Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE B450M DS3H
The last of GIGABYTE’s launch day motherboards comes via the B450M DS3H which hails from the Ultra Durable range. With the shift here from gaming to a more subtle theme, the styling choices opted here by GIGABYTE come across as less ‘in your face’ without RGB LEDs built into the heatsinks, but users looking to make use of rainbow-colored RGB can do so through a single RGB LED strip header.
Without a lot of the bells and whistles of the B450 Aorus motherboards, what the B450M DS3H does focus on is providing value without sacrificing too much on the overall quality. The general controller choice does put this board in the lower range of AM4 boards available, but the Realtek ALC887 audio codec still does a decent job of providing onboard audio. With a Realtek GbE LAN controller present also, the DS3H is admirable for users on a strict budget, but who also require a smaller microATX form factor.
The main bulk of the board's aesthetic prowess come from the PCB, which features a black base with a grey striped circuit-like pattern emanating from the corners of the board towards the socket. This entry-level offering has two full-length PCIe slots; the top slot is PCIe 3.0 x16 while the bottom slot is PCIe 2.0 x4. Sitting in between the two full-length slots is a single PCIe 2.0 x1 slot. Thanks to the two full-length slots, this means AMD CrossFire multi-graphics card configurations are supported, although it should be noted NVIDIA SLI is not supported across the B450 chipset; this is due to a limitation of PCI bandwidth.
Like all of GIGABYTE’s launch day range of B450 motherboards, the B450M DS3H has four memory slots capable of supporting DDR4-3200 memory. This means that a total of 64 GB of system memory can be installed with both ECC and non-ECC Un-buffered memory types being supported. There is also support for DDR4 memory with XMP profiles built-in.
Storage wise, the main bulk is made of from four SATA ports. These ports all feature straight angled slots, which is a pure cost-cutting measure and a consequence of the board's entry-level pedigree. The SATA ports also support RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays. Also present is a single PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot with support for up to M.2 22110 (22 x 110 mm) SSDs.
In terms of power delivery, the B450M DS3H looks to sport a seemingly simple, but ample, 4+3 hybrid digital design, with a very small and lightweight looking heatsink across the CPU section of the VRM; this leaves the SoC area at the mercy of the system's passive cooling capabilities. Not so much an issue when using a discrete graphics card but could cause potential heat issues if a user intends to use one of the Ryzen 2000 series APUs and overclock them for better performance.
The rear panel on the B450M DS3H microATX motherboard consists of a fairly basic selection of ports and connections including four USB 3.1 5 Gbps ports and four additional USB 2.0 Type-A ports. Also included is a PS/2 combo port, as well as a single LAN port controlled by a Realtek GbE networking chip. The three 3.5mm audio jacks making up the onboard audio are powered by the Realtek ALC887 audio codec. Finishing off the rear panel is a pairing of video outputs which consist of a DVI-D, and HDMI 2.0 port which makes this board suitable for a low-end and entry-level gaming system when paired up with an APU.
The crux of the GIGABYTE B450M DS3H comes in the way of value ($69.99), but without sacrificing core features which are used frequently on most home systems. From the Realtek ALC887 which is a more budget-friendly audio codec opposed to say the ALC1220, to the use a cheaper Realtek GbE networking chip opposed to say the Intel I211-AT featured on their own B450 Aorus Pro/Aorus Pro WIFI models; it gives the B450M DS3H more function and value over style, over the top aesthetics and unnessacary cost spiking componentry.
62 Comments
View All Comments
theanalyzer - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Signed up to point that out. Needs to be fixed. It’s the only ITX board supporting 2x which sets it’s apart form the competitionDeath666Angel - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Glad to see more options in the mATX range with two M.2 slots, not just from AsRock this time around. My next rig will either be based on the AsRock B450M Pro4 or one of the MSI B450M Mortar boards. Will wait for actual VRM setup and overclocking results / general tests to see which one will be it. I had motherboards from both manufacturers and was pleased with both. MSI has the advantage of offering PCIe M.2 options for both slots as well as SATA. One question regarding that: if I install a 3.0 PCIe x2 M.2 SSD into a 2.0 PCIe x4 slot, what will be the speed ramifications? Can it only use 2.0 PCIe x2 or can it use the full x4, thus being similar in speed to a native 3.0 PCIe x2 setup? :) Still waiting on mATX x470 mainboards.Outlander_04 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
.3.0 x 2 is the same speed as 2.0 x 4DanNeely - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Except that a 3.0 x2 drive is almost certainly x2 because it only has 2 PCIe lanes (cutting down on them is one of the ways the cheaper drives pinch pennies), which means it will be connected at 2.0 x2; at that point you might as well just use a SATA drive and save a bit more money.Death666Angel - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Thanks for providing an answer to my actual question. :)AdrianB1 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
You will get a 2 lane PCIe 2.0 connection, that means 1 GB/s. This is 1/4 of a PCIe 3.0 4-lane usual NVME drive, but real life you may get closer to 80% of the performance.Death666Angel - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Thanks!Outlander_04 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Finally some budget boards with solid VRMs.skpetic - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
There are some seriously shady stuff going on with VRMS om X470 og B450. Check out Buildzoid on youtube. Asus B450 STRIX ITX board is single phase for SoC. Several of the Gigabyte B450 and X470 boards in reality have half the advertised amount of phases or are using doublers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IjWCOXSuKU
meacupla - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
hahaha... noAsus with the absolute trash tier VRM heatsinks
AsRock with fake phases
Gigabyte with fake phases and trash VRM heatsinks
MSI with no Vcore offset