I5 11400F vr build advice w/ board/ram

Hi everybody,
I am building a vr rig (quest2) and chose the i5 11400F (£150). I need advice with selecting the right board and ram. I live in UK, can shop at SCAN/Amazon/Ebuyer/.., my cpu+mobo+ram budget is £400. not interested in overclocking/watercooling.

I have narrowed it down to these 3 boards:
1. msi-mag-b560m-mortar-wifi (£130)
2. gigabyte-b560m-aorus-pro-ax (£140)
3. asus-tuf-gaming-b560m-plus-wifi (£140)

they all fit my requirements of wifi, 2.5GBe, usb-c, 2+ usb3. however I have a few questions about this platform:

1. ram gear: its my understanding that the i5 will not be able to run ram faster than 2933MHz in gear 1, but in Digital Foundary's review of this i5 they used the msi mortar and were able to run 3600MHz ram in gear 1, which is why I am inclined to buy this board. the gigabyte ram support list mentions downgrading ram to 2933MHz on non-k cpus. so should I buy the msi just for this reason. as I actually prefer the gigabyte board.

2. ram speed: is 3200MHz enough for this i5 or should I buy 3600MHz kit. please suggest 16GB ram kits to go with this i5, I really do not know which kit to pick as I don't know if a 3600MHz 18-22-22-42 kit is better or a 3200MHz 16-20-20-38 or a 3200MHz 18-22-22-42. currently these are the kits I am looking at:
1. corsair-ddr4-vengeance-rgb-pro-black-pc4-25600-3200 (£89)
2. HyperX-Fury-HX432C16FB3K2 (£83)
3. HyperX-HX432C16PB3K2-16-Predator (£80)

Digital Foundary's review recommended high speed ram but they were able to run it in gear1 somehow.

3.cpu power: only the msi board requires 24pin + 8pin + 4pin for cpu power, the other 2 boards only require 24pin + 8pin power. can someone explain this to me, does this mean the msi board is inferior somehow?

4. uatx vs atx: is the vrm on all 3 boards good enough? other than more ports/usb is there any other reason to consider a full atx board?

cheers everybody!
 
Hi everybody,
I am building a vr rig (quest2) and chose the i5 11400F (£150). I need advice with selecting the right board and ram. I live in UK, can shop at SCAN/Amazon/Ebuyer/.., my cpu+mobo+ram budget is £400. not interested in overclocking/watercooling.

I have narrowed it down to these 3 boards:
1. msi-mag-b560m-mortar-wifi (£130)
2. gigabyte-b560m-aorus-pro-ax (£140)
3. asus-tuf-gaming-b560m-plus-wifi (£140)

they all fit my requirements of wifi, 2.5GBe, usb-c, 2+ usb3. however I have a few questions about this platform:

1. ram gear: its my understanding that the i5 will not be able to run ram faster than 2933MHz in gear 1, but in Digital Foundary's review of this i5 they used the msi mortar and were able to run 3600MHz ram in gear 1, which is why I am inclined to buy this board. the gigabyte ram support list mentions downgrading ram to 2933MHz on non-k cpus. so should I buy the msi just for this reason. as I actually prefer the gigabyte board.

2. ram speed: is 3200MHz enough for this i5 or should I buy 3600MHz kit. please suggest 16GB ram kits to go with this i5, I really do not know which kit to pick as I don't know if a 3600MHz 18-22-22-42 kit is better or a 3200MHz 16-20-20-38 or a 3200MHz 18-22-22-42. currently these are the kits I am looking at:
1. corsair-ddr4-vengeance-rgb-pro-black-pc4-25600-3200 (£89)
2. HyperX-Fury-HX432C16FB3K2 (£83)
3. HyperX-HX432C16PB3K2-16-Predator (£80)

Digital Foundary's review recommended high speed ram but they were able to run it in gear1 somehow.

3.cpu power: only the msi board requires 24pin + 8pin + 4pin for cpu power, the other 2 boards only require 24pin + 8pin power. can someone explain this to me, does this mean the msi board is inferior somehow?

4. uatx vs atx: is the vrm on all 3 boards good enough? other than more ports/usb is there any other reason to consider a full atx board?

cheers everybody!
I know this is really late, and in no way am I qualified as I have never built with intel, but I feel bad you didn't get any response. I would go with the MSI board, the corsair 3200 ram. The VRM should be fine. On the power connectors, the MSI board has the expandability to 12-pin, but it is not required to use 12-pin to run a cpu that doesn't need all that power.
 
Back