AM4 B350 MoBo for 1600

[Kresh1k]

Whatsup guys! I need a good MoBo with 4 RAM slots. It should be B350 and it should be below 100 bucks.
I will overclock the 1600 at some time, in 2 years or so, so it should handle a little bit of OCing (to 3.8 or so). Thanks guys!

 

[Ratman6161]

A lot of people swear by the MSI TOMAHAWK. But if you want cheap the ASROCK AB350 Pro4 is what I'm using. Cheap and working great for me so far.

Why would you wait a couple of years to overclock? You can easily get 3.6 GHZ with no voltage increase and using the cooler that comes with it. It's free performance with no downside.

Later on you can upgrade coolers and get more.

 

[Kresh1k]

The ASRock only has 3+3+3 VRM CPU Phases. Some report that it might make OCing more difficult and you night not really reach higher clock rates as you might with 4 real CPU Phases, like 4+2 etc.
What do you think?

 

[Ratman6161]

The ASRock only has 3+3+3 VRM CPU Phases. Some report that it might make OCing more difficult and you night not really reach higher clock rates as you might with 4 real CPU Phases, like 4+2 etc.
What do you think?

The Asrock is the only one I can vouch for because its the only AM4 motherboard I have used. But on this board my R5 1600 is 100% stable at 3.8 Ghz and 1.35 volts. I decided to stick to whatever I could get at that voltage because I've read a couple of places saying that 1.35 is the max that AMD recommends for long term longevity. Its always been my practice to not get outrageous with the voltage. Since that was my goal and the Asrock board has no trouble doing it, that's all I needed.

When I first got the CPU I was running it with the stock cooler and didn't try anything above stock voltage. Without increasing voltage at all it would do 3.6. Later, when the AM4 bracket for my Corsair H55 liquid cooler came in I swapped coolers and set voltage to 1.35 and speed at 3.8 and all is well. Note that the H55 is pretty low end as far as liquid coolers go but during torture testing, my CPU temps never go higher than 62 C. So its actually running a bit cooler than my I7-2600K did during the same test and with the same cooler.

For this relatively modest level of overclocking, which is all I was going to do anyway, I have no concerns about my mother board.

My previous board was an Asrock Z68 Pro3 (similar level as the new one) with an I7-2600K and taking a similar conservative/modest approach to overclocking, that motherboard was still going strong after 6 years (April 2011 to April 2017). I'm also using an Asrock board as my home vmware server with an FX8150 and a once again modest overclock with no problems after several years of 24x7 . did have some problems at one point, but ended up tracing it to an inadequate power supply. Once the PS was replaced it was back to 24x7 no problems.

 

[Kresh1k]

Thanks a lot for your input dude! You gave a ton of useful info there. I hope other people who have difficulties chosing an AM4 board read this too. Great! Thanks!

 

[Ratman6161]

Thanks a lot for your input dude! You gave a ton of useful info there. I hope other people who have difficulties chosing an AM4 board read this too. Great! Thanks!

No problem. Here are a couple of other points in case you decide to go with this motherboard.

1. Other boards could be just as good or better as far as I know. This is the only one I've tried, but I've always had good luck with Asrock Motherboards on other platforms.

2. Memory. I've read a lot of people complaining about RAM compatibility on AM4. I didn't have any problems with that. I went with 2 x16 GB Crucial DDR4 2400 modules. These are double sided moduals (as are most 16 GB DIMMS) but the alternative was to go with 4 8GB and I've also read that 4 dimms can be a problem. Mine started up the first time, correctly recognizing the RAM with the correct timings etc. No problem. After the update to the latest BIOS (2.5) I was actually able to overclock my DDR4 2400 RAM to DDR4 2666 with only a slight increase in voltage to 1.35.

3. Do make sure you update the bios right out of the box.

 

[ScottAD]

I use the MSI B350 Tomahawk and it does work well. I've had some teething issues with the NVME drive, most people won't be using that initially so that is probably something you won't need to worry about.

I run 3.9 stable at 1.335v. RAM I have not touched since I wanted to make sure my OC was good.

 

[Kresh1k]

What do you mean, right out of the box?

 

[dlerious]

Make that the first thing you do. Being a new architecture, newer BIOS files are going to address a number of potential problems and/or add functionality (such as improved memory performance).

 

[Kresh1k]

So I should, like, update the BIOS even before actually booting up to any installed OS at all?

 

[ScottAD]

So I should, like, update the BIOS even before actually booting up to any installed OS at all?

Yes

 

[Mockingbird]

A lot of people swear by the MSI TOMAHAWK. But if you want cheap the ASROCK AB350 Pro4 is what I'm using. Cheap and working great for me so far.

Why would you wait a couple of years to overclock? You can easily get 3.6 GHZ with no voltage increase and using the cooler that comes with it. It's free performance with no downside.

Later on you can upgrade coolers and get more.

The problem with the MSI B350 TOMAHAWK and the MSI B350M MORTAR is really long POST time.

