MSI B850 GAMING PLUS WIFI - OR - MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WIFI

Rocky-Roader

Rocky-Roader

Rocky-Roader

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Hey,

I've been looking around at AM5 motherboards for new build for a while now, there are two that I can get for £160 when using codes, they are:

MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WIFI

MSI B850 GAMING PLUS WIFI

I've seen good and bad reviews for both, I don't plan on overclocking but thought this would be the place to ask to see which of the would be the better option.


Back in April I bought a 750w PSU, a 1TB M.2 hard drive, a 32GB DDR5 ram kit and an ATX case, so I just need a Motherboard, CPU and GPU.
 
i'd go for the b850 gaming plus

pros: pcie gen 5
cons: weaker vrms (but good enough if you're not going to hammer the 170w cpus for hours on end)
 
Tomahawk is a higher model, so in some ways it has a better spec (gaming plus has lots of USB 2.0 and basic sound codec, for example). But, it also has older chipset, so no PCI-E 5.0.

Unless you need something the tomahawk has (like the 6x SATA), I'd get the gaming plus. Gaming plus also has 5Gb LAN and WIFI7, which the tomahawk doesn't.
 
Thanks for the the replies and info, I originally chose the Tomahawk as I read they were better quality for the money but since then I have seen some of the more expensive boards getting lower in price so thought they may be worth looking into.

In terms of CPU's, there's a Ryzen 5 7600 or a Ryzen 5 7600X, for someone who isn't going to be overclocking would the X version be better value?
 
As someone who has used both the 7600 and 7600x, I would get the 7600.
The performance difference is negligible, but the 7600 is vastly more efficient and also much easier to cool.
 
Thanks again for the help, sorry to be a pain in the butt, I have one more question about the CPU's :o

Looking at the details of the 7600 CPU, at the bottom of the page it says:

Integrated Graphics

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 CPU has integrated Radeon RDNA 2 graphics,
Click to expand...

Is that a mistake? I was under the impression that only CPU's with G at the end had integrated graphics? I've looked on a few other sites and some also say integrated but then some don't mention it at all,


I wasn't expecting to buy both the Motherboard and CPU on the same weekend so my budget will be dented but if the 7600 does have integrated graphics it would be a big help if I could use the new machine while trying to sell off my old one to partly fund a GPU.
 
Rocky-Roader said:
Is that a mistake? I was under the impression that only CPU's with G at the end had integrated graphics? I've looked on a few other sites and some also say integrated but then some don't mention it at all,
I wasn't expecting to buy both the Motherboard and CPU on the same weekend so my budget will be dented but if the 7600 does have integrated graphics it would be a big help if I could use the new machine while trying to sell off my old one to partly fund a GPU.
Click to expand...

it's not a mistake, the 7000 series has integrated graphics except CPU with the "-F" suffix (eg 7500F)
these are essentially very basic, you wouldn't be able to game on them with any sort of FPS
 
The motherboard and CPU arrived today so I'll stick it together tomorrow,

Quick question, I think my M.2 SN850x hard disk has a heat-sink already on it but the motherboard also has a M.2 heat-sink,

B850-Gaming.png


I'm assuming that means the motherboard heat-sink will be surplus when I fit the M.2?

When I used to buy a motherboard it would come with a huge manual so I could have a little study first but this one only came with a leaflet and doesn't even have a page that tells you what each connector is for etc.
 
Rocky-Roader said:
would it not perform as good?
Click to expand...
correct, in synthetic tests the main slot will be faster because the main slot runs off the CPU PCIE lanes (ie, direct connection to the CPU)
The other slots are connected to the chipset, so you add latency, and hence will be slower

i would rather run it off the main slot
if that means not using the motherboard heatsink, then so be it
 
Last edited:
tamzzy said:
correct, in synthetic tests the main slot will be faster because the main slot runs off the CPU PCIE lanes (ie, direct connection to the CPU)
The other slots are connected to the chipset, so you add latency, and hence will be slower

i would rather run it off the main slot
if that means not using the motherboard heatsink, then so be it
Click to expand...

Ahh that makes sense, thanks for the explanation, I appreciate it, I'll use it in the main slot so i can check everything is working :D
 
Thanks for the manual link Freddie64, just what I needed,

I fitted the motherboard yesterday and then realised my monitor doesn't have a HDMI port, then I realised... neither does the motherboard :eek: it just has a display port.

So now it seems I do have to buy a GPU before I can test it, assuming I can use my TV as a monitor until I buy a HDMI one.

Talk about blonde moments, I was looking at the MSI Pro B850-P WIFI which was £15 cheaper and the only difference seemed to be that it had a HDMI port but not a display port, so I thought I'd pay the extra for the display port so I can plug my monitor into it :cry:


Can anyone recommend a GPU that would be decent for an office PC but would also be OK for basic gaming?
 
/\/\ How much do you want to spend on the GPU, do you have a preference for Nvidia, AMD or Intel GFX card? Intels own B580 is available on OCUK for a good price (£40 off) at the time of writing this post, Some good reviews on the internet, Intels GFX drivers are being tweaked frequently to improve stability and performance.
 
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