Question Best Micro ATX Motherboard for Intensive gaming.

[MadGamerG90]

Howdy ,
I have a 5year old PC meant for gaming but its can't keep up with new titles so Im planning to replace with a new one. I would rather assemble one myself than buy a pre assembled one. My new specs would be AMD 3900x (or any 3rd gen) , Nvidia 2080ti (or i would wait for new amd gpu) , min 16gb ram with a speed of 2600 or above mhz ( feel free to suggest an optimal speed for high end gaming). I don't know which motherboard would be best for this build. Can anyone please suggest me a MOBO (micro ATX) , needs to durable and less toasty along with good onboard features preferable for gaming. Price budget = max 200 euro. I would also like to know whether would it be ideal to pair ram with different speeds in one mobo (eg. a 1600mhz along with a 2666mhz). Thanks.

 

[Wolfshadw]

PC Part Picker - Germany

Here is a list of Micro-ATX boards. I've limited the list to B450, X470, and X570 chip sets. I've also limited the price to €200 and sorted by highest review.

Personally, I'd look at the X570 boards first as they natively support the 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs, but have heard there are some issues with them. Check the reviews of these to see if there are issues with them and if they seem too prevalent, then move on to the best rated X470s/B450s.

As for RAM, you never want to risk mixing and matching RAM kits these days. If you have 16GB and you need 32GB, get a 32GB kit. Ryzen likes faster RAM, so if you're going with an X470/B450 motherboard, get DDR4-3200. If you're going with an X570, opt for the DDR4-3600.

As far as "Gaming Features", it's mostly just fluff and buzz words that manufacturer's use in order to inflate the price. While there may be some minor performance improvements, it's not going to be enough to warrant the cost increase.

Wolf sends

 

[drea.drechsler]

If you can find one, B450M Mortar; even better would be B450M Mortar MAX but which so far is unseen in the US. The MAX boards have a BIOS chip properly sized for the Ryzen 3000 BIOS but that's really the only difference. They're going to be more expensive than any other B450 mATX but Mortar's all have strong VRM's with decently sized heatsink which is very important for running a 12 core 3900x.

Short of that: MSI B450m Gaming Pro, Asrock B450m Pro 4, Asus B450m Tuf PLUS, and Asrock B450m Steel Legend.

None of these boards are ideal for 12 core and will probably be unsatisfying for overclocking one manually. But they are the 'best' since board mfr's hate mATX for AMD for some reason.

Optimal speed for Ryzen 3000 memory is 3600 Mtps. Ryzen 3000 is very tolerant of it and most triple-A games like it and it's really not that much more expensive now. Just don't try for over 3800 since you start growing latency problems as FClk (infinity fab. clock) gets unlinked from UClk (memory controller clock).

 

[MadGamerG90]

If you can find one, B450M Mortar; even better would be B450M Mortar MAX but which so far is unseen in the US. The MAX boards have a BIOS chip properly sized for the Ryzen 3000 BIOS but that's really the only difference. They're going to be more expensive than any other B450 mATX but Mortar's all have strong VRM's with decently sized heatsink which is very important for running a 12 core 3900x.

Short of that: MSI B450m Gaming Pro, Asrock B450m Pro 4, Asus B450m Tuf PLUS, and Asrock B450m Steel Legend.

None of these boards are ideal for 12 core and will probably be unsatisfying for overclocking one manually. But they are the 'best' since board mfr's hate mATX for AMD for some reason.

Optimal speed for Ryzen 3000 memory is 3600 Mtps. Ryzen 3000 is very tolerant of it and most triple-A games like it and it's really not that much more expensive now. Just don't try for over 3800 since you start growing latency problems as FClk (infinity fab. clock) gets unlinked from UClk (memory controller clock).

Thanks for the response. Although what if I just replace my current Mobo and CPU and keep everything else there like HDD (WD Blue 1TB) , RAM (corsair vengence 8gb 1600) , GPU (asus strix 970 4gb) and 600w PSU. Im inexperienced in this department so I would like to know what you think about this. MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX and a ryzen 3900x everything else from old rig. Im guessing the 600w is bit low so any suggestion about a new psu would help.

