Question OK.....another "Which motherboard" question, as if there weren't enough here already. ;)

[Meghan54]

(TL;DR version at bottom...scroll down)

So, spent the last couple of weeks trying to research Ryzen and their associated motherboards.....sux when you've not really kept up with developments for a few years and then have to catch up.

Was looking into X570 boards, specifically in mATX/mini-ITX form factors, but honestly do not trust the longevity of the chipset fans on these boards....not to mention some were a tad whining when running (like the Asus ROG Strix mini-ITX that has two "chipset" fans (!) and while they're both BB-based Delta fans, still can hear them over a gpu---higher pitch sounds are easier to pick up for me vs. lower pitch sounds like with case fans and gpu fans.)

So Saturday went to one of the ATL Microcenters and bought an MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC with a Ryzen 3700X. It was one of three motherboards that would support Ryzen that MC had in stock that weren't X570 boards.....the other two were the Asus B450-F ROG Strix Gaming and the Asus X470-Pro Prime.

I believe all three have what I'm looking for in a mb.....Intel LAN, Intel-based WiFi (if WiFi built-in) and a 1200 series Realtek codec. All three have those so am I guess just looking for confirmation for my purchase, maybe?

It's just that the rabbit holes for each board go deep with reviews and commentary about all these boards.....VRM's suck, phases being fake in their count and such, durability, etc.

So, really like the MSI but any reason to consider either Asus over the MSI? I have 13 days to return for exchange....nothing opened yet.



TL;DR version:

Bought MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC board to house a 3700X. Rig will be an old man web browsing machine that plays Civ 6 as its most stressful activity. (Will have 16GB, 2X8 config, of G. Skill Flare X DDR4-3200/CL 14, MSI RTX 2060 gpu, WD-Black SN750 NVMe--1 TB.)

Also had these two mb's available and should I consider either over the MSI:

Asus B450 ROG Strix Gaming
Asus X470-Pro Prime



Thanks!!

 

[VirtualLarry]

B450F ROG STRIX is a great mobo too, I have one on my main rig.

It can run 2x NVMe at full PCIE 3.0 x4 speeds on BOTH of them. Good for RAID0. Or just get an X570 and run a single NVMe drive, at twice the speed.

 

[Campy]

The Carbon is one of the best B450 boards, the only "problem" is the price gets really close to X570 boards but you didn't buy a "bad" board if that's what you're worried about. The VRM is good and has a pretty large heatsink so overheating should not be an issue at stock.

Get the board with the features/price you like the best.

Oh and maybe some 3600MHz memory.

 

[Arkaign]

It's very solid, and unless you want to OC (don't) or are planning to get a 3080ti (don't, lol), overclocking gusto and PCIe 4.0 aren't even significant issues.

For 99% of Ryzen buyers, B450 is perfect. Proven, stable, no little fans to stress about, and most aren't ridiculously overbuilt. I have a Taichi 470 for my Ryzen build, but don't need most of what makes it a 470 vs a 450 to be honest.

It's not like Intel where you're seriously limited with K series CPUs if you don't get a Z370/390 to match. And quickly you can find boards that are overcomplicated just for the sake of justifying high prices and stuffing full of LED bling. Though of course people with non K CPUs are more than fine with B360 for the vast majority of situations.

Use the Ryzen memory Calculator to assist you in dialing in good ram timing with whatever kit you get, it is the single most important performance thing you will do in the course of all Ryzen family SKUs so far. Stock memory settings can be pretty terrible, and Ryzen responds well to concientiously applied optimal RAM settings, as latency is something you want to mitigate as possible. I second the idea of looking at well reviewed 3600 Ram, which should be good to go for B450 and your CPU. Anything higher is currently wasted in Ryzen for some odd reason I can't recall at present, something architecturally low level, but tight 3600 speed will be wonderful. Ryzen 3000 Zen2 has been a godsend over Zen/Zen+ with DDR 4 performance and compatibility. I went through hell with my 2700X even getting 3000 speed to work reliably, whereas the 3700X is happy with (at present) 3466 speeds. Not AMD's fault, it's 3600 CL14 memory, just the combo of ram, board, etc not happy there so I run it at 3466 and very tight timing and stock volts. 3700X stock with a slight undervolt, which improved performance slightly.

 

[Shmee]

I would say you are fine as is. Only reason you would need to upgrade would be if you wanted one or more PCIe 4 m.2 SSDs.

 

[Meghan54]

Thanks for the replies, all.

First, end cost of the motherboard was $130, so not too bad at all. Way cheaper than the last half dozen or so motherboards I'd purchased up to now....I moved back to Intel when C2D hit (was happily playing with dual core Opterons till then) and almost without exception purchased the Asus ROG Gene boards corresponding to whatever the cpu was at the time.

Second, thanks for the tip about the memory calculator app. Honestly didn't know it existed....told y'all I'd been not paying very close attention to what was going on....LOL!

Third, any suggestions about decent 3600 RAM out there? Compatibility seems to be a problem...finding a set of 16GB RAM (2X8) that's QVL'd for this board isn't the easiest thing...or should I just not worry about finding it on XX mfgr's QVL list and just buy a set like G.Skill/Corsair/Patriot DDR4-3600 of any variety with CL 16?

