Best B450 mobo for Ryzen 3600?

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 09:08

The Tomohawk Max seems to be selling very well, probably due to the bigger bios chip but it seems to me the MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC has a much better spec?

Anything else worth considering?

The B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC bios can be updated via usb right? Any major drawbacks vs the bigger bios in the tomohawk?

This CPU going in it will be the 3600 and together with 16gb Corsair 3200mhz ram.

apostolis_kt · 10 Oct 2019 at 09:27

I was looking at the Tomahawk Max for my friend i am helping with his new desktop, just because it is a MAX.

That means i won't need a zen 1 or zen+ to update the bios, it would be plug and play with zen 2, has a bigger bios and would do the job.

I am also interested to know if there is anything else plug and play for a zen 2 processor around that price as i am confused with options

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 09:41

The MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC looks like a much better mobo to me and from what I can see you can put the bios on a usb stick and flash it without needing a cpu in it.

Just wanted to hear from others here. I think @easyrider has one of these and @Panos usually keeps up with all that is AMD so maybe they can shed some light?

4K8KW10 · 10 Oct 2019 at 09:51

TNA said:
Anything else worth considering?

Gigabyte B450 Aourus Pro

There are Asus boards, ASRock boards, you should look at MSI's only in last in the queue.

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 10:04

4K8KW10 said:
Gigabyte B450 Aourus Pro There are Asus boards, ASRock boards, you should look at MSI's only in last in the queue.

Had a look at the ASUS one's and the MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC looked to offer better price for performance.

Will check out the Gigabyte one you mention in a bit. But all the research I did a few months ago led to me the MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC and I am wondering if anything has chaned. Do you have the B450 AORUS PRO? Can it be easily flashed without a CPU in it?

Panos · 10 Oct 2019 at 10:05

TNA said:
The MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC looks like a much better mobo to me and from what I can see you can put the bios on a usb stick and flash it without needing a cpu in it.
Just wanted to hear from others here. I think @easyrider has one of these and @Panos usually keeps up with all that is AMD so maybe they can shed some light?

The only positive difference between Carbon & Tomahawk Max, is Carbon has onboard Wifi and Intel instead of Realtek ethernet.

On any other aspect Tomahawk Max is better. Better BIOS, guaranteed support for 4000 Ryzen also costs £107.
Nobody shouldn't forget that because of the bios restrictions MSI has serious trouble making new bios for the 16mb motherboards, dropping the ball for many of them including the cheap X470 of the range.

Personally wait few weeks for B550 that would be the beefed up B450 without the drawbacks of trying to find which board has 32MB bios. (Like the Tomahawk Max).

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 10:16

Panos said:
The only positive difference between Carbon & Tomahawk Max, is Carbon has onboard Wifi and Intel instead of Realtek ethernet.

On any other aspect Tomahawk Max is better. Better BIOS, guaranteed support for 4000 Ryzen also costs £107.
Nobody shouldn't forget that because of the bios restrictions MSI has serious trouble making new bios for the 16mb motherboards, dropping the ball for many of them including the cheap X470 of the range.

Personally wait few weeks for B550 that would be the beefed up B450 without the drawbacks of trying to find which board has 32MB bios. (Like the Tomahawk Max).

Thanks for that Panos. You sure the B550 boards come out in a few weeks? Thought they were Q1 2020?

Davedree · 10 Oct 2019 at 10:28

I'd buy either the mortar max or the tomahawk max, but if it comes down to features then only you an make the decision on if the carbon is worth more to you with the 16mb restriction.
The bugs and the restrictions in the lower size bios chips using the beta bios's were and are a concern of mine for future stability and support.

EssexBoy · 10 Oct 2019 at 10:30

I like my tomahawk max but it does have minor bios issues at the moment and chose it over others due to msi having better vrm's apparently.

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 10:41

I think I might just wait for the B550 boards. Not in a rush really. By then we will have even better bios's and better stability.

Davedree · 10 Oct 2019 at 10:55

That's what I'm waiting for the B550, and hopefully an updated B550 Itx gaming version.

apostolis_kt · 10 Oct 2019 at 11:01

Was it Q4 2019 or Q1 2020 that b550 would be released?

