AM4 motherboard on a $100 budget?

M

MajorYikes

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Mar 22, 2019
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F*#k it. I'm finally doing a Ryzen build. Likely going to be a R5 2600 since I really don't need more than that with what I do.

I don't need PCI-e 4.0. I don't need much, really. A little overclocking headroom would be nice. 1-2 M.2 slots.

And really since I won't be doing multi-GPU I really only need a B450 right? Can someone tell me why I would buy an X470 board over a B450?

mATX preferred but would listen to others.

So far looking at:

(Problem I have with a lot of these lower end boards is that the VRM cooling looks like trash, although it likely wouldn't effect me much if at all)...I'm cheap, what can I say.

ASRock MicroATX Motherboard (B450M PRO4) - $59.99 on Amazon
ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 - $59.99 on Amazon
Asus Prime B450M-A/CSM - $78.99 on Amazon
GIGABYTE B450M DS3H - $70.99 on Amazon



 
If you are going 2600 go 450 or 470. Any of those boards are fine if you ask me. Id favor the asus or gigabyte one though.
 
For a B450 mATX I'd recommend an Asus TUF 450M Pro or Plus gaming. Have all the hardware for a 3950X non OCed and maybe next year 4900X.
 
Is the general consensus that the B450 mobos are a better value than the x370s? I have had nothing but trouble with B450s, both boards I've purchased have been RMA'd at least once, never had a hiccup with an X370 board..
 
Take note that on B350/450 and X370/X470 boards, a 2nd m.2 normally takes something away from the rest of the system.

It either disables SATA ports, some PCIE slots, shares with the GPU PCIE, etc. I'd recommend researching the particular board you have in mind to see if you can live with the limitations.

The X570 can do this without tradeoffs until you get into the 3rd M.2

That said, the MSI B450 Tomahawk seems nice when MSI can get its BIOS fixed.
 
So I think I’ve settled on the b450 Aorus M...

Any idea if this will have the F40 bios out of the box to support Ryzen 3000?
 
OhSigmaChi said:
Is the general consensus that the B450 mobos are a better value than the x370s? I have had nothing but trouble with B450s, both boards I've purchased have been RMA'd at least once, never had a hiccup with an X370 board..
Click to expand...

X370 boards were the first AM4 ones and suffered from a lot of growing pains, some got sorted out with BIOS updates but many are still temperamental(even nice ones). B450 is a more mature and refined platform and doesn't really have any major drawbacks compared to X370, if you need more features than what's available on B450 boards then I think X470 makes the most sense. I don't think X570 is worth it for most, PCIe 4.0 and some extra lanes would be nice but not with the price, heat, and power consumption.

mda said:
Take note that on B350/450 and X370/X470 boards, a 2nd m.2 normally takes something away from the rest of the system.

It either disables SATA ports, some PCIE slots, shares with the GPU PCIE, etc. I'd recommend researching the particular board you have in mind to see if you can live with the limitations.

The X570 can do this without tradeoffs until you get into the 3rd M.2

That said, the MSI B450 Tomahawk seems nice when MSI can get its BIOS fixed.
Click to expand...

Good point on the second M.2 slot but if they're looking at a 2600 then they don't need to wait on a BIOS update for the MSI board and would actually be better off with the old BIOS since it has the nicer interface, no issues, and they wouldn't need support for the 3000 series. If it wasn't for the BIOS issues I would heavily suggest they consider a 3600 though.
 
Ended up going with the Gigabyte Aorus M B450. I like the 8+3 VRM design and cooling and was a more feature-filled mATX board.
 
Now to decide if I’m going to go R5 2600 or 3600...I don’t need it but I like new things :ROFLMAO:

And to figure out what bios this board is gonna ship with...I don’t have another AM4 chip to flash it. Could be the ultimate asshole and buy the 2600, flash it, return it, and buy the 3600...but I digress :D
 
I have owned a Gigabyte AB350M-DS3H CF since May 2018 and it has the 370x chipset as I bought it for my 2200g .. so think of it as a review because I have ran all 3 gens on this board and even Cross Fired it using a 2200g as the cpu http://www.3dmark.com/fs/17306064 just for fun .

