[SOLVED] Do you think MSI will get it's B450 bioses sorted?

Aug 18, 2019
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I'd like to get an MSI B450 Pro Carbon AC but I'm worried about the various bios issues with the new AMD CPUs. (Quite a few posts about problems even on MSI's own forums).

Do you think the lack of bios ram is going to be an ongoing problem or will it just take a while for them to sort it out and then it will be fine?

Or would you go for a MAX board or another manufacturer instead?
 
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I use Asus motherboards only after burning one MSI motherboard with overclocking. The gigabyte b350 gaming 3 did not boot after bios update. Asus updates bioses often and the build quality is excellent. You can update bios via internet within bios.

ryzengamer

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Mar 19, 2019
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I use Asus motherboards only after burning one MSI motherboard with overclocking. The gigabyte b350 gaming 3 did not boot after bios update. Asus updates bioses often and the build quality is excellent. You can update bios via internet within bios.
 
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LordConrad

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I updated a brand new MSI Tomahawk using Flashback before first use, and I updated it again a couple weeks later, and it has been working with my Ryzen 5 3600 with no problems. I can't speak for anyone else, but my MSI board has never had any problems with the new BIOS versions.
 

ryzengamer

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Mar 19, 2019
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Thanks. Do any Asus B450 boards have good vrm? I remember Buildzoid being critical of a few.
Buildzoid seems to be an overcloker. There no much point overclock current cpus and gpus. What you get is hotter system and unstable. Here there wrote that overcloking room is small for Ryzen 3000, see the silicon lottery article. The back fan of the case cools vrm components.
 

LordConrad

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Thank you. Do you like the Tomahawk? I've heard it's good.
I like it a lot. I watched many B450 reviews, and the Tomahawk was most often the reviewers favorite. The most important feature for me was the Flashback BIOS, because I was doing a Ryzen 3000 build and I don't have any older Ryzen CPUs. I've been building computers for many years, and Flashback BIOS is one of the best new features I've seen in a long time.
 
Thanks. Do any Asus B450 boards have good vrm? I remember Buildzoid being critical of a few.
I think Buildzoid was so critical of Asus, and Gigabyte as well, for what he considered mis-represention of their VRM capability. They doubled up coils on 4 phase CPU VRM's for a lot of their B450 lineup and called that an '8 phase' VRM in early marketing literature. Later on, after the '8 phase' claims were dropped, he remained critical because he feels the 8 coils are only there to mislead unwitting buyers as they offer nothing to the performance of the VRM, yet are easy to count.

With the FET's being hidden under a heatsink and uncountable it seemed an obvious ploy to him. And really it's only doing themselves a dis-service when customers get the boards home and attempt to overclock only to see the heinous temperatures and unstable power delivery of the weak 4 phase VRM it actually is.

Apparently all that criticism and unfavorable attention paid off because Asus and Gigabyte have amazingly strong VRMS up and down their X570 lines. They are well positioned for 3900X and even 3950X CPU's yet to come.
 
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Aug 18, 2019
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I seen a review that the Asus and Gigabyte B450 series are good and has pretty neat VRM so I think will do good for you, You should check the MSI B450 Mortar the review good though.

Hopefully the MSI releases a mature bios update for 3rd gen Processor for Ryzen not the BETA ones. Using a B350 Mortar MSI and doing good so far.
 
I seen a review that the Asus and Gigabyte B450 series are good and has pretty neat VRM so I think will do good for you, You should check the MSI B450 Mortar the review good though.

Hopefully the MSI releases a mature bios update for 3rd gen Processor for Ryzen not the BETA ones. Using a B350 Mortar MSI and doing good so far.

I have a B450 Mortar and it's really been great with my 3700X. It was stable on the v180 BIOS but then they came out with the full-release v190 BIOS that included saving OC Profiles and all the memory timings. It's also been very stable and allowed me to OC my GSkill b-die CL14, 3200 memory to 3600 CL14 with FClk at 1800.

Even though it's been full-featured and stable I'd like to get the 1003abb BIOS, even if for no other reason than to be sure I'm on the latest AGESA for full compatibility. I'm sort of expecting that around the end of the month, when MSI normally releases BIOS's on a scheduled release cycle.
 
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Aug 18, 2019
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Thank you for all the enlightening responses.

I will pass on the Carbon but will look at the Tomahawk-Max. Also, possibly, the Asus x570 Tuff Gaming.

(Edit: got the Asus. Largely based on Buildzoid's comments that the USD 200 Asus/Gigabyte are a bit of a sweet spot)
 
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(Edit: got the Asus. Largely based on Buildzoid's comments that the USD 200 Asus/Gigabyte are a bit of a sweet spot)

"Sweet spot"? Maybe for X570 boards. Sweet spot usually implies 'value for money' and when talking about AM4 motherboards none of the X570 boards seem to offer that. Maybe they will look more useful for 3950's or Zen3 when something really compelling for PCIe gen 4 shows up, but right now not so much.
 
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Aug 18, 2019
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Fair point.

For me it's a sweet spot because my priorities are good vrm and not having to worry about bios problems, while potentially getting a bit of future-proofing (I probably won't upgrade the board for 5+ years but could have 2-3 video cards in that time.

I'm a long way from from a computer shop and prices here are very different to the U.S. So the calculations are probably a bit different.
 
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I'm a long way from from a computer shop and prices here are very different to the U.S.
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Hahaha... that's kind of ironically funny! That's 'cause we don't seem to have access to as broad a selection of motherboards in the US as does the rest of the world. For instance: I have a Mortar (which seems to have very stable BIOS for Ry3k) but they don't sell it in the US anymore so it can't be found here. Not in any version...Mortar or Titanium or Mortar Max.

Same for Tomahawk; you can find the non-Max version but that's the one that's getting all the attention from the negative-nancy's (and therefore probably scaring you off). The Tomahawk Max is not to be found in the US; in fact NONE of MSI's MAX lineup is available in the US. Maybe they will be, and maybe MSI only make them in China and tariffs are to much to make them marketable here. I don't know.

But there you are...it's just kind of ironic to me.
 
Aug 18, 2019
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That's so true. The MSI Pro-Max boards are on sale here and the Mortar Max was briefly on sale but sold out in days. Tomahawk Max is taking pre-orders.

However it's often cheaper to order GPUs etc from Newegg/ Amazon than buy them here.