Choosing an AM4 board

[Bacon?]

Hey folks hope you can help me decide what to aim for

I'm going to be upgrading my old 1155 platform to a new Ryzen AM4 build and trying to choose what motherboard to get. I've been watching a fair few vids and looking at reviews but it has come rather confusing

Currently I'm eying up

• Asus prime x370
• Asrock Taichi x370 or x470
• Gigabyte gaming K7 x370
• MSI Gaming Pro Carbon b450

Im fairly budget limited and will be pairing it likely with a 1700 maybe a 2700, it'll also be going under a custom loop with an all core overclock so I've been paying a fair amount of attention to the vrm and quality of the heatsink

In terms of ram I've got some Samsung bdie

Any comments or suggestions would be great.

 

[EsaT]

For getting max longevity for money would be better to wait for availability of Zen2 Ryzen 3000 serie in next month's 7th before deciding on CPU.

If you want to maximize bang per budget B450 would be likely most sensible and leaving more budget to where it brings actual benefit.
That MSI has been in very nice discount.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...ocket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-33s-ms.html
It also has feature for flashing BIOS without CPU, memory or graphics card.
So there wouldn't be worrying about if it comes with Ryzen 3000 supporting BIOS.

 

[Bacon?]

I don't see myself getting a 3rd Gen chip as the price per core is too high for me, I'd rather get a cheap Zen or Zen+ chip and then upgrade in a few years once the price is reasonable. I don't need the single core performance so the more threads the better

I didn't know that you could flash the BIOS like that on the B450, that's very tempting since it'd be harder for me to brick the board. How does that work out if interest

 

[orbitalwalsh]

I don't see myself getting a 3rd Gen chip as the price per core is too high for me, I'd rather get a cheap Zen or Zen+ chip and then upgrade in a few years once the price is reasonable. I don't need the single core performance so the more threads the better

I didn't know that you could flash the BIOS like that on the B450, that's very tempting since it'd be harder for me to brick the board. How does that work out if interest

x470 flagship, if your planning on using Zen 4/5 chip in future. can already see X570 line up knocks everything off x370/x470 line up bar flagships such as Aorus 7 . B450 pale in comparison , and unfortunately b550 would likely increase in price as its PCIe 4.0 that adds extra cost to new gen boards

Aorus K7 ( 6 x ir3553 40a Powlstage ) and Taichi X370/x470 ( 6 x 40a CSD 87350 ) are vastly Superior in VRM design to MSI B450's 4 x 4C029N/4C024N units . being flagships they use integrated units .

problem with x370 boards is bios space ! so bare in mind . MSI also have the neat flash if you do buy it plus ryzen 3000 board - though they dont have backup bios like Gigabyte - asrock use to from what i can remember . though hopefully with plug and flash , user shouldn't mess up the bios flash!!!!!!

as for bricking the board, power failure and its bricked . lol same for most board bar dual bios . ASUS and Gigabyte have USB bios flash but only on flagships, so MSI is leading the field with doing it in a lower chipset board. plus also has wifi !

if your watching VRMs and heatsinks, then Aorus 7 x470 is the best hands down , BUT you pay the price for it ! 10 X IR 3553 40A units with an actual finned heatsink . not a solid aluminum block found on every other board .

and pricing wise, Ryzen 3600 Non x and watercooled to hit high OC... will beat ryzen 1700 hands down if your gaming !!!!! should be £170-200 mark