And today it's running this set up in 100% default at 2666mhz memory speed on stock Best Buy XFX clocked card . http://www.3dmark.com/fs/19945226
 
MajorYikes said:
Ended up going with the Gigabyte Aorus M B450. I like the 8+3 VRM design and cooling and was a more feature-filled mATX board.
Click to expand...

sadly it's actually 4+3 and not 8+3. so be careful with what cpu you put on that thing if you upgrade from the 2600 later.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
sadly it's actually 4+3 and not 8+3. so be careful with what cpu you put on that thing if you upgrade from the 2600 later.
Click to expand...

I just read that after I bought it

I’ll probably keep this board til I want to push my OC higher then buy an X570 when they’re a little more stable. Then swap this board in to my HTPC.

Nonetheless I’m happy with my purchase.
 
I did the same type of build as the OP.
F it, stuff is cheap, if it sucks then it didn't cost anything.

I'm pleasantly surprised that gaming over 160fps is stable, and it runs Kubernetes fine.

lowly HDV non r4.0 does 4.2ghz 2600 temps fine, 8hr gaming sessions.

Corsair 32gb 3200 non qvl e-die run fine at XMP.

I'm sticking with the 2600 until they iron out any issues. Could go with a used 2700x next year in the same breath as a 3600.

Only reason for me to go x470 is if I needed to run a pair of nvme drives at full speed, in which case the Crossfire VII would be a tossup to a cheapie x570 board with more PCH lanes. Again that's a wait until they get it together purchase, as well as inevitable Black Friday $ cuts.

If AM4 sunsets in 2021, Im not in the mood to throw a bunch of $ at the AM4 platform. There will be plenty of 16+ core "junk" builds floating around when credible AM5 leaks start.
 
This is only to show the 3600 running on that Gigabyte AB350M-DS3H as I have been checking to see how stable it plays and running for 4+ days now and no BSOD to report . video card was RX 570 4Gb on 19.7.2 as noting to write home about .


 
If you are trying to min/max that much, I suggest finding a refurbished $150 board @ $95 and you are all set.
 
MajorYikes said:
I just read that after I bought it

I’ll probably keep this board til I want to push my OC higher then buy an X570 when they’re a little more stable. Then swap this board in to my HTPC.

Nonetheless I’m happy with my purchase.
Click to expand...
I think you will be fine. I just picked up an the Aorus Ultra Gaming X470 on Amazon Prime sale for 99 bucks, you have to update the BIOS first and I used an older Ryzen to do so (though AMD will provide a CPU). The 3600 damn near achieves a Max OC of 4.1 Ghz out of the box with no tweaks on Bios revision f41b. I suspect the B450 won't be much different. It should push the CPU just fine. The processor absolutely beats my 9600 at 5Ghz to death in standard productivity and general usage tasks (900 Mhz slower) looks like I found my new main rig.

Even on a 4+3 you should be fine with a 3600, it's a 65 Watt processor that is more thermally constricted than it is power constrained. Most of these new processors from AMD pretty much will turbo to maximum silicon clocks (on the 3000 series) as long as you have a robust enough cooling solution. The headroom for overclocking is not high. Actual sustained clocks don't go much above 4.4 Ghz in standard use cases.

I haven't even played with mine yet and it's rocking 3200 Mhz memory speeds and 4.1 Ghz sustained in most benchmarks with zero tweaking. The 2600 will be a slightly different story but I suspect you should be able to easily get it to around 4Ghz by playing with the settings or using a predefined OC profile on the B450 board (yes I know I have the X470).
 
Really couldn’t be happier with my choice. Snagged an RTX 2060 for $269 on Newegg with two free games a couple days ago so I didn’t have to settle for the 1660ti.

Ended up choosing the 2600 so I could get a better GPU. I have a month to decide if I want to keep the 2600 or upgrade, plus now I can flash my BIOS lol. I suspect I’ll end up with a 3600, though...:D
 
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