Good/stable bang 4 buck Ryzen 5 3600 Motherboard?

[Fallengod]

Decided to upgrade from my i5-2500k system I have had since 2011.

I guess I decided to go for a ryzen 5 3600 build. I have been out of the computer thing for a little while and I do not know which brand and/or model motherboards are good and stable these days. Recommendations? Gigabyte I always stay away from so cross that off the list.

I do still rock a pci sound blaster audigy zs sound card, but I have a feeling it may be hard to find a motherboard with a pci slot so may have to gravitate towards onboard sound. Not a huge issue I suppose.


Any help appreciated.

 

[VirtualLarry]

ASRock TaiChi X470 Ultimate (with 10GbE-T port, in addition to AC wifi and Intel Gigabit LAN), is now $220 @ Newegg. (Like $80 off.)

It's advertised as "Ryzen 3000 Ready".

 

[Seba]

ASRock TaiChi X470 Ultimate (with 10GbE-T port, in addition to AC wifi and Intel Gigabit LAN), is now $220 @ Newegg. (Like $80 off.)

But that motherbaord is more expensive than the Ryzen 5 3600 CPU.

I am considering a similar upgrade. But I am looking for a cheaper motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600. That means a B450 board.

One possible candidate I found is MSI B450/B450M Gaming Plus board.
Reasonable price.
Can update the BIOS without a CPU, if needed.
VRMs are considered to be of good quality (not the best, but good, especially for a less demanding 3600).

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah. I am just trying to do some reading and figure out what is what.

Thanks for the mobo recommendation but that Asrock is out of my price point and doesnt seem to have the best reviews anyways. I am trying to stick around the $160 area for a motherboard. I can do $200 if I really needed to, but I see some B450 boards in the $130 or below area so.

I guess I have been going back and forth between B450 and X470. I do not need all the crazy features some of these boards have and only plan to run a single GPU. However, I do want to make sure the onboard audio and network card is good and I just dont know enough to know which is better.

I also want to make sure I am not losing significant gaming performance or possible overclocking potential going to a B450 versus a X470. The price difference is pretty close in some cases..

Someone on another forum told me the MSI B450 tomahawk has some bios issues or maybe msi in general to work out. But I was kind of going that direction. If I decided on the B450 I dont want to be losing gaming performance for a stupid reason.

The MSI boards also have a feature that seems like they allow you to flash the bios without having a cpu in, which would be essential for a ryzen 3600 I think. The others do not have that feature which would leave me trying to figure out how to do that. Obviously I want to be able to actually use my CPU I purchased(lol).


A side question. Does anyone know which are the better onboard audio and/or network cards for these gen motherboards? Realtek was always one of the lower end, is that still true? I am having to ditch my audigy 2 zs platinum sound card from my current i5-2500k build I guess since none of these new boards have pci slots.

Motherboard wise I think I have to stick between MSI, Asus or Asrock. I wont buy Gigabyte.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

But that motherbaord is more expensive than the Ryzen 5 3600 CPU.

I am considering a similar upgrade. But I am looking for a cheaper motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600. That means a B450 board.

One possible candidate I found is MSI B450/B450M Gaming Plus board.
Reasonable price.
Can update the BIOS without a CPU, if needed.
VRMs are considered to be of good quality (not the best, but good, especially for a less demanding 3600).

The expensive board would be worth it if you plan to upgrade the CPU later and need the fancy extras, otherwise B450 is the best pick for price-performance, no doubt. And I think VRMs have reached meme status. I will report back if the B350 board I have the 3600 in dies. That said, so far it hits 4192MHz no problem and is smooth sailing with 5-6 hour sessions of AC:Odyssey.

 

[Seba]

Someone on another forum told me the MSI B450 tomahawk has some bios issues

Probably it was about the 128Mb BIOS chip. That is not a MSI specific issue.

 

[lopri]

And I think VRMs have reached meme status.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There's a $67 Newegg open-box special on an Asus B450 board; I looked up the BIOS, they have an 1.0.0.3AB AGESA BIOS out for it. Hurry if you want one.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813119138R

Edit: Hmph. Now showing $93. Was originally $67 when I posted it.

 

[Fallengod]

There's a $67 Newegg open-box special on an Asus B450 board; I looked up the BIOS, they have an 1.0.0.3AB AGESA BIOS out for it. Hurry if you want one.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813119138R

Yeah thanks. I found out there are are new reiterations of the B450 coming out that address some small bios issues and stuff that was nixed out of the current B450 boards and even some X470 boards. There are some "max" versions coming out for MSI that address some of the ryzen 3 series chips. They are also adding faster max memory speed to them as well. I am going to wait for Q4 probably to upgrade now, or as soon as MAX boards hit the US market.

 

[lopri]

How about X370 boards? They are practically the same thing as X470 boards and a lot cheaper. I am currently eyeing on ASUS Strix-F X370 board selling for $104 at Microcenter. It used to be a $200 board.

 

[Fallengod]

Ya I looked at that. My logic is I upgrade very rarely so I would rather have the latest model with all the updates. I am going to wait for the new B450 and x470 boards I decided. Going to wait a few months here. The money aspect is only a small part of it. I decided on the ryzen 3600 so I do want a board updated for ryzen 3 series.

