justnopenope

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Jun 10, 2018
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Hello!
I am upgrading my cpu to a Ryzen 5 3600, and I was wondering if any of you fine folks had any good ideas for a mobo upgrade to go well with it for around the 125-150 price range.
Note : PC part picker states that B450 chipset boards may require a BIOS update, and I have 0 idea how to do a BIOS update w/o a cpu installed.

The board needs to have
  • At least 2 sata ports
  • 1-2 RGB headers
  • Power for an AIO cooler
  • Any chipset that supports the Ryzen 5 3600 out of the box

Thanks!
 
Solution
Vendors had 3rd bios months before 3rd release, it was already vetted or none of the 3rds would have worked on anything. Msi was supporting 3000 series on B450 in July 2019 with Beta bios.
https://www.msi.com/blog/the-latest-bios-for-amd-300-400-series-motherboard

The MAX versions launched a couple boards US in September 2019, with most following in October 2019 after AMD released the full Agesa bios and included support for all the cpus including the Athlons and APU's.

So you would have had Beta at release date on boards built then, but not full lineup support until October.

So, yes, you are correct, the fully working and stable bios version wasn't released until later, but a Beta was there, in retail B450 for the 3000 series...

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Bios is written to the board at the time of manufacture. So whatever the current bios is at that time is what's on the board. Manufacturer bios is full and complete because they don't have to make room for update instructions etc, it's an imprint.

Ryzen 3000 was released July 7, 2019 so figure that any motherboard manufactured After that date, that can support a 3000 series cpu, will be fully 3000 series compatible from the box.

Pcpartpicker.com puts the advisory about bios up because the B450 motherboard was originally released for the 2000 series, and there may be some of its vendors whom did not rotate stock, got lazy, got an old batch of B450 that were manufactured Before July 2019.

If you order from Bulk sellers like Amazon or newegg, the chances of you getting a board that's over 1 year old, with a bios that's at least a year old are slim to the extreme. All of the MSI MAX were manufactured After July 2019, there's realistically no differences in the MAX and original version other than price now. It's a sales gimmick that paid off. MSI is not putting the original board out with an old bios.

If you get a board with a 3-6month old bios, should update it anyways, manufacturer websites have fully detailed instructions, and also software that will do it for you. Many motherboards now don't even require a cpu.
 

InvalidError

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Moderator
Bios is written to the board at the time of manufacture. So whatever the current bios is at that time is what's on the board.
AMD didn't provide fully working and stable AGESA updates for B450 until 2-3 months after 3rd-gen launched and it can take weeks if not months for motherboard manufacturers to put updated BIOS into production, so I wouldn't be so confident implying that all boards manufactured after launch of new CPUs will have out-of-the-box support for boards manufactured less than three months after-the-fact unless the box explicitly states so with a "3rd-gen ready" sticker or 3rd-gen specific branding such as MSI's MAX refresh.
 
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Karadjgne

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Vendors had 3rd bios months before 3rd release, it was already vetted or none of the 3rds would have worked on anything. Msi was supporting 3000 series on B450 in July 2019 with Beta bios.
https://www.msi.com/blog/the-latest-bios-for-amd-300-400-series-motherboard

The MAX versions launched a couple boards US in September 2019, with most following in October 2019 after AMD released the full Agesa bios and included support for all the cpus including the Athlons and APU's.

So you would have had Beta at release date on boards built then, but not full lineup support until October.

So, yes, you are correct, the fully working and stable bios version wasn't released until later, but a Beta was there, in retail B450 for the 3000 series Ryzens and as upgrade, just excluded some cpus because of size restrictions on the bios chip.
MSI B450 Tomahawk :
Version

7C02v18

Release Date

2019-06-24

File Size

10.11 MB

Description

  • Update AMD ComboPI1.0.0.3
  • Support Ryzen 3000 series CPU.
Ryzen 9 3900X/Ryzen 7 3800X/Ryzen 7 3700X/Ryzen 5 3600X/Ryzen 5 3600/Ryzen 5 3400G/Ryzen 3 3200G
- Change BIOS UI to Click BIOS ( GSE-Lite) mode. Click here

Note

1.This BIOS does not support below Bristol Ridge CPU due to BIOS rom size limitation:
Athlon x4 970/950/940, A12-9800/9800E, A10-9700/9700E, A8-9600, A6-9550/9500/9500E
2.RAID function is not yet ready and will be supported in next BIOS version.
 
Last edited:
Solution

Karadjgne

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Ambassador
AMD wasn't ready to launch in July the first place.
I can't remember if they ever have been, they've been rushing stuff out the door for as long as I can recall. I don't mind healthy competition, but after what Intel did in the Courts to Amd just to keep #1 slot, Amd's trying to go around all that with releases like Piledriver and Bulldozer and then even 1st release Ryzen ram issues has been nothing short of a colossal middle finger to John. Q. Public.

To me, basically everything Amd releases is Beta, the public does all the testing and proving and Amd releases another Beta to fix the prior version. Rinse and Repeat...
 
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justnopenope

Reputable
Jun 10, 2018
38
1
4,535
Vendors had 3rd bios months before 3rd release, it was already vetted or none of the 3rds would have worked on anything. Msi was supporting 3000 series on B450 in July 2019 with Beta bios.
https://www.msi.com/blog/the-latest-bios-for-amd-300-400-series-motherboard

The MAX versions launched a couple boards US in September 2019, with most following in October 2019 after AMD released the full Agesa bios and included support for all the cpus including the Athlons and APU's.

So you would have had Beta at release date on boards built then, but not full lineup support until October.

So, yes, you are correct, the fully working and stable bios version wasn't released until later, but a Beta was there, in retail B450 for the 3000 series Ryzens and as upgrade, just excluded some cpus because of size restrictions on the bios chip.
MSI B450 Tomahawk :
Version

7C02v18

Release Date

2019-06-24

File Size

10.11 MB

Description

  • Update AMD ComboPI1.0.0.3
  • Support Ryzen 3000 series CPU.
Ryzen 9 3900X/Ryzen 7 3800X/Ryzen 7 3700X/Ryzen 5 3600X/Ryzen 5 3600/Ryzen 5 3400G/Ryzen 3 3200G
- Change BIOS UI to Click BIOS ( GSE-Lite) mode. Click here

Note

1.This BIOS does not support below Bristol Ridge CPU due to BIOS rom size limitation:
Athlon x4 970/950/940, A12-9800/9800E, A10-9700/9700E, A8-9600, A6-9550/9500/9500E
2.RAID function is not yet ready and will be supported in next BIOS version.
I ended up grabbing a TUF w/ a 450 chipset as this PC is gonna be used in a dorm (friend's build). Thanks for the chipset reccomendation!