Question Motherboard Help for Ryzen 3600

[Fallengod]

I could use some help here. I bought a new Ryzen 5 3600 cpu already, but am shopping for the memory and motherboard.

So, I was waiting to purchase a new motherboard because I heard the B450 "Max" versions of MSI were about to be released. They are out now. So I am debating on which motherboard to get. I would prefer to get a "max" version of B450 for the updated larger bios.

However, there are so many motherboards out there. Is there any reason to consider better intel lan on like say the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC or better audio etc? Is realtek still good for Lan and Audio? I am unsure on what to go for. I am considering X470 or updated B450. I kind of need the motherboard to work out of box for the Ryzen CPU, so that may limit me.

I guess I just dont know how much weight to give towards Intel lan vs realtek and same for audio.

 

[UsandThem]

Always use Intel for the LAN, but for audio the only option available (usually) is Realtek. Even when they give it a fancy name (like Asus SupremeFX), it's still based on the Realtek codec S1220A).

I've owned the Asus Strix X470-F Gaming for around 6 months or so now, and it's been rock solid. They offer a very similar board in the Strix B450-F Gaming.

Otherwise, if you need onboard wifi/Bluetooth, the MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon is a good choice. The downside to that is it has the smaller BIOS ROM size, so they had to turn it into a "BIOS lite" version several months ago to get all the CPU support to fit.

 

[Fallengod]

I wouldnt mind asus, they make some great boards, but are also known for terrible customer service. Trying to stay away from Asus sorta.

Right now, I am kind of looking at the MSI B450 Tomahawk max or MSI B450 gaming pro carbon ac. I guess my main focus is stability and performance. I do kind of want intel nic which unfortunately the B450 tomahawk max does not have.

My issue I have is the new B450 MAX boards are updated out of box and have better(larger) bios for the newer ryzen chips so I dont know how much of an issue it is versus the MSI B450 gaming pro carbon ac. Would that be an issue for my ryzen 3600 buying that? Am I going to have to flash the bios with an older amd cpu, because I wouldnt have one.

I would also basically be buying the gaming pro carbon ac for the intel nic since thats really all I care about versus the tomahawk max.

Just not sure what issues there are out there with compatibility.

 

[kschendel]

IMO the choice of network chip is way, way less important than having enough BIOS space to not have to drop off a bunch of BIOS options, like many non-MAX boards do. Unless you're flooding your LAN, I don't think you will see a real life difference between intel and realtek lans. Realtek used to have some pretty bad driver issues but that was years ago.

 

[Fallengod]

Fair enough. What do you think the best stable brand names for mobos are these days? Asus, Asrock? MSI? MSI are not the only ones with updated bios sizes are they? MSI just released the max boards, are there others with update bios as well?

Its so hard choosing. I read some people saying MSI has some issues right now and I usually go with Asus but I know they have terrible customer service if I had any issues.

 

[country2]

I could use some help here. I bought a new Ryzen 5 3600 cpu already, but am shopping for the memory and motherboard.

So, I was waiting to purchase a new motherboard because I heard the B450 "Max" versions of MSI were about to be released. They are out now. So I am debating on which motherboard to get. I would prefer to get a "max" version of B450 for the updated larger bios.

However, there are so many motherboards out there. Is there any reason to consider better intel lan on like say the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC or better audio etc? Is realtek still good for Lan and Audio? I am unsure on what to go for. I am considering X470 or updated B450. I kind of need the motherboard to work out of box for the Ryzen CPU, so that may limit me.

I guess I just dont know how much weight to give towards Intel lan vs realtek and same for audio.

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you except I have the Ryzen7 3700x and have same questions as you on the x470 or B450 boards. Myself I'm leaning toward either the MSI B450 Gaming plus max or the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max as wont be no OC and mainly used for my wife to play WoW so really don't need a lot of option just a good quality build and cost.

 

[kschendel]

I think all of the big 4 makers have winners and losers, and it tends to be specific boards and not lines as a whole. So I don't think you can look at a brand and say "MSI is bad" or "Asrock is good". I've built on at least one B450 model from each brand and none of them were terrible. So far, MSI MAX and the Asrock Pro4 (not the -F) have been the best value for my builds but I would not hesitate to build with Gigabyte or Asus if their particular board hit the right price point and feature list.

 

[country2]

Well I just went with a MSI x570 MPG Gaming Plus as was just $27 more than the Tomahawk Max...just hope I don't regret going with a B540. hey OP let us know what you go with.

 

[Fallengod]

Well I just went with a MSI x570 MPG Gaming Plus as was just $27 more than the Tomahawk Max...just hope I don't regret going with a B540. hey OP let us know what you go with.

Did you mean you went with the MSI B450 Gaming plus? You said x570 which would be like the very high end expensive board and the fairly useless PCIE 4.0.

Yeah. I havnt made any decisions yet. What I also hate is the fact that in Q1 2020 the new B550 boards are supposed to be out so I feel like I picked a really bad time to upgrade. If I decide to go with a B450 or x470 I feel like I will have it for a month or two right as the new B550 is released. That seems kinda stupid.

 

[country2]

Well went against my thinking and got the x570 figured what the hell wasn't too much more.

 

[Muadib]

Well went against my thinking and got the x570 figured what the hell wasn't too much more.

I think you picked correctly. Unlike Fallengod, I don't find PCIe 4.0 useless. My Corsair MP600 NVMe SSD gets 5000 MB/s reads, and 4300MB/s writes speeds.
Things will only improve when Intel catches up, and adds PCIe 4.0 to its motherboards.

 

[Topweasel]

Rule number 1. In PC building is never skimp on Power Supply. Followed closely with rule number 2 Don't skimp on motherboard.

Neither one means going crazy. But if its not to much more always go for the known quantity when it comes to quality and some feature sets are worth the upgrade.

X570 and B450 is a perfect example of sure, the B450 has 98% of what people need. But certain parts can come back to bite you.

Example A.) Radeon 5500 4GB B.) PCIe 4.0 NVME. With A.) you have a GPU where you can save money and go with a lower memory version as there is only like a 5% difference. Cept if you don't have PCIe 4.0. Then the difference is ~20%. Now you have to get the 8GB card at a increased price to get what you would have with the 4GB on on x570. With B.) Maybe you don't even go NVME now but in the future. The cost of PCIe 4.0 vs 3.0 drives are about $10-$20 probably less in the future. If you went B450 now, you might regret it because it would have been so cheap to double your drive performance.

These are just 2 examples. Situations like the 5500 might be an outlier but you could see something like that going forward. The drive one is pretty run of the mill, first or second thing that gets upgraded in everyone's machines.

But the point is if you do any upgrading (rather then install and forget until you swap computers). A little extra money and you avoid in 1 year, or 2 years, or 3 years regretting your Mobo purchase because its the least likely thing people replace. That said B550 needs to hit soon.

 

[kschendel]

Worrying about PCIe 4.0 only matters if drive performance matters, and for a very large set of use cases it simply doesn't. I do some pretty heavy-duty database work, with a 970 Pro and a J.Noname SATA SSD in the same box; and while yes there's a difference between the two, it's not anything like one might imagine from the 6x paper difference in (sequential) transfer rates. (It's more like 20% doing a regular test run.) Doubling drive performance with a 4.0 drive is very likely to have near-zero perceived effect for a large number of users.

Of course, if your regular workflow includes copying 50GB files from one place to another, then sure, you'll notice. That's not a typical workflow though.