Question Help with selecting a b450 motherboard for ryzen 5 cpu

[gazza1988]

Hello,

Right I am looking to build my own pc for the first time since probably 2005 (I've had newer pcs but they were either laptops, prebuilt or built for me) and I am really struggling to get to grips with a motherboard.

Budget wise for building this pc I have £700 to spend at very.co.uk (I know all components I could find cheaper but with very I can pay the £700 over 12 months interest free)

I have selected the Ryzen 5 2600 processor (although the X variant is £20 more so may switch to that one or 7 If I have enough left after selecting the graphics card)

Now onto the motherboard. From what I have read MSI Tomahawk and pro carbon AC are good choices, but others online have said the BIOS options are poor. I'm feeling really burnt out searching for the best. PEople talking about poor VRM and the like.

I don't need wifi, I would like usb 3.1. I would like to overclock but may end up chickening out.

Here are the options on the Very website. If someone can recommend a good board to go with I would be very appreciative. I think around £100 is a good budget for a board although that could stretch to more for a good board.

https://www.very.co.uk/electricals/...ds/e/b/118821.end?sort=price,1&numProducts=30

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

I would recommend this one first.

Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard (£106.55 @ Box Limited)

 

[drea.drechsler]

....
I have selected the Ryzen 5 2600 processor (although the X variant is £20 more so may switch to that one or 7 If I have enough left after selecting the graphics card)

Now onto the motherboard. From what I have read MSI Tomahawk and pro carbon AC are good choices, but others online have said the BIOS options are poor. I'm feeling really burnt out searching for the best. PEople talking about poor VRM and the like.
...

Don't worry about BIOS options on the Tomahawk as recent updates have brought features it lacked and it still has one of the best cool running VRM designs in B450 boards.

If you do choose to overclock the BIOS is very easy and intuitive and it's very easy to do. It's also really quite safe if you don't push it hard, which isn't needed to get very real benefit on a 2600.

The main thing you're getting with the Pro Carbon AC you don't get with the Tomahawk is WiFi so if you can save and don't need it just go with the Tomahawk. I'm really not sure there is any significant difference in USB ports between them.

 

[gazza1988]

Hello, back again. I purchased the b450 tomahawk. It arrived today. However I was at work when it arrived and was signed for by my partner. I've opened the bag it came in and the box is damaged by something. It's right above where the cpu is. I've attached photos to show. Both taken from the same angle.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Certainly unfortunate damage to the box....but what does the board look like? It's hard to see anything underneath the anti-static bag.

Be sure to keep all the packing materials it came in as you'll probably need that to show shipping damage or it came damaged from the retailer.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

It's possible there is no damage to the board. The box does have value though, and there is obviously damage to that. It's up to you if you want to return it just for the box damage. I returned a motherboard to Amazon once just because they put the shipping label on the motherboard box and shipped it in just the motherboard box. I resell parts a lot, so that damaged the box I intended to keep and resell if I so wanted. Plus, motherboard boxes often times don't come sealed.

 

[gazza1988]

I am getting alot of BSODs. All new parts except for the ssd, 2x hdd (both contain data) and 2x disc drives, also old case.

Stop codes are

"Interrupt exception not handled"

"clock watchdog timeout"

Also it refuses to create a dump file. No matter what I set it stays on 0%. So troubleshooting is difficult.

Could this be related to the above box damage

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
Could this be related to the above box damage

It's possible but I'd look to a corrupt Windows install first. Try a new, fresh install of Windows 10 if you can.

And, of course, all the usual double checks: reseat connectors, board properly installed on standoffs & unused standoffs removed, processor seated correctly, heatsink installed correctly. those things.

Also, did you check the board itself to indentify any possible damage? The situation I see you getting into is trying to get warranty coverage and they say it was damaged by the package delivery service. You've usually a very limited time to get the package delivery service to cover shipping damages.

 

[gazza1988]

One thing I have noticed is if I catch the bsod happen and immediately turn it off and on again. Then load up hwmonitor the temps are in the 70s. It then cools down very quickly to the low 40s.

