TeaRoomMosh

Mortar has better features than Gaming Plus 
 
Has optical out (spdif) , has hdmi and displayport (compared to hdmi and dvi on gaming plus, with gaming plus you'd have one output limited to dvi capabilities which sucks) , has 2 extra usb 3.0 ports on the ioshield AND a usb type c on the ioshield
 
You're only losing 2 pci-e x1 slots with the matx mortar board.
 
ALL the recommended boards have bios flashback ... even if you don't get the MAX version (which is guaranteed to come with ryzen 3xxx support from factory), you can simply put the bios on a usb stick and program the bios without cpu installed in the socket.
 
The versions without MAX in name are identical, they just have a smaller size bios chip, which forces them to use a more lightweight bios (less graphical, more grayscale, more texty) but all the options are there, you're not losing anything.

yeah, they are both good. i think the mortar max has 2 m.2 slots, which many people like as a feature.

Yes it is mATX, also check if it is the mortar or mortar max. If it is just the mortar then skip it, the max has out of the box Ryzen 3000 support.

The strix B450-F is a pretty good motherboard, and should be a fine motherboard, but the bios update isn't guaranteed, and you should maybe look for another MAX mobo. As for the storage, It depends. Just saying th eOS will take 50 gb (likely an overestimation, just to be safe) 100GB in personal files/other files, and with 850 GB left over for games, there should be enough, unless you want to play the latest and greatest triple-a's, which can take up to 300 GB of storage for one game. In general 1tb should be fine, but If you are going to play triple a's, I recommend to save up for another ssd, or get a hard drive and a 256gb nvme ssd, and use 128 gb for important files and the boot drive, and cache the other 128gb to make the hard drives faster. 
 

Yeah that’s what my other worry is as I read some buyer comments and they said the bios can’t be promised etc so I will look for another msi max board.
 
the storage should be fine then for a few months until I buy another SSD

Brilliant okay I’ll have a look thank you ! 

the mortar, gaming plus, a-pro and tomahawk have exactly the same vrms. the heatsink differes a bit, but in general the performance and power output is the same. all 4 motherboards can run a 3900x, which cannot be said about the asus rog strix

The strix B450-F is a pretty good motherboard, and should be a fine motherboard, but the bios update isn't guaranteed, and you should maybe look for another MAX mobo. As for the storage, It depends. Just saying th eOS will take 50 gb (likely an overestimation, just to be safe) 100GB in personal files/other files, and with 850 GB left over for games, there should be enough, unless you want to play the latest and greatest triple-a's, which can take up to 300 GB of storage for one game. In general 1tb should be fine, but If you are going to play triple a's, I recommend to save up for another ssd, or get a hard drive and a 256gb nvme ssd, and use 128 gb for important files and the boot drive, and cache the other 128gb to make the hard drives faster. 
 

get another msi board, if in stock. the msi b450 a-pro MAX and msi b450 gaming plus MAX and msi b450m mortar MAX are as good as the tomahawk. the asus one doesn't have great vrms. it's fine for the 3600, but if you want to upgrade to more cores, it can't deliver enough power.
as for ssd space, 1tb should be enough for os, launchers and about 10 games (depending on the game).
don't go for a samsung ssd, they are overpriced. a crucial P1, intel 660p or wd sn550 are fast enough for a gaming pc.

Look for MSI Mortar , it's just as good.. and has more features (connectors on io shield and stuff)
 
MSI B450 Gaming Plus Max are also good boards with VRM close to Tomohawk.
MSI B450-A Pro is a bit weaker but still very good and perfectly fine for a 6 core processor and even 8 core processors.
 
Even a 500 GB drive will be enough for the OS and a bunch of games.

Thank you, that’s great, yeah after realising I can adapt 3 pin fans speed I’ll stick to the one controller app of icue !

That’s great, thanks for the links ! 

It wont fit. Proof?
 
Here's an Asus Strix with normal fans (298mm long) which has the radiator top mounted since it wouldnt fit at the front
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/Rkhypg
 
Alternatively, here's am MSI Ventus (268mm) with the AIO at the front
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/n4yXsY
 
You can see how close the cards are to each of their respective builds. Note that almost every AIO on the market has a 27mm thick rad, so subtract 27 from 300mm to get your max GPU length. 

You can also plug a 3 pin fan on a 4 pin header without issue. 
 
