Motherboard Recommendations for Ryzen 3500x

LRamshaw on 19/11/2019 - 12:28

I recently purchased my first computer with a Ryzen 3500X/GTX 1660 from Techfast.

I was considering upgrading the motherboard but thought with black friday/cyber monday deals around the corner, I could get a higher quality motherboard for a similar price.

Since it is a relative new CPU I haven't been able to find much information on the best motherboards for the 3500X. Does anyone have any recommendations of a ~$150 motherboard?

I read that some motherboards need an older gen Ryzen CPU to update the bios before it works with the 3000 series, this is something I would really like to avoid if possible. Is there anything else I should be looking for?

Computing AMD Computer Component CPU Motherboard

Comments

  • Skramit on 19/11/2019 - 12:48

    It's gonna be a bit tricky as there are a tonne of $100-$150 MB's out there on B350/B450 but they are likely to have similar features to what you have now.

    If you want a "better" motherboard with more features, you need to look in the $250+ price range for fancy things like more VRM for overclocking, USB-C ports, PCIE 4.0…. etc from an X570 chipset motherboard.

    I don't know it's gonna be worth any money upgrading for $150, it's not going to yield you much in terms of features or performance. But depends what you're after really, there's a board out there for just about every combination of features, it just comes down to price.

    This google doc compiled by some nerds, is pretty epic and has a LOT of MB's for Ryzen 3:

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wmsTYK9Z3-jUX5LGRoFn…

    I've been using it to compare X570 MB's for my upcoming build but still cant come up with a winner.

    • Ramshaw on 19/11/2019 - 13:06

      The board it came with was an A320 which I think I read doesn't support overclocking, and I also was not sure about the Biostar brand. The option to upgrade to a Biostar B450 was like 130 I think so I thought I would just buy one separate and know what I was getting. Thanks for the spreadsheet! I'll give it a read through

      • Richardc on 19/11/2019 - 13:59

        not much headroom for 3500x, don't waste your money.

  • iforgotmysocks on 19/11/2019 - 12:49

    Why do you want to upgrade the motherboard?

  • [Deactivated] on 19/11/2019 - 12:50
    +2

    in terms of a 3500x you can pretty much use any board across the am4 platform. some obscure ones that never had their bios updated may be an exception but I do not believe that is relevant in this case.

    Question is why do you want to upgrade? I know the techfast one came with a pretty low end A320 board but it does the job. so are there any particular features you are looking for in this upgrade? ie more sata, more pcie, m.2, wifi, more fan headers, rgb/aesthetics?

    If you can answer that I can recommend something and we can talk later about specific requirements like bios updates, memory compatibility etc.

    • iforgotmysocks on 19/11/2019 - 12:51
      +8

      I've been looking for you

      • [Deactivated] on 19/11/2019 - 12:51
        +6

        oh hello master

        • Neilzy on 19/11/2019 - 13:26
          +1

          Oh man. most under-rated comment reply award lol

    • Ramshaw on 19/11/2019 - 13:17

      Honestly the main reason was that in the deal post, most people were recommending to upgrade the mobo. This is my first desktop so not entirely sure on the differences between them.

      I would like the option to overclock (down the track when I learn more) since it's an X processor. m.2 would also be really nice.

      I read this post: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/482263 and couldn't quite wrap my head around everything, but from what I understand, some boards need the old gen to flash the bios to work with the 3000 series.

      I ordered it un-built and wasn't sure if I could just plug and play or if I would have to go to a shop or something to get it working.

      • dcep on 19/11/2019 - 15:08

        ppl recommends upgrade techfast - mobo, psu, ram, ssd,
        but doesn't mean they're absolute necessary, just depends your needs

        non-X amd ryzen can OC too, just that X can do higher auto-OC
        A320 supports auto OC, and don't think you can yield much more from B450 manual OC unless going extreme
        so, IMO not worth upgrading

        old stock mobo with old bios needs bios updates, but most current stocks already ryzen 3000 ready - look for stickers

        techfast unbuilt is plug and play

      • [Deactivated] on 19/11/2019 - 16:11
        +1

        first thing you have to know is the "X" Model on AMD CPUS does not mean the same thing as "K" Models with Intel. X model only come factory clocked higher and do not imply that they are or aren't overclockable. In fact the entire lineup of AMD cpus from the 3200g to the 3950X are overclockable.

        Now that you know this you have to understand that Ryzen 3000 ships very close to its upper limits in clock speed. Trying to get higher clocks than factory is a bit pointless because theres not much headroom and the gains you will get will be minuscule. Not to mention that to get these minuscule gains you need to dump a whole lot of voltage on top of the already high factory voltages. I don't recommend upgrading for this reason because its kind of pointless.

        If your sole reason is for an m.2 slot then you can get an m.2 to pcie converter which is practically the exact same thing as on board m.2 and saves you a lot of money.

        As for motherboard flashing -
        -any board that isnt X570 will need to be flashed to gain compatibility with ryzen 3000
        -Any older board (B450, X470, B350, A320 etc) will require BIOS to be flashed to the newest version.
        -Some older boards have been pre-flashed (such as MSI MAX Boards) If the boards are branded as Ryzen 3000 Ready then they are pre-flashed
        -Any board that does not have 'BIOS Flashback' featured will require a previous generation AM4 cpu to update the bios
        -Any boards with 'BIOS Flashback' do not require a cpu to update the BIOS

        I cannot say for sure if the biostar a320 boards that techfast supplied are ryzen 3000 ready (I assume they would be to make it easier for everyone) But you can just build the pc and find out. If it doesnt work you will just get a cpu error.

        • systema on 20/11/2019 - 15:54

          The board I received (Biostar B45M2) is the B350 upgrade with BIOS B35GS523.BSS AGESA ComboAM4 PI 1.0.0.1 update. As I was requesting the PC to be sent unassembled, they probably haven't updated the BIOS as such.

  • Neilzy on 19/11/2019 - 13:53

    I'd suggest going with an one of MSI B450 'Max' boards if you're planning on upgrading from the supplied A320 board.

    The 'Max' b450's come with the 32bit bios chip that'll support 3000 series cpus out of the box and wont need a bios flashback. The Tomahawk and Gaming plus variants also have very competent VRMs and would support overclocking your 3500x just fine and im pretty sure they all have at least 1 m.2 slot.

  • dcep on 19/11/2019 - 16:25

    I see many ppl reckon only MSI MAX mobo are ryzen 3000 ready

    But i bought MSI non-MAX mobo back in August and it's already ryzen 3000 ready

    I can safely say New stock (regardless of old model) , comes with new bios that's ryzen 3000 ready

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