[SOLVED] Which mATX B450??

[Jimbo832]

I'm looking into purchasing a more high-tier mATX B450 mobo for a R5 3600.

The options in New Zealand are:

Asus TUF B450M-PLUS GAMING
MSI B450M MORTAR MAX
Gigabyte B450 AORUS M
ASRock B450M Steel Legend

When buying online the only mobo that is guaranteed to work out-the-box is the MSI, however I should be able to get the other ones flashed to newer bios regardless so this shouldn't be an issue.

Which motherboard would you buy, and why?

Thanks in advance!

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Go for the MSI just so you don't even have to bother with the update. It's a very good board aswell.

 

[Jimbo832]

Go for the MSI just so you don't even have to bother with the update. It's a very good board aswell.

Yes I was leaning towards the MSI for that reason. I really just wanted to see if anyone else had any thoughts on it compared to the others without factoring in the bios support. Getting a shop to flash the bios before they ship it will be no issue in NZ.

 

[atljsf]

i personally only buy asus and gigabyte, i stopped buying msi years ago

both brands have never let me down, but lately msi has been know for doing weird stuff with the motherboards nad gpus, is like they dropped quality on everything so i stopped buying form them

i don't like at all asrock

 

[NightHawkRMX]

both brands have never let me down, but lately msi has been know for doing weird stuff with the motherboards nad gpus, is like they dropped quality on everything so i stopped buying form them

I have not heard this. Source?

 

[atljsf]

source? for example take a look at the disasembly of the 5700 made by gamers nexus, thermal pads, thermal pads everywhere

on older motherboard i bought form them at that tim everybody used heatsinks on vrms, but msi did not used the heatsinks, so these units worked hot and was common to hear people avoid msi for certain cpus and motherboard combinations, i guess it is a more common practice now, but on that time i couldn't buy the cpu i wanted thanks to such limitation and in that time i had less money to spend, so if i bought the wrong part, i had to deal with it

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Well, every company makes cheap models. Having a VRM without heatsync is just a sign of a cheap board.

The Evoke is not bad, and far superior to the reference.

 

[TJ Hooker]

+1 for getting the MSI Mortar.

 

[atljsf]

Well, every company makes cheap models. Having a VRM without heatsync is just a sign of a cheap board.

The Evoke is not bad, and far superior to the reference.

that is completelly true, but on that time i used to buy cheaper msi motherboards that came with heatsinks, i guess they went with the masses and decided that if you want a cheap motherboard, you have to accept a system working hot and dying soon if you don't know what you are doing

personally i don't buy anymore their motherboards, after the probkem they had with those b350 and 450 with bios so small that couldn't fit newer version with the new ryzens and had to remove some fro the support list apart from other features, well, in my eyes they look bad now, and that is a shame, there is fewer motherboard manufacturers these days i trust

 

[NightHawkRMX]

i guess they went with the masses and decided that if you want a cheap motherboard, you have to accept a system working hot and dying soon if you don't know what you are doing

Not true anymore, so there is no reason to even bring it up.

Modern CPUs are power efficient in general. You pair something like a mid range i5 9400f or Ryzen 5 3600x with a cheaper motherboard, there is very little to no issues.

You pair a 3900x with a320, you will have some minor issues but you the VRMs are smart enough to throttle back, so they wont die quickly, although they will have a reduced lifespan.

Even if you do pair a modern high end CPU with a cheap board, you will have far fewer issues than 5+ years ago when you crammed an FX9590 with 300w+ power consumption into a $60 board with a cheap VRM and no heatsyncs.

The biggest defense against doing this is common sense. Don't pair a really pricy CPU with cheap board, just like you wouldn't put Chinese tires on a Ferrari

 

[atljsf]

Not true anymore, so there is no reason to even bring it up.

Modern CPUs are power efficient in general. You pair something like a mid range i5 9400f or Ryzen 5 3600x with a cheaper motherboard, there is very little to no issues.

You pair a 3900x with a320, you will have some minor issues but you the VRMs are smart enough to throttle back, so they wont die quickly, although they will have a reduced lifespan.

Even if you do pair a modern high end CPU with a cheap board, you will have far fewer issues than 5+ years ago when you crammed an FX9590 with 300w+ power consumption into a $60 board with a cheap VRM and no heatsyncs.

The biggest defense against doing this is common sense. Don't pair a really pricy CPU with cheap board, just like you wouldn't put Chinese tires on a Ferrari

i can bring up whatever i want, because if i had those problems in the past and made me decide now against a brand, and i am expressing clearly what it was, well, i can bring it up as many times as i want,

remeber that here e share opinions, as you just did, no one has the universal truth here, you take from these word what you can or ignore it, and that is what everybody does, if in the past a brand gave you bad value, you skip it and never recommend it, if you in particular do it, well, that is your decision, not mine

 

[drea.drechsler]

Look no further than the B450M Mortar Max.

