I currently have an Asus Rog Strix X470-i Gaming ITX motherboard with a 2700X. I have no issues with the board at all, but for a several reasons I am considering to switch back to Micro-ATX. It's frustrating that there are no X470 Micro-ATX boards available (and none planned it would seem), but how do the B450M options compare? Would it be a downgrade? The fact they are all nearly half the price of my ITX board makes me wonder. I am not OC'ing my 2700X, just letting Precision Boost do its job.
Asus Strix X470-i IGaming ITX vs B450M Micro-ATX options...?
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Asus boards likely have substandard VRMs
Gaming hype B450-F Strix has crap VRM with only one high side FET and which would run rather hot even at stock and whole lots of Asus boards use same VRM.
Gigabyte' seems to use equally bad VRMs.
Asrock B450M Pro4 at least has good cooling for VRM for lower temps with lowest efficiency.
Graph showing VRM efficiency and temperature should be easy to understand, but if you're feeling lucky you can try Google translate.
https://www.io-tech.fi/artikkelit/testissa-amd-b450-emolevyt-asrock-asus-gigabyte-msi/
Here's listing of VRMs.
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/pga-am4-mainboard-vrm-liste-1155146.html
Gaming hype B450-F Strix has crap VRM with only one high side FET and which would run rather hot even at stock and whole lots of Asus boards use same VRM.
Gigabyte' seems to use equally bad VRMs.
Asrock B450M Pro4 at least has good cooling for VRM for lower temps with lowest efficiency.
Graph showing VRM efficiency and temperature should be easy to understand, but if you're feeling lucky you can try Google translate.
https://www.io-tech.fi/artikkelit/testissa-amd-b450-emolevyt-asrock-asus-gigabyte-msi/
Here's listing of VRMs.
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/pga-am4-mainboard-vrm-liste-1155146.html
@EsaT Thanks for that info.
I had specifically been looking at the MSI B450 Mortar. From that table in the link you provided, this uses the RT8894A (4 + 2) controller and 4 real phases, vs the ASP1405I (6 + 1) controller with 6 real phases on my Asus X470-i Gaming.
The MOSFETS are also different and I'm unclear how the SoC VCC differences will come in to play exactly.
In real world terms, I don't know how to draw a direct comparison between these two boards.
Furthermore, the negatives outlined on the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC aren't exactly encouraging, but I don't know how many of these issues transfer to the B450 Mortar. Of course, no board is going to be without its weaknesses, and no doubt my Asus will have some.
I had specifically been looking at the MSI B450 Mortar. From that table in the link you provided, this uses the RT8894A (4 + 2) controller and 4 real phases, vs the ASP1405I (6 + 1) controller with 6 real phases on my Asus X470-i Gaming.
The MOSFETS are also different and I'm unclear how the SoC VCC differences will come in to play exactly.
In real world terms, I don't know how to draw a direct comparison between these two boards.
Furthermore, the negatives outlined on the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC aren't exactly encouraging, but I don't know how many of these issues transfer to the B450 Mortar. Of course, no board is going to be without its weaknesses, and no doubt my Asus will have some.
- 2: 1 heat transfer material with M.2 "cooler"
- Purely graphical and extremely clumsy bios fan control
- No adjustment of internal or external RGB illumination in bios
- No problem-solving diagnostic display
- No power and restart switches for testing outside the enclosure
- No parallel CPU fan coupling that would allow, for example, two fans to be controlled by one signal and thus save one other fan-driven fan site for other use
- The CPU fan connector layout, which is easily accessible under the larger air coolers
- No offset voltage control for processor and soC voltage
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SoC VRM really matters only if you have APU.
Standard Ryzen does'nt have much load on that "rail"/voltage.
Those SM4337 sure aren't exactly good with that high Rds(on).
http://www.sinopowersemi.com/temp/SM4337NSKP_datasheet.pdf
But with two of them in parallel it's effectively halved, while also heat is produced by two components instead of one spreading it better.
At least using single 4C10N certainly sucks in comparison with nearly same Rds(on).
http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/NTMFS4C10N-D.PDF
Can't find datasheet for 4C10B, so maybe it's older version only made for old orders.
If sounding little vague that "2:1" means MSI having more of that thermal pad material than actual heatsink thickness, like shown by image.
So that M.2 cooler likely isn't very effective.
Otherwise Google did really accurate translation.
Having only one CPU fan output is easy to solve.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-value-3-pin-y-cable-2-male-1-female-fan-splitter-cb-16d-ok.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/silverstone-2-fan-pwm-braided-splitter-cable-cb-04c-sv.html
If having two fans in CPU heatsink there's really no need to control their speed separately.
For any not very loud fans two fans shouldn't overload fan output.
Similarly if case has two front intake fans those can be controlled from single header.
Voltage offsets matter really only for overclocking.
Standard Ryzen does'nt have much load on that "rail"/voltage.
Those SM4337 sure aren't exactly good with that high Rds(on).
http://www.sinopowersemi.com/temp/SM4337NSKP_datasheet.pdf
But with two of them in parallel it's effectively halved, while also heat is produced by two components instead of one spreading it better.
At least using single 4C10N certainly sucks in comparison with nearly same Rds(on).
http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/NTMFS4C10N-D.PDF
Can't find datasheet for 4C10B, so maybe it's older version only made for old orders.
If sounding little vague that "2:1" means MSI having more of that thermal pad material than actual heatsink thickness, like shown by image.
So that M.2 cooler likely isn't very effective.
Otherwise Google did really accurate translation.
Having only one CPU fan output is easy to solve.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-value-3-pin-y-cable-2-male-1-female-fan-splitter-cb-16d-ok.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/silverstone-2-fan-pwm-braided-splitter-cable-cb-04c-sv.html
If having two fans in CPU heatsink there's really no need to control their speed separately.
For any not very loud fans two fans shouldn't overload fan output.
Similarly if case has two front intake fans those can be controlled from single header.
Voltage offsets matter really only for overclocking.
datasheet for 4C06N: https://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/NTMFS4C06N-D.PDF
So in real world usage, not OC'ing the 2700X and just letting Precision Boost do its thing, is there much to separate the Asus Rog Strix X470-i Gaming and the B450M Mortar Titanium, or does one stand out for any particular reason?
If relevant, I will be populating with 32GB RAM (x2 16GB) and a 2080, plus x1 M.2 and x2 SSD.
Am I right in saying the B450M won't support Nvidia NVLink?
If relevant, I will be populating with 32GB RAM (x2 16GB) and a 2080, plus x1 M.2 and x2 SSD.
Am I right in saying the B450M won't support Nvidia NVLink?