Budget 0-20k Choose a B450 ATX Mobo

[xkcd0137]

Need suggestions for my Ryzen 3600 + RX570 build. I intend to OC, hence I need a good mobo.

Motherboard -
1) Asrock Pro4 (7.1k)
2) Asrock Fatality K4 (7.6k)
3) MSI Tomahawk Max (9.5k).

Some facts -

- Though Pro4 and Fatality have almost similar VRMs but Fatality performs better than Pro4 in every benchmark according to an Excel sheet shared in reddit. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...TJFqqVxdCR9daIVNyMatydkpFA/edit#gid=717981952

- from Linus' Mobo Tier list, Tomahawk Max is in Tier C and Asrock boards are in Tier D

- MSI boards have a Flashback button which Asrock don't, but MSI's service reputation is kind of bad on r/IndianGaming.

- from Hardware Unboxed video, K4 and Tomahawk are pretty close for VRM Thermals but the latter inches ahead by just a tiny bit.

- ..but Asrock K4 is 2000 cheaper than Tomahawk and has 2 PCIe3 slots whereas Tomahawk has 1 Pcie3 and 1 Pcie2 slot.

- ..but I like the look of tomahawk, but then I feel like increasing my budget by another 2k and get a B550 board.

I am inclining towards Fatality. Any inputs?

Kindly don't suggest Asus Tuf or Gigabyte Mobos, they are worse than the above Mobos and placed under Tier E.

PS - Also, Which RAM should I go for among T-Force Vulcan and ADATA Gammix?

 

[Stronk]

I personally use a MSI B450 Mortar which is basically the Tomahawk in matx form factor (slightly downgraded MOSFETS but practically no other difference in VRMS and MOSFETS, the Mortar in fact has a slightly better VRM heatsink than Tomahawk according to Buildzoid), and I've had a generally trounle free and pleasant experience with my board wrt CPU as well as RAM overclocking.

I've had this board since 2019 when I had just a 2200G on it, and had OC'd the IGPU Vega 8 from stock 1100Mhz to 1550Mhz, RAM from 3200mhzc16 to 3466c16, and CPU to 3.85Ghz all core, all on the stock cooler with max temps of 87c under GTA V 768p and 91c while Folding at home (the most intensive task this chip ever did tbh), both without thermal throttling.

I now have a 3600XT, and have OC'd it from a stock score of about 1200 and all core boost of 4.1Ghz (using Deepcool Gammax 400 V2) to CCX1 4.325Ghz and CCX2 to 4.275Ghz for an all core average of 4.3Ghz, and this increased my scores to about 1690-1710 points. I was able to push it to 4.4Ghz all core actually, but at that point my temps started creeping into the 90s on cpu so I dialled it back a bit and I'm happy with the boost it's provided. Plus the bios flashback feature was handy twice for me - when installing the 2200G as well as the 3600XT, never was comfortable with the M-Flash option idk why.

As for VRM temps (with the 3600XT ofc), they stay at 60c after half an hour of cbr23 without an airflow over them, which is pretty good for me.

Lastly for service, I don't think that should be a big issue as motherboards have a lower failure rate than GPUs, but yea then again it would suck to be that guy with the lemon. On the other hand I'm not too sure of Asrock's service, do check out who their service partners are.

At the end of the day the mobo wouldn't really make a huge difference for your use case, ie, overclocking the 3600, and all 3 should do just fine. I voted for the MSI since I have used it, but if I were a first time buyer I'd choose the Asrock Pro4 (since it has VRMs only slightly worse than MSI B450 mobos, and that shouldn't matter unless you plan to OC a 3900X or above) and put the 2k saved towards a good 3600c16/c18 kit.

I'd recommend Ballistix RAM kits since they are known for overclockability, and Buildzoid did a video where he OC'd vasicly every Ballistix kit rated from 2400Mhz or so till 3600Mhz to over 4000Mhz.

