My old AM3+ Asus motherboard was starting to show its age with its FX-8320E processor and 1600mhz ram. I was due for a upgrade for my rig anyhow so I decided to shop for a new processor, RAM, and motherboard. I've Had ASRock and Asus in the past and wanted to give MSI a try since I heard good things about their boards. I decided to go with 16gb XPG 3000mhz RAM, a Ryzen 5 1600 processor and this board. When it comes to computer parts like these I like to wait for several months to give a accurate picture of what my experience is.
It's been five months and I can safely say I'm very happy with this board. Everything when hooked up worked with no issues whatsoever. Upon going into the BIOS, I was impressed with the clean layout of it. My old ASRock motherboard had a BIOS that had everything placed haphazardly and always confused me to no end. My Asus board was better but this? This is amazing. Wanna overclock your CPU? No problem. Wanna run your ram at a higher frequency? Sure. Need to see how your motherboard is doing temperature wise? Click here. Need to switch boot priority? Simple as spelling "me". The user friendliness of the interface was a good indicator of what I was to expect.
As for handling my PC parts? Well, needless to say it handles everything well. Some may opt for the ATX factor but I like the mATX factor because all I have are a wireless card and a 980ti so I see no reason to have extra ports. You could argue that a sound card may be the reason some opt for bigger boards or maybe they run two graphics cards. I don't run two graphics cards. And the onboard sound is well equipped for my acoustic needs. Another point some may point out is that they'll go for 4 RAM slots than two. Again, that's handy but this board supports up to 32gb ram and I have 16. I don't do RAM heavy tasks. I game with several friends and surf the web. 16gb RAM for someone like me is adequate. As of the time of this review I'm currently playing Borderlands 3 and maintained well over 60fps on high in 1080p so needless to say I'm positive this motherboard can handle heavy usage (longest session playing with my best friend was 10 hours straight. Motherboard was only 87°F).
Now for some side notes. Be aware of how many hard drives and other SATA connectors you have. My old Asus board had six. This one has four. My PC has a front SATA port for external hard drives which I never used so I left it disconnected. Two HDD's, 1 SSD, and my disk drive occupy my four ports. Be aware of you intend to go with this Motherboard. This Motherboard also has a m2 slot and even included a m2 screw. It's also nvme compatible. So if you're like me and want more storage, it's there. There are other bell and whistles that this board contains but for my needs, the first two are mostly relevant to me. Also, this board supports Ryzen 3000 series CPUs. Something to keep in mind if intending to go for a Ryzen 3000 CPU. A BIOS update is required.
So in conclusion, with all my parts and hardware hooked to this motherboard, I'd say my experience has been postive. No blue screens, no hiccups, nothing. Everything has been working excellent for me so far. As a PC enthusiast, I ham satisfied with it. MSI is a world renowned brand and now I understand why. If looking to upgrade on a budget or even for high end builds, I recommend this board.
My Build:
• Raidmax Aeolus Mid ATX case with 7 Cooler Master fans at 1800rpm
• MSI B450 Pro M2 mATX AM4 motherboard
• Ryzen 5 1600 processor at stock frequency
• Adata XPG 16gb DDR4 ram at 3000mhz
• Cooler Master RGB 120mm CPU liquid cooler
• EVGA 980ti 6gb graphics card
• Seagate Barracuda 2tb hard drive, Seagate 2tb hdd, Silicone Power 128gb SSD
• Thermaltake 700w non-modular power supply
• Ever Cool dual 5.25 hdd fan cooler with 80mm fan
• Windows 10 Home 64bit
| Memory Speed | 3466 MHz |
|---|---|
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
