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Best ~$100 (USD) AM4 motherboard?

Aereldor
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Hey everyone, my friend was recently running a pretty crummy A320 board and upgraded to a 3700x, so she understandably wants a new motherboard too. She also just bought a 3060, so she only has about $100 left. What's the best AM4 motherboard for that money right now? I'm sort of out of touch with deals and current prices and I'm just comparing off the tier list right now...

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Any size restrictions? (Micro ATX, mini ITX, etc). Favorite color?

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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If your budget is $100,you're mostly gonna be stuck at the A520 range of boards. There are some OK ones out there like the A520 Vector, but not of them are particularly amazing. Id personally tell her to save up an extra $30 and go for something more along the lines of the X570 Aorus Elite or B550M Aorus-P. Either that or look for used, high end boards, you might be able to get something like a B550 Taichi for real cheap if you play your cards right

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8 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

Nah just about anything. Currently favouring the MSI B550M-A, solid A-tier VRM rating on the list

 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1608619-REG/msi_b550m_a_pro_motherboard.html

An unfortunate thing with MSI branding is that their micro ATX version of the motherboard is often not the same as the ATX version. The B550M-A pro is a lot worse than the B550-A pro, as you may notice by the lack of a VRM heat sink.

 

Consider the A-Pro Max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kRTzK8/msi-b450m-pro-vdh-max-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-pro-vdh-max

Better VRM and more feature rich. The Max series was all around pretty solid for 3000 series processors. 

 

In a similar vein, there's the Prime B450M-A II from Asus 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kthmP6/asus-prime-b450m-a-ii-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-prime-b450m-a-ii 

 

If you want ATX for more board real estate, and some extra flash and dash, consider the Gaming Plus Max

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

Edited by Fasauceome

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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4 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

An unfortunate thing with MSI branding is that their micro ATX version of the motherboard is often not the same as the ATX version. The B550M-A pro is a lot worse than the B550-A pro, as you may notice by the lack of a VRM heat sink.

 

Consider the A-Pro Max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kRTzK8/msi-b450m-pro-vdh-max-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-pro-vdh-max

Better VRM and more feature rich. The Max series was all around pretty solid for 3000 series processors. 

 

In a similar vein, there's the Prime B450M-A II from Asus 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kthmP6/asus-prime-b450m-a-ii-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-prime-b450m-a-ii 

Damn it that sucks lol. I guess those are good enough. I'll take a look at a few others and send her the best two or three

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4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The B550M-A pro and B550-A pro are two very different boards. That boards VRM is pretty poor. 

in fairness to the tier list: my ASRock B450 Pro4 is like C tier, but it will happily do rock solid 3.95 all core on my 2600x @110W all day.

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3 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

in fairness to the tier list: my ASRock B450 Pro4 is like C tier, but it will happily do rock solid 3.95 all core on my 2600x @110W all day.

Difference is the pro 4 actually has a vrm heatsink. 

 

Also 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen were much easier on VRMs since they used higher voltages than their Ryzen 3000 series counterparts, so at the same power draw the 2000 series parts were drawing less current (current is what heats up VRMs) 

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Just now, RONOTHAN## said:

Difference is the pro 4 actually has a vrm heatsink. 

 

Also 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen were much easier on VRMs since they used higher voltages than their Ryzen 3000 series counterparts, so at the same power draw the 2000 series parts were drawing less current (current is what heats up VRMs) 

What would you get then lol

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1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Difference is the pro 4 actually has a vrm heatsink. 

 

Also 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen were much easier on VRMs since they used higher voltages than their Ryzen 3000 series counterparts, so at the same power draw the 2000 series parts were drawing less current (current is what heats up VRMs) 

and the Phantom gaming has a heatsink as well 🙂

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Just now, soundlogic said:

What would you get then lol

I mean, my personal pick would be to save up an extra week and get a solid B550/X570 board like the ones I mentioned above. Gen 4 is starting to become a thing, so I'd want to have a board that supports it, and the price difference isn't really that big. If you had to get one today though for the $100 price option, I'd get one that @Fasauceome recommended. 