Hope this helps

Edit: if the above 2 mentioned are your only options, I would say go with T-Forve RAM since they are also generally known to be good overclocks but I'm not too sure of the Gammixx (maybe they might be better over lockers than the T-Forve but not sure of that).

 

[bssunilreddy]

Go with Asrock Pro4 Mobo( Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac, for more future proofing if there is budget) & G.Skill SniperX 8GB 3600Mhz DDR4
Most Asrock mobos support upto 3533Mhz speed so use either 3200Mhz or 3400Mhz or use 3533Mhz exactly.
Check the latest Bios updates for Pro4 but update only if needed like if the Mobo is unstable. Okay.

I have used in descending order the following RAM Zion, Transcend, Corsair, G.Skill since 2000 and never have I encountered any problems what so ever from them.

If you have more paisa then I would suggest Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac @ 12.5k either from Amazon, vedantcomputers, mdcomputers, primeabgb etc


For the above mobo I will suggest to just upgrade to Bios Rev 1.20 only since it is most stable version and we don't need anything more than 1.20

Because sometimes in Asrock if updating unnecessarily also causes problems.
So remember what I said.

 

[Stronk]

EDIT 2: Also from what I've read on r/overclocking, the 3600 isn't a particularly good overclocker. Many people find it hard to achieve a stable 4.2Ghz all core without pushing voltages over 1.35V, after which point its considered unsafe for daily use since it may lead to degradation of the chip. From my understanding, 4.075Ghz is achievable by basically all 3600s, 4.1Ghz most of them and very few would achieve 4.2 and above with reasonable voltages. And the truth is for a 3600 all core OC doesn't make sense for gaming since PBO+Auto OC will give better single core performance compared to a locked 4.1Ghz. Hence it's recommended to focus on reducing the RAM latency as much as possible by getting the best kit of RAM possible in your budget and leaving the frequency to the chip itself. Maybe just add a small 0.05 or 0.075v undervolt to keep temps in check, but oc isn't really needed for the 3600 from my reading.

 

[bssunilreddy]

I would suggest overclocking only after it starts to age.
That is why most veterans in the Gaming industry say that AMD ages well than Intel.
And in the end good competition is always good the end users like us.

 

[Stronk]

I would suggest overclocking only after it starts to age.

Yep agreed, unless one wants to overclock for the fun of it
On a more serious note tho I don't think overclocking is really worth it for most new CPUs today in terms of actually, tangible performance improvements. We get like 5-12% performance improvement on mainstream chips at best, which isn't really a whole lot (compared to the Golden era of overclocking in the early 2000s). Having said that I find overclocking a really fun activity myself because I like tinkering with stuff and pushing the limits. To each their own

 

[xkcd0137]

Plus the bios flashback feature was handy twice for me - when installing the 2200G as well as the 3600XT, never was comfortable with the M-Flash option idk why.

I need to google this feature.

As for VRM temps (with the 3600XT ofc), they stay at 60c after half an hour of cbr23 without an airflow over them, which is pretty good for me. At the end of the day the mobo wouldn't really make a huge difference for your use case, ie, overclocking the 3600, and all 3 should do just fine.

HU did 1 hour stress test and got following results, so yeah MSI boards are good at VRM thermals. My issue is that even K4 is good, so not able to decide, whereas Pro4 is not acc to the link I shared.

But, when he did the same test this year with a Ryzen 3900x, Tomahawk throttled. So yeah, these boards will work fine with 3600 but may throttle if I upgrade 2 years down the line.

put the 2k saved towards a good 3600c16/c18 kit.

What is that?

On the other hand I'm not too sure of Asrock's service, do check out who their service partners are.

Me neither. There are a few mentions of Asrock on reddit.

I'd'd recommend Ballistix RAM kits since they are known for overclockability, and Buildzoid did a video where he OC'd vasicly every Ballistix kit rated from 2400Mhz or so till 3600Mhz to over 4000Mhz.

