Best Motherboard for an APU that can be future-proof?

[Newblesse Obblige]

im planning to buy a Ryzen 3 3200G and in the future, i might just upgrade the CPU and add a Graphics Card later on. What is the best motherboard i can buy for it?

[boggy77]

msi b450m pro-vdh or asrock b450 pro 4

[BobbyPdue]

I suspect AMD and intel will be coming out with new sockets in 2020 or 2021 so it's a bad time to buy anything with the future in mind.  

 

It's hard to know what the availablility of Ryzen CPU's are going to be in the future, especially after they stop making compatible CPU's.  I can image the final compatible series of CPU's will keep their value and prices for new CPU's on that platform will stay high if intel's previous final generations for each platform are anything to go by.  

 

If you can wait I would.  If you can't it's still worth waiting until you can afford at least a feature rich B450, 3600, and a decent video card.  To me it's a waste to buy a CPU that's only good enough for now rather than one that will be outdated in the next year or so. 

[mariushm]

I disagree with waiting for a new socket.

 

With socket AM4 you will have room for upgrades all the way to a 3950x with 16 cores and 32 threads. A future socket like socket AM5 on AMD would bring minimal benefits like DDR5 support, pci-e 4.0 (already supported in AM4), maybe you'd have usb 4 (i doubt with thunderbolt support because Intel)... 

Basically only thing I'd care about is ddr5 support but considering you can still buy DDR3 and you have DDR4 memory available in 16 and 32 GB sticks, I don't see it as a feature worth upgrading to a new socket.

 

I think AMD's gonna have another series of processors on socket AM4, or at least the memory controller will support both DDR5 and DDR4 and a few select processors will also be available on socket AM4.

 

The APUs like Ryzen 3200g are still based on Zen+ (Ryzen 2xxx gen), so I would guess most likely there's gonna be an APU based on Zen2 eventually (probably using chips similar to the ones used in laptops)

 

You'll be fine with a socket B450 motherboard, good ones are available from around 70$

 

Cheapest I'd suggest is Gigabyte B450M DS3H : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hpRzK8/gigabyte-b450m-ds3h-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-ds3h

It's better than ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0  or MSI B450M PRO-M2 [MAX] as in better VRM, better support for more power hungry processors like 10 core or higher... the two I mentioned I would not recommend for more than 8 core processors.

 

A very good board for the money would be Asrock B450 Pro4 at 75$: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dQgzK8/asrock-b450m-pro4-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-pro4 followed by the ATX version https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PCKcCJ/asrock-b450-pro4-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-pro4

 

Then you have at 85$ Asrock b450m steel legend and gigabyte b450 aorus ,

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hNdxFT/asrock-b450m-steel-legend-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-steel-legend

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WcjJ7P/gigabyte-b450-aorus-m-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-aorus-m

 

For highest future upgrade potential, msi b450-a pro or msi b450m gaming plus [max] or msi b450 gaming plus or msi b450 tomohawk would work (the versions with MAX in name just have a bigger size bios chip and fancier graphics in bios)

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9C97YJ/msi-b450m-gaming-plus-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-gaming-plus

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XJbCmG/msi-b450-a-pro-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-a-pro-max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pBWfrH/msi-b450-a-pro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-a-pro

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BHBhP6/msi-b450-gaming-plus-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-plus-max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jcYQzy/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk-max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Hy97YJ/msi-b450-tomahawk-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk

 

 

 

 

[Newblesse Obblige]

15 hours ago, BobbyPdue said:

If you can wait I would.  If you can't it's still worth waiting until you can afford at least a feature rich B450, 3600, and a decent video card.  To me it's a waste to buy a CPU that's only good enough for now rather than one that will be outdated in the next year or so. 

I understand your suggestion because I that is what I’m thinking these past years but if I wait, won’t buy anything at all because I have to wait another one next year because I know it will be a better one. 

[Newblesse Obblige]

13 hours ago, mariushm said:

I disagree with waiting for a new socket.

 

With socket AM4 you will have room for upgrades all the way to a 3950x with 16 cores and 32 threads. A future socket like socket AM5 on AMD would bring minimal benefits like DDR5 support, pci-e 4.0 (already supported in AM4), maybe you'd have usb 4 (i doubt with thunderbolt support because Intel)... 

Basically only thing I'd care about is ddr5 support but considering you can still buy DDR3 and you have DDR4 memory available in 16 and 32 GB sticks, I don't see it as a feature worth upgrading to a new socket.

 

I think AMD's gonna have another series of processors on socket AM4, or at least the memory controller will support both DDR5 and DDR4 and a few select processors will also be available on socket AM4.

 

The APUs like Ryzen 3200g are still based on Zen+ (Ryzen 2xxx gen), so I would guess most likely there's gonna be an APU based on Zen2 eventually (probably using chips similar to the ones used in laptops)

 

You'll be fine with a socket B450 motherboard, good ones are available from around 70$

 

Cheapest I'd suggest is Gigabyte B450M DS3H : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hpRzK8/gigabyte-b450m-ds3h-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-ds3h

It's better than ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0  or MSI B450M PRO-M2 [MAX] as in better VRM, better support for more power hungry processors like 10 core or higher... the two I mentioned I would not recommend for more than 8 core processors.

 

A very good board for the money would be Asrock B450 Pro4 at 75$: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dQgzK8/asrock-b450m-pro4-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-pro4 followed by the ATX version https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PCKcCJ/asrock-b450-pro4-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-pro4

 

Then you have at 85$ Asrock b450m steel legend and gigabyte b450 aorus ,

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hNdxFT/asrock-b450m-steel-legend-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-steel-legend

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WcjJ7P/gigabyte-b450-aorus-m-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-aorus-m

 

For highest future upgrade potential, msi b450-a pro or msi b450m gaming plus [max] or msi b450 gaming plus or msi b450 tomohawk would work (the versions with MAX in name just have a bigger size bios chip and fancier graphics in bios)

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9C97YJ/msi-b450m-gaming-plus-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-gaming-plus

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XJbCmG/msi-b450-a-pro-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-a-pro-max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pBWfrH/msi-b450-a-pro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-a-pro

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BHBhP6/msi-b450-gaming-plus-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-plus-max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jcYQzy/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk-max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Hy97YJ/msi-b450-tomahawk-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk

 

 

 

 

what about Asrock B450 Pro4-F? what is the difference from the non-F 

[mariushm]

2 hours ago, 5NibbaHertz said:

what about Asrock B450 Pro4-F? what is the difference from the non-F 

It's fine. Just different layout on the io shield

Quick comparison between the ATX B450 Pro4 and the mATX models:

 

[Grog]

As far as the msi B450 variants what would be the best for the money in mATX specifically? I had also read something about 3rd gen Ryzen chips having issues. Can you verify? Just looking for more info, thanks