 

[Wolfshadw]

You need to confirm which version RAM you have. The new motherboards all require DDR4 which is not compatible with DDR3 (what you likely have). If your current RAM is DDR3-1600, you cannot move it forward to your new build.

The other issue is that the B450 and X470 chip set motherboards do not natively support the 3000 series Ryzen processors. Most will require a natively supported CPU (first or second gen) in order to update the motherboard BIOS in order for the newer processors to work. If you purchase your components locally, the store MIGHT offer to do that for you. Otherwise you can contact AMD for a loaner CPU which you can use to update your motherboard BIOS and then send back: AMD Boot Kit Loan Program

Your power supply, if it's of decent quality, is going to be more than enough for your new system. The rest of your components will be just fine as well, though you will want to back up any data and perform a clean install of Windows once your new system is put together.

-Wolf sends

 

[drea.drechsler]

... MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX and a ryzen 3900x everything else from old rig...

I'd not suggest that mobo for a 3900x. Yes, it will run it. No it will not run it well. I'm sure the VRM will prevent the CPU from achieving it's full boosting potential.

If you're looking at this with a budget and for gaming you might consider that 3700X or even 3600 would be probably 80-90% as effective as a 3900x. The money you save on that mobo and a 3600 would go a long way to updating your memory (if it really is DDR3 and not compatible) and/or a new GPU.

If you need it for productivity (meaning 12 threads is essential) then you should probably look at least at the Asrock B450m Pro 4. Many shops sell it 'Ryzen 3000 Ready', meaning it has the needed BIOS pre-loaded. Look for that and you'll be great.

 

[dumbduck]

If you can find one, B450M Mortar; even better would be B450M Mortar MAX but which so far is unseen in the US. The MAX boards have a BIOS chip properly sized for the Ryzen 3000 BIOS but that's really the only difference. They're going to be more expensive than any other B450 mATX but Mortar's all have strong VRM's with decently sized heatsink which is very important for running a 12 core 3900x.

Short of that: MSI B450m Gaming Pro, Asrock B450m Pro 4, Asus B450m Tuf PLUS, and Asrock B450m Steel Legend.

None of these boards are ideal for 12 core and will probably be unsatisfying for overclocking one manually. But they are the 'best' since board mfr's hate mATX for AMD for some reason.

Optimal speed for Ryzen 3000 memory is 3600 Mtps. Ryzen 3000 is very tolerant of it and most triple-A games like it and it's really not that much more expensive now. Just don't try for over 3800 since you start growing latency problems as FClk (infinity fab. clock) gets unlinked from UClk (memory controller clock).

thank you for this response, perfectly the information I needed. I've beenw wondering why i cant find a b450m mortar. Mortar MAX is almost non existent. I can fidn the b450m titanium in the USA, but its almost double the price of other boards, are the VRMs really that much better?

 

[drea.drechsler]

thank you for this response, perfectly the information I needed. I've beenw wondering why i cant find a b450m mortar. Mortar MAX is almost non existent. I can fidn the b450m titanium in the USA, but its almost double the price of other boards, are the VRMs really that much better?

Yes they are hard to find (very popular) and they are have very good VRM section for B450. But you have to consider whether that's important; Ryzen 3000 CPU's aren't really overclockable. You can, but the gains are very small and heat output goes way up, meaning you need extraordinary cooling. And you usually wind up killing single core performance as the boosting algorithm gets higher clocks for single core boosts than you can get stable for all cores.

Since even multi-threaded games still depend on the one main thread which determines the max FPS, you only need the one core that can boost higher than the others as needed. It just makes sense to let the algorithm manage processor thermals and power so it has a nice long life assured. A benefit of an all-core overclock can accrue to content creators but it really needs exceptional cooling. But most people don't find it worthwhile, for them there is PBO which optimizes for single-core boosting.

Finding a Mortar in US is difficult as they are extremely popular. I can also imagine they aren't making any more in anticipation of B550 chipset release. But most of those others I listed before would also work very well up to 8 core Ryzen 3000 chips. But I did mis-type one: i meant to type the Asus B450M TUF Gaming PRO, not the PLUS. Avoid the Plus.