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27 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

An unfortunate thing with MSI branding is that their micro ATX version of the motherboard is often not the same as the ATX version. The B550M-A pro is a lot worse than the B550-A pro, as you may notice by the lack of a VRM heat sink.

 

Consider the A-Pro Max

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kRTzK8/msi-b450m-pro-vdh-max-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b450m-pro-vdh-max

Better VRM and more feature rich. The Max series was all around pretty solid for 3000 series processors. 

 

In a similar vein, there's the Prime B450M-A II from Asus 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kthmP6/asus-prime-b450m-a-ii-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-prime-b450m-a-ii 

 

If you want ATX for more board real estate, and some extra flash and dash, consider the Gaming Plus Max

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

So I was about to recommend one of those, but then I found this A-tier board for $120

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LCP4N8Q

 

Thoughts? Or is it not worth the $20 up from the ones you recommended?

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57 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

So I was about to recommend one of those, but then I found this A-tier board for $120

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LCP4N8Q

 

Thoughts? Or is it not worth the $20 up from the ones you recommended?

It's a little more feature-rich, but in terms of plain CPU plug-and-play experience, you won't be getting anything extra out of it (I was guessing the main reason to upgrade the motherboard was better power delivery and more fan headers)

 

If your friend sees a specific feature that is of value on that motherboard, worth considering. Otherwise, the extra cost won't contribute much.

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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3 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

It's a little more feature-rich, but in terms of plain CPU plug-and-play experience, you won't be getting anything extra out of it (I was guessing the main reason to upgrade the motherboard was better power delivery and more fan headers)

 

If your friend sees a specific feature that is of value on that motherboard, worth considering. Otherwise, the extra cost won't contribute much.

I was just thinking the better power delivery would enable her to fit a far better CPU into it. She's currently running a 3700x, but this board should handle anything up to a 5950x should she upgrade later

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4 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

I was just thinking the better power delivery would enable her to fit a far better CPU into it. She's currently running a 3700x, but this board should handle anything up to a 5950x should she upgrade later

For lofty upgrade goals, the investment would be worth it. you'd get better boost frequencies from a tier A board's VRM.

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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15 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

For lofty upgrade goals, the investment would be worth it. you'd get better boost frequencies from a tier A board's VRM.

Yeah and it's also not a huge expense more so I figured it'd be worth it, also for overclocking her 3700x if she wants to

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I'd say lend him $20-$30 so he can get some solid motherboard.

 

The board I use - Gigabyte B550M Aorus Pro-P - is $130 : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/2Bwkcf/gigabyte-b550m-aorus-pro-p-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-aorus-pro-p

The VRM is 5 phase doubled, heatsink is big and vrm stays cool.

 

Cheaper you can get MSI B550M Pro-VDH WIFI at $120 : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PDsnTW/msi-b550m-pro-vdh-wifi-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-pro-vdh-wifi

You lose some usb ports, the optical out, the second pci-e x16 slot, but you gain wifi ... 4 phase doubled everything, big as in long but not tall heatsink

 

 

Asrock Phantom Gaming recommended above is crap choice at the price, it has weak VRM and cheap heatsinks on VRM so it would struggle with 12+ core processors.

Same for the Pro 4 boards at around $105 - they both use VRMs with only 3 phases with double the amount of components but still only 3 phases.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, mariushm said:

IAsrock Phantom Gaming recommended above is crap choice at the price, it has weak VRM and cheap heatsinks on VRM so it would struggle with 12+ core processors.

 

Who gives a shit?

 

He said his friend has a 3700x. 

 

If you want to run a 12-core (which there is no sign this user ever will) then you should be spending more than $100 on a board. 

Corps aren't your friends. "Bottleneck calculators" are BS. Only suckers buy based on brand. It's your PC, do what makes you happy.  If your build meets your needs, you don't need anyone else to "rate" it for you. And talking about being part of a "master race" is cringe. Watch this space for further truths people need to hear.

 

Ryzen 7 5800X3D | ASRock X570 PG Velocita | PowerColor Red Devil RX 6900 XT | 4x8GB Crucial Ballistix 3600mt/s CL16

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