Obviously, that problem is aside from the usual high frequency RAM problem.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

You want the Asus B350M-A Prime, I think. Cute little uATX B350 board, 4 DIMM slots, $90US on Amazon last I checked. I am not sure of its power phases, but Asus has never ever in 16+ years given me grief and and ASRock, er...has.

B350 doesn't seem particularly overclock-focused, though; I get the impression it's the equivalent of Intel's B150/250 (er...hmmm...I see a pattern here...) chipsets, i.e., they're meant to be capable, no BS workstation or business machines. You may want to spring for an X370 board...

 

[Kresh1k]

Nope, its actually the ASUS Prime B350 Plus version. Red stuff all the way.

 

[ScottAD]

You want the Asus B350M-A Prime, I think. Cute little uATX B350 board, 4 DIMM slots, $90US on Amazon last I checked. I am not sure of its power phases, but Asus has never ever in 16+ years given me grief and and ASRock, er...has.

B350 doesn't seem particularly overclock-focused, though; I get the impression it's the equivalent of Intel's B150/250 (er...hmmm...I see a pattern here...) chipsets, i.e., they're meant to be capable, no BS workstation or business machines. You may want to spring for an X370 board...

I don't believe that's an accurate representation of the chipset which is entirely up to the manufacturer on his it's focused. The Tomahawk is focused on gamers and OCs quite well. The long post is a problem but it's a capable board that gives you everything you need to OC outside of SLI which is X370 only.

 

[Ratman6161]

So I should, like, update the BIOS even before actually booting up to any installed OS at all?

Yes

Yes, that is exactly what I meant. I think a lot of the AM4 boards must have been rushed out. I've been using Asrock boards for years and this one was missing some features I have come to expect in their bios's - . Also, there was a noticeable improvement with my ability to overclock my RAM with the latest one (2.5). My DDR4 2400 now will run 2666 even though its a 16x2 configuration with double sided DIMMS. It wouldn't do that before.

 

[Kresh1k]

Great! Do you think ASUS provides updates for their MoBo as well? Just like ASRock seems to be doing?

 

[ScottAD]

Great! Do you think ASUS provides updates for their MoBo as well? Just like ASRock seems to be doing?

ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte and MSI all provide BIOS updates on their website

 

[Kresh1k]

Actually I meant if they are as successfull as ASRock in providing their customers with the latest BIOS versions? As far as I know some manufacturers had issues which were not solved that fast.

 

[IEC]

Avoid Gigabyte for now unless you are an expert OCer and want to spend hours tinkering. You may have headaches with memory even with DIMMs that are on QVL and work fine with XMP on other boards. Also, they have been the slowest at BIOS updates.

 

[ScottAD]

Avoid Gigabyte for now unless you are an expert OCer and want to spend hours tinkering. You may have headaches with memory even with DIMMs that are on QVL and work fine with XMP on other boards. Also, they have been the slowest at BIOS updates.

Come to think of it I forgot Biostar too but I've never even considered them.

 

[Kresh1k]

Well then, I guess I will go with ASUS for now. Seems to be okay for a lot of buyers. A ton of positive reviews. Hopefully I am not unlucky.

Ah and one more thing: What is better, Single Rank RAM with a frequency of 3000 or Dual Rank with 2666MHz?
Thanks in advance!

 

[ScottAD]

Well then, I guess I will go with ASUS for now. Seems to be okay for a lot of buyers. A ton of positive reviews. Hopefully I am not unlucky.

Ah and one more thing: What is better, Single Rank RAM with a frequency of 3000 or Dual Rank with 2666MHz?
Thanks in advance!

Ryzen has some issues with memory of speeds right now just to make you fully aware.

Single Rank RAM provides faster read speeds for the CPU but is also more expensive. Real world usage I don't feel it matters but your budget can determine what you are willing to pay. For now get Samsung B die RAM as it is the most compatible with AMDs Infinity Fabric.

That puts you in G.Skill Trident Z territory and the Flare X that is certified to work best with Ryzen which does seem to provide some of the best compatibility so far.

 

[Ratman6161]

On the single vs. double rank question, AMD's recommendation (which matches what Asrock says about my Motherboard) is that with dual rank DIMMS, if you use 2 your maximum memory speed is 2400 to 2666 and if you use 4 its 1866 to 2133. If you use single rank, you are still limited to 2133 to 2400.

1. So dual rank = not so good
Also
2. 4 Dimms = not so good

Problem = you can't get greater than 16 GB of RAM without going either dual rank or four DIMMS (unless anyone knows of 16 GB SR Dimms?). But those are recommendations. As usual what you can get in the real world is just guess work. That said, the newer BIOS on my Asrock board does let me crank my DDR4 2400 up to 2666 and tighten up timings one notch...and that is a pair of 16 GB DR DIMMS...which I wasn't expecting much from. So things must be improving.

On Bios updates, all the major brands seem to be good about releasing updates. Its pretty common for a new platform to have a flurry of updates at first then settle down once things mature...which is why a lot of people wait a while.

 

[Kresh1k]

Alright, thanks guys!
You helped me a LOT with these questions!