[SOLVED] Motherboard recommendation please

[deusvolt]

Hi,

I'm in the last throes of an upgrade , just need a steer if possible on mobo.

Proposed motherboard:
Gigabyte B450M GAMING AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard

Gigabyte B450M GAMING AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard - B450M GAMING

Available @ CCL: Gigabyte B450M GAMING Motherboard. mATX sized, AMD B450 chipset, Socket AM4. Featuring 2x DDR4 slots, 4x SATA, 6x USB., Mfg Code: B450M GAMING

www.cclonline.com

I want to keep a VGA slot if possible (I am old school!)

Rig to be:
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6GHz 6 Core (Socket AM4) CPU (yet to buy so any advice on alternatives welcome - I found it for £150 so I figure that's a great price point for capability)
AMD RX580 4gb (got)
16gb DDR4 ram (yet to guy)
2x SSDs (1 for games, 1 for OS) (got)
Windows 10 64-bit (need to upgrade from W7, will do so before upgrade Mobo etc)
PSU 650 Neoeco Antec (got - this should be more than enough for my needs, but again, welcome opinions)

As ever, thank you in advance.

 

[Zoel.fahmi]

MSi B450 Tomahawk max
Best vrm in B450 class and price range
BIOS flash by USB

 

[LordVile]

Hi,

I'm in the last throes of an upgrade , just need a steer if possible on mobo.

Proposed motherboard:
Gigabyte B450M GAMING AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard

Gigabyte B450M GAMING AMD Socket AM4 Motherboard - B450M GAMING

Available @ CCL: Gigabyte B450M GAMING Motherboard. mATX sized, AMD B450 chipset, Socket AM4. Featuring 2x DDR4 slots, 4x SATA, 6x USB., Mfg Code: B450M GAMING

www.cclonline.com

I want to keep a VGA slot if possible (I am old school!)

Rig to be:
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6GHz 6 Core (Socket AM4) CPU (yet to buy so any advice on alternatives welcome - I found it for £150 so I figure that's a great price point for capability)
AMD RX580 4gb (got)
16gb DDR4 ram (yet to guy)
2x SSDs (1 for games, 1 for OS) (got)
Windows 10 64-bit (need to upgrade from W7, will do so before upgrade Mobo etc)
PSU 650 Neoeco Antec (got - this should be more than enough for my needs, but again, welcome opinions)

As ever, thank you in advance.

What are you upgrading from? Because you may need to wipe your drives and reinstall W10 fresh.

Agree with above

 

[deusvolt]

What are you upgrading from? Because you may need to wipe your drives and reinstall W10 fresh.

Agree with above

Upgrading from mobo: Intel DQ67SW
Is it a problem that it's intel and I'm moving to AMD?
I read there's some process of prepping your system for a mobo upgrade where you link the Windows key to your account, and it lets you transfer it to your new hardware?

Would I need to wipe my gaming drive? It's 64bit Win 7 so I am hopeful a straight re-plug in will work!

MSi B450 Tomahawk max
Best vrm in B450 class and price range
BIOS flash by USB

Thanks, what makes the tomahawk so much better? It's nearly twice the price (and no VGA )

Don't know how to do the BiOS flash but I can look that up - what does it do?

Thanks to you both!

 

[Zoel.fahmi]

Thanks, what makes the tomahawk so much better? It's nearly twice the price (and no VGA )

Don't know how to do the BiOS flash but I can look that up - what does it do?
Thanks to you both!

As I stated above, vrm cooling, bios flashback, and another nifty things
You can opted for cheaper version of b450 like MSI B450 VDH max
Gaming plus max, mortar max

 

[LordVile]

Upgrading from mobo: Intel DQ67SW
Is it a problem that it's intel and I'm moving to AMD?
I read there's some process of prepping your system for a mobo upgrade where you link the Windows key to your account, and it lets you transfer it to your new hardware?

Would I need to wipe my gaming drive? It's 64bit Win 7 so I am hopeful a straight re-plug in will work!




Thanks, what makes the tomahawk so much better? It's nearly twice the price (and no VGA )

Don't know how to do the BiOS flash but I can look that up - what does it do?

Thanks to you both!

It's out of box compatible with 3000 series chips, a much better VRM etc, just overall a better board. You can also get VGA adapters. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rankie-HDMI-Adapter-3-5mm-Audio/dp/B00ZMV7RL2

New CPUs do not officially support W7. Personally I'd back up all of your games to an external drive andf copy the game folders back into the new systems folder. For example on steam if you copy the common folder onto an external drive, set up steam on the new install and paste the common folder back into the steam folder in the same place and install the game it should detect that the game data is there and just need to validate it.

Just swapping the drive to an AMD chip from an intel chip can cause massive headaches.

