Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTMSI B450I Gaming Plus AC
The MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC is an Mini-ITX motherboard from MSI’s Gaming range and just like the bigger sized ATX B450 Gaming Plus it shares a similar feature set in terms of controllers and available connections. The main differences aside from the form factor come from the inclusion of an Intel Dual-Band Wireless-AC 3168 Wi-Fi module.
The limitation of Mini-ITX means the B450I Gaming Plus AC has a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, with storage options provided by the B450 chipset via four SATA ports; all of the SATA ports feature straight angled connectors which are located just below the 24-pin ATX motherboard power input. Also included is a single M.2 slot capable of supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA drive up to a size of M.2 2280 (22 x 80 mm). Providing power to the CPU is an 8-pin ATX 12 V input with the B450I Gaming Plus AC seemingly sporting an 8-phase power delivery running in a 6+2 configuration.
Aesthetically speaking, the B450I Gaming Plus AC has an all-black PCB with heatsinks which follows the red and black MSI Gaming theme; the red pattern on both the black power delivery and chipset heatsink resembles a lightning bolt. Looking at memory support, the board has two slots capable of supporting DDR4-3466 with a maximum of 32 GB of memory allowed. The MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC has support for both non-ECC and ECC DDR4 memory, although installed ECC memory will operate in non-ECC mode.
On the rear panel, the B450I Gaming Plus AC has a total of six USB Type-A ports split between four USB 3.1 5 Gbps and two USB 2.0 ports; this board omits any USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports at all and lacks any Type-C connectivity. A single PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port is present, with the Intel 3168 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter commanding some space for the two included antennae’s to be installed. Finishing off the rear panel is a pairing of video outputs, an HDMI and DisplayPort, with the three 3.5mm audio jacks being provided by the budget-friendly Realtek ALC887 audio codec and the single LAN port being controlled by the Realtek 8111H Gigabit LAN controller.
MSI has clearly gone the more wallet-friendly approach with the B450I Gaming Plus AC with a host of relatively affordable controllers and offering a smaller form factor Mini-ITX gaming themed alternative. Users looking to customize the look of their system will be pleased to know that MSI has included two 5050 RGB LED strip headers but does lack any integrated RGB capabilities under the heatsinks. The launch price of $119.99 is set to make the ITX AM4 market competitive.
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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