B450m Mortar Max?

medyobano · June 8, 2021

I currently have the MSI A320M - A Pro with a Ryzen 5 3600. I am currently looking at two options at the moment for a motherboard upgrade. The two options are the Steel Legend (m-atx) and the mortar max. I don't see any major Youtube channels reviewing/using the mortar max as much as the steel legend. But the videos I see about the mortar max says that it may be the "best" B450 motherboard out there. Can I get your guys' opinion on this? Thanks.

Fasauceome · June 8, 2021

We do have a local motherboard tier list if you'd like to have a glance

mariushm · June 8, 2021

It's not the best, but it's quite good.

It depends on what you do with the hardware and if you think you're gonna upgrade more in the future.

If you don't care about overclocking or you're not planning on buying a 12-16 core processor in the future, then the Steel Legend would be fine.

Basically, the MSI board should be a bit better when it comes to VRM cooling (how well the dc-dc converter which converts 12v from power supply into the voltage the CPU needs is cooled). The board would handle processors with lots of cores a bit better. The Steel Legend would also work with those high core processors, but it will be a bit hotter, though it's nothing you can't solve by positioning a small 80/92 mm fan to blow down on the motherboard.

With a Ryzen 3600, this is not a concern, this processor doesn't consume a lot of power, so you have nothing to worry about

The MSI board is also rated for higher DDR4 frequencies, up to 4133 ... though you won't use sticks that go higher than 3600 Mhz, as it's almost pointless.

Another plus for the MSI board is that it has bios flashback feature, allowing you to update bios without a cpu installed.

Otherwise, both boards have pretty much the same features, same onboard video connectors, same audio chip, same pci-e slots amount and type, same everything.