Question Ryzen 5000 Compatibility with ASUS B350

[PatientGamer]

First post here, I am looking for a little bit of help to upgrade my CPU. I am trying to eke out a bit more life out of an old build. I am on a tight budget and understand the limitations of the board. I don't plan to overclock the CPU or anything. For reference I am on a R5 1600 currently. It's getting a bit long in the tooth.

I have this motherboard: PRIME B350M-A/CSM
https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/prime b350m-acsm/helpdesk_bios/

Looking at the latest BIOS available and checking the compatible CPU models, it appears to have been updated with 5000 series support. However, only a few oddball 5000 CPUs are listed as compatible including the 5600X3D. That is confusing me a bit as the non "CSM" ASUS B350M-A has a more comprehensive list of compatible 5000 series CPUs including the one I intend to purchase, which a 5600. I am guessing maybe ASUS hasn't explicitly tested my version of the board with the regular 5600.

The non "CSM" variant of the board for reference does list the 5600 as compatible using the same 6042 BIOS version. Frankly, I don't know if the "CSM" version of the board is even really different?

So, should this work? I was thinking of picking up a 5600 tomorrow as I found a good price locally.

 

[NedSmelly]

Personal opinion, TLDR: If it’s not on the manufacturer’s supported list, then don’t buy it.

Longer version:
You might be lucky - the 5600 may work. Or it may not work. Or it may work initially, but then do weird things a few weeks/months down the track in terms of stability. In which case be prepared for a lot of time wasting. Vendor will probably tell you “sorry we can’t help you, it’s not on the supported list.” Asus will tell you the same if you contact them. They have stated it upfront on their support page, but for whatever reason it‘s been ignored by the customer.

Or just buy a 5700 which is on the support list. And move on with life.

 

[PatientGamer]

I did some more reading, and it appears that ASUS CSM vs. non CSM boards should be technically identical. The difference seems to be the support you get from ASUS if you purchase the CSM version. They also guarantee longer availability of the products marked CSM.

If anyone has direct knowledge of that I would be interested to hear more, since they both seem to be the same board and using the same BIOS version I cant see why it wouldn't work. The 5700 is significantly more expensive so I probably wouldn't go that route. They list a bunch of dumb versions of the 5600 like the 5600GT and 5600X3D which are also vermeer. It really makes no sense.

Even the A320 version of the this generation of boards listed the 5600.

 

[PatientGamer]

Last update on this thread just in case anyone ever ends up with the same question and stumbles on this. The compatibility with the 5000 series and ASUS B350M-A/CSM works fine.

I was having random crashes which seemed memory related. Lo and behold, one of my old sticks of Corsair Vengeance 3000 was bad. I moved it around from slot to slot and it wouldn't post but the other stick worked in all slots. I replaced it with some TFORCE DDR4 3600 and everything is rock solid and RAM running at advertised speed which the corsair never did in the years I owned it. In the end I still had to buy new RAM but for a bit under $180 I ended up with a much faster CPU and RAM so quite a worthwhile upgrade in the end.