Are msi motherboards good?

[ProPlayerGR]

Hey guys. So a friend of mine wants to upgrade his rig and he is going with a ryzen 2600 and I don't know which motherboard to recommend him to buy. Are msi motherboards good or so should I recommend asrock motherboards?(his budget is 150$ so asus mobos are more expensive than that). I've checked in msi's qvl and the max supported speed for the ram is 2400mhz while the ram's max is 3200mhz. Should he go with another company or is msi fine? I'm between msi x470 gaming pro and asrock x470 master sli. Which one do you recommend and why? Thanks in advance.

 

[captaincharisma]

IMO MSI is a more reliable brand then asrock

 

[androbourne]

Yes they are on top of the list with other big dog manufactures.

I personally only use MSI since I've moved to Intel from my AMD rig about 4 years ago. I had a Z270 and now on a Z370 Gaming 5 mobo.

Setup is a breezy and same with overlocking. Had zero issues configuring XMP with my memory and basic overclocking.

The only thing I'd say about MSI mobos is the NIC. Killer Nic's are just OK but the real issue is the Killer NIC software, it is trash and often causes issues with the NIC (like packet loss). When you install the mobo you can use MSI Smart Driver installer, install the Killer NIC drivers but just avoid installing the Killer NIC software. You shouldn't have any problems.

Or you can just purchase an intel 1GB 2x NIC for lik $25 on ebay and just use that instead. I personally did this because I wanted the extra ports.

 

[WildCard999]

IMO MSI is a more reliable brand then asrock

I think that depends on user experience, the MSI board's I've used have been a absolute nightmare but no issues with Asus or Asrock.

 

[ProPlayerGR]

IMO MSI is a more reliable brand then asrock

I think that depends on user experience, the MSI board's I've used have been a absolute nightmare but no issues with Asus or Asrock.

Yeah but what about the ram support? In the qvl it says that the supported speed for the gskill F4-3200C16D-16GVGB is 2400mhz and this ram is 3200mhz. So isn't that a negative aspect. At least asrock says that from 3200mhz 2933mhz are supported so is that a better option? Just saying I may be absolutely wrong. What do you think?

 

[androbourne]

IMO MSI is a more reliable brand then asrock

I think that depends on user experience, the MSI board's I've used have been a absolute nightmare but no issues with Asus or Asrock.

Honestly, Asrocks support is just terrible and their website for driver downloads is even worse. Personally, I'd never recommend them.

Asus is a better, but I still prefer MSI. Their support is good as well, website for driver support is simple and their tools are great.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

MSI boards are good.
Gigabyte are good.
Asus is good too.

ASRock? They're weaker boards in general. Only the Taichi boards are good. The Voltage regulation on their other boards is a bit anemic if you or your friend try pushing the CPU.


So, between the two boards you mention, the MSI board is the better board. It also supports the following speed RAM, per specifications: DDR4-1866 / 2133 / 2400 / 2666 / 2800 / 2933 / 3000 / 3200 / 3466. I wouldn't recommend anything less than 2933 for best performance.

Looking at the QVL list for the Ryzen 2xxx series CPUs, they've tested up to 3200. (They have tabs for the various series CPUs and APUs.)

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X470-GAMING-PRO#support-mem-13

NOTE: Remember a QVL either by MSI or your chosen RAM, is not all-inclusive. If it's on the list, great. If not, it will probably still work.

 

[ProPlayerGR]

MSI boards are good.
Gigabyte are good.
Asus is good too.

ASRock? They're weaker boards in general. Only the Taichi boards are good. The Voltage regulation on their other boards is a bit anemic if you or your friend try pushing the CPU.


So, between the two boards you mention, the MSI board is the better board. It also supports the following speed RAM, per specifications: DDR4-1866 / 2133 / 2400 / 2666 / 2800 / 2933 / 3000 / 3200 / 3466. I wouldn't recommend anything less than 2933 for best performance.

Looking at the QVL list for the Ryzen 2xxx series CPUs, they've tested up to 3200. (They have tabs for the various series CPUs and APUs.)

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X470-GAMING-PRO#support-mem-13

NOTE: Remember a QVL either by MSI or your chosen RAM, is not all-inclusive. If it's on the list, great. If not, it will probably still work.

Yeah but the gskill F4-3200C16D-16GVGB are in the qvl list and it says that the supported speed is 2400mhz. So why not go with asrock that supports up to 2933?

 

[captaincharisma]

IMO MSI is a more reliable brand then asrock

I think that depends on user experience, the MSI board's I've used have been a absolute nightmare but no issues with Asus or Asrock.

hense why i started the post with "IMO"

 

[mgallo848]

The only thing I'd say about MSI mobos is the NIC. Killer Nic's are just OK but the real issue is the Killer NIC software, it is trash and often causes issues with the NIC (like packet loss). When you install the mobo you can use MSI Smart Driver installer, install the Killer NIC drivers but just avoid installing the Killer NIC software. You shouldn't have any problems.

^this

I have a friend that had the same issue. After he uninstalled the NIC software his problems went away.

IMO:

1: Asus
1a: Gigabyte
2: MSI
3: ASRock

 

[WildCard999]

IMO MSI is a more reliable brand then asrock

I think that depends on user experience, the MSI board's I've used have been a absolute nightmare but no issues with Asus or Asrock.

Yeah but what about the ram support? In the qvl it says that the supported speed for the gskill F4-3200C16D-16GVGB is 2400mhz and this ram is 3200mhz. So isn't that a negative aspect. At least asrock says that from 3200mhz 2933mhz are supported so is that a better option? Just saying I may be absolutely wrong. What do you think?

The memory support for Ryzen is still kind of a hit or miss. On my Asus Strix B450-F (updated BIOS) I'm still having trouble getting my memory (Gskill Ripjaws V) to run at the correct speed of 3200mhz. Stock is 2133 and will boot with anything up to 2666 but BSOD at desktop, anything higher and it won't boot. DOCP isn't working for me as well, I think I need to manually tweak all the settings, voltage to get it correct, just haven't had the time and any spare time I have I usually game for a bit.

 

[delaro]

ASUS> Worst memory support, good VRM's in general
Asrock> A little better memory support, VRM's on higher end boards are decent but lower end models are soso.
Giga> A little better memory support, VRM's are similar to Asrock depending on $$$$
MSI> Tends to have less RAM issues, VRM's on cheap boards are nearly the same as the more expensive versions.

Generally CL14 and CL15 RAM using Samsung B Die will work on every board regardless of the manufacturer. I have Flare. it works on every board I have every tried but Ripjaw V "Samsung b Die" which should work on anything tends to be hit or miss.