Having buyers remorse =(

[reemi]

I've never seen my ryzen hit 100% usage on all my cores. it's always the gpu that maxes out. I'm not looking for 144fps at 1440p. I just want steady 60fps on open world games and maybe 90-100 fps on fps games. I might go sli I later down the road

If you want...

I have almost same fps as you, except I have a GTX970 and i7 6700k

And that's why my fps increased from ~62 to ~70 in Battlefront 2 Starwars, when I increased my CPU from 4.3ghz to 4.5ghz this week.

[potis]

I've never seen my ryzen hit 100% usage on all my cores. it's always the gpu that maxes out. I'm not looking for 144fps at 1440p. I just want steady 60fps on open world games and maybe 90-100 fps on fps games. I might go sli I later down the road

Late to the party cause i cant be bothering answering all posts, and Shakadam covered it nicely.

Ryzen has the problem of untrustworthy RAM, so its better to copy/paste other builds from people that OCed and managed just fine on certain motherboards/RAM.

As example for more overall gamers i build 2 R5 1600X builds the last month (they cant possibly OC) and went for 2400Mhz RAM for the very reason.

That 10% is lovable, when you already have researched what to buy and instead of throwing your money on another mobo/RAM (Unless returning and adding the cost) i would advice keeping the RAM at default settings, or well XMP settings.

Also, you are using 3 terrible performance games to get results, the results are perfectly fine by the way, there is nothing wrong with your PC.

Use less terrible games to determine performance

BF1 DX12 is a good example of a proper comparing benchmark test for 2017.

And i would guess Witcher 3 for DX11, or Shadows of War, or Wildlands.

[bamf775]

That's certainly possible. I can't find anyone who has that exact combination so, you know, it may or may not work :P

Update: So, i slapped in the new 8gbx2 G.Skill Flare X 3200 CL14 on my ASRock x370 Gaming X board and I got it to post @ 3200, 3333, and 3466 BUT at CL15 or higher. It would not post @ CL14 no matter what speed i put it at. So, my gigabyte gaming k5 board will be here tomorrow and hopefully I get better results. I may even see if I can OC the R 1600 past 3.85.

for some reason though when i set the CL to 15 in the BIOS it shows up as CL 16 on HWinfo.

[Shakadam]

3466Mhz at CL15 is a pretty dang good result nonetheless. CL14 probably requires fiddling around with subtimings and voltages which is a bit beyond my knowledge.

Really not sure why HWinfo would show different values though. That's a new one O_o

[Evildeffy]

Update: So, i slapped in the new 8gbx2 G.Skill Flare X 3200 CL14 on my ASRock x370 Gaming X board and I got it to post @ 3200, 3333, and 3466 BUT at CL15 or higher. It would not post @ CL14 no matter what speed i put it at. So, my gigabyte gaming k5 board will be here tomorrow and hopefully I get better results. I may even see if I can OC the R 1600 past 3.85.

for some reason though when i set the CL to 15 in the BIOS it shows up as CL 16 on HWinfo.

This is actually a known issue with the first iteration of ASRock BIOSes.
The TaiChi suffered the same annoyances and BuildZoid reported it's issues here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNc4q1kBwhE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HJwBMOr0g4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2KhRPVGQYc

In that order of issues with BIOS updates.

Regardless though ... follow what HWInfo/CPU-Z tells you it is since they will be the correct values because of said BIOS issues.

Among the reasons why I pick ASUS is their BIOS validation being considerably better.

[bamf775]

This is actually a known issue with the first iteration of ASRock BIOSes.
The TaiChi suffered the same annoyances and BuildZoid reported it's issues here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNc4q1kBwhE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HJwBMOr0g4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2KhRPVGQYc

In that order of issues with BIOS updates.

Regardless though ... follow what HWInfo/CPU-Z tells you it is since they will be the correct values because of said BIOS issues.

Among the reasons why I pick ASUS is their BIOS validation being considerably better.