Hope this helps

Edit: if the above 2 mentioned are your only options, I would say go with T-Forve RAM since they are also generally known to be good overclocks but I'm not too sure of the Gammixx (maybe they might be better over lockers than the T-Forve but not sure of that).

I'll share the price of RAMs and you tell me which one to go -
Crucial Ballistix 8GBx2 3000mhx - 7.5k
T-Force Vulcan Z 16GBx1 3200mhz - 5.5k
Adata XPG Gammix 16GBx1 3000mhz - 5.5k
Adata XPG Gammix 8GBx1 3000mhz - 3.2k

All RAM prices have increased by 1-2k within last month acc to Keepa, so I was thinking of getting a cheaper RAM right now and upgrade later. Also since Chrome itself consumes almost 6GB, I was preferring to go for the 16GB stick.

 

[nRiTeCh]

Need suggestions for my Ryzen 3600 + RX570 build. I intend to OC, hence I need a good mobo.

Motherboard -
1) Asrock Pro4 (7.1k)
2) Asrock Fatality K4 (7.6k)
3) MSI Tomahawk Max (9.5k).

Some facts -

- Though Pro4 and Fatality have almost similar VRMs but Fatality performs better than Pro4 in every benchmark according to an Excel sheet shared in reddit. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...TJFqqVxdCR9daIVNyMatydkpFA/edit#gid=717981952

- from Linus' Mobo Tier list, Tomahawk Max is in Tier C and Asrock boards are in Tier D

- MSI boards have a Flashback button which Asrock don't, but MSI's service reputation is kind of bad on r/IndianGaming.

- from Hardware Unboxed video, K4 and Tomahawk are pretty close for VRM Thermals but the latter inches ahead by just a tiny bit.

- ..but Asrock K4 is 2000 cheaper than Tomahawk and has 2 PCIe3 slots whereas Tomahawk has 1 Pcie3 and 1 Pcie2 slot.

- ..but I like the look of tomahawk, but then I feel like increasing my budget by another 2k and get a B550 board.

I am inclining towards Fatality. Any inputs?

Kindly don't suggest Asus Tuf or Gigabyte Mobos, they are worse than the above Mobos and placed under Tier E.

PS - Also, Which RAM should I go for among T-Force Vulcan and ADATA Gammix?

I wonder why you didn't choose any from Asus? Asus TUF B450M-PRO Gaming or similar.

MSI has a bad rep in India wrt Ass and same has been discussed here as well by fellow users.
If I were you I would had opted for Asus though they are bit costly but on latter side Asrock would had been the ultimate choice with premium features without burning pockets..

 

[xkcd0137]

I wonder why you didn't choose any from Asus? Asus TUF B450M-PRO Gaming or similar.

That's a Tier D mobo according to https://linustechtips.com/topic/1137619-motherboard-vrm-tier-list-v2-currently-amd-only/ and its Micro-ATX.

 

[burntwingzZz]

Asrock boards are well made good bios support

 

[xkcd0137]

G.Skill SniperX 8GB 3600Mhz DDR4
Most Asrock mobos support upto 3533Mhz speed so use either 3200Mhz or 3400Mhz or use 3533Mhz exactly.

That RAM was at 8k last month, now its at 9k. Even if I could afford it, I wouldn't want to buy it at inflated prices.

if you have more paisa then I would suggest Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac @ 12.5k either from Amazon, vedantcomputers, mdcomputers, primeabgb etc

That more paisa is supposed to go into getting a used GPU at inflated prices.

Waise for more paisa, MSI B550-A Pro is a better board than Asrock. Its a Tier A board whereas B550 Pro4 is a Tier C board.

Yep agreed, unless one wants to overclock for the fun of it
On a more serious note tho I don't think overclocking is really worth it for most new CPUs today in terms of actually, tangible performance improvements. We get like 5-12% performance improvement on mainstream chips at best, which isn't really a whole lot (compared to the Golden era of overclocking in the early 2000s). Having said that I find overclocking a really fun activity myself because I like tinkering with stuff and pushing the limits. To each their own

On a side note, I was thinking of dumping Ryzen 3600 and getting a Athlon 3000g for ₹5k and OCing the shit out of it. Do you think this will work?