It could be sat idle for hours and I can do the above and the temps are high 60s-low 70s.

Thats idle (but with a few background apps running) I did try a further step after the 3rd time in a row the high temps immediately after boot.

I have though removed the heatsink again and applied some noctua NT-H1 thermal paste. I wanted to take it off anyway just in case it's a heat issue and it's BSOD on whatever process the cpu was doing at the time.

That was 2 hours ago and the current temp is 39 degrees. Lowest 36 degrees and highest is 54 degrees.

Edit: all temperatures above are for the CPU only.

 

[drea.drechsler]

One thing I have noticed is if I catch the bsod happen and immediately turn it off and on again. Then load up hwmonitor the temps are in the 70s. It then cools down very quickly to the low 40s.
....

CPU temp getting into the 70's just by booting up seems a bit much. I'm assuming you aren't overclocking or anything? If you are...well, then don't. Just run it at full stock settings at least until you get these stability issues sorted.

What's it like when you put a stress load on it? CPU-Z is easy to use, has a benchmark and a simple stress test.

 

[gazza1988]

Just to clear up. I am turning the pc of via the power button when a bsod happrns (the bsod has never successfully created a dump file once)

So I'm turning off the pc and then turning it back on via the power button. Upon boot I immediately load hwmonitor and see tems of 70-odd degrees. This very quickly drops to the mid 40s not long after.

I kept it on for a little while at idle then had an opportunity to change the paste (I have a 10 month old baby and a 7 and 8 year old) I shut the pc down and got to work. Upon boot I again loaded hw monitor and the team was 36 degrees and climbed to 56 as application that I start on boot loaded up then settled to 39 degrees.

Actually now I've typed it again could it be possible the heatsink fan is failing at some point? Or not spinning high enough?

Nothing is anything other than default. The bios is the latest version. The only setting I have changed in the bios is I have enable virtualization because I run an android emulator.

When you say a fresh install would I get away with the install where it keeps my data after? Or a brand new complete install. I do still have the old backup files from the old pc on a external hard drive, just the messing around sorting it all.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
When you say a fresh install would I get away with the install where it keeps my data after? Or a brand new complete install. I do still have the old backup files from the old pc on a external hard drive, just the messing around sorting it all.

If it were my system I'd start with a repair install that keeps installed apps, data and settings:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

If that didn't make it better then a fresh install with reformatting.

If you can, make a new backup before proceeding with this though.

 

[JQB45]

I don't know if its been mentioned but if you are using 2 sticks of DDR4 memory make sure they are in slots A2 and B2 and a matched pair. If you are using 4 sticks then slot placement doesn't matter so long as they are a matched set.

I bring it up because me and a buddy made this mistake and put are memory in slots A1 and B1 at first - this of course led to BSOD's. 70ºC should never be reached even with the stock cooler unless you are doing a really aggressive overclock and/or stress testing/benchmarking.

 

[Calibur]

Just to clear up. I am turning the pc of via the power button when a bsod happrns (the bsod has never successfully created a dump file once)

So I'm turning off the pc and then turning it back on via the power button. Upon boot I immediately load hwmonitor and see tems of 70-odd degrees. This very quickly drops to the mid 40s not long after.

I kept it on for a little while at idle then had an opportunity to change the paste (I have a 10 month old baby and a 7 and 8 year old) I shut the pc down and got to work. Upon boot I again loaded hw monitor and the team was 36 degrees and climbed to 56 as application that I start on boot loaded up then settled to 39 degrees.

Actually now I've typed it again could it be possible the heatsink fan is failing at some point? Or not spinning high enough?

Nothing is anything other than default. The bios is the latest version. The only setting I have changed in the bios is I have enable virtualization because I run an android emulator.

When you say a fresh install would I get away with the install where it keeps my data after? Or a brand new complete install. I do still have the old backup files from the old pc on a external hard drive, just the messing around sorting it all.

Hey Gazza - how did this work out for you? I'm about to go down the same road building something from scratch for the first time.