Well, I'm hoping the Gigabyte Gaming K5 provides me better OC results but after reading reviews on it, I'm getting worried because the VRM isn't great. I should of purchased the Gaming 5 or K7

[Evildeffy]

Well, I'm hoping the Gigabyte Gaming K5 provides me better OC results but after reading reviews on it, I'm getting worried because the VRM isn't great. I should of purchased the Gaming 5 or K7

To be entirely truthful your price category you should've picked the ASUS PRIME X370-PRO motherboard, in that price class it beats the crap out of the rest all the way up to 180 - 190 USD/EUR boards with relative ease.

If you CAN return it... go for the ASUS one unless you need a specific feature that isn't present on the ASUS board.

[Shakadam]

To be entirely truthful your price category you should've picked the ASUS PRIME X370-PRO motherboard, in that price class it beats the crap out of the rest all the way up to 180 - 190 USD/EUR boards with relative ease.

If you CAN return it... go for the ASUS one unless you need a specific feature that isn't present on the ASUS board.

Personally I'm reluctant to recommend that board due to the many many many user reported issues with it. It's a very good board when it works, but I've read so many reports in owner threads and user reviews about bugs in the BIOS (maybe mostly fixed by now since it's been out for a while) but more worryingly, many reports that the board died in some way or another after anything from a few days to a few months.

[Evildeffy]

Personally I'm reluctant to recommend that board due to the many many many user reported issues with it. It's a very good board when it works, but I've read so many reports in owner threads and user reviews about bugs in the BIOS (maybe mostly fixed by now since it's been out for a while) but more worryingly, many reports that the board died in some way or another after anything from a few days to a few months.

The same reports exist for every other board as well.
The same "many many many user reported issues" were mostly in the first 2 - 3 months of launch as to which Ryzen and AM4 had teething issues.

Most current boards, from any brand, works fine, but qualitatively the ASUS board simple is considerably ahead, UEFI especially.
Having built quite a few (but I, in general, prefer ASUS boards overall ... especially over MSI ones) I can tell you (also built a shitton of the PRIME B350s) that over the course of the last 6 months the only real hardware issues that have cropped up were from the MSI X370 SLI PLUS, 1st having stability issues that went away with ANY other board and the 2nd just outright stopped working after a few hours (barring the absolute garbage MSI UEFI).

But I can tell you from physically handling them that when holding the PRIME X370-PRO in my hands it feels CONSIDERABLY more solid than close-to-equal boards.

The B350s in general f.ex. feel very light and cheap and most X370s that transition from B350 are the same till you hit like a certain price point.

The boards aren't perfect... but far and away actually better than the other available brands.

[bamf775]

Can one of you please watch this video starting around 15:00?





I'm trying to understand what hes talking about when he compares the Gigabyte K5 to the ASUS PRO. The K5 has a weaker VRM but he said has much better overclocking ability while the ASUS PRO has a better VRM but weaker overclocking ability? What does he mean when he says the K5 has strong clock gen chip and dual bios? WHat is that?

[Evildeffy]

Can one of you please watch this video starting around 15:00?

I'm trying to understand what hes talking about when he compares the Gigabyte K5 to the ASUS PRO. The K5 has a weaker VRM but he said has much better overclocking ability while the ASUS PRO has a better VRM but weaker overclocking ability? What does he mean when he says the K5 has strong clock gen chip and dual bios? WHat is that?

The overclocking he's referring to is using Base Clock overclocking.
This is pretty much only used for extreme overclockers, more specifically Liquid Nitrogen overclockers.

You, as a standard consumer, will only use the multipliers with a fixed base clock of 100MHz.

So for you the overclocking is better on the X370.

The only difference really lies in the Dual BIOS, which I had honestly forgotten in the comparison, but if you don't fuck around with it, more specifically have a stable power feed to your house and not prone to failures DURING FLASHING ONLY, you're unlikely to ever need this.

But it is a point in GigaByte's favour, however small it is.

Just for clarification .. DualBIOS means that if you somehow destroy the BIOS during a failed BIOS flash it will default back to the back-up BIOS.
ASUS used to have easy replacement BIOS chips, unfortunately this one is soldered.

