Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTMSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
The MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC sits as MSI’s premier and flagship B450 chipset motherboard and has a strong focus on gaming but moves away from the conventional MSI Gaming red and black theme. The B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC also uses a variety of premium controllers and chips including the Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, an Intel 9260 dual-band 802.11ac 2T2R Wi-Fi adapter and an Intel I211-AT Gigabit LAN networking chip.
As mentioned, the B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC moves away from the traditional gaming theme usually seen from MSI, and instead the carbon namesake features an all-black PCB with the bottom left quadrant having a grey lined pattern rising towards the heatsinks and passed the PCIe slots. Both the power delivery and chipset heatsink have a definitive carbon themed styling which blends in with the rest of the board to create a stylish look. The board also has two dedicated RGB zones with the first emanating from the right and side behind the 24-pin ATX power connector, with the second coming from the chipset heatsink. To expand on this, MSI has included a total of three RGB headers with two having support for 5050 RGB LED strips with a maximum power of 12 V, and the last supporting addressable RGB strips up to a power of 5 V.
The board conforms to the standard ATX form factor and has a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, a full-length PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and three PCIe 2.0 1x slots. The B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC has a total of four memory slots supporting up to DDR4-3466 with a total of 64 GB system memory supported. A total of six SATA right angled ports and two M.2 slots with one offering PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA support, and the other allowing for just PCIe 2.0 x4 supported drives.
On the rear panel, the B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC has one USB 3.1 10 Gbps Type-C, one USB 3.1 10 Gbps Type-A, two USB 3.1 5 Gbps Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. Delivering audio through the six 3.5mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output is the Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, with the single LAN port taking direction from an Intel I211-AT Gigabit chip and the Wi-Fi featuring Wave 2 2T2R capability due to the Intel 9260 Wi-Fi module. Finishing off the rear panel is a clear CMOS switch and a P/S2 keyboard and mouse combo port.
While none of the pricing on MSI B450 models has been announced prior to launch, the B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC is expected to retail for around $149.99.
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tonecas1 - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
Asus Prime 450M-K has only 4 Sata ports, audio is Realtek’s ALC887 only, and memory support goes to 3466 (OC)tonecas1 - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
Asus Prime 450M-K has 2 PCIe 2.0x1 and 1 PCIe 3.0 x16 by CPU supporttonecas1 - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
MSI B450M Pro-M2 only supports 2x DIMM slotstonecas1 - Wednesday, October 31, 2018 - link
ASRock B450M Pro4 is not a 6+3 power system but a 3+3. You have to remove the heat sink to see the MOSFET Hi and Lo combos and IC controlersQuarterPunder - Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - link
So if i buy this motherboard do i still need to buy a wifi card/Bluetooth receptor???msroadkill612 - Wednesday, March 20, 2019 - link
"Strix B450-F Gaming ..... Also present is a duo of M.2 slots with both having support for PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 drives, while the top slot which supports both PCIe and SATA drives up to a size of M.2 2280 (22 x 80 mm), the bottom slot only supports PCIe 3.0 x4 drives with a sizing up to M.2 22110 (22 x 110 mm)."ALARMINGLY WRONG!
Newegg:
"AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation / Ryzen 1st Generation Processors: *
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)**
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)***"
msroadkill612 - Wednesday, March 20, 2019 - link
edit - to remove any doubt - in full, the specs are:"AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation / Ryzen 1st Generation Processors: *
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)**
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)***
AMD Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics Processor: *
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)**
* Support StoreMI and NVMe RAID.
** When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA or PCIE mode, SATA6G_5/6 ports will be disabled.
*** When the M.2_2 is occupied by M.2 device, PCIe x16_1 will run at x8 mode."
g0rnex - Sunday, June 23, 2019 - link
I run windows from external SSD so I need fast USB ports for it to run smooth. Can I replace the USB ports by 3.2 gen2 when needed?g0rnex - Sunday, June 23, 2019 - link
I run win10 from an external SSD. for that I need a fast USB connection for windows to run smooth.Would it be possible to change the USB ports in the future? OR even now already by a 3.2 gen2. Or wouldn't replacing the ports speed up my connection with the external SSD?
Also I would like a good bluetooth connection. Do I need to use an adapter?
looking into making this build:
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/hXzKHx/entry-level-...
GayCock69 - Monday, August 19, 2019 - link
ryzen 3700x + aorus pro wifi b450 + radeon rx5700xt, will it work optimally?