Need help deciding MOBO ?!

[TeaRoomMosh]

Hey guys ! 
 

I was planning on ordering a tomahawk max for my 3600 but due to being out of stock I’m uncertain what’s the next best thing for it’s price range ? 
 

ive been looking at a ASUS ROG strix b450-F gaming, will this match up to the tomahawk ? 
 

thanks in advance ! 
 

also a bonus question I was going to get a 1TB nvme and a 1TB SSD but can only afford the 1, will a 1TB be enough to get me going on my OS and all my game launchers and a few games ? 

[mariushm]

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.

[boggy77]

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.

[Entropy.]

7 minutes ago, TeaRoomMosh said:

Hey guys ! 
 

I was planning on ordering a tomahawk max for my 3600 but due to being out of stock I’m uncertain what’s the next best thing for it’s price range ? 
 

ive been looking at a ASUS ROG strix b450-F gaming, will this match up to the tomahawk ? 
 

thanks in advance ! 
 

also a bonus question I was going to get a 1TB nvme and a 1TB SSD but can only afford the 1, will a 1TB be enough to get me going on my OS and all my game launchers and a few games ? 

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. 

 

[Entropy.]

7 minutes ago, TeaRoomMosh said:

Hey guys ! 
 

I was planning on ordering a tomahawk max for my 3600 but due to being out of stock I’m uncertain what’s the next best thing for it’s price range ? 
 

ive been looking at a ASUS ROG strix b450-F gaming, will this match up to the tomahawk ? 
 

thanks in advance ! 
 

also a bonus question I was going to get a 1TB nvme and a 1TB SSD but can only afford the 1, will a 1TB be enough to get me going on my OS and all my game launchers and a few games ? 

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. 

 

[TeaRoomMosh]

7 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

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.

Yeah I completely forgot about the mortar I will check that out and if not may look at the msi gaming pro max, I know it’s a bit more budget but I’m not doing any crazy OC’s and as for the Ssd I had a crucial ready but I’ll get it in a couple months just wanted to be sure I could get by for a while on the 1TB

[TeaRoomMosh]

10 minutes ago, mariushm said:

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.

Good idea I will search them now, I’m not oc’ing or anything just running 2070s and 3600 for gaming so want billy basic but with the safety of beefy VRMs if I need it ! And great it’s only for a few months until I can buy an SSD 

[boggy77]

1 minute ago, TeaRoomMosh said:

Yeah I completely forgot about the mortar I will check that out and if not may look at the msi gaming pro max, I know it’s a bit more budget but I’m not doing any crazy OC’s and as for the Ssd I had a crucial ready but I’ll get it in a couple months just wanted to be sure I could get by for a while on the 1TB

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

[TeaRoomMosh]

5 minutes ago, InnerBeast Gaming said:

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

[TeaRoomMosh]

1 minute ago, boggy77 said:

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

Brilliant okay I’ll have a look thank you ! 

[TeaRoomMosh]

22 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

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

Just had a look and they have both the mortar and gaming plus max, am I right in saying the mortar is only In mATX ? 

[cobalt77]

6 minutes ago, TeaRoomMosh said:

Just had a look and they have both the mortar and gaming plus max, am I right in saying the mortar is only In mATX ? 

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.

[TeaRoomMosh]

10 minutes ago, cobalt77 said:

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.

Okay so it’s purely an aesthetic not performance change being a mATX, I’ll see if that suits my case etc otherwise the black and red gaming pro max from msi is still basic but decent thermals and power output ?  

[boggy77]

35 minutes ago, TeaRoomMosh said:

Okay so it’s purely an aesthetic not performance change being a mATX, I’ll see if that suits my case etc otherwise the black and red gaming pro max from msi is still basic but decent thermals and power output ?  

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

[mariushm]

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.

[TeaRoomMosh]

15 minutes ago, mariushm said:

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 I understand, I would like the mortar just rather full ATX for my case and aesthetics, plus the extra SATA ports and fan headers which I need for aio With 2 fans and 4 other fans in my case, also I’d be using my GPU for display output anyway. But it’s annoying id rather the mortar if it was ATX 

[mariushm]

3 minutes ago, TeaRoomMosh said:

Yeah I understand, I would like the mortar just rather full ATX for my case and aesthetics, plus the extra SATA ports and fan headers which I need for aio With 2 fans and 4 other fans in my case, also I’d be using my GPU for display output anyway. But it’s annoying id rather the mortar if it was ATX 

2 sata ports will be disabled if you use a m.2 drive .... so you'll still end up with 4 connectors.

 

 

On B450M Mortar you have 4 fan headers ... 1 regular and 3 sysfan headers , see pic below.

Also, fan splitters are cheap and you're probably better off getting a sata/molex -> 3-4 fan headers for your front panel fans or whatever you have

 

 

So the only remaining issue is the matx form factor, but that just means you're losing a couple inches on the bottom of the board ... yeah, you'd end up with a few inches of empty space at the bottom but for me, it's not that big of a deal.

[TeaRoomMosh]

Are you getting a cut from mortar sales ?! Because you’re really selling it I think I’ll go mortar then if I can fit the fans in as the SATA is still the same pretty much and even then I know you can daisy chain SATA cables to your SSD’s ...

 

the only other issue is that it’s a Corsair case (220t icue) and the fans and RGB system is so weird and only works with its self, so if I remember right, the fans have 2 cables one for power to mobo and other to the RGB node ? If that’s the case will I still be able to daisy chain the power cable for two fans out of one mobo connection and plug the 2 fans RGB connectors into the node ? If that’s so then I’ll get the mortar and daisy chain it