[bamf775]

The overclocking he's referring to is using Base Clock overclocking.
This is pretty much only used for extreme overclockers, more specifically Liquid Nitrogen overclockers.

You, as a standard consumer, will only use the multipliers with a fixed base clock of 100MHz.

So for you the overclocking is better on the X370.

The only difference really lies in the Dual BIOS, which I had honestly forgotten in the comparison, but if you don't fuck around with it, more specifically have a stable power feed to your house and not prone to failures DURING FLASHING ONLY, you're unlikely to ever need this.

But it is a point in GigaByte's favour, however small it is.

Just for clarification .. DualBIOS means that if you somehow destroy the BIOS during a failed BIOS flash it will default back to the back-up BIOS.
ASUS used to have easy replacement BIOS chips, unfortunately this one is soldered.

So having good VRM allows a end user to comfortably OC their CPU without the need for super expensive cooling solutions?

[Evildeffy]

So having good VRM allows a end user to comfortably OC their CPU without the need for super expensive cooling solutions?

It's a power regulation part of the motherboard.
If you have higher rated VRM, each being 60A f.ex. it means it has a higher tolerance and will scale accordingly with temperatures in comparison to the cheaper 40A versions.

If you have 60A higher quality VRMs AND more of them than your competition in general it gets even better.

Generally (assuming it's not some shitty trickery) the more phases you have (say 4 vs. 8 assuming same components) the power load, and thus temperature load, is effectively split between the phases making cooling them easier and being more efficient as well as lifetime of said components.

Having a good VRM isn't just necessary for overclocking but if you come to higher class boards it is.
There are some boards out there which have 2 - 3 phases and no cooling on the heatsink and running an 8-core CPU on that is not a smart idea in general.

VRM is always required and the cheaper you go the less quality you get the lower life your motherboard will have as it will have increased temperatures and the capacitors next to the VRMs have a SERIOUSLY short lifespan if you go 100°C+

It's for this reason the X299 and X399 boards have absurd VRM requirements because f.ex. the X299 boards especially can draw 500 - 600W over those VRMs.
That's not a nice amount and they get HOT and exponentially decrease the life of the motherboard.

And as I've personally experienced... if your VRM dies in a blaze of glory.. so do your CPU and RAM.

[bamf775]

It's a power regulation part of the motherboard.
If you have higher rated VRM, each being 60A f.ex. it means it has a higher tolerance and will scale accordingly with temperatures in comparison to the cheaper 40A versions.

If you have 60A higher quality VRMs AND more of them than your competition in general it gets even better.

Generally (assuming it's not some shitty trickery) the more phases you have (say 4 vs. 8 assuming same components) the power load, and thus temperature load, is effectively split between the phases making cooling them easier and being more efficient as well as lifetime of said components.

Having a good VRM isn't just necessary for overclocking but if you come to higher class boards it is.
There are some boards out there which have 2 - 3 phases and no cooling on the heatsink and running an 8-core CPU on that is not a smart idea in general.

VRM is always required and the cheaper you go the less quality you get the lower life your motherboard will have as it will have increased temperatures and the capacitors next to the VRMs have a SERIOUSLY short lifespan if you go 100°C+

It's for this reason the X299 and X399 boards have absurd VRM requirements because f.ex. the X299 boards especially can draw 500 - 600W over those VRMs.
That's not a nice amount and they get HOT and exponentially decrease the life of the motherboard.

And as I've personally experienced... if your VRM dies in a blaze of glory.. so do your CPU and RAM.

I appreciate your explanation on VRM, I was getting confused on why this was an important factor for considering a mobo. I might just fork up the cash and get the ASUS Crosshair VI Hero. Thanks again

[Evildeffy]

I appreciate your explanation on VRM, I was getting confused on why this was an important factor for considering a mobo. I might just fork up the cash and get the ASUS Crosshair VI Hero. Thanks again

As much as I buy the same class of boards normally because of my personality you seem a little more budget conscious.

