Question What is better asrock b450m steel legend vs msi b450-a pro

[Nabeel 47]

Need help.
Hi there everyone. I have mistakenly ordered two Mobos ( asrock b450m steel legend and msi b450-a pro) instead of one and the shipment will reach me on coming Monday. Just wanted to know which Mobo is better, to keep? Asrock costed me 145 AUD and MSI 139 AUD. So there isn't a great price difference but as I have to return one of them. Please clear my confusion, which one should I keep? Rest of PC specs are CPU Ryzen 5 2600, RAM G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB 3200, GPU Asus Radeon ROG-STRIX-RX580-O8G GAMING 8GB RX 580 STRIX OC, Case and PSU Thermaltake Versa N25 (CA3G2-
60M1WA-00) USB3.0 Black Mid Tower Case with 80 PLUS 600W.

 

[Karadjgne]

Pretty much the same board as far as quality goes, both are pretty decent. However, the ASR is a B450m, a mATX mobo, and the MSI is a B450, standard ATX. This won't make a difference to your choice of case, which is also an ATX mid-tower as it'll fit either, but there is a marked difference between ATX and mATX motherboards in general OC ability, fan headers, Sata and pcie drives, pcie x16, x1, x4 slots etc as an mATX is basically missing the bottom 3inches of real-estate.

So it's not so much of which is better, both are equitable, it's more a question of which is better for you, your wants and needs as far as abilities and connections go.

 

[Nabeel 47]

Pretty much the same board as far as quality goes, both are pretty decent. However, the ASR is a B450m, a mATX mobo, and the MSI is a B450, standard ATX. This won't make a difference to your choice of case, which is also an ATX mid-tower as it'll fit either, but there is a marked difference between ATX and mATX motherboards in general OC ability, fan headers, Sata and pcie drives, pcie x16, x1, x4 slots etc as an mATX is basically missing the bottom 3inches of real-estate.

So it's not so much of which is better, both are equitable, it's more a question of which is better for you, your wants and needs as far as abilities and connections go.

So, let's suppose if I go for OC in future. Which one will be better? I don't know much terminologies but what I want to know which one have better heat solutions? Also I have ordered a 240 GB SSD M2. Does they both have only one slot for that or otherwise? Anything else you have in mind. Really appreciate that. Thanks

 

[Karadjgne]

It's m.2, Inserts into the slot on the mobo, similar to ram. No wires, no power cable, just plug and play and forget about it. Sata drives need cables, mounting some place etc, bit do exactly the same thing. M.2, Sata, NVMe are all jyst different versions of the same thing, ssd. If you run out of m.2 ports on the mobo, can use a standard Sata drive instead, or pcie card adapter for NVMe drives, just different ways of doing the same thing.

As to OC, they are both decent. The msi uses the same VRM's as on its bigger brother, the Tomahawk, and is about as good as it gets for a non-fancy gaming painted msi mobo. The ASR is a step up from the venerable pro-4, better phases, better VRM's, better heatsinking. Pretty much equitable in terms of performance. Neither has had any issues I've seen within moderation. But most OC is going to be more reliant on the cpu and ram, for ryzens.

 

[Nabeel 47]

It's m.2, Inserts into the slot on the mobo, similar to ram. No wires, no power cable, just plug and play and forget about it. Sata drives need cables, mounting some place etc, bit do exactly the same thing. M.2, Sata, NVMe are all jyst different versions of the same thing, ssd. If you run out of m.2 ports on the mobo, can use a standard Sata drive instead, or pcie card adapter for NVMe drives, just different ways of doing the same thing.

As to OC, they are both decent. The msi uses the same VRM's as on its bigger brother, the Tomahawk, and is about as good as it gets for a non-fancy gaming painted msi mobo. The ASR is a step up from the venerable pro-4, better phases, better VRM's, better heatsinking. Pretty much equitable in terms of performance. Neither has had any issues I've seen within moderation. But most OC is going to be more reliant on the cpu and ram, for ryzens.

Hey thanks for the help earlier. Need some more as I'm facing a issue. My Asrock Mobo is unable to detect M2 SSD in it's Ultra M2 slot. It's WD Green 240 GB HDDWDSSDM20241. It's detected and working fine in the other M2 slot but I guess I'm unable to utilize the ultra m2 slot, hence not getting the maximum speed. Any help regarding this would be much appreciated.

 

[Karadjgne]

1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Matisse, Picasso, Summit Ridge, Raven Ridge and Pinnacle Ridge) or Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s) (with Athlon 2xxGE series APU and Raven Ridge 2)**

The WD Green is a Sata drive which uses the Sata data buss, not NVMe which uses the PCI Express buss, so you'd use that in the Sata slot, not the Ultra slot. It's a common limitation on the lower to mid level boards, to get multiple NVMe or slots that support either usually requires a higher tier mobo.

 

[ocer9999]

So, let's suppose if I go for OC in future. Which one will be better? I don't know much terminologies but what I want to know which one have better heat solutions? Also I have ordered a 240 GB SSD M2. Does they both have only one slot for that or otherwise? Anything else you have in mind. Really appreciate that. Thanks

Asrock B450 Steel legend is a great motherboard, well capable of higher core CPUs which means it will handle easily the lower core CPUs overclock with zero problems. Personally Asrock has better bios for overclock and in my experience more consitent quality.
For the VRMs and cooling, don't worry too much, have a good air flow in the case and you are good!