On that note, while I did mention yes it is possible to have multiple different brands of fans and use multiple different control clients, Its not the most recommended thing in the world, as another user replied that it can cause system congestion, therefore resulting in potential fps loss in game (I havent experienced this, but Murphy's Law states anything that CAN happen, WILL happen). Aesthetically, I would try and stick to a brand as much as you can. It would be worth while to buy all the things you want the first time, rather than compromise and buy again later, like a handful of users, including myself, did and felt that remorse after. I personally really like NZXT, you could consider me a fanboy so to speak, so eventually all corsair stuff is going into my girlfriends rig and Ima get me the new Kraken Z series cooler, as well as some AER RGB fans for good ol. JARVIS.

2 pin would be “locked”, although you can still control the speed with just power and ground. The third wire is RPM data so the mobo can know the RPM and change it. 4 pin PWM is just more advanced. You can google PWM and read up on it if your curious how it works. 

Ah I see so I can still manually adapt 3 pin fans to ramp up at certain temps ? Or is that the More advanced 4 pin Fans ? 

a 3 pin and 4 pin can both regulate their speed so yes u can
Yes u can use different fans/controllers.
U would have to have to have different apps though I think.

4 pin is PWM, 3 pin is DC. Both can control RPM, PWM is just “more advanced”.
 
I wouldn’t run different RGB software. Those programs always hog more resources then they should, multiple (depending on which) can end up slowing down your system to an actual noticeable level as far as FPS in games goes. Which is shocking, but true. 

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/is-there-a-way-to-control-3-pin-fans.2905718/
 
The link above is a fantastic description and explanation of the differences in how fan speed is controlled on 3 pin fans vs 4 pin "Pulse Width Modulating" fans. 
 
As far as RGB lighting goes, you can absolutely have more than 1 brand of lighting and lighting controller in a case. In most situatuions, you cannot plug an NZXT AER RGB fan into a Corsair Controller (or so I have heard. I never tried). So for example, My NZXT H500i case has the built-in Hue controller, and I use the CAM software to control the case lighting. I could also plug NZXT brand fans into the hue controller, and control those fans from the CAM software as well.
 
My AiO liquid cooler is a Corsair, so I have to use the iCUE software to control that.
 
Finally, I have an ASUS motherboard, therefore my RAM and motherboard lighting is controlled by Aura Sync. That being said, iCUE and AURA now have a plugin that allows motherboard lighting that typically was controlled by aura, to now be visible and controllable in the iCUE software. The link on how to do this is below at the end of the reply.
 
one thing to be conscious of, is that for every lighting controller you have, you will need to use an internal USB header on the motherboard. so if you have more controllers than internal USB headers, you will need to buy an internal hub.
 
https://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=192965

I was under the impression the difference with the 3 & 4 pin is that 4 pin would have a variable speed so it can ramp up and down where as 3 pin is fixed low/high with no in between ? 

There is another option, since it doesn't really sound like you're going to use both monitors at the same time specifically. You could pick up a switch for your displays and just toggle over to the one you want to use at the time.

When you run a monitor at 144hz/165hz/anything above 60hz, your GPU has to work harder just to run that monitor. So if you have two monitors running at a high refresh rate, you will see that extra work your GPU is having to do reflected in your gaming. You will see less performance, lower frame rates, and higher GPU temps. If your 1080p monitor is just for streaming/youtube/non gaming applications, you really don't need anything above 60hz.

Yea different resolutions is not something to worry about. What you will want to watch out for is if your GPU can handle two high performance monitors. You may bring the refresh rate down to 60hz on the 1080p one if your 1440p monitor is 144hz or anything above 60hz.

if you're not using them both simultaneously it shouldn't be an issue, definitely more efficient than my desk with 2 computers, one with a 4k60 and the other 1440p 144hz. If you wanted a clean match for mouse movement across a work-space it would be a bit easier with 2 of the same monitors, same as trying to add displays together for games although usually you would use 3 or more for that (1 center and 2 peripheral)
 
edit: I'm not aware of any driver bugs or limitations, from what I have seen that shouldn't be an issue these days

Hello,
 
Im looking to run a dual or possibly three screen set up for gaming/streaming but I already have a 25” 165hz 1080p monitor which is great but will it matter or effect anything if I decide to get A 1440p 27” screen ? 
 
This is so I have a 1440p monitor for the visuals on some games I’d like to enjoy and play and then refresh rate on the more fast paced fps games which don’t need to look great on my 25” ? 
 
any thoughts or help is much appreciated !