 

[Stronk]

I need to google this feature.

Yea it's quite useful but I think it wouldn't matter for you since all B450 motherboards will have support for even 5000 series out of the box as of now. So don't let that be a deciding factor. It wa useful for me since back then my mobo didn't support 2000G series out of the box. It may still come in handy if you happen to brick the mobo while updating bios or sth but that's a slim chance.

My issue is that even K4 is good, so not able to decide, whereas Pro4 is not acc to the link I

Given the info from the screenshot you've shared I would pick the K4. It's not too far off the Tomahawk Max, plus you save a bunch of money. Also if you do decide to upgrade to a 12 core or higher CPU down the line, I don't think it'd be a good idea to overclock that on this mobo. Maybe tune the PBO settings a bit but I wouldn't recommend OC'ing a 12core Ryzen on a budget B450 board.

What is that?

3600c16 is the type of RAM kit. 3600 refers to the DDR(4) speed - 3600Mhz, and 16 to the CAS latency speeds. You want the speed to be as high as possible while keeping the CAS latency as low as possible. Usually the ones with high speed and low Cas are more expensive due to binning process.

Crucial Ballistix 8GBx2 3000mhx - 7.5k
T-Force Vulcan Z 16GBx1 3200mhz - 5.5k
Adata XPG Gammix 16GBx1 3000mhz - 5.5k
Adata XPG Gammix 8GBx1 3000mhz - 3.2k

Well it really depends on your use case I'd say. If you know you want 32GB RAM then pick the 1X16GB kit rn and grab another 16GB kit in a month or so. If you only need 16GB RAM (which is enough for mainstream use, higher than that is required for stuff like 4k video editing, deep learning etc) then just get the Ballistix 2X8GB kit and a call it a day. Yea it's priced a bit higher than a /1X16GB but that's usually the case with dual channel kits. Also I'd recommend not waiting to buy RAM since prices will only go higher due to worsening chip shortage and no respite in sight. Good luck!

 

[bssunilreddy]

That RAM was at 8k last month, now its at 9k. Even if I could afford it, I wouldn't want to buy it at inflated prices.

That more paisa is supposed to go into getting a used GPU at inflated prices.

Waise for more paisa, MSI B550-A Pro is a better board than Asrock. Its a Tier A board whereas B550 Pro4 is a Tier C board.

Go with Asrock B550 Pro4 since Asrock bioses today are rock solid and come already with updated bioses than those MSI faltu bioses and exorbitant prices of MSI and that is why I went with Asrock and happy now for my decision.

 

[Stronk]

I wonder why you didn't choose any from Asus? Asus TUF B450M-PRO Gaming or similar.

Asus' B450 and X470 boards aren't considered good for overclocking at all (apart from the Crosshair series and a few more high end stuff), and actually even some of Asus X470 can't even handle 3900X on stock for more than an hour (as tested by Buildzoid). Their VRM heatsinks have an awful design and they have more RGB lighting than actual useful features, hemcy they aren't recommended for overclocker on a budget.

Even if I could afford it, I wouldn't want to buy it at inflated prices.

Get the 3200c16 Ballistix and try your luck

On a side note, I was thinking of dumping Ryzen 3600 and getting a Athlon 3000g for ₹5k and OCing the shit out of it. Do you think this will work?

Nope, wouldn't recommend it. The 3000G has literally 1/3rd the cores and threads of the 3600, heaven and hell difference. Maybe you can look at the 3500(X) if you want to keep things in budget, they often go for less than 11k. Set a price alert on Keepa for 3500(X) under 11k and 3600 under 17k and grab whichever comes up first. At least that would be my strategy.

 

[xkcd0137]

Go with Asrock B550 Pro4 since Asrock bioses today are rock solid and come already with updated bioses than those MSI faltu bioses and exorbitant prices of MSI and that is why I went with Asrock and happy now for my decision.

