You could just get a PCI-e USB card. They come in USB-A and USB-C varieties or mixes of the two and some have internal pin headers to replace the motherboard ones.
post
replies:
X570 or B550 would probably be your best bet if you wanted to stay with AM4, and X570S (no chipset fan like the original version) would be ideal if you can find a board. I really liked the Crosshair VIII Dark Hero I ran for a while, but it's not particularly cheap.
As for minimizing RGB, MSI usually includes a physical switch on the board for turning it off-- in addition to the software switch in the BIOS-- if that seems appealing. ASRock also lets you manage very basic RGB settings directly in the BIOS if you just want to avoid installing extra software.
If you move up to AM5 you'll need a new board, CPU, and RAM... so that route could be pretty expensive. That's the route most would probably recommend, though, instead of investing more in an older platform.
Current Intel isn't really worth it for gaming, and 13th/14th gen honestly aren't worth the worry/headache.
I'd get an MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK of some sort and chuck all your current stuff in there and call it a day. It's been the budget industry champ for Ryzen 3000 and 5000 chips for 5 years now.
It has lots of power with a rock solid Mosfet and there are only a couple of RGB lights that can be set to white and static which matches the decor pretty well. It's currently 130USD on Bezos 'R' US.
all 8 comments