As noted, it's the only board you can be positive will work 'out of the box' with Ryzen 3000. No BIOS updates required.

Also, it's the board with the strongest VRM of the bunch so you have assured upgrade path all the way up the Ryzen product stack. Probably even to the 16 core/32 thread 3950X as the board's VRM is the same design as the B450 Tomahawk which Hardware Unboxed just demonstrated working comfortably with one.

Not that I'm suggesting running right out and put a $750 US CPU on a $120 US motherboard. But in a few years when looking about for upgrade ideas and you run across a used one on e-Bay you'll be ready and set.

 

[ocer9999]

i personally only buy asus and gigabyte, i stopped buying msi years ago

both brands have never let me down, but lately msi has been know for doing weird stuff with the motherboards nad gpus, is like they dropped quality on everything so i stopped buying form them

i don't like at all asrock

I also don't really buy their stuff anymore, very inconsistent.
But I do build many systems around asrock mobos, pretty solid and reliable as well they generally have more features than the same priced competitor models.

So far no complains.

 

[GoldenLag]

out of those 4 boards, the Mortar max is the only one worthwhile board considering. the other options either have a poorer VRM and Bios or a smaller Bioschip. its flat out the better board

 

[atljsf]

I also don't really buy their stuff anymore, very inconsistent.
But I do build many systems around asrock mobos, pretty solid and reliable as well they generally have more features than the same priced competitor models.

So far no complains.

i had very bad experiences with asrock motherboards in the past and i never buy or recomend that brand, lately people recomend alot the brand but their old parts used to be really bad in my opinion, when i used to give support to these machines using asrockk, often the repair involved buying another motherboards, that brand used to age badly, perhaps it has changed, but my opinion about the brand is bad and my money will not go to them to see if things have improved

 

[drea.drechsler]

source? for example take a look at the disasembly of the 5700 made by gamers nexus, thermal pads, thermal pads everywhere
....

That was one MSI 5700 model, the Evoke. GN skewered a couple other 5700's and guess what...only MSI paid attention and even sent out a rep to talk about what they found. And now they've actually made changes to mitigate the shortcomings in the product. That's pretty unique in the industry.

Both my MSI motherboards have been excellent. Well made and very good performing compared to competition. I do have a beef with MSI's response for BIOS updates on the Zen2 rollout, but I can't argue with the results now that the final release 1004b BIOS is out. Still, all the mfr's had problems with that and it seems pretty typical across the industry that only X570 models got any love.

Don't know where it comes from and maybe a few have had bad experiences but there's an awful lot of MSI hate that seems totally undeserved. I've had bad experiences with Asus motherboards but I don't rap them for it, so it just seems a bit perplexing to me.

 

[atljsf]

That was one MSI 5700 model, the Evoke. GN skewered a couple other 5700's and guess what...only MSI paid attention and even sent out a rep to talk about what they found. And now they've actually made changes to mitigate the shortcomings in the product. That's pretty unique in the industry.

Both my MSI motherboards have been excellent. Well made and very good performing compared to competition. I do have a beef with MSI's response for BIOS updates on the Zen2 rollout, but I can't argue with the results now that the final release 1004b BIOS is out. Still, all the mfr's had problems with that and it seems pretty typical across the industry that only X570 models got any love.

Don't know where it comes from and maybe a few have had bad experiences but there's an awful lot of MSI hate that seems totally undeserved. I've had bad experiences with Asus motherboards but I don't rap them for it, so it just seems a bit perplexing to me.

i will not give money to that brand, if you had a great experience lately, that is great, but what i used to think about msi and what msi comes with now, is not the same, so no money from me to them, and no recomendations from me in favor of msi, they should stop coming with crap and stop charging alot for it, if not all the companies do it, you can't say it is normal, so, no, no recomendation, and no money for msi, they better become better so people keep having great experiences like yours

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I have had a partially dead on arrival MSI board, but this other MSI board has been good.

 

[drea.drechsler]

I have had a partially dead on arrival MSI board, but this other MSI board has been good.

LIke I said, I've had my problems with Asus boards...one that was DOA (wouldn't recognize an NVME drive) and one that had terrible VRM over-heating problems.

People are complaining about MSI's X570 boards because of under-powered VRM's but just one (AM4) generation back and the situation is completely flipped. MSI has the strongest VRM's across the board (B450 are particular standouts) while the competition was at best ragged.

In some cases flat out deceptive... at least at first where Gigabyte claimed they had '8 phase VRM' designs that were (still are) 4 phase. And a poor one at that, but you had to strip away the heatsink to find out.

This was true of both Gigabyte and Asus BTW. You have to be very careful with Asus' B450 boards...for instance, their TUF B450M PRO is pretty good while the TUF B450M PLUS is a wreck to be avoided.

Thing is: that's hardly a smart reason to make blanket statements about either because as we see, with X570 both Asus and Gigabyte have strong offerings up and down their lines.