What motherboard should I get?

[Overfront-64]

I'm trying to choose an AM4 motherboard and I'm not sure whether I should get the MSI B350 Tomahawk, Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming or GA-AB350 Gaming 3 board. So I wanted to ask for advice.

[iRileyx]

Had no problems with my Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming as of yet after using for around 2-3 months. can't say anything about the others.

[Imbellis]

Just now, RKRiley said:

Had no problems with my Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming as of yet after using for around 2-3 months. can't say anything about the others.

Second part of text is near-clear to people using "day" theme.

[Overfront-64]

I was hoping to choose between a Gigabyte gaming and gaming 3 motherboard and then the MSI Tomahawk

[Imbellis]

As criteria for looking for a motherboard, consider these things:

How many USBs, Fan controllers, and other ports would you like on the motherboard, a preference for onboard wifi, and clearance for coolers.

 

[Overfront-64]

I also wanted to take into account the customer support since I've heard controversial things.

[iRileyx]

4 minutes ago, Imbellis said:

Second part of text is near-clear to people using "day" theme.

Didnt notice  probably cause i copy + pasted the motherboard name from his post(too lazy to type it out haha)

[iRileyx]

6 minutes ago, Overfront-64 said:

I was hoping to choose between a Gigabyte gaming and gaming 3 motherboard and then the MSI Tomahawk

I'd personally go for the gaming non-3, as the gaming 3 doesn't have many more features over the non-3 model.

 

the main feature i'd say is that the gaming 3 has rgb control on the lighting, where as the non-3 is just static red/no led.

[Imbellis]

Just now, RKRiley said:

Didnt notice  probably cause i copy + pasted the motherboard name from his post(too lazy to type it out haha)

Nah it's great. Most people - even after being notified - don't correct it to plain text.

[Overfront-64]

Just now, RKRiley said:

I'd personally go for the gaming non-3, as the gaming 3 is only micro-atx and i hate the look of micro-atx motherboards in ATX size cases.

I'm looking on Amazon and there is also an ATX version

[iRileyx]

Just now, Overfront-64 said:

I'm looking on Amazon and there is also an ATX version

That was my mistake, thought you meant the micro atx for some reason  edited my post.

[Overfront-64]

Oh and I also read the gaming 3 only supports windows 32-bit. Is that true?

[johndms]

14 minutes ago, Overfront-64 said:

I'm trying to choose an AM4 motherboard and I'm not sure whether I should get the MSI B350 Tomahawk, Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming or GA-AB350 Gaming 3 board. So I wanted to ask for advice.

If you're up for a bit of research, I bookmarked a link last week that seems rather informative.  I plan to watch it in its entirety soon.  I've never heard of the guy, but he seems extremely knowledgeable about the finer details of board components.  This video is one where he goes over many of the B350 boards and gives his opinion on them in regards to their VRM quality.  If for no other reason, someone may find it useful.

 

[Overfront-64]

Okay, give me a moment to watch it.

[mariushm]

In general the current batch of socket AM4 boards from Gigabyte are a bit weak on the VRM department. They're perfectly adequate and can do even  overclocking, but the VRMs from others are generally better (more efficient mosfets, less heat produced, potential to overclock higher)

 

There are some MSI boards that are slightly worse than those Gigabyte boards but the particular board you chose - Tomahawk - is a bit better than those Gigabyte boards when it comes to overclocking potential.

 

Feature wise, the MSI board has usb type c but on the other hand instead of offering a bunch of PCI-e x1 slots, they put two PCI slots. It's up to you if it's worth it. 

 

Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming  seems like the best layout... most USB ports on the back, nicely spaced pci-e slots, only minuses seem to be the lack of usb type c and that is has only 3 analogue outputs, which would suck for me as I have a 5.1 system and microphone plugged in the back.

 

The GA-AB350-Gaming 3 just adds a third pci-e x16 which is x1 electrically so it's not like you can really plug a 10gbps ethernet card that needs a x4 to get the max speed, or something else that needs more than x1 ... could be useful i guess for a pci-e ssd, limiting it to x1 speeds or 1 GB/s Other than that,.. it adds those 5 analogue audio out and digital out.. it also seems to have a beefier heatsink of VRM but Ryzens don't really abuse the VRM that much - doubt it actually makes a big difference.

 

[lukart]

Either the MSI or Asrock, but then just look up what features your looking for on the mobo and select the model.

The vrms on these are better.