AM4 Motherboard Recommendation

[Cezar]

Looking for a sweet spot motherboard to go with Ryzen 1600. What should I look for? In general I plan to install in it gtx 760 or 970.

Is the board below any good? What are the top chipsets for AM4 mother boards? Say if z97 was one of the best chipsets for LGA 1150 Intel mother boards, what are the top chipsets in mobos for AM4 socket?

Just found the hierarchy for AM4 chipsets on the AMD website.
https://www.amd.com/en/products/chipsets-am4

What else should I look at in the mobo?

I want something powerful, but at the same time do not want to overpay. Aesthetics are not supper important for me.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/476090/prime-b350-plus-am4-atx-amd-motherboard

 

[Johan45]

X470 is the top current chipset, I would still go with a current B450 chipset if your going that route.

 

[Bustos]

I’m in the same boat trying to find an am4 board I like. I see you have a Fatal1ty Mobo. If you liked that, there is a 450 Fatal1ty iTX Mobo.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.newegg.com/amp/products/N82E16813157844

Although from my research the 450 MSI Tomahawk ATX is highly recommended.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.newegg.com/amp/products/N82E16813144189

Personally I can’t decide on an iTX, mATX, or ATX mobo.

 

[trickson69]

I currently have 2 one is a Gigabyte GA-AB350M-Gaming 3 that has the Ryzen 3 1300X.

Then I have the MSIX470 gaming Plus that is housing a Ryzen 7 1700.

Both are great MB's so far. No complaints here at all.

The first one The AB350M, Yeah that also ran my Ryzen 7 1700 no issues at all, till the MSI X470 got in.

Both MB's can be picked up for under 150 us dollars to. In fact should be able to score them for less than 100 bucks if you look hard enough.

 

[Zerileous]

Not exhaustive but here is a look at b450 motherboards by Anandtech by features: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1309...ryzen-a-quick-look-at-all-the-motherboards/22

This video is opinion from looking at VRM specs / overclocking features, but the comments has a list of "best" for different categories including price (so you don't have to watch the video). I would combine this carefully with information from actual reviews.

You mention "power" so I'm going to throw one more VRM oriented posts your way. Note that if you plan to use liquid cooling, a VRM that is suitable for a certain OC with an air cooler may not be suitable with liquid cooling due to decreased airflow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/9uc6bi

Not sure of the OP's qualifications, in terms of saying, X VRM is good for X CPU, or even that certain VRM set ups are comparable etc. But it's something to look at.

Edit: one more VRM related resource https://forum.level1techs.com/t/x470-b450-motherboard-vrm-topic/126962/20

 

[Dr. McCoy]

Just did a build running a 2700X in a X470 Tachi Ultimate: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157834
No problems with it so far, setting up Win 7 was breeze and had it up and running quickly.

I've rarely heard anything bad about the Tachi lineup as a whole - Although it's way too early to tell is this one will be good right now I am sure it will be fine.

 

[Bustos]

You mention "power" so I'm going to throw one more VRM oriented posts your way. Note that if you plan to use liquid cooling, a VRM that is suitable for a certain OC with an air cooler may not be suitable with liquid cooling due to decreased airflow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/9uc6bi

Not sure of the OP's qualifications, in terms of saying, X VRM is good for X CPU, or even that certain VRM set ups are comparable etc. But it's something to look at.

Wow. I've been ranking mobos in a note I was making on my phone based on reviews. No where near that thorough or organized. That's a great chart. I would have placed some of the Asrocks more midrange and some of the MSI's more midrange, personally. Thanks for sharing this.

Just did a build running a 2700X in a X470 Tachi Ultimate: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157834
No problems with it so far, setting up Win 7 was breeze and had it up and running quickly.

I've rarely heard anything bad about the Tachi lineup as a whole - Although it's way too early to tell is this one will be good right now I am sure it will be fine.

A $300 mobo for an R 5 1600?

 

[trents]

X470 is the top current chipset, I would still go with a current B450 chipset if your going that route.

What's your reasoning there? Is it because the OP will only be using it for an R5?

 

[Cezar]

What are the track records for different brands of AM4 motherboards? Which brands are better stay away from and which are the best?

 

[Woomack]

What's your reasoning there? Is it because the OP will only be using it for an R5?

I guess it's the fact that on both chipsets results are about the same while B450 is cheaper. For example if you compare ASRock B450 ITX and X470 ITX then you will see that the only difference is used chipset (and WiFi antennas ). I was testing both and both were about the same. The same PCB, power design, BIOS etc.

The only good reason to pick X470 is when you want full ATX motherboard with more features or additional devices as most manufacturers are using only X470 in their higher mobo series.

I had a chance to test maybe 5 ASRock B350/450 and X370/470 boards, maybe 6-7 others from MSI, ASUS, Biostar and Gigabyte. For me the best was ASRock and MSI. For example MSI B450M Mortar was working with all memory kits without issues and was easy to overclock. It was also cheap. ASRock in general is great and I had no problems with their motherboards.

 

[Johan45]

What's your reasoning there? Is it because the OP will only be using it for an R5?

Mostly because the OP linked a B350 board from MC so I assumed they were looking to stay on the cheaper side of things. Personally, if it was a 20-30$ difference I would always pick the higher end chipset no matter what platform but that's me.