Question Best matx AM4 motherboard - Steel Legend?

[ezst036]

I have been considering an upgrade to the AM4 platform with Ryzen, just wanted everybody's thoughts. Among Micro ATX boards boards, is the Asrock B450m Steel Legend the best that is currently available?

Among the features that I like are the most up to date 450 chipset, two m.2s, high speed memory(3533), it has light indicators, the integrated backplate/cover is somewhat of a plus, the built in heatsinks are larger than many other boards of this type, and the presence of two 16x PCIe slots. Fits in my current matx case which would not be replaced.

If anybody can speak to Linux compatibility, that would be great too.

ASRock B450M Steel Legend

Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 2000, 3000, 4000 G-Series, 5000 and 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors; Supports DDR4 3533+ (OC); 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x1; AMD Quad CrossFireX™; Graphics Output: DisplayPort, HDMI; 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC892/897 Audio Codec); 4 SATA3, 1...

www.asrock.com

 

[ocer9999]

It seems that these new series are their top B450 line, made to compete with likes of Tomahawk with the strong VRM design...
It looks great on specs, pretty sure you can't go wrong with it.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Do you need to upgrade right away? AMD should be releasing their next get motherboards and CPUs in the next couple months. A B450 board should support the new CPUs if you want to upgrade in the future, but it'd likely be missing some features.

 

[ezst036]

I'm not facing an imminent upgrade, no. But I usually build around the motherboard, which is my goal here. Matx doesn't get as much attention as other form factors, but this board does seem rather exceptional compared to the rest of the field.