Is there a particular reason you want the Crosshair VI Hero or is it because motherboards are driving you mad and are offput by some people posting X, Y and Z?

[Nasuuna]

wish you luck op

its why i don't touch overclocking until stuff is out of warranty anyways

[bamf775]

As much as I buy the same class of boards normally because of my personality you seem a little more budget conscious.

Is there a particular reason you want the Crosshair VI Hero or is it because motherboards are driving you mad and are offput by some people posting X, Y and Z?

I think my biggest problem was that I didnt take motherboards as seriously when I was doing my research a month and a half ago for building my new PC. I just took the first suggestion from someone @ tomshardware.com and went with the ASRock x370 Fatal1ty Gaming X without knowing much about the VRM, chipset, BIOS functionality, memory QVL, etc...

I just finished my new gaming build about over a month ago and I like pushing my components as far as they can go (getting the most for your money mentality).

A little background: When I was in the market about a month ago for a CPU, I realized that I had to go Ryzen because the new 8th gen (coffeelake) intel CPUs were hard AF to find and prices were inflated beyond unreasonable from retailers and private sellers.

I didn't want to go KabyLake or SkyLake because of 2 reasons: outdated z270 chipset boards and they weren't much better than the new (cheaper) Ryzen line that offered better multitasking + respectable gaming capability + the fact that new games are starting to utilize more than 4 cores. The only thing that was hanging me up was the fact Ryzen had slower IPC and single thread performance. So, without knowing too much about the "infinity fabric tech" with Ryzen I went ahead and got the R5 1600 and thought maybe i'll be able to push this thing to 4Ghz with the right supporting components. I finally got the right ram kit (Gskill Flare X 3200 CL14), now its just finding the right mobo so I can feel good about single thread performance because I do play games like WoW, ESO, GTA5 consistently that are more single thread bound.

[Evildeffy]

I think my biggest problem was that I didnt take motherboards as seriously when I was doing my research a month and a half ago for building my new PC. I just took the first suggestion from someone @ tomshardware.com and went with the ASRock x370 Fatal1ty Gaming X without knowing much about the VRM, chipset, BIOS functionality, memory QVL, etc...

I just finished my new gaming build about over a month ago and I like pushing my components as far as they can go (getting the most for your money mentality).

A little background: When I was in the market about a month ago for a CPU, I realized that I had to go Ryzen because the new 8th gen (coffeelake) intel CPUs were hard AF to find and prices were inflated beyond unreasonable from retailers and private sellers.

I didn't want to go KabyLake or SkyLake because of 2 reasons: outdated z270 chipset boards and they weren't much better than the new (cheaper) Ryzen line that offered better multitasking + respectable gaming capability + the fact that new games are starting to utilize more than 4 cores. The only thing that was hanging me up was the fact Ryzen had slower IPC and single thread performance. So, without knowing too much about the "infinity fabric tech" with Ryzen I went ahead and got the R5 1600 and thought maybe i'll be able to push this thing to 4Ghz with the right supporting components. I finally got the right ram kit (Gskill Flare X 3200 CL14), now its just finding the right mobo so I can feel good about single thread performance because I do play games like WoW, ESO, GTA5 consistently that are more single thread bound.

To be fair the ASUS PRIME X370-PRO will handle what you want from it, the board is capable of sustained 4,1GHz overclocking on even the R7 1700 (if you're lucky enough) ... the quality of VRM is good and Ryzen is insanely efficient when it comes to power draw.

That said of course I cannot speak for the Ryzen Refresh coming Feb/March 2018 and I dunno if they'll fix the clock speed limit that Ryzen has currently.
If so both power draw and efficiency when overclocking will decrease of course but even then the VRM of the PRIME X370-PRO should be able to handle it without too much effort.

The Crosshair VI Hero is a good board and I go for that class of boards normally too but in your case there's no need, unless you simply want to or need specific features, to go for the Crosshair VI Hero simply because of associated cost.

And to be fair.. Tomshardware.com does have some smart people but unfortunately it's filled too much with Hobbyists whom have little real experience other than hearsay about things, simply put it's too big and "popular" for it's own good.
We have them in this forum as well but there's always people who have actual experience and knowledge about these things because of the considerably smaller sample size of people present.

