MSI B350M MORTAR ARCTIC - Still worth buying it in 2018?!

[zektro]

Howdy. Still worth the MSI B350M MORTAR ARCTIC or should I buy instead an ASUS STRIX ROG X470-I Gaming or should I wait for the B450 chipset MB'S when it comes out?! I decided to build myself from scratch a compact custom gaming RIG. Cheers!

 

[ohenryy]

Why not the X370 Pro4, has really good price, as low as other B350 motherboards.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Not really a comparison: one is mATX, the other is mini-ITX. One has an X470 chipset (and therefore best supports Ryzen 2000 processors) and the other B350. One has WiFi, the other....doesn't. One is over $100 US more expensive.

One's market is those looking to build-out a premium, feature-rich, high-end sub-compact system while the other's market is those looking to effectively anchor a low-cost 'gaming' system with a MoBo that provides the right type of eye candy.

 

[smorizio]

i go with the newest chipset mb. the new ryzen cpu out are not true 2.0 chips yet but ones that have some parts of the chips updated like a dye shrink. if there another update of amd chips will the newer chips work on older mb chipsets. this issue came up on the intel coffee lake cpu and the x200 chipset. the 200x chipset was out for a short time then intel drop there updated cpu chips and they would not run on the older chipsets.

 

[drea.drechsler]

i go with the newest chipset mb. the new ryzen cpu out are not true 2.0 chips yet but ones that have some parts of the chips updated like a dye shrink. if there another update of amd chips will the newer chips work on older mb chipsets. this issue came up on the intel coffee lake cpu and the x200 chipset. the 200x chipset was out for a short time then intel drop there updated cpu chips and they would not run on the older chipsets.

I've read AMD is going to support AM4 all the way through 2020, and that should include Ryzen 2 (where Ryzen 2000 is really Ryzen+) even on X370/B350/A320 chipset boards as well as X470/B450.

I've not read where Ryzen2 will come with a new chipset to better support it's features. Have you any information on this?

That aside: AMD has clearly shown a better policy about supporting legacy platforms than Intel. I'd like to see that continue and prefer to believe it will.

 

[zektro]

My idea was that I was thinking to build a custom sub-compact light/mid range gaming RIG from scratch, and yet I was wondering if a B350 mATX MoBo is worth it like the MSI B350 Mortar Arctic. Or, should I buy the ASUS STRIX ROG X470-I Gaming which I suppose that can be a better choice?!

 

[drea.drechsler]

My idea was that I was thinking to build a custom sub-compact light/mid range gaming RIG from scratch, and yet I was wondering if a B350 mATX MoBo is worth it like the MSI B350 Mortar Arctic. Or, should I buy the ASUS STRIX ROG X470-I Gaming which I suppose that can be a better choice?!

Look at it this way: the MSI B350m Mortar needs a larger mATX case and thus won't make nearly as compact a system as you can build with the ASUS X470-I for which there are a lot of really tiny (and nice) mITX cases available.

The ASUS board may be more expensive but then you have to buy a WiFi card for the MSI which will boost total cost for it.

The ASUS may have better VRM section and so may overclock better but that's rarely exploitable in sub-compact systems' tiny cases because of cooling limitations so this is probably a wash.

But on the flip: If you don't really need/want WiFi and can compromise on just how compact your sub-compact system needs to be you can save a lot if you get the MSI board since not only the board is cheaper but those tiny little mITX cases for the ASUS are generally more expensive too.

That should give you enough to make a choice if being 'sub-compact' is your only criteria for success.

EDIT ADDED: Oh yeah, the b350 chip on the MSI board will work perfectly well with the new Ryzen2000 (Zen+) chips but it appears to me that it doesn't support that CPU's enhanced XFR-2 or Precision Boost Overdrive, which is a bummer. Maybe one of the AMD experts could comment on this, though, as I've not seen any comparisons of the new CPU's on the old chipsets vs. the new chipsets to see how much that compromises overall performance. But remember that when you overclock any Ryzen CPU it disables XFR and Precision Boost anyway so that's a wash if you plan to overclock. I just wanted to let you know the MSI board is very much still relevant in 2018.

 

[zektro]

Actually I really didn't think on that as a solution. And indeed most motherboards from ASUS such as ROG SERIES(STRIX, CROSSHAIR VII, ZENITH EXTREME, HERO) and TUF SERIES are quite well expensive... Sure, some mobo's are not even extremely expensive as they are considered for "budget". And here I refer to TUF and ROG STRIX with B350 chipset for AMD Ryzen CPU's. Here's an exemple of ASUS TUF B350M-PLUS GAMING which here costs around at 493 RON and in US it's $110 which I guess it's a best deal but lacks of new features that comes with AMD Ryzen 2 "Zen+"/AMD Ryzen 2200G and 2400G and VR/AR and oh yeah... that "must have" FULL CUSTOM RGB. XD