Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTMSI B450 Tomahawk
The MSI B450M Tomahawk is a direct successor to the B350 Tomahawk we previously reviewed, but with a few visual tweaks and the introduction of RGB LED lighting to the mix to give it a more ‘popular’ reach to those looking to customize their system to fit their components and mood. The B450 Tomahawk sports the same Realtek ALC892 audio codec and the same Realtek 8111H Gigabit LAN controller as the B350 model, and on paper, look very similar.
The main differences come through a new PCIe layout consisting of a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot featuring MSI Steel Armor, with a second full-length slot running at PCIe 2.0 x4 and a trio of PCIe 2.0 x1 ports; these replace the legacy PCI slots featured on the previous B350 Tomahawk. One of the advantages of the B450 chipset over B350 is the memory speeds supported, more specifically due to the refined firmware possessed by the B450 Tomahawk, which allows support for DDR4-3466 with a total of 64 GB of system memory supported over the four available slots. The use of both ECC and non-ECC memory is permitted, although the ECC memory will run in non-ECC mode. The main visual difference is the B450 comes with new but svelte looking heatsinks and the power delivery heatsink has the MSI Arsenal Gaming logo to signify the entry-level gaming range this board represents. MSI also seem to have kept the same 6-phase power delivery running in the same 4+2 configuration as the previous B350 Tomahawk.
Storage wise, the B450 Tomahawk has a total of six SATA ports with four featuring right-angled connectors and two having a straight angled design; RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays are supported. A Single M.2 slot capable of supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives up to a size of M.2 22110 (22 x 110 mm).
On the rear panel, the B450 Tomahawk includes a BIOS Flashback+ button with two USB 3.1 5 Gbps Type-A ports, two USB 2.0 ports and a USB 3.1 10 Gbps Type-A and Type-C port. Also included is a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port, six 3.5mm audio jacks powered by a Realtek ALC892 audio codec, a single LAN port controlled by a Realtek 8111H Gigabit networking chip, and two video outputs consisting of an HDMI 1.4 port and a DVI-D port.
While the B450 Tomahawk offers improved memory speeds, classier heatsinks and a small customizable RGB LED strip in the top right corner of the board, the price is likely to reflect this with a touted price of $109.99 at launch; around $20 more than the B350 Tomahawk. Whether or not the new refreshed Tomahawk matches specification and visual aspirations of users, the extra integrated RGB lighting and new style MSI Arsenal Gaming heatsinks on the B450 chipset come at a more expensive premium.
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bi0logic - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
It looks like the price link to the "TUF B450-Plus Gaming" is going to an amazon search for "ASRock B450M Pro4"eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Thanks Gavin, I know this is a lot of information to go through and present. I would love to see a follow-up on these questions:1. Especially for these compact boards, any problems with stock processor heat sinks blocking DIMM slots, i.e. do DIMMs with heat spreaders still fit with a Wraith or Spire cooler, respectively?
2. I have my eye on the Aorus Pro WiFi or something similar, but am wary of the placement of the WiFi antenna connectors right next to two of the USB 3 connectors. I frequently use 3-4 USB 3 devices at the same time frequently, and am wary of the USB 3 - WiFi interference with that placement. Any chance Gigabyte could state if/that they got that taken care of?
Thanks!
Also, still looking forward to your Ryzen 2200/2400 GPU overclock chapter on that duo. Any chance we'll see it soon?
sonofgodfrey - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Second to last table is labeled X470 Motherboards.PingSpike - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
It looks like the ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING inherits some of the layout features of the (much more expensive) x470 Crosshair 7 in that it steals some of the CPU lanes to get a second full PCI-e 3.0 M.2 slot. Then 8x goes to PCI-e 16 1, the remaining 4x to PCI-e 16 2 and finally a chipset PCI-e 2.0On the surface, this seems like it has totally ignored the bifrucation limitations that supposedly are inherent to the B450 chipset.
In other words, I thought you couldn't get that on this chipset.
Dragonstongue - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
well at least the pricing is "more inline" with the pricing they should be, newer boards, better componentes that actually save the maker a bit of coin per board made, so they keep the same "launch price" is acceptable in my books coming from gen 1 (I so hate the naming AMD used for Ryzen 1xxx and 2xxx needless confusion for nothing)x3xx to x4xx same concept, reduced price to produce so they save some money, but the vast majority of vendors used these "savings" to cram more disco light show RGB on the boards to jack the price up some instead.
seems at least with the B4xx boards the vendors took a "better" approach beyond a few more "premium" boards which rightfully have an increased price (justifiable, maybe, but I myself have zero need of RGB and would only buy a more expensive board that offered them at the increased price if they were WORTH it as far as just overall better then lower cost boards, sadly, there seems to be little difference in more "premium" beyond a butt load of extra RGB little better in VRM etc which are much more useful and required IMO)
they could almost have a market for the premium boards RGB free, so pay a bit less for people like me who do not want all the RGB crud but still get the increased premium sound/VRM/BIOS etc ^.^
WasHopingForAnHonestReview - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
Nice review. Good work.Im amazed that almost every comment is a nitpick. Rough life, Ian.
Flappergast - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
Nice overview on the last page. I’m looking for mITX WiFi - nice to see some good boardsSakkura - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
As documented by Buildzoid, the Asrock B450 Pro4 does not have the claimed 6+3-phase VRM. It is a pure 3+3-phase. Same probably applies for the B450M Pro4.https://youtu.be/yWAwOH-egFs?t=2104
JohanPirlouit - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
Hi everyone,Am I the only one to see that on the AMD picture:
- CPU: 2x SATA 3Gbps
- Chipset: 6x SATA 3Gbps
What do AMD talks about: SATA "3" (known as "6Gbps") or SATA 3Gbps (aka SATA II)?
Sakkura - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
They mean SATA3 = SATA 6Gbps. Annoying that we keep running into these easily confused naming schemes (see also: USB 3.1 Gen1 and Gen2). At least SATA is getting old enough that we should soon be able to just drop the version number (unlike USB 2.0 there's really no reason to make modern hardware with SATA2).