For example:
The whole memory QVL is something you should pay little heed to really when building an enthusiast rig as the QVL is often short and encompasses a tiny amount of RAM on the market and isn't a guarantee on anything to work other than to "basically work" because anything above 2667MHz on Ryzen is considered overclocking even if the QVL extends to 3466MHz .. so you will not get anywhere with it should a 3200MHz kit rated to work in the QVL will not work on your system.
If you were a basic office user the QVL is of more importance than someone wanting to mess with his system and extract max performance as the office user will generally not exceed specs set by the manufacturer to ensure stable operation.

Don't let anyone tell you Ryzen sucks or is bad for gaming, anyone who does should be promptly disregarded.
Yes Intel's CPUs do have a lead, a lead which you can close the gap on with the right kit and know-how, and that lead is a stone cold fact when it comes to gaming only.
But Ryzen is extremely capable of gaming and most often you will not notice a huge difference when you're crapping out 100 FPS with Ryzen and 110 - 120 FPS and if you do any production work then Ryzen is ahead of Intel without question.

Having said that in some games Ryzen will never approach Intel, GTA 5 is such an example and it is in the extremes as well... GTA 5 simply doesn't play nice on Ryzen at all and the difference is huge and Rockstar has made 0 efforts to change this, GTA 5 is already too old for them to GAF about this.

That said WoW is one example where Intel is often times dominant but is less dominant than people think in comparison to Ryzen.
If you have that memory kit @ rated speeds there is virtually 0 difference between equally clocked Coffee Lake and Ryzen in WoW but Intel becomes more dominant by sheer clockspeed in this regard making Intel grab the advantage by showing the difference between 4,0GHz (Ryzen) vs. 5,0GHz (Ryzen) but here's 1 mistake people make.
People think that it's a linear increase in WoW going from 4,0GHz to 5,0GHz and this Intel is 20% ahead on clockspeed alone, in truth this number is closer to 10%.
And this number will only ever be reached in high player number raids where people do not go AFK, such as Mythic raids, and every use of abilities is coordinated.

I'm babbling on about this stuff but I get a little bit annoyed at the amount of misinformation thrown out by quite a few people, I of course tend to be wrong from time to time as well but I'll admit to it.
Hell I'm pretty sure that I'm known here as the dense idiot who is unaware that he should stop answering to trolls with gigantic posts trying to explain things when they will never be read or acknowledged by them anyway.

Simply put in your shoes for now:
Unless you intend to just want the Crosshair VI Hero for bragging rights, do some extreme overclocking or need specific features from it ... the ASUS PRIME X370-PRO will suffice for your uses.
That said if you want it because you want it ... then by all means go for and have fun with it.

I'm going for the ASUS Maximus X Code, which is also ridiculously expensive, because I CBA dealing with add-on cards and just want things native on the board so I can have a clean case... I could work with boards costing € 200,- less without issue but am aggravated with myself if I did so I'm not one that has the right to tell you what to get.

I can only recommend you to get something that suits your needs and seeing your prior choices my recommendation stands.
So with that said.. there's no need to have remorse about wanting to go this direction, only have remorse for some component choices which you can rectify.
That rectification can come in the same price class or higher, that's irrelevant to ANYONE else but YOU.

Pick ANY board you like for whatever reason you prefer, they will all function to their official specs.
If you intend to tinker then you need to indeed do research and ask and check out experienced Tech sites and Tech Tube channels, never just one.

Every chosen brand and board has consequences to go with it.

