’t have any budget restrictions and want the absolute best overclocking experience, then you should give the MSI Meg X570 Unify Motherboard a try. It has tons of great features, and it looks incredibly cool.
Depending on the buyer’s preference, the best or worst thing is that the board comes with no onboard RGB lighting. But, you do get three onboard headers where you can connect your RGB lighting to make your PC light up. Other than that, the board features a 12+2+1 VRM configuration that can easily handle your Ryzen 5 5600x even when it’s max overclocked. The board can also overclock the total of 4x DIMM DDR4 RAM up to 4600+MHz each for the best gaming experience. More premium MSI motherboards can be found in our list of the best motherboards for i7 12700K. However, the board features Nahimic 3. It’s been a known issue with MSI motherboards where no generic audio drivers work to get the audio out of the PC except the specific Nahimic 3 Drivers, which you’ll have to download from the windows store. Despite this issue, once you’ve got the audio chipset working, you can start enjoying the highly immersive audio for all your gaming needs. Cooling is also quite good. The chipset is cooled actively, while the heatsinks passively cool down the M.2 drives to keep the board’s temperature in check and to prevent any throttling. The MSI Meg X570 Unify features 4x SATA ports which are less than what you’d expect from motherboards in this price bracket. However, the board makes up for it by providing 3x Gen4 M.2 slots that use the PCIe 4.0 protocol for maximum transfer speed. Keep in mind that it doesn’t have any onboard graphic adapter, so you’ll have to get a dedicated card for display. If you own a Micro-ATX case, the ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus is one of the best available options out there at a reasonable price.
The board features an 8+2 power phase design, which provides enough power to fulfill all your overclocking requirements. The power phase design is quite sturdy, and there’s a large VRM heatsink to keep the temperature in check. In terms of cooling, the board features 4x four-pin fan headers, which consume about 12W energy but offer excellent performance. The board features 2x M.2 drives, but only one of the M.2 drive slots is heatsinked for better cooling. The motherboard also comes with SupremeFX S1220A Audio Chipset for the best quality audio. The board features RGB lighting, but the available color and customizable choices are quite limited. So, if you’re looking for a board with better RGB aesthetics, then you should choose some other option. On the subject of value-oriented motherboards, don’t forget to check out our selection of the best B450 motherboards as well. The board is overall a great option for micro-ATX cases. You get Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity with this board, but you’ll need Windows 10 Build 19041 or later to make use of the Bluetooth features. You also get HDMI 2.1, which enables 4K60Hz.
How we picked and tested
Picking out the best motherboards for the 5600x was a somewhat tricky task since there are a lot of X570, B550, and A520 motherboards available out there from different brands. You also have to consider the looks and aesthetics, as well as the core features and form factor of the motherboard. But, don’t worry because we’ve already done the hard work for you. Our primary focus while choosing the best motherboards for Ryzen 5600x was the price range and the price-to-performance ratio. The 5600x is one of the cheaper options from the 5000 series, so we ensured that our motherboards fit the criteria by being affordable while also providing all the essential features and capabilities. However, we have also included some motherboards with a bigger price tag for people who have the budget and want the best of the best to make their builds future-proof. We excluded the A520 chipset motherboards from the list since they lack the ability to overclock and do not have the VRM quality and performance of other chipsets that are compatible with the AMD AM4 socket. Additionally, we have also included motherboards for different form factors, so people with different-sized PC cases can also know which motherboard would be best for their respective PC cases. Once we narrowed down our choices for what we were looking for, it was fairly easy to list down the products which would be suitable for PC builders with different building criteria. Our expert team of tech enthusiasts and reviewers meticulously tested each motherboard option on this list, and countless others that we were not good enough to make this list. Our primary focus was VRM quality testing through a sustained load of an overclocked Ryzen 5 5600X, running a stress test in an enclosed chassis for a predetermined time. The data obtained from the scores of motherboards helped shape this list, along with the features, aesthetics, price, and value offerings that were associated with each model. The list we’ve put together includes motherboards from different price brackets so that you can get your hands on the best available motherboard according to your budget. If you are on the older Zen 2 platform, you may want to check out our selection of the best motherboards for Ryzen 7 3700X as well.
B550 vs X570
X570 is the flagship AMD chipset for the AM4 socket. One of the primary features of the X570 platform is PCIe 4.0 support. This standard allowed for double the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0, which is especially important for graphics cards and other high-performance hardware such as storage devices. The B550 platform is a cut-down version of the X570 chipset, as it does have support for PCIe 4.0 but it is slightly handicapped. Due to the limitation of PCIe 4.0 lanes, you only get PCIe Gen 4 support in the primary PCIe x16 slot and the primary M.2 slot. These lanes are connected directly to the CPU, and not to the chipset which is limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds. X570 also has more high-speed USB ports and PCIe lanes, giving you more flexibility when it comes to connecting peripherals and storage devices. Finally, most X570 motherboards feature a more robust VRM design, allowing for better overclocking performance. The key advantage of the B550 chipset lies in its price-to-performance ratio, which is far better than any X570 motherboard. Many sub-200$ B550 motherboards are excellent in terms of VRM design as well as features, while a decent X570 motherboard can easily run you more than $300.
