Thoughts on GALAX B450m?

[snouh]

I saw this motherboard on sale for $73, I live somewhere in Southeast Asia. I that the price is actually cheaper than a b450m-hdv, which was the cheapest b450 motherboard. 

http://www.galax.com/en/motherboard/galax-b450m-motherboard.html 

 

By looking at it, I'm already scared to overclock my system. Because I don't see any VRM heatsinks anywhere. Idk I might be wrong 

 

Also, it has no information about the anount of fan connectors it has. Not so confident so far. (Again, I might be mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong) 

 

DETAILS 

CPU - Ryzen 3 1600, running at stock speeds 

GPU - PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Dragon 

PSU - Cooler Master MWE 450 v2 

RAM - Patriot Viper Elite 8gb (2x4gb) 

 

First time posting

 

[boggy77]

i strongly advise getting a board with a vrm heatsink, especially if you want to overclock or even let ryzen boost automatically.

that board doesn't have it, so I wouldn't get it.

[Fasauceome]

Color me surprised, didn't know Galax made mobos

29 minutes ago, snouh said:

By looking at it, I'm already scared to overclock my system. Because I don't see any VRM heatsinks anywhere. Idk I might be wrong 

You'd be right on that front

 

29 minutes ago, snouh said:

Also, it has no information about the anount of fan connectors it has. Not so confident so far. (Again, I might be mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong) 

I spy only 2 fan headers, both at the top right.

 

As a basic board, nothing stands out as very terrible (for what you're targeting anyway) so if you're not planning on upgrading to an 8 core and overclocking it's serviceable as the cheapest option available

[aisle9]

First reaction: Galax makes motherboards?

 

Second reaction: No. I'm not sure if you have a Ryzen 5 1600 or a Ryzen 3 1200, but given the 1600 I'm guessing it's a 5. Even if it is a Ryzen 3, I wouldn't plan on much of an overclock on a board with no VRM heatsinks at all. Hell, I wouldn't OC at all on a board without them, even on something like a Ryzen 3.

 

Even with the B450 chipset, this board looks like it's intended for something like an Athlon GE or an APU build. There are actually a couple of reports out there of people being told by Galax and/or resellers (not 100% clear) that the board isn't overclockable, so I suppose it's possible that Galax included only the most basic of overclocking features in the BIOS, possibly none at all. I can't speak to the board's quality, and Galax is known for producing solid GPUs, but this isn't a board I'd buy to OC on. Honestly, in the US, unless it was under $50 and I had a very specific plan for it, I wouldn't buy it at all when there are known options with VRM cooling within the $70-75 price range.

[mariushm]

Well, considering the Ryzen 1600 consumes only 60-80 watts at stock frequencies, there should be some room to overclock the processor a bit. With a bit of overclocking, maybe the cpu will consume 100w or a bit more than that. 

 

You could add heatsinks on the vrm yourself it looks like the mosfets are arranged in a nice way that would make it possible to use a plain rectangular aluminum heatsink (or a bunch of small memory chip heatsinks that are commercially available for video card modding) ... yo would use a double sided adhesive thermal tape to keep the heatsink glued to the mosfets.

 

This being said, it's not just about the heatsink and how well the heat can be dissipated, it's also about how easy it is to overclock from the bios, what options you have.

Do you have options in bios to change the voltages, do you have options to lock frequencies? I don't know, i guess it depends on bios.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

If you can tell me what model of mosfets it's using I can make a guess on its capability once you stick some heatsinks onto it with some thermal adhesive

[snouh]

35 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Color me surprised, didn't know Galax made mobos

You'd be right on that front

 

I spy only 2 fan headers, both at the top right.

 

As a basic board, nothing stands out as very terrible (for what you're targeting anyway) so if you're not planning on upgrading to an 8 core and overclocking it's serviceable as the cheapest option available

How do you think it is compared to another basic board, like the B450m HDV? 

[Srijan Verma]

I use a Galax 2060 and the only thing i learnt about this company from my experience is that unless you are spending money, the lower price stuff is crap and if you are willing to spend a little more, you will be better off getting it from a different manufaturer

[Fasauceome]

20 minutes ago, snouh said:

How do you think it is compared to another basic board, like the B450m HDV? 

you shouldn't expect a huge difference in quality, features, or performance, and honestly the bigger deciding factor would be the warranty service available.

[boggy77]

22 minutes ago, snouh said:

How do you think it is compared to another basic board, like the B450m HDV? 

worse. the hdv at least has a heatsink.

[snouh]

6 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

worse. the hdv at least has a heatsink.

No, no it doesn't

[Abhikironman]

On 24/01/2020 at 8:36 PM, Jurrunio said:

If you can tell me what model of mosfets it's using I can make a guess on its capability once you stick some heatsinks onto it with some thermal adhesive

I know this thread is almost an year old but I have purchased a galax b450m Mobo, the MOSFETs are MDU1511 L28001GP. So is this Mobo capable of overclocking a ryzen 3 3100?