As a few examples:
ASUS makes the best boards overall and their UEFI is unquestionably the best but their Tech Support/RMA department is downright atrocious.
GigaByte actually is, at launch, often the fastest responder with BIOS updates and they have generally good QA and support is quick and actually tries to help you even with very technical questions and changes (such as a custom BIOS where a Logitech wireless mini keyboard would not work in the BIOS no matter what and them making a custom BIOS that fixes that issue) ... BUT this very speed is often their biggest enemy as they create, sometimes disastrous UEFI BIOSes that are harmful to your PC... they retract them quickly but damage is already done as well as changing boards entirely with a new revision and it being far worse.
MSI has some of quickest releases of boards and often visually pleasing ones but suffers quite a bit from QA issues or low quality overall production, I also personally feel their UEFI BIOS is among the most atrocious in existence but that's mostly due to layout and looks.
SuperMicro is slow and not really meant for the gamer's market even though their quality is generally pretty good but lacking on features or looks.

I could go on with this and these downsides are personal for everyone, I pick ASUS because of general quality and their UEFI BIOS and features I want.
I generally couldn't care less about their tech support as I'm my own tech support and if their board dies I'd rather deal with the store 15 times over than their RMA department.

If you're in doubt next time regarding components ask for advice AND look up the information about everything since you're wanting to tinker with it all.
Like I said .. for 99% of all users that just want the basic functionality all boards will often do it fine but for the tinkerers among is... well ... we want more.
And that's when the shitstorm starts and I understand it's hard to wade through but you kind of have to if you want the best for your money.

Having said that ... for future reference if there's something you need advice on you can always shoot me a PM on this forum.
I will answer to the best of my ability and what I do not know I will answer that I do not, but you'll never catch me recommending something I have no experience in or knowledge of.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I kinda get set off sometimes.

[bamf775]

To be fair the ASUS PRIME X370-PRO will handle what you want from it, the board is capable of sustained 4,1GHz overclocking on even the R7 1700 (if you're lucky enough) ... the quality of VRM is good and Ryzen is insanely efficient when it comes to power draw.

That said of course I cannot speak for the Ryzen Refresh coming Feb/March 2018 and I dunno if they'll fix the clock speed limit that Ryzen has currently.
If so both power draw and efficiency when overclocking will decrease of course but even then the VRM of the PRIME X370-PRO should be able to handle it without too much effort.

The Crosshair VI Hero is a good board and I go for that class of boards normally too but in your case there's no need, unless you simply want to or need specific features, to go for the Crosshair VI Hero simply because of associated cost.

And to be fair.. Tomshardware.com does have some smart people but unfortunately it's filled too much with Hobbyists whom have little real experience other than hearsay about things, simply put it's too big and "popular" for it's own good.
We have them in this forum as well but there's always people who have actual experience and knowledge about these things because of the considerably smaller sample size of people present.

For example:
The whole memory QVL is something you should pay little heed to really when building an enthusiast rig as the QVL is often short and encompasses a tiny amount of RAM on the market and isn't a guarantee on anything to work other than to "basically work" because anything above 2667MHz on Ryzen is considered overclocking even if the QVL extends to 3466MHz .. so you will not get anywhere with it should a 3200MHz kit rated to work in the QVL will not work on your system.
If you were a basic office user the QVL is of more importance than someone wanting to mess with his system and extract max performance as the office user will generally not exceed specs set by the manufacturer to ensure stable operation.

Don't let anyone tell you Ryzen sucks or is bad for gaming, anyone who does should be promptly disregarded.
Yes Intel's CPUs do have a lead, a lead which you can close the gap on with the right kit and know-how, and that lead is a stone cold fact when it comes to gaming only.
But Ryzen is extremely capable of gaming and most often you will not notice a huge difference when you're crapping out 100 FPS with Ryzen and 110 - 120 FPS and if you do any production work then Ryzen is ahead of Intel without question.

Having said that in some games Ryzen will never approach Intel, GTA 5 is such an example and it is in the extremes as well... GTA 5 simply doesn't play nice on Ryzen at all and the difference is huge and Rockstar has made 0 efforts to change this, GTA 5 is already too old for them to GAF about this.

