[SOLVED] B450 or b550 for new system (ryzen 5 5600)

[Markhad93]

I'm upgrading my pc and was wondering if a b450 tomahawk max 2 will pair well with a 5600 I bought/would it be easy to flash the bios? B450 is 135 cad vs a msi b550 mpg for 170 cad. I will be using an rtx 3060 in this build and an m.2 nvme (Kingston NV1) if that matters.

As a side, I was also wondering if the 15$ to upgrade to cl18 3600 over c16 3200 was even worth it? Just trying to shave money where I can but I don't want it to impact quality of life and performance

Other parts:
HYPER 212 RGB
XPG starker case (comes with 2 argb fans and I bought 3 white led uphere fans)
650w evga psu
3600 mhz xpg ram (cl18)

If you need any further info please let me know.

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 362816]

I don't know if B450 tomahawk max 2 bios out of the box is ready for Ryzen 5600, So if that is the case and it's not you will have to have a older cpu to update the bios with or you will be better of buying the b550. As per your specs I don't think will matter that much many 2-3 fps 3600 vs 3200 with that setup. That being said you would still be better off with a 3600 kit for ryzen.

 

[CountMike]

Even with b550 MB you may need BIOS upgrade.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I'm upgrading my pc and was wondering if a b450 tomahawk max 2 will pair well with a 5600 I bought/would it be easy to flash the bios? B450 is 135 cad vs a msi b550 mpg for 170 cad. I will be using an rtx 3060 in this build and an m.2 nvme (Kingston NV1) if that matters.

As a side, I was also wondering if the 15$ to upgrade to cl18 3600 over c16 3200 was even worth it? Just trying to shave money where I can but I don't want it to impact quality of life and performance

Other parts:
HYPER 212 RGB
XPG starker case (comes with 2 argb fans and I bought 3 white led uphere fans)
650w evga psu
3600 mhz xpg ram (cl18)

If you need any further info please let me know.

Thanks

Which of MSI's MPG B550 boards is it: the line includes models like MPG Gaming Plus, MPG Gaming Edge, MPG Carbon. Really, any of those have very capable VRM designs, to match or even exceed that of the B450 Tomahawk boards. Assuming other features are desireable there's no reason not to get one if you can. You'll get the benefit of PCIe gen 4, however minimal it's performance benefit may be.

You should definitely plan on updating BIOS to the latest for the B550's even if they should boot up for your processor.

As far as the memory choice: I personally don't think the performance uplift is massive but Ryzen does benefit from faster clocked memory because of infinity fabric. And also, you might be able to tweak up the 3200 to 3600 clocks with some work. But if you just want plug-and-play at 3600 then getting the 3600 kit is probably worth the 15$.

 

[Karadjgne]

No point in going backwards in technology. The B450 is fine, the B550 has upgraded everything, not just the stuff you can see. Pcie4.0 possible means USB 3.2+2, USB type-C compliance etc. That makes for faster transmission for external drives, better compatibility with 5x series cpus, better compatibility with ram, updates/bios will be viable and supported for longer etc.

And who knows, maybe one day you'll get a good deal on an NVMe drive like a Samsung 980 Pro and be able to fully utilize its Gen4 compatibility, which the B450 is stuck with Gen3.

No point in limiting possibile future options.

 

[Markhad93]

Which of MSI's MPG B550 boards is it: the line includes models like MPG Gaming Plus, MPG Gaming Edge, MPG Carbon. Really, any of those have very capable VRM designs, to match or even exceed that of the B450 Tomahawk boards. Assuming other features are desireable there's no reason not to get one if you can. You'll get the benefit of PCIe gen 4, however minimal it's performance benefit may be.

You should definitely plan on updating BIOS to the latest for the B550's even if they should boot up for your processor.

As far as the memory choice: I personally don't think the performance uplift is massive but Ryzen does benefit from faster clocked memory because of infinity fabric. And also, you might be able to tweak up the 3200 to 3600 clocks with some work. But if you just want plug-and-play at 3600 then getting the 3600 kit is probably worth the 15$.

MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus Gaming Motherboard. Thanks for the info - 1 comment Said it comes with a ryzen 5000 bios so I just need to update to the latest one. Considering everyone's comments I'll just stick to b550 and 3600, thanks all!

 

[drea.drechsler]

....it comes with a ryzen 5000 bios so I just need to update to the latest one ...

It's quite likely likely it has a BIOS that supports the Ryzen 5000 CPU's in the original launch: 5600X, 5800X, 5900X and 5950X. The 5600 (as well as 5700X and 5800X3d) are later launched CPU's...really only recently. So it's not a sure thing it will boot with one.

At any rate, even if it does boot you'll definitely want to update BIOS right away, before trying to install Windows, to make sure it's fully supporting your 5600 and to get the fixes for full Windows 11 compatibility and a few other problems.

 

[Markhad93]

It's quite likely likely it has a BIOS that supports the Ryzen 5000 CPU's in the original launch: 5600X, 5800X, 5900X and 5950X. The 5600 (as well as 5700X and 5800X3d) are later launched CPU's...really only recently so it's not a sure thing it will boot with one.

At any rate, even if it does boot you'll definitely want to update BIOS to make sure it's fully supporting your 5600.

If it doesn't boot will I be able to use bios flashback? If it even has it

 

[drea.drechsler]

If it doesn't boot will I be able to use bios flashback? If it even has it

yes...the MPG boards should but check for yourself. The B450 Tomahawk Max does too.

 

[Karadjgne]

The B550 boards have been out long enough now that they'll all come with a 50 series bios. The Only way any of the boards doesn't come with a 50 series bios is if you happen to get an old, dusty, back of the shelf mobo from a smaller chain/mom+pop store with a truly ancient manufacturing date. Amazon, newegg, b+h photo, Adama etc all do enough sales that that's an extremely rare occurance, especially on the more popular boards.