[SOLVED] Which motherboard would you suggest between these two?

Jul 19, 2019
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1-MSI B450 Pro Gaming Carbon AC
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2-Asus ROG Strix B450-E
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I honestly like both and both of them seem to suit my needs, so I need to ask all the hardcore builders here for more benificial insight. I wanted one that's not too heavy on my pockets, has Wireless wifi and bluetooth, and supports Ryzen's 3rd gen processors for potential future upgrade (I'll start with R5 2600X), so I narrowed it down to these 2 motherboards. Which one would you suggest / pick?
 

DMAN999

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I have an Ausus ROG Strix B450-F with a Ryzen 5 2600 OC'd to 4 GHZ and I am very happy with it so I can recommend the B450-E (it is basically the same board).
But either board would work fine for you.
The Asus has a better BIOS and I have not had any problems with mine.
Also I have Not seen many issues posted here about it.

The MSI has a slightly better VRM But the BIOS is not as good,
And it has a 16 MB BIOS chip so if/when you upgrade to a Ryzen 3xxx you would be stuck with a Text based BIOS like this:
https://www.msi.com/page/mb-beta-bios

If you are comfortable overclocking I would recommend you get a 2600 instead of the 2600x and OC it.
My OC'd 2600 system benchmarks as well as or even better than 2600x systems.
 
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Jul 19, 2019
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I have an Ausus ROG Strix B450-F with a Ryzen 5 2600 OC'd to 4 GHZ and I am very happy with it so I can recommend the B450-I.
But either board would work fine for you.
The Asus has a better BIOS and I have not had any problems with mine.
Also I have Not seen many issues posted here about it.

The MSI has a slightly better VRM But the BIOS is not as good,
And it has a 16 MB BIOS chip so if/when you upgrade to a Ryzen 3xxx you would be stuck with a Text based BIOS like this:
https://www.msi.com/page/mb-beta-bios

If you are comfortable overclocking I would recommend you get a 2600 instead of the 2600x and OC it.
My OC'd 2600 system benchmarks as well as or even better than 2600x systems.
Regarding the Ryzen processor thing, I also wanted to get a R5 2600 at first, but I honestly didn't want to buy a cooler other than the stock one because I want to save what I can for the motherboard while also getting a decent CPU. The stealth is terrible. The spire isn't top-tier either but it's very decent, even if I overclocked, so I settled for the R5 2600x. As for the motherboard, basically you mean that the MSI one has better VRM for the CPU but the Asus one has a better bios that's guaranteed to maintain it's BIOS' UI even after upgrading, right? Well, what about heat? Which one do you think would be better in teems of thermal management? (which also affects durability)
 

DMAN999

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Yes the Asus has a bigger BIOS chip so the BIOS retains it's graphical interface with the newer Ryzen 3xxx compatible BIOS.
As for heat my Strix B450-F runs very cool.
My motherboard sensor idles around 36-37C max around 40C, my CPU idles at 29-30C, max around 55-56C and my PCH idles at 39-40C, max around 46C (my borad doesn't have a VRM sensor) but I put a thermal sensor on top of my VRM heat sink and it idles at around 31-32 C and I have never seen it get above 46C.
So as far as heat goes my board does Very well.
Note: I do have very good case airflow.
I have 2 120 mm front intake fans, 1 120 mm side panel intake fan1 120 mm rear exhaust fan and 1 140 mm top exhaust fan.
My ambient temperature is around 22c (71-72 F)

I don't have an MSI board so all I can say is check some reviews and see what they say about it's various temperatures.
Also you may have issues with newer BIOS updates with newer AGESA versions due to the size limitations of that MSI BIOS chip.
 
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Jul 19, 2019
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Yes the Asus has a bigger BIOS chip so the BIOS retains it's graphical interface with the newer Ryzen 3xxx compatible BIOS.
As for heat my Strix B450-F runs very cool.
My motherboard sensor idles around 36-37C max around 40C, my CPU idles at 29-30C, max around 55-56C and my PCH idles at 39-40C, max around 46C (my borad doesn't have a VRM sensor) but I put a thermal sensor on top of my VRM heat sink and it idles at around 3132 C and I have never seen it get above 46C.
So as far as heat goes my board does Very well.
Note: I do have very good case airflow.
I have 2 120 mm front intake fans, 1 120 mm side panel intake fan1 120 mm rear exhaust fan and 1 140 mm top exhaust fan.
My ambient temperature is around 22c (71-72 F)

I don't have an MSI board so all I can say is check some reviews and see what they say about it's various temperatures.
Also you may have issues with newer BIOS updates with newer AGESA versions due to the size limitations of that MSI BIOS chip.
I can't thank you enough for all of that insight. I'm planning to get a high airflow case as well (Cooler Master H500) so I don't expect temps to be a problem anyway, but I just wanted to make sure. I think I'll go for the B450-E after all. Thanks again for taking the time to provide me with all of these details. <3
 
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DMAN999

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Just FYI,
I would NOT use any BIOS newer than version 1201 for a 2600 or 2600x CPU.
Version 1201 uses AGESA 1.0.0.6 and is the Most stable version for 2000 series CPUs.
All the newer versions are updates to newer AGESA versions for the 3000 series CPUs and do NOT work as well as 1201 with a 2000 series CPU.
 
Jul 19, 2019
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Just FYI,
I would NOT use any BIOS newer than version 1201 for a 2600 or 2600x CPU.
Version 1201 uses AGESA 1.0.0.6 and is the Most stable version for 2000 series CPUs.
All the newer versions are updates to newer AGESA versions for the 3000 series CPUs and do NOT work as well as 1201 with a 2000 series CPU.
Thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind as well. Also, I've heard a lot of people say that Ryzen CPUs significantly depend on RAM, be it by channel count, capacity , or clock speeds (MHz) I'm willing to go for 16GB (2×8) of Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz. Do you think there is another model that would be more fitting, or does the brand not matter as long as quality and specs are the same? Any comments / suggestions regarding that?
 
Jul 19, 2019
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I most probably won't be able to, since RGB is something I'm in no need of and it would increase the cost of the build for looks. I highly prioritize performance. Thanks for all your help. This is my very first post here and I got more than what I expected. This forum is definitely better than Reddit's r/buildapc subreddit. People literally make fun of me and meme my quotes there if my questions seem too dumb lol. Thanks again!
 
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DMAN999

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