Mobo picking is killing me

[DespereauxINC]

I'm building my very first build and decided to go with the 3600 for the CPU but I keep getting the BIOS update warning.

 

I don't know what that is but it seems I need an older gen chip for the update which I don't have. so what mobo supports the 3600 out the box?

[mariushm]

Motherboards with the x570 chipset will support the Ryzen 3rd generation natively.

 

Motherboards using older chips may or may not need a BIOS update - it depends when the motherboard was manufactured.

As the Ryzen 3xxx processors were just launched, chances are the motherboard you buy was imported in the country a few weeks ago... so it may still have an older bios.

 

Some motherboards have BIOS Flashback feature, which allows you to update the bios without a processor installed on the motherboard. You simply copy the BIOS on a USB stick, insert stick in the bios flashback usb port, power on the motherboard without a processor installed and then press the bios flashback button on the motherboard

 

This Google document shows you which motherboards support that feature (the green check all the way to the right) : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d9_E3h8bLp-TXr-0zTJFqqVxdCR9daIVNyMatydkpFA/htmlview?sle=true#gid=639584818

 

It also tells you which boards are better designed to handle the Ryzen 3xxx processors with more than 8 cores.

For Ryzen 3600, any motherboard with two green checks on the left area (the 75A and 100A thresholds) is more than adequate. If you think you're gonna upgrade to a processor with more than 8 cores in the future, you'll want to pick one that has at least 3 green checks.

 

[paulmohr]

The only ones that support it out of the box are the X570 chipset boards. All other boards will require a bios update. You might be able to get the place you are buying it from to do it for you though. I know when I went to micro center the other day they said they updated the boards they have in stock in batches. He checked the b450 I bought and it wasn't updated yet. I told him it was ok I could do it at home. The board has bios flashback and I had an older ryzen that I was upgrading from.

 

Also if you get a board that needs the update I hear AMD offers a deal where they will send you an old model cpu to use to update the board, then you send it back I guess? You might want to look into that too.

The gigabyte x570 aorus elite is a pretty decent board for 200 bucks. Its out of stock on newegg at the moment though.

[EpicWaffles449]

I heard either AMD or some motherboard manufacturer is offering free Athlon CPUs to boot and update BIOS on older boards, maybe check that out...

X570 boards are like $210 for the cheapest one rn, would consider sticking to older board.

[mariushm]

7 minutes ago, EpicWaffles449 said:

I heard either AMD or some motherboard manufacturer is offering free Athlon CPUs to boot and update BIOS on older boards, maybe check that out...

X570 boards are like $300 for the cheapest one rn, would consider sticking to older board.

No, the cheapest x570 motherboards cost around 160$.  B450 or x470 motherboards comparable in quality to those cost around 80-100$.

[EpicWaffles449]

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

No, the cheapest x570 motherboards cost around 160$.  B450 or x470 motherboards comparable in quality to those cost around 80-100$.

Your probably in America lol, in Canada pcpartpicker says the cheapest X570 available is $210cdn (ASUS Prime X570-P)

[mariushm]

15 minutes ago, EpicWaffles449 said:

Your probably in America lol, in Canada pcpartpicker says the cheapest X570 available is $210cdn (ASUS Prime X570-P)

And here, with our 20% VAT, the cheapest is 200$ (ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4). Prices will go down by a bit eventually but the boards will still be more expensive than b450 or x470 boards due to extra costs (more expensive circuit board, fan on chipset, more expensive chipset etc)

 

Anyway... dude doesn't have the country set in his profile, so I defaulted to US prices since those people are probably majority of readers here.

[EpicWaffles449]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

And here, with our 20% VAT, the cheapest is 200$ (ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4). Prices will go down by a bit eventually but the boards will still be more expensive than b450 or x470 boards due to extra costs (more expensive circuit board, fan on chipset, more expensive chipset etc)

 

Anyway... dude doesn't have the country set in his profile, so I defaulted to US prices since those people are probably majority of readers here.

True, I always forget that lol

[Tom H]

3 hours ago, DespereauxINC said:

I'm building my very first build and decided to go with the 3600 for the CPU but I keep getting the BIOS update warning.

 

I don't know what that is but it seems I need an older gen chip for the update which I don't have. so what mobo supports the 3600 out the box?

what motherboard do you have now? 

 

what you want is a motherboard that has bios flashback. This is the ability to flash the bios without CPU installed. Usually you just copy the updated bios onto a fat32 formatted USB stick, plug into the designated usb port in the back and click a bios update button on the back of the motherboard. Here is a list of AM4 motherboards I found online that have this:

 

ASRock (BIOS Flashback)

None!

ASUS (USB BIOS Flashback)

ASUS Crosshair VI Extreme

ASUS Crosshair VI Hero

ASUS Crosshair VI Hero (Wi-Fi AC)

ASUS Crosshair VII Hero

ASUS Crosshair VII Hero (Wi-Fi)

Gigabyte (Q-Flash Plus)

None!

MSI (Flash BIOS Button) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTkXunUAriE]

MSI B450 Gaming Plus

MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

MSI B450 Tomahawk

MSI B450-A Pro

MSI B450M Bazooka Plus

MSI B450M Gaming Plus

MSI B450M Mortar

MSI B450M Mortar Titanium

MSI X370 Gaming M7 ACK

MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium

MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC

 

If you don't want to go through updating the bios, you have to buy a x570 

[DespereauxINC]

On 7/21/2019 at 10:29 PM, Tom H said:

what motherboard do you have now? 

 

what you want is a motherboard that has bios flashback. This is the ability to flash the bios without CPU installed. Usually you just copy the updated bios onto a fat32 formatted USB stick, plug into the designated usb port in the back and click a bios update button on the back of the motherboard. Here is a list of AM4 motherboards I found online that have this:

 

ASRock (BIOS Flashback)

None!

ASUS (USB BIOS Flashback)

ASUS Crosshair VI Extreme

ASUS Crosshair VI Hero

ASUS Crosshair VI Hero (Wi-Fi AC)

ASUS Crosshair VII Hero

ASUS Crosshair VII Hero (Wi-Fi)

Gigabyte (Q-Flash Plus)

None!

MSI (Flash BIOS Button) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTkXunUAriE]

MSI B450 Gaming Plus

MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

MSI B450 Tomahawk

MSI B450-A Pro

MSI B450M Bazooka Plus

MSI B450M Gaming Plus

MSI B450M Mortar

MSI B450M Mortar Titanium

MSI X370 Gaming M7 ACK

MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium

MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC

 

If you don't want to go through updating the bios, you have to buy a x570 

currently i have an intel Mobo so it wouldnt help much.

[Gohardgrandpa]

Get a b450 tomahawk and flash via usb. It’s duper easy to do and the board is solid. I use it, no issues at all