 

[deusvolt]

As I stated above, vrm cooling, bios flashback, and another nifty things
You can opted for cheaper version of b450 like MSI B450 VDH max
Gaming plus max, mortar max

Ok thanks - I don't really use those things, maybe I should as my current process (i5 2400) is creaking playing anything right now, and typically hits 60-65 C - would that impair performance? Not sure, but anything I can squeeze out of it would help.

 

[deusvolt]

It's out of box compatible with 3000 series chips, a much better VRM etc, just overall a better board. You can also get VGA adapters. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rankie-HDMI-Adapter-3-5mm-Audio/dp/B00ZMV7RL2

New CPUs do not officially support W7. Personally I'd back up all of your games to an external drive andf copy the game folders back into the new systems folder. For example on steam if you copy the common folder onto an external drive, set up steam on the new install and paste the common folder back into the steam folder in the same place and install the game it should detect that the game data is there and just need to validate it.

Just swapping the drive to an AMD chip from an intel chip can cause massive headaches.

My plan was to upgrade W7 to W10, then upgrade mobo and reinstall W10 then.
I appreciate this will take quite a long time but oh well, don't see a way around that.

I have 2 SSDs, so do you mean even my other SSD without the O/S on there could be a problem when plugging into the mobo after w10 reinstall?
I've backed up the vital stuff - photos etc - the games I can re-download if needed, just be a pain.

Thanks once again.

 

[Zoel.fahmi]

Ok thanks - I don't really use those things, maybe I should as my current process (i5 2400) is creaking playing anything right now, and typically hits 60-65 C - would that impair performance? Not sure, but anything I can squeeze out of it would help.

60-65 under full load is very normal condition

 

[LordVile]

My plan was to upgrade W7 to W10, then upgrade mobo and reinstall W10 then.
I appreciate this will take quite a long time but oh well, don't see a way around that.

I have 2 SSDs, so do you mean even my other SSD without the O/S on there could be a problem when plugging into the mobo after w10 reinstall?
I've backed up the vital stuff - photos etc - the games I can re-download if needed, just be a pain.

Thanks once again.

Would just invest in a 1TB external HDD and it’ll save you a lot of time

 

[deusvolt]

Would just invest in a 1TB external HDD and it’ll save you a lot of time

Ok thanks - so here's my plan, and I appreciate I'm not 100% on it, so welcome tips as I don't want to be stuck without a computer if/when we're quarantined!!

• Upgrade windows 7 to Windows 10 on my OS SSD
• Order Ryzen 5 3600 and Mobo (probably MSi B450 Tomahawk max or one of the other suggestions)
• Prep my Win 10 OS SSD for hardware change, unplugging Games SSD.
• Swap mobo and processor out, etc.
• Re-install Win 10 on my OS SSD
• Plug in Games SSD [ here it seems the new mobo might not recognise the file system or similar? And I would need to re-download everything I hadn't backed-up? ]

Just to check: If I use external HDD and copy over all my game files etc then if the Games SSD isn't recognised or needs re-formating, the new OS/mobo can just format and make it readable, and I can transfer from the HD back onto the Games SSD, is that right?

I knew there could be OS problems, didnt realise the mobo/processor might just not read from the SSD at all.

Thanks once again!

60-65 under full load is very normal condition

Thanks - it was hitting 72+ yesterday and crashing because I told it to use all cores at max to squeeze a bit more out of it

 

[LordVile]

Ok thanks - so here's my plan, and I appreciate I'm not 100% on it, so welcome tips as I don't want to be stuck without a computer if/when we're quarantined!!

• Upgrade windows 7 to Windows 10 on my OS SSD
• Order Ryzen 5 3600 and Mobo (probably MSi B450 Tomahawk max or one of the other suggestions)
• Prep my Win 10 OS SSD for hardware change, unplugging Games SSD.
• Swap mobo and processor out, etc.
• Re-install Win 10 on my OS SSD
• Plug in Games SSD [ here it seems the new mobo might not recognise the file system or similar? And I would need to re-download everything I hadn't backed-up? ]

Just to check: If I use external HDD and copy over all my game files etc then if the Games SSD isn't recognised or needs re-formating, the new OS/mobo can just format and make it readable, and I can transfer from the HD back onto the Games SSD, is that right?

I knew there could be OS problems, didnt realise the mobo/processor might just not read from the SSD at all.

Thanks once again!



Thanks - it was hitting 72+ yesterday and crashing because I told it to use all cores at max to squeeze a bit more out of it

You shouldn’t have issue with files it’s more drivers and the OS so as long as that’s all on your OS SSD not the storage you should be fine. However if you copy the game files to an external drive you’re safe incase something goes wrong

 

[deusvolt]

You shouldn’t have issue with files it’s more drivers and the OS so as long as that’s all on your OS SSD not the storage you should be fine. However if you copy the game files to an external drive you’re safe incase something goes wrong

Ok great thanks. I'll copy over some of the games to be safe but not fussed about most tbh.

Fingers crossed my windows upgrade goes fine!