[Jurrunio]

37 minutes ago, Abhikironman said:

I know this thread is almost an year old but I have purchased a galax b450m Mobo, the MOSFETs are MDU1511 L28001GP. So is this Mobo capable of overclocking a ryzen 3 3100?

In what configuration? Each phase is made of at 1-2 high side mosfet, 1-2 low side mosfet and a choke. Need to know how many mosfets there are. Also not all phases power thr CPU cores, some power the SOC. Would like to know the voltage controller's model as well (which limits what ohase config it can be)

 

MDU1151 is a decent low side mosfet, but high side.mosfet needs switching speed.and it's hard to check a datasheet on a phone.

[mariushm]

A 3100 consumes what.. 50-60 watts?  Overclocking it will make it consume maybe 70-80 watts?

Basically, the mosfets won't matter than much with such low power processors... you have at least 4 lo-side mosfets and a cpu that consumes at most 80-100A .. so you get 15-25A per mosfet or per pair of mosfets, where each mosfet is good for at least 35 A.

The vrm controller and how well the bios configures and works with the vrm controller would matter more, how many overclocking options are present in bios... and then the quality of your 3100 chip will also affect overclocking.

 

 

 

[Abhikironman]

On 27/01/2021 at 8:41 PM, Jurrunio said:

In what configuration? Each phase is made of at 1-2 high side mosfet, 1-2 low side mosfet and a choke. Need to know how many mosfets there are. Also not all phases power thr CPU cores, some power the SOC. Would like to know the voltage controller's model as well (which limits what ohase config it can be)

 

MDU1151 is a decent low side mosfet, but high side.mosfet needs switching speed.and it's hard to check a datasheet on a phone.

I could find these pics of the Mobo, I hope this could help.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

11 minutes ago, Abhikironman said:

could find these pics of the Mobo, I hope this could help.

It is better than the setup Gigabyte and Asus uses on their cheap.B450.boards, sadly.without heatsink it's still going to be rated below them. OC a 3100.will be fine but dont try OC higher core count 65w TDP models.

[Abhikironman]

Just now, Jurrunio said:

It is better than the setup Gigabyte and Asus uses on their cheap.B450.boards, sadly.without heatsink it's still going to be rated below them. OC a 3100.will be fine but dont try OC higher core count 65w TDP models.

So it will be fine if I oc my ryzen 3 3100 on it upto 4.0 ghz? I will definitely buy a new Mobo if I plan to upgrade my processor. Actually my budget was very restricted so I couldn't afford any other Mobo as their prices are sky high in my country. This was the cheapest I could get.

[Grabhanem]

6 minutes ago, Abhikironman said:

So it will be fine if I oc my ryzen 3 3100 on it upto 4.0 ghz? I will definitely buy a new Mobo if I plan to upgrade my processor. Actually my budget was very restricted so I couldn't afford any other Mobo as their prices are sky high in my country. This was the cheapest I could get.

What cooling solution are you using? If you have something that puts a lot of airflow past the VRMs (e.g. the stock cooler) you'll be fine VRM wise.

[Abhikironman]

Just now, Grabhanem said:

What cooling solution are you using? If you have something that puts a lot of airflow past the VRMs (e.g. the stock cooler) you'll be fine VRM wise.

I am using the stock cooler ( wraith stealth) I am going to add case fans for the upper intake vents of my case very soon. Should I add some after market heatsink?

[Grabhanem]

Just now, Abhikironman said:

I am using the stock cooler ( wraith stealth) I am going to add case fans for the upper intake vents of my case very soon. Should I add some after market heatsink?

A few stick-on heatsinks wouldn't hurt, but you'll probably hit thermal limits on the CPU cooler before the VRM gives up, so I don't think it's really necessary.

[Abhikironman]

Just now, Abhikironman said:

I am using the stock cooler ( wraith stealth) I am going to add case fans for the upper intake vents of my case very soon. Should I add some after market heatsink?

Moreover I live in a cold city where the ambient temperature of my room is always below 20 degree C/ 68 degree F

[Abhikironman]

13 minutes ago, Grabhanem said:

A few stick-on heatsinks wouldn't hurt, but you'll probably hit thermal limits on the CPU cooler before the VRM gives up, so I don't think it's really necessary.

So the cpu will start thermal throttling before the vrm overheats? 

 

[Zetsubou605]

On 1/29/2021 at 10:14 PM, Abhikironman said:

So the cpu will start thermal throttling before the vrm overheats? 

 

Pretty old question but you'll probably hit the overclock limit on the CPU before the VRM's overheat. I'm using the mobo with an Athlon3000G@3.9 GHz and aftermarket heatsinks for over an year now and VRM temps barely go over my ambient 36-37°C room temps. 

I have three 120mm intake fans with mesh front so other results may vary.