 

[Seba]

In that case, better wait for B550 motherboards (first ones expected in Q1 2020).

 

[Fallengod]

In that case, better wait for B550 motherboards (first ones expected in Q1 2020).

Yeah. I thought of that as well. Of course thats always a game to play and I will have to decide how long I want to wait. I am in no hurry really but I dont want to wait to long.

 

[BurnItDwn]

For the last month or so I've heard or read of people finding the Tomahawk b450 "pro" in various parts of the world outside of the US, but, haven't seen them available in the US yet.

I've waited and waited and still not seeing them.
I wonder if any of the other "soon to be refreshed" boards are out yet?

I'm getting impatient ... planning on grabbing a 3600 with 16gb of semi decent ram and a 1tb SSD. Was planning to use SATA because I'm stubborn and am comfortable with SATA, but, I might change my mind and go with an M.2 SSD to take advantage of higher bandwidth. I might just say fark it and spend the extra cash on a 570 board even though I consider it most likely a waste of money.

Anyhow, didn't want to hijack the thread, just thought maybe I could join in and commiserate

 

[Fallengod]

The "Max" boards are what youre referring to and yes they are supposed to be out soon. They are already released in the UK so... I am waiting for those myself. They fix a few of the "issues" with the newer ryzen chips.

 

[BurnItDwn]

The "Max" boards are what youre referring to and yes they are supposed to be out soon. They are already released in the UK so... I am waiting for those myself. They fix a few of the "issues" with the newer ryzen chips.

Well, I know MSI calls them the 'Max' boards, but, I was under the assumption that maybe Asus, Gigabyte, Tyan, Asrock, and others may also be working on their own issues and releasing updated boards too .... Seems like Abit's gone, too bad as they used to be my favorite back in the late 90s

 

[Hans Gruber]

Well, I know MSI calls them the 'Max' boards, but, I was under the assumption that maybe Asus, Gigabyte, Tyan, Asrock, and others may also be working on their own issues and releasing updated boards too .... Seems like Abit's gone, too bad as they used to be my favorite back in the late 90s

Abit has been gone since the mid 2000's. Biostar is still around, not sure about DFI.

 

[matheusber]

Yeah. I am just trying to do some reading and figure out what is what.

Thanks for the mobo recommendation but that Asrock is out of my price point and doesnt seem to have the best reviews anyways. I am trying to stick around the $160 area for a motherboard. I can do $200 if I really needed to, but I see some B450 boards in the $130 or below area so.

I guess I have been going back and forth between B450 and X470. I do not need all the crazy features some of these boards have and only plan to run a single GPU. However, I do want to make sure the onboard audio and network card is good and I just dont know enough to know which is better.

I also want to make sure I am not losing significant gaming performance or possible overclocking potential going to a B450 versus a X470. The price difference is pretty close in some cases..

Someone on another forum told me the MSI B450 tomahawk has some bios issues or maybe msi in general to work out. But I was kind of going that direction. If I decided on the B450 I dont want to be losing gaming performance for a stupid reason.

The MSI boards also have a feature that seems like they allow you to flash the bios without having a cpu in, which would be essential for a ryzen 3600 I think. The others do not have that feature which would leave me trying to figure out how to do that. Obviously I want to be able to actually use my CPU I purchased(lol).


A side question. Does anyone know which are the better onboard audio and/or network cards for these gen motherboards? Realtek was always one of the lower end, is that still true? I am having to ditch my audigy 2 zs platinum sound card from my current i5-2500k build I guess since none of these new boards have pci slots.

Motherboard wise I think I have to stick between MSI, Asus or Asrock. I wont buy Gigabyte.

Next week my B450 Gigabyte Aorus arrives here and I will begin the road to update it to use the Ryzen 3400G. I read you won't buy gigabyte, but as it is a B450 board (mini itx though), I will report my success on the project. My goal is far from Overclocking here, just a good desktop for very light gaming.
I hope it can help you somehow

matheus

 

[Seba]

Next week my B450 Gigabyte Aorus arrives here and I will begin the road to update it to use the Ryzen 3400G.

Not that relevant for this thread, since Ryzen 5 3400G is Zen+, not Zen 2.

 

[Fallengod]

I am just gonna wait for the newer zen2 board updates to be released. It cant be that long from now. I want the faster max memory speeds and board compatibility issues worked out.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I gave up on waiting and just went with X570 even though I know I'm paying like $40-50 more than I would for a B450

Asus Prime X570P $170ish
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SW925DR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm going to be out of town next week, and wanted to get this done before I leave so I can game when I get home

 

[matheusber]

Not that relevant for this thread, since Ryzen 5 3400G is Zen+, not Zen 2.

I found that out, as it looks like, the 3400G won't need the bios to be updated. My Aorus Mini itx B450 Based motherboard was able to post using this CPU, I just updated the bios later.

Was a relief really.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Seems like MSI B450M Mortar/Tomahawk are offered and selling like hotcakes in everywhere but the US.