MSI B450 Tomahawk or B450 Gaming Plus?

[abhishekakade]

I'm building a budget Ryzen 2400G PC since I cannot afford a dGPU right now but I wanna upgrade it later with Ryzen 5/5x next gen CPU next year or so along with the addition of a decent dGPU. After that upgrade, I'll be using it for video editing and rendering with some overclock.

Now I've seen quite a few good reviews about Tomahawk vrm but unfortunately I couldn't find any about the B450 Gaming Plus. And even I want to go with Tomahawk but it's currently out of stock here and won't be available for at least a month and I don't really want to wait that long. So should I go with B450 Gaming Plus or wait for Tomahawk? I couldn't find any good reviews on Gaming Plus and it's vrm so I don't know what to do. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I think, you're focusing a little too much on VRM's rather than a good mobo, or at least one that's in stock

VRM's, the quality and number really only matter for higher OC'ing. They basically constitute a little power supply on the motherboard, and they convert the 12V supplied by the (regular) power supply to the voltage required by the CPU (in the neighborhood of 1-1.5V, and can change dynamically). A quality power supply is important for the system as a whole, and the same goes again for the CPUs little dedicated power supply.

More power phases is a good thing because then the load on each power phase is reduced. That means they generate less heat, and that's great because heat makes them less efficient and stable. And in the worst case scenario, the VRM (Voltage Regulator Module, with X number of power phases) can even overheat and be damaged.

But for a mid-range chip, with moderate OC'ing it's not really that relevant. Often just having some good case airflow can accommodate the extra heat output from hot VRM's if you are OC'ing.

Here's a list of most AM4 B350/B450/X370/X470 mobo's and their power phases. Anything above 6+ is sufficient for a decent moderate OC. 8+ for more insane speeds. : https://wccftech.com/amd-b450-motherboards-official-launch-msi-asus-asrock-gigabyte-roundup/

 

[drea.drechsler]

I'm building a budget Ryzen 2400G PC since I cannot afford a dGPU right now but I wanna upgrade it later with Ryzen 5/5x next gen CPU next year or so along with the addition of a decent dGPU. After that upgrade, I'll be using it for video editing and rendering with some overclock.

Now I've seen quite a few good reviews about Tomahawk vrm but unfortunately I couldn't find any about the B450 Gaming Plus. And even I want to go with Tomahawk but it's currently out of stock here and won't be available for at least a month and I don't really want to wait that long. So should I go with B450 Gaming Plus or wait for Tomahawk? I couldn't find any good reviews on Gaming Plus and it's vrm so I don't know what to do. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Gaming Plus has a similar VRM design and only slightly less robust heatsinks as the Tomahawk. Look instead at features like USB ports, audio CODEC, etc. One thing I noted is the Gaming Plus has one M.2 slot while Tomahawk has two, for instance. Because this is a 450 chipset the second one won't be PCIex4 Gen.3, however, and will steal its lanes from something else when occupied.

 

[overco]

I'm building a budget Ryzen 2400G PC since I cannot afford a dGPU right now but I wanna upgrade it later with Ryzen 5/5x next gen CPU next year or so along with the addition of a decent dGPU. After that upgrade, I'll be using it for video editing and rendering with some overclock.

Now I've seen quite a few good reviews about Tomahawk vrm but unfortunately I couldn't find any about the B450 Gaming Plus. And even I want to go with Tomahawk but it's currently out of stock here and won't be available for at least a month and I don't really want to wait that long. So should I go with B450 Gaming Plus or wait for Tomahawk? I couldn't find any good reviews on Gaming Plus and it's vrm so I don't know what to do. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Gaming Plus has a similar VRM design and only slightly less robust heatsinks as the Tomahawk. Look instead at features like USB ports, audio CODEC, etc. One thing I noted is the Gaming Plus has one M.2 slot while Tomahawk has two, for instance. Because this is a 450 chipset the second one won't be PCIex4 Gen.3, however, and will steal its lanes from something else when occupied.

The Tomahawk only has 1 M.2 slot, same as the Gaming Plus
So yes, just the more robust heatsink on the Tomahawk, also noted is the Tomahawk has a USB Type-C port on the IO to replace a USB 3.1 port compared to the Gaming Plus.