Sorry, that is way beyond my budget @ 12.5k. I'll have to decide between K4 or Pro4 now.

Any idea which one will look better with Lian Li 215 case?

 

[Stronk]

Go with Asrock B550 Pro4 since Asrock bioses today are rock solid and come already with updated bioses than those MSI faltu bioses and exorbitant prices of MSI and that is why I went with Asrock and happy now for my decision.

I have both an Asrock and MSI mobo, and tbh both BIOSes are good. I like MSI better for overclocking since their you can't accidentally go to adjacent pages by pressing the left and right arrow keys unintentionally, but Asrock's BIOS is more aesthetic. At the end of the day both of them are more than serviceable and I doubt it really matters when choosing a mobo here. Tho in this case the Fatality K4 does seem to be the stronger contender anyway.

Any idea which one will look better with Lian Li 215 case?

I wouldn't pick something based on aesthetics, once you build in the case, the mobo wouldn't really be visible under the cooler and GPU and the RGB lights, plus I doubt you're gonna be peering at the mobo in a case anyway
The 215X is an excellent case, should suit both. Flip a coin if you're confused, though personally I'd pick the cheaper mobo since both are basically identical anyway.
Edit: just checked, the K4 isn't really better than the Pro4. Both have same VRMs, on board audio, back ports etc so just pcik whatever is cheaper. You're paying 500 more for the lights on the K4, so if you want more pretty lights then go for it!

 

[burntwingzZz]

the feature that you wont use is unbuffered ECC ram ,this support is present on asrocks boards. even a320 board has it , and the same support is present on few of the msi board . Amd officially supports ECC ,so msi and few other cut corners .I ink Asrock actually is a good product and provides good value and there were rumors to than some old mobos also support 5xxx on their beta bioses

And the fact of the matter Ryzen processors dont overclock alot , you just need to get good VRM ,they are processor limited not motherboard limited

 

[xkcd0137]

The 215X is an excellent case, should suit both. Flip a coin if you're confused, though personally I'd go for the K4 since it had lower temps than the Pro4 in the screenshot posted by you (in the second pic)

Pro4 is not in the pic but in the link I shared.

This is another thing I am not able to understand. Both K4 and Pro4 have same VRMs, yet K4 seems to perform better than Pro4!
Second, Asrock also launched a Steel Legend mobo which also shares the same VRM and is supposed to also have 60A power choke, larger aluminium alloy heatsink, nichicon black caps and what not, but many people had reported poor thermals on that Mobo. Why such discrepancies in what is basically the same product?

 

[bssunilreddy]

Sorry, that is way beyond my budget @ 12.5k. I'll have to decide between K4 or Pro4 now.

Any idea which one will look better with Lian Li 215 case?

Lian Li 215 is superb with its huge two 200mm front RGB fans and one 120mm rear fan which comes bundled with the case along with the included ARGB + fan controller at the back and nice velcro type cable ties for the front panel and fan cables and if you want clean and nice unhindered cables at the back buy some cable ties from Amazon and make sure they are at least 15mm long.
I think all Asrock mobos are of the same colors so at this budget you won't go with 24pin Lian Li cable strimers right

PS: Please clean the cabinet once every three months so that it will function good.


Once when I was cleaning my cabinet I found my mother's long hair in my Lian Li 215 cabinet rear fan which got winded in its blades.

So Google for optimum placement of fans since 215 can house upto 10 fans in one go I think.

 

[Stronk]

but many people had reported poor thermals on that Mobo. Why such discrepancies in what is basically the same product?

The Steel Legend has a different VRM arrangement. It is a 4phase VRM without doublers, and because of that it has higher temps compared to the Pro4 and K4's 3phase VRMs with doublers.
Also the temperature difference between K4 and Pro4 would probably be in margin or error but for peace of mind you can go with the K4. Your choice dude, both are the same mobo anyway.