That's what's got me stymied. With the Intel setups, you could throw just about anything into the board's memory slots....like a french fry or banana...and the board would still boot and run. With AMD, memory compatibility is, again, kinda dicey. Like it's always been.

 

[VirtualLarry]

With the Intel setups, you could throw just about anything into the board's memory slots....like a french fry or banana...and the board would still boot and run.

LOL! Too true!

 

[Steltek]

If you can deal with CL17, Newegg has the following on your QVL list for $103.00 - (g.skill F4-3600C17D-16GVK)

G.SKILL Trident Z Neo Series 32GB DDR4 Desktop RAM - Newegg.com

Buy G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-16GVKB with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

I suspect that if you optimize it with the DRAM calculator you may end up with manual timings of CL16 or less. The fact it is single rank will help you at least. I'm having fun now trying to get memory running to speed on an Asrock x399 Taichi - Asrock's memory support on AMD absolutely sucks. Period.

 

[Iron Woode]

I went with an Asrock B450 Fatal!ty Gaming ITX board for my HTPC. I am only using a R3 2200G and 8 GB of ram. It works like a dream.

My new R5 3600 build will be using an Asus X570 Prime-P MB.

 

[Meghan54]

If you can deal with CL17, Newegg has the following on your QVL list for $103.00 - (g.skill F4-3600C17D-16GVK)

G.SKILL Trident Z Neo Series 32GB DDR4 Desktop RAM - Newegg.com

Buy G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-16GVKB with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

I suspect that if you optimize it with the DRAM calculator you may end up with manual timings of CL16 or less. The fact it is single rank will help you at least. I'm having fun now trying to get memory running to speed on an Asrock x399 Taichi - Asrock's memory support on AMD absolutely sucks. Period.

Thx!

 

[Meghan54]

I went with an Asrock B450 Fatal!ty Gaming ITX board for my HTPC. I am only using a R3 2200G and 8 GB of ram. It works like a dream.

My new R5 3600 build will be using an Asus X570 Prime-P MB.

I was actually looking at that board for my wife's build with a 3600. She's going to be on a SATA SSD for a while yet, so the rear mounted M.2 port, which bothers me to no end, won't matter.

The only "real" issue I guess I have with mini-ITX boards is no slots. So, if the onboard Wifi or sound dies, it's a USB device to "fix" or trash the board. Otherwise, love the size. And in her case, it'd be fairly inexpensive.

 

[Iron Woode]

I was actually looking at that board for my wife's build with a 3600. She's going to be on a SATA SSD for a while yet, so the rear mounted M.2 port, which bothers me to no end, won't matter.

The only "real" issue I guess I have with mini-ITX boards is no slots. So, if the onboard Wifi or sound dies, it's a USB device to "fix" or trash the board. Otherwise, love the size. And in her case, it'd be fairly inexpensive.

There are trade-offs when it comes to mITX boards. The reason I bought that board was for all the features it has. Here in Canada, parts like that cost a lot but I wanted something special.

I also used a Thermaltake Core V1 mITX case for it:

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Thanks for the replies, all.

First, end cost of the motherboard was $130, so not too bad at all. Way cheaper than the last half dozen or so motherboards I'd purchased up to now....I moved back to Intel when C2D hit (was happily playing with dual core Opterons till then) and almost without exception purchased the Asus ROG Gene boards corresponding to whatever the cpu was at the time.

Second, thanks for the tip about the memory calculator app. Honestly didn't know it existed....told y'all I'd been not paying very close attention to what was going on....LOL!

Third, any suggestions about decent 3600 RAM out there? Compatibility seems to be a problem...finding a set of 16GB RAM (2X8) that's QVL'd for this board isn't the easiest thing...or should I just not worry about finding it on XX mfgr's QVL list and just buy a set like G.Skill/Corsair/Patriot DDR4-3600 of any variety with CL 16?

That's what's got me stymied. With the Intel setups, you could throw just about anything into the board's memory slots....like a french fry or banana...and the board would still boot and run. With AMD, memory compatibility is, again, kinda dicey. Like it's always been.

if you have a microcenter close by the ballistix (crucial on microcenters web site) 3200 cas 16 memory is nearly guaranteed to be micron e die which performs pretty well and is reasonably priced. I checked earlier today and 32 gb/ two 16gb sticks were $140.
the set I have run at 3600 cas 16 with no problem. Only thing that has to be done is set the speed & timing manually in the xmp thingy..
Also you’ll love it for Civ 6, my machine runs it real nice
warning I have an x570 board

 

[sdifox]

Or go x570 and pick up 3900X since it is 100 off at Microcenter :awe:

That MSI B450m gaming plus supports 3900x as well.

 

[Meghan54]

There are trade-offs when it comes to mITX boards. The reason I bought that board was for all the features it has. Here in Canada, parts like that cost a lot but I wanted something special.

I also used a Thermaltake Core V1 mITX case for it:

Showed that case to my wife when we bought the cpu & mb. I've been trying to get her to go smaller in a case size (she's in a mATX tower case right now) and all she says when she sees those is "Toaster." Tried the V21, "toaster."

C'est la vie.

Decided to keep the MSI board. Why not? Apparently it's not junk...and it should last for a few years at least. Not looking to OC or anything.

 

[sdifox]

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