motherboard recommendation

[decimusbell]

looking for a last recommendation for motherboard.

cpu is a ryzen 3400g and only going to use onboard graphics. which of these 3 motherboards would you choose and why?

Asus - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...-gaming-mini-itx-am4-motherboard-strix-b450-i
Asrock - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...ac-mini-itx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-itxac
MSI -https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...mini-itx-am4-motherboard-b450i-gaming-plus-ac

 

[reasons4reasons]

The Asrock looks the best to me.

• Not the Asus because it only has a single HDMI display output (limiting if you ever want to throw another monitor on there), and no USB C. It does have a second m.2 slot, which is nice, but it doesn't look like it works with APUs, so it's not of any use to you here.
• Not the MSI because it has a Realtek NIC (not bad, but historically not as good as Intel), no USB C, and more limited audio output (not a huge deal but if you're not going to run a sound card more is better than less).

The Asrock has Intel NICs, better audio, two display outputs, including one Displayport if you wanted to run more monitors in a MST daisy-chain, USB C, and the same number of M.2 slots as the others with your processor. The MSI should be pretty good, too, but if there's no price difference I'd go for the Asrock any day.

 

[couchpotato]

Asus B450-i has the best SoC VRM of the three boards. That's better for the on-boaed Vega GPU.

 

[amaximo]

I'm the owner of the Asus B450-I I would agree VRM is top notch. Its a solid board that I started with a 2200g and just gradually build it to what it is now a 2700x with a Nvidia GTX1060. Of course the only real problem is the lack of a second.

 

[decimusbell]

The Asrock looks the best to me.

• Not the Asus because it only has a single HDMI display output (limiting if you ever want to throw another monitor on there), and no USB C. It does have a second m.2 slot, which is nice, but it doesn't look like it works with APUs, so it's not of any use to you here.
• Not the MSI because it has a Realtek NIC (not bad, but historically not as good as Intel), no USB C, and more limited audio output (not a huge deal but if you're not going to run a sound card more is better than less).

The Asrock has Intel NICs, better audio, two display outputs, including one Displayport if you wanted to run more monitors in a MST daisy-chain, USB C, and the same number of M.2 slots as the others with your processor. The MSI should be pretty good, too, but if there's no price difference I'd go for the Asrock any day.

Asus- 'but it doesn't look like it works with APUs, so it's not of any use to you here'

can anyone confirm this????

 

[couchpotato]

Asus- 'but it doesn't look like it works with APUs, so it's not of any use to you here'

can anyone confirm this????

If you use the second M.2 slot, it will reduce the PCIe slot to 8x, instead of 16x. Which is still fine unless you want to use a 2080Ti. GPU less powerful than 2080 Ti will not be affected by the reduce PCIe bandwidth.