That said WoW is one example where Intel is often times dominant but is less dominant than people think in comparison to Ryzen.
If you have that memory kit @ rated speeds there is virtually 0 difference between equally clocked Coffee Lake and Ryzen in WoW but Intel becomes more dominant by sheer clockspeed in this regard making Intel grab the advantage by showing the difference between 4,0GHz (Ryzen) vs. 5,0GHz (Ryzen) but here's 1 mistake people make.
People think that it's a linear increase in WoW going from 4,0GHz to 5,0GHz and this Intel is 20% ahead on clockspeed alone, in truth this number is closer to 10%.
And this number will only ever be reached in high player number raids where people do not go AFK, such as Mythic raids, and every use of abilities is coordinated.

I'm babbling on about this stuff but I get a little bit annoyed at the amount of misinformation thrown out by quite a few people, I of course tend to be wrong from time to time as well but I'll admit to it.
Hell I'm pretty sure that I'm known here as the dense idiot who is unaware that he should stop answering to trolls with gigantic posts trying to explain things when they will never be read or acknowledged by them anyway.

Simply put in your shoes for now:
Unless you intend to just want the Crosshair VI Hero for bragging rights, do some extreme overclocking or need specific features from it ... the ASUS PRIME X370-PRO will suffice for your uses.
That said if you want it because you want it ... then by all means go for and have fun with it.

I'm going for the ASUS Maximus X Code, which is also ridiculously expensive, because I CBA dealing with add-on cards and just want things native on the board so I can have a clean case... I could work with boards costing € 200,- less without issue but am aggravated with myself if I did so I'm not one that has the right to tell you what to get.

I can only recommend you to get something that suits your needs and seeing your prior choices my recommendation stands.
So with that said.. there's no need to have remorse about wanting to go this direction, only have remorse for some component choices which you can rectify.
That rectification can come in the same price class or higher, that's irrelevant to ANYONE else but YOU.

Pick ANY board you like for whatever reason you prefer, they will all function to their official specs.
If you intend to tinker then you need to indeed do research and ask and check out experienced Tech sites and Tech Tube channels, never just one.

Every chosen brand and board has consequences to go with it.

As a few examples:
ASUS makes the best boards overall and their UEFI is unquestionably the best but their Tech Support/RMA department is downright atrocious.
GigaByte actually is, at launch, often the fastest responder with BIOS updates and they have generally good QA and support is quick and actually tries to help you even with very technical questions and changes (such as a custom BIOS where a Logitech wireless mini keyboard would not work in the BIOS no matter what and them making a custom BIOS that fixes that issue) ... BUT this very speed is often their biggest enemy as they create, sometimes disastrous UEFI BIOSes that are harmful to your PC... they retract them quickly but damage is already done as well as changing boards entirely with a new revision and it being far worse.
MSI has some of quickest releases of boards and often visually pleasing ones but suffers quite a bit from QA issues or low quality overall production, I also personally feel their UEFI BIOS is among the most atrocious in existence but that's mostly due to layout and looks.
SuperMicro is slow and not really meant for the gamer's market even though their quality is generally pretty good but lacking on features or looks.

I could go on with this and these downsides are personal for everyone, I pick ASUS because of general quality and their UEFI BIOS and features I want.
I generally couldn't care less about their tech support as I'm my own tech support and if their board dies I'd rather deal with the store 15 times over than their RMA department.

If you're in doubt next time regarding components ask for advice AND look up the information about everything since you're wanting to tinker with it all.
Like I said .. for 99% of all users that just want the basic functionality all boards will often do it fine but for the tinkerers among is... well ... we want more.
And that's when the shitstorm starts and I understand it's hard to wade through but you kind of have to if you want the best for your money.

Having said that ... for future reference if there's something you need advice on you can always shoot me a PM on this forum.
I will answer to the best of my ability and what I do not know I will answer that I do not, but you'll never catch me recommending something I have no experience in or knowledge of.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I kinda get set off sometimes.

Thats some really good advice, i appreciate you taking the time to respond. I wish i had a lifestyle that allowed me to continue to research components all the time and build enthusiasts riggs because i really do enjoy it even if i have go through trial and error. ill hit you up if i run into trouble with the K5. it will be here tomorrow but i think ill just start the RMA process now and order the ASUS x370 pro. thanks again, cheers!