MSI B450 CARBON AC vs MSI B450 TOMAHAWK

marcosscriven

marcosscriven

marcosscriven

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I'm building a system with a Ryzen 2700X.

I was all set on the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK, before realising it doesn't have wifi.

I then found the cost of a PCI wifi card to bring it up to the same total cost - however, I'm not sure on two things:

  1. I read the Carbon AC has a second M.2 port - but that its' wired in a strange way. I'm not entirely sure about the impact of that. If I use just one nvme SSD in the main M.2 port, I *think* it means I can *either* use another in the second slot with just two SATA drives (and some of the PCI ports shut down), or just use the SATA ports?
  2. The Vengence modules are only £10 diff for the 3000 vs 3200 (and I'm told are the same Samsung modules inside anyway). Wondering if either board is likely to get to the 3200 mark on stock cooling for the CPU?
Any other issues with either board?
 
The second m.2 will use 4 pcie 2 lanes from the chipset. PCIe only, you don't lose any sata ports. It'll disable all the slots on the board apart from the top slot.
 
Using M2_1 slot will disable SATA 5 and 6.

Using M2_2 slot - already covered by pandem0nium.

So you'll be left with four SATA ports and only the top PCIe slot for the GPU.
 
I would say go with the Tomahawk! It's a brilliant board for the price and with the latest bios improvements it has no problems running higher frequency memory.
 
The Wifi on the Pro Carbon is pretty good, spec-wise. Cheapest PCI card I've seen of a quality on par with the on-board Intel AC9260, i.e. Dual Band AC1750 with Wave 2 MU-MIMO support (if the router supports latter too), was around £40 I think.

Speculating here - they probably get the Wifi cheap from Intel in bulk, and just sell that part on at cost price or very near that, to make the motherboard more attractive.
 
orbitalwalsh said:
if you dont mind size, get ITX version

oth boards have better vrm using IR mosfets and two DIMM so better for RAM overclocking if your going to run Samsung B-die

you can tell if Corsair are using Samsung chips by its high cost and lower CL
Click to expand...

Thanks - I got the Fractal Design R6 in the post this morning, and found it to be HUGE and heavy (12.8kg!). So I've instead ordered the Nano S, and will go with the MSI ITX board you recommend.
 
marcosscriven said:
Thanks - I got the Fractal Design R6 in the post this morning, and found it to be HUGE and heavy (12.8kg!). So I've instead ordered the Nano S, and will go with the MSI ITX board you recommend.
Click to expand...

i'f your card is 2.5 or 3 slot, then seriously think about this case!

https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cases/metallicgear-neo-g-mini-review/1/

cant remember is its @tamzzy or @Danny75 that really likes the case as well but cracking value for £70 with glass !

MSI B450 ITX is 6 x IR 3555 60A and Aorus is 4 x IR 3556 50A . IR3556 is the newer version over the 3555, handles 10amps more but covers higher voltage and able to with stand 15-20c higher operating temps whilst being cooler. also double the price per unit .

MSI has the better BIOS, Aorus better UK RMA and customer service by miles. Both boards are better then B450 ATX/mATX boards!

Aorus has the better Wifi module and Sound (By a LONG SHOT)

MSI wifi - Intel® DualBand Wireless-AC 3168, Blluetooth 4.2
MSI Audio - 3(Realtek® ALC887 Codec)

Aorus Wifi - Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 9260 802.11ac Wave2 WIFI & BT 5
Aorus Audio - ALC1220-VB Enhance 114dB(Rear)/ 110dB(Front) SNR in Microphone with High-end Audio Capacitors

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B450-I-AORUS-PRO-WIFI-rev-10#sp

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450I-GAMING-PLUS-AC/Specification

https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/motherboards/gigabyte-b450-i-aorus-pro-wifi-review/1/
 
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