Panos · 10 Oct 2019 at 11:09

TNA said:
Thanks for that Panos. You sure the B550 boards come out in a few weeks? Thought they were Q1 2020?

End of the month of November

4K8KW10 · 10 Oct 2019 at 11:15

TNA said:
I think I might just wait for the B550 boards. Not in a rush really. By then we will have even better bios's and better stability.

Why don't you just buy a X570 board now? :confused:

In two years, there will be PCIe 5 boards, and then you will be two generations behind if you stick to PCIe 3 :confused:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Gigabyte X570 GAMING X (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 Chipset ATX Motherboard= £175.99

Total: £186.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 12:15

4K8KW10 said:
Why don't you just buy a X570 board now?
In two years, there will be PCIe 5 boards, and then you will be two generations behind if you stick to PCIe 3

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Gigabyte X570 GAMING X (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 Chipset ATX Motherboard= £175.99

Total: £186.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)

This will be eventually going into our 2nd PC which only runs on a dual core haswell right now. Not that it is slow or anything but that PC won't be doing any gaming and if it ever does it will be at 1080p so PCIe 3 would be fine for that for a long time I would imagine.

Will take a look at the board you have linked, but not a "fan" of there being a fan on a mobo

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 13:06

4K8KW10 said:
Why don't you just buy a X570 board now?
In two years, there will be PCIe 5 boards, and then you will be two generations behind if you stick to PCIe 3

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Gigabyte X570 GAMING X (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 Chipset ATX Motherboard= £175.99

Total: £186.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)

Any reason you have recommended this over the ASUS PRIME X570-P which has much better vrm cooling and better audio codec? It can be had for £179.99.

orbitalwalsh · 10 Oct 2019 at 13:08

TNA said:
Any reason you have recommended this over the ASUS PRIME X570-P which has much better vrm cooling and better audio codec? It can be had for £179.99.

naf rma and customer service

4 Vcore in Parallel using 8 Integrated phases - Sic 639 50amp unit - so 4x(2) 50amps = 400a

gaming x is 10 (5x2) x 60amp PPak non integrated units (1h2l mosfet) using 5 doublers = 600amps

Gaming x would generate more heat around the Heatsink due to having 2 units adding heat to it rather then one. Asus you have 6 mosfets on the main heatsink, with Gigabyte you;ve got 16... so naturally the heatsink will be warmer

both arent as nice as say Master/xtreme that have controllers enough to handle ever phase without having to split/half the signal like the asus and gigabyte boards do - but costs is costs

Best MOBO for B450 is MSI ITX and then Gigabyte ITX , both offer better then any other B450 in terms of power delivery and PCB

DragonQ · 10 Oct 2019 at 14:10

The MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC is great and cheap. No MAX version yet though so you'll have to put up with an older looking more basic BIOS. Does the job for me though.

easyrider · 10 Oct 2019 at 18:00

The B450 pro gaming Carbon is a great mobo...worked really well with my 3700x...the x570 gaming Carbon is not good though with a 12 core 3900x so I’m swapping it it for a gigabyte x570 aorus Pro...

If you want a cheap mobo to pair with a 3600 or even 3700 the B450 Carbon is a great choice...but yo u will need to flash the bios as no MAX version yet as far as I can tell.

TNA · 10 Oct 2019 at 18:19

easyrider said:
The B450 pro gaming Carbon is a great mobo...worked really well with my 3700x...the x570 gaming Carbon is not good though with a 12 core 3900x so I’m swapping it it for a gigabyte x570 aorus Pro...

If you want a cheap mobo to pair with a 3600 or even 3700 the B450 Carbon is a great choice...but yo u will need to flash the bios as no MAX version yet as far as I can tell.

Thanks easy.

Another one that is on my radar is the ASUS TUF GAMING X570-PLUS which I can get for £165 which is a good price considering most places sell it for a lot more.

I am thinking if I got for a X570 it might be worth it in the longer run for my secondary PC as I can much later on stick a 12 core or even more in it for dirt cheap in 3-5 years when everyone is offloading them on members market

What's your plans with the 3600 and Carbon AC easy?