Question Which Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600

[erdnuss]

Hi! I'm building my very first gaming PC and i need your help. I am searching for the right motherboard for my Ryzen 5 3600 + Rx 5700 build.

Can someone tell me the difference between these 2 motherboards which i'm considering :

a) MSI B450M Pro-VDH Max
b) MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX

First one (Pro-VDH) is 25€ cheaper in my region. And since i'm not looking to overclocking my cpu, will this motherboard be enough compared to Tomahawk?

Thank you already in advance for any helpful answers!

 

[jojesa]

I will go with the Tomahawk.

There are a few differences, that might not be important, between those motherboards.
The Tomahawk it is an ATX motherboard and the Pro-VDH Micro-ATX.
The Pro-VDH has 2 PCIe 2.0 x1 slots and the Tomahawk has 3.
The Pro-VDH has a VGA port the Tomahawk doesn't.
The Pro-VDH has 1 RGB connector and the Tomahawk has 2.
The Tomahawk has a 4-pin water-pump-fan connector.
The Pro-VDH has 4 SATA connectors and the Tomahawk has 6.

Since you are getting a Ryzen 5 3600 with a previous gen motherboard, you might need to update the motherboard before installing the Ryzen 5 3600 .
The Tomahawk has a features, BIOS flashback, that will allow you to update the BIOS without installing a CPU, memory or graphics card, just the PSU is required.
Otherwise if you get a B450 motherboard without that feature and it does not come updated you will have to get a gen 2 Ryzen CPU, update the BIOS then install a Ryzen 3 gen CPU.

 

[Simran Jeet]

Tomahawk is a better option but if possible go for b450 gaming pro carbon it is a very well equipped motherboard, it looks awesome and it has better heatsinks than tomahawk, heatsink on m.2 slot, high end audio and more i/o ports

 

[Sipan9000]

I will go with the Tomahawk.

There are a few differences, that might not be important, between those motherboards.
The Tomahawk it is an ATX motherboard and the Pro-VDH Micro-ATX.
The Pro-VDH has 2 PCIe 2.0 x1 slots and the Tomahawk has 3.
The Pro-VDH has a VGA port the Tomahawk doesn't.
The Pro-VDH has 1 RGB connector and the Tomahawk has 2.
The Tomahawk has a 4-pin water-pump-fan connector.
The Pro-VDH has 4 SATA connectors and the Tomahawk has 6.

Since you are getting a Ryzen 5 3600 with a previous gen motherboard, you might need to update the motherboard before installing the Ryzen 5 3600 .
The Tomahawk has a features, BIOS flashback, that will allow you to update the BIOS without installing a CPU, memory or graphics card, just the PSU is required.
Otherwise if you get a B450 motherboard without that feature and it does not come updated you will have to get a gen 2 Ryzen CPU, update the BIOS then install a Ryzen 3 gen CPU.

He doesn't need to update bios, msi's b450 'max' branded boards come with zen 2 ready bios

 

[jojesa]

He doesn't need to update bios, msi's b450 'max' branded boards come with zen 2 ready bios

I had got several board from different vendors in the last month and a few of the boards arrived with the original BIOS. So they had to be updated before supporting the Gen 2 and Gen 3 CPUs.
Just because you got one with an updated BIOS, that does not mean they all are.

 

[Sipan9000]

I had got several board from different vendors in the last month and a few of the boards arrived with the original BIOS. So they had to be updated before supporting the Gen 2 and Gen 3 CPUs.
Just because you got one with an updated BIOS, that does not mean they all are.

I dont think you understand, msi created b450 MAX boards with specific bios for zen 2.

The MAX branding by msi is a new lineup of b450 boards that come with updated bios: https://www.msi.com/blog/msis-max-motherboard-lineup

 

[ocer9999]

Tomahawk is a better option but if possible go for b450 gaming pro carbon it is a very well equipped motherboard, it looks awesome and it has better heatsinks than tomahawk, heatsink on m.2 slot, high end audio and more i/o ports

Or the B450 Steel Legend. Also really good motherboard in my experience.

 

[DMAN999]

I had got several board from different vendors in the last month and a few of the boards arrived with the original BIOS. So they had to be updated before supporting the Gen 2 and Gen 3 CPUs.
Just because you got one with an updated BIOS, that does not mean they all are.

Sipan9000 is 100 % correct.
The MSI MAX line of motherboards are all shipped with Ryzen 3000 Series compatible BIOS.
They were specifically released with a larger (32 MB BIOS chip) and a Ryzen 3000 compatible BIOS.

Any Non-MAX motherboard on the other hand may or may not be Ryzen 3000 compatible depending on when it was manufactured.