Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTMSI B450M Mortar and
MSI B450M Mortar Titanium
Like the MSI B450M Bazooka boards, the MSI B450M Mortar and the B450M Mortar Titanium are a part of the MSI Arsenal Gaming collection with the focus being on offering gamers a lower cost alternative and starting point for an e-Sports based gaming system. Unlike the B450M Bazooka and Bazooka Plus models, the only differences between both the B450M Mortar models come in the aesthetics; the B450M Mortar Titanium has a classy silvery PCB and pairing of heatsinks which gives it a unique look. Both boards also have RGB LEDs implemented underneath right-hand side of the board with the option add an additional two 5050 RGB LED strips.
The MSI B450 Mortar (left) and B450 Mortar Titanium (right) motherboards
The B450M Mortar/Mortar Titanium are both microATX form factor, with support for AMD 2-way CrossFire multi-graphics card configurations. The PCIe on the boards consist of a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot with MSI’s Steel Armor slot reinforcement, and a second full-length PCIe 2.0 x4 slot; also included is two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. Storage wise both models have four SATA right angled ports and two M.2 slots with both slots supporting M.2 2280 (22 x 80 mm) drives, but only one of the slots offering full PCIe 3.0 x4 support. The second slot has support for PCIe 2.0 x4, with both M.2 slots supporting SATA drives too.
Power delivery wise, the B450 Mortar/Mortar Titanium looks to have seven phases running in a 4+3 configuration. Power to the CPU is provided by an 8-pin ATX 12 V power input while the motherboard takes power from a regular 24-pin ATX connector.
Up to DDR4-3466 memory is supported with a total of four memory slots offering a maximum system memory capacity of up to 64 GB. The boards also have a total of four 4-pin fan connectors with one being dedicated to the CPU and the rest set aside as system fan headers.
Both the B450M Mortar and B450M Mortar Titanium share identical rear panels with a two USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports (Type-A and Type-C), four USB 3.1 5 Gbps Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports. A pairing of video outputs with support for the Ryzen and Zen based APUs include an HDMI 1.4 port and a DisplayPort. A BIOS Flashback+ button is also included, with a PS/2 combo port, five 3.5mm audio jacks and a S/PDIF optical output and single RJ45 LAN port.
The B450M Mortar offers decent quality controllers and it’s expected that these will cost slightly more than the other microATX B450 Bazooka/Bazooka Plus pairing, but with support for 2-way CrossFire multi-graphics configurations, the B450M Mortar and B450M Mortar Titanium could comfortably be the foundations of a powerful microATX gaming system.
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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).