Question New b450 Motherboard for 3600x! Help!

[Ma3s7ro]

Building a new 3600x itx/mATX system, and undecided between this MOBO's. Won't overclock at all. Just plug and play!

50-80$ (mATX)
Gigabyte B450M DS3H - 60$
Asrock B450M HDV - 65$

80-100$ picks (mATX)
MSI B450M Bazooka Plus (90$)
Asrock B450M Pro4 (85$)

100-150$ picks (Itx)

Asrock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming ITX/ac (120$)
Gigabyte B450I Aorus Pro WiFi (140$)
MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC (140$)

Are the cheaper MOBO's that different from the the pricier ones?

 

[TJ Hooker]

B450 boards may require a BIOS update to support a 3600X. If you're buying it in store you can look for a "ready for ryzen 3000" sticker on them. If not, I'd get one of the MSI B450 "MAX" boards, as these are guaranteed to support Ryzen 3000 out of the box. Same for the ASRock B450M/AC.

The cheapest boards you listed have weaker VRMs with small/no heatsinks on them. This can affect CPU overclocking/boost behaviour.

The more expensive ones typically come with extra features, which may or may not be useful to you.

 

[richiestang_78]

You can also look at boats that allow for BIOS update without a CPU. Here is a hood list of them

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/bvfo57/list_of_b350_b450_x370_and_x470_motherboards_with/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body

 

[Ma3s7ro]

The cheapest boards you listed have weaker VRMs with small/no heatsinks on them. This can affect CPU overclocking/boost behaviour.

The more expensive ones typically come with extra features, which may or may not be useful to you.

Ok, thanks, only thought of vrm's impact on OC and not on the 3600x "auto-boost". Didn't realize that it would affect it too.

You can also look at boats that allow for BIOS update without a CPU. Here is a hood list of them

Yeah, I saw that list, but quite frankly I asked some of the possible suppliers and they will update the BIOS for me, so not worried with that.

As for the extra features, well, just want decent soundcard for now and not much else. Just want the itx/mATX form factor.

 

[jon96789]

You do not have to overclock to hit high VRM temps. My old MSi X570 MPG Gaming Pro Carbon with a 3900x would hit 95+ degrees on the VRMs just encoding videos. When it reached that temp, the CPU would throttle down until the VRMs cooled down. It was crappy situation until I replaced the mobo with an ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero which only hit 50 degrees on the VRMs.

 

[Ma3s7ro]

You do not have to overclock to hit high VRM temps. My old MSi X570 MPG Gaming Pro Carbon with a 3900x would hit 95+ degrees on the VRMs just encoding videos. When it reached that temp, the CPU would throttle down until the VRMs cooled down. It was crappy situation until I replaced the mobo with an ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero which only hit 50 degrees on the VRMs.

Damn, I won't see the list right now, but that doesn't seem normal! But thank you both for sharing that info.

Right now the Bazooka went from 90$ to 66$ on one dealer (hurray black Friday!) . From what o can gather the vrm's are ok'ish, but then again they say the same about the Aorus Pro...

 

[TJ Hooker]

Keep in mind that jon is talking about a 12 core 3900X running encoding workloads, which generally will heavily load all cores; for a 6 core 3600X doing something like gaming I'd be a lot less worried about VRMs overheating.

MSI generally had some of the best VRMs for B450 boards, but if you want a premium audio codec then unfortunately non of the micro/mini boards use the higher end ALC1220 (they all use the ALC892).

If you do want one that has the ALC1220, that leaves the ASRock Fatal1ty and Gigabyte Aorus Pro min-ITX boards. Out of those two I'd probably go with the Aorus Pro myself.

 

[Ma3s7ro]

If you do want one that has the ALC1220, that leaves the ASRock Fatal1ty and Gigabyte Aorus Pro min-ITX boards.

That was my inicial thought too, but I'm unsure now, with all that I've been reading about the VRMs heating and throttling...gaming wise that's a huge no no. And since I'm building an it's and therefore less airflow, this got me wondering.

In guru3d they did a good analysis on the msi on the VRMs heating and it's golden (full load 50°) with no oc. Couldn't find the same kind of tests for the other 2.

 

[ocer9999]

Any should be fine, both are good options. As for the VRMs the 3600X is not very demanding which means you won't see the temps go that bad at all.

 

[Ma3s7ro]

for a 6 core 3600X doing something like gaming I'd be a lot less worried about VRMs overheating.

MSI generally had some of the best VRMs for B450 boards, but if you want a premium audio codec then unfortunately non of the micro/mini boards use the higher end ALC1220 (they all use the ALC892).

That's what I thought to begin with it, a good audio codec, tough the heating issues and possible throttling on a itx case (golden field n-2s) with a lesser airflow than a regular ATX got me wondering.

Any should be fine, both are good options. As for the VRMs the 3600X is not very demanding which means you won't see the temps go that bad at all.

So even on a itx build throttling would be unexpected?

I'll have, on pair with those parts:
1 1060 (I'll upgrade to ampere when they arrive)
New Seasonic PSU (still deciding which one)
32gb ram G.Skill Aegis