Ryzen 5 5600X vs. Core i5 10600K – AMD vs Intel
If you are stuck between the two mid-range Intel and AMD options from this generation, don’t worry. We are all in the same boat. The Ryzen 5 5600X and Core i5 10600K are two extremely competitive offerings from AMD and Intel respectively, and that comes as a breath of fresh air for consumers. With the incredible Zen 3 architecture based on the 7nm node, the Ryzen 5 5600X does pull ahead in most gaming scenarios, especially due to its larger L3 cache. However, the Intel Core i5 10600K trades blows with the AMD offering when it comes to productivity tasks. The Intel option can also clock significantly higher, which can aid single-threaded games and applications. The overclocking capability is also higher on the Intel side, however, one has to keep in mind the higher 125W TDP of the 10600K as compared to the 65W of the 5600X. In terms of pricing, the Intel option can be a bit cheaper (which is surprising) by around $10-15, but it is up to the potential buyer to decide whether or not the slight savings are worth the loss in performance.
Buyer’s Guide
A motherboard is one of the most critical components of your PC. It serves as the base platform for everything else, so it’s never a good idea to compromise on the board’s quality. Several factors should be considered while choosing the best motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600x. One thing that the buyer should keep in mind is that the B550 chipset is cheaper, and the boards are of slightly less quality in terms of components and features. On the other hand, the X570 chipset provides better memory and CPU overclocking capability and is overall a good choice for anyone, though a bit expensive. It is difficult to judge how much should you actually spend on a motherboard, as the answer does vary from case to case. Here, we’ll discuss the important things you should keep in mind while selecting a motherboard for Ryzen 5 5600x.
Form Factor and CPU Socket Type
The form factor is the first thing you should consider while buying a motherboard for your chassis. If your PC case is too small, it is likely that a motherboard with a larger form factor will not fit inside it. There are four types of form factors for motherboards:
E-ATXStandard ATXMicro-ATXMini-ITX
Meanwhile, a CPU socket type dictates which type of processor will fit in your motherboard. The Ryzen 5 5600x processor is of AMD AM4 socket type. The AM4 socket type can easily fit inside any X570, B550, or A520 motherboard.
Design and Aesthetics
If you’re a PC builder or a PC user in general, you’d know the value of design and aesthetics when it comes to selecting any PC hardware. Modern PC cases are see-through or transparent, which makes it even more important to pay attention to your motherboard’s design and aesthetics. There are a lot of motherboards out there that suit builders of different preferences. If you don’t prefer RGB lighting, you could go for the MSI Meg X570 Unify Motherboard, which doesn’t offer any sort of onboard RGB lighting. On the other hand, if you’re interested in a board that offers high-quality RGB lighting with tons of customization options, then you should go for the ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula. The LiveDash feature of this motherboard opens a lot of new windows for customization and personalization. However, it is a fairly expensive board, so you should keep your budget in mind as well.
Overclocking Capacity
An AMD Ryzen 5 5600x truly shines when it comes to CPU overclocking. Keep in mind that the B550 or A520 chipset motherboards don’t offer as great of an overclocking capacity as the X570 chipset. You should also look for the VRM of the motherboard that you’re going to buy. The VRM is responsible for power delivery throughout your motherboard. The VRM ensures that your CPU can operate safely by powering down the voltage coming from your Power Supply. The VRM components are responsible for the delivery of clean and stable power to the CPU on demand. Motherboards with high-quality VRM components are able to deliver the power to the CPU at higher overclocks, in a stable manner, without overheating. This can be a great advantage to enthusiasts and gamers alike. Another thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need appropriate cooling to keep your PC stable while overclocking. If you’re having any temperature issues with your stock coolers, or if you intend to overclock your CPU, you should invest in CPU coolers.
Upgradability
If you’re looking to future-proof your build, you should think about the upgradability of your motherboard before buying it. Upgradability ensures that you won’t have to buy a new motherboard if you’re just looking to upgrade your processor, which will, in turn, save you a lot of money. It is a good thing that AMD motherboards are highly compatible with several generations of AMD processors. Like, in the case of Ryzen 5 5600x, if you own a high-end motherboard, you won’t have to upgrade your motherboard if you want to switch to a better processor like Ryzen 7 5800x with the AM4 socket or when AMD releases another chip with the AM4 socket in future. Or, if you already owned a high-end future-proof motherboard with your Ryzen 2000 or 3000 series, there’s no need to upgrade your motherboard if you want to switch to the Ryzen 5 5600x. You can always consult our motherboard buying guide for a step-by-step walkthrough of the motherboard purchase process on both Intel and AMD platforms.
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