Yo, so Im working my way up to a decent setup, I already have some 3200mhz rams and the psu and the gpu, just need a motherboard and a processor thats less than 500$

I found a great deal of a Ryzen 7 3700 + B450 Steel Legend, but I think there should be a better motherboard under the 200$ price, any recommendations?

 

I did a build at the end of 2019 (Black Friday buys) with the Steel Legend B450M and a Ryzen 5 3600X. I haven't had a single issue with it. It's been rock solid, runs 24/7, and the RGB is pretty cool too. The EFI screens aren't as sexy as others, but I'm rarely in there since the initial setup. Also, at the time, ASROCK was the only manufacturer I found that explicitly stated "*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks". There were other boards in that price rage, but the Steel Legend had what I needed, and for the most part ASROCK seems to be respected in the audio world. Gaming might be a different story, that's not my use for the system. An ASUS board was my second choice, but I'm very happy the the Steel Legend.

 

Nice answer! I plan using it only for audio, is Ryzen 7 3700x better than 5 3600x for audio?

 

I can't really say which CPU is better. 3700x has a slightly lower base frequency, but it has 2 additional cores (4 more threads), and lower TDP @ 65W. It really depends on your audio use case. There are other "threads" on this forum which discuss cores vs clock speed based on the type of DAW and audio you do. They both go Turbo to the same 4.4GHz. My guess would be they're probably similar, but with Reaper and lots of VIs and plugins, I would appreciate the extra cores and threads of the 3700x. Some DAWs are better with multi-threading than others (again, more threads discussing that on the forum).

 

3700x is beast enough, 3900x is beastie boys.. im on 3600x.. beast buy, all i can get..

b450m steel legend user here.. no prob all smooth

 

Nice!! So im getting it as soon as I can, does someone knows if b550 Bazooka from MSI worths it?

 

No. Only because the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max exists and it's a better board and only ~10 euros more expensive.
Btw, i'm a bit surprised at you still asking about cpus, gpus and mobos. One would think you got nothing better to do, no offense meant of course. You see,
After all these posts you 've made so far and answers you took, you should have understood by now, if you have to buy a cheap mobo, you don't buy B450 nowadays. That was last year or the year before it lol.
Now you buy B550 for a cheapo solution so you can at least upgrade cpu in the future, not to mention the B550 series generally include much better VRMs and many have features like USB type C.
Best cheap B550 is the MSI B550-A Pro going for about 125 euros. It actually has the same VRM as the MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon which is a much more expensive mobo. And USB type C internal header and a decent rear I/O.
If you don't mind going for Micro ATX you can even go for the ASRock B550m Pro 4 which sells for 100 euros and still gives you a full 6 SATA slots and four RAM slots, although the VRM on this one is objectively worse than the A Pro from MSI.
Cheers

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2021

B450 Steel Legend:
- may need BIOS update to work with Ryzen 3700X. MSI MAX boards are 2nd Gen ready.
- does not support 3rd gen without a BIOS update.

Three good B550 choices are:
Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO V2 (rev 1.0) also available with WIFI
Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO-P (rev. 1.0)
Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite V2 (rev 1.0) also available with WIFI

Combination (combo) deals are usually done to move less desirable items (B450 Steel Legend).

 

well, this motherboard alone (the pro-p) is pretty much double the price of steel legend, I could find it for like 350 U$D here

 

My biggest problem about PC Hardware is that I only find "gaming" hardware on my country thats is "acessible" some of the boards that you mentioned sells for like 200U$D and other sells for like 3 times the price you mention on your country, I guess its about taxes, but yeah, at the same time I found that the b450 would be the best deal, also, this one thta you said, the Asrock b550 pro 4 is selling for arround 170U$D (thats a affordable price haha), I was still asking about CPU because I was on a very hard doubt between Ryzen 5 3600x and Ryzen 7 3700x, but now I'm pretty sure that the 3700x is a better deal in all aspects, with a good vrm and a good cooling I can make it run pretty easy at the same clock that 3600x would run

By now I was decided on B450 Tomahawk because of the vrms, but as I was seeing on a vrm list, Tomahawk and Asrock b550 pro 4 are almost the same vrms so I think im going to Asrock because of the lower price, thank you for all the help

 

Newegg U.S.
GIGABYTE B550M AORUS PRO-P AM4 AMD B550 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

• $149.99
• Free Shipping

Germany 129 to 132 euro
France 143 euro
New Zealand 301 to 335

 

Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING - Moederbord – ATX € 179,00
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X - Processor 336,00
this is my mainbord and cpu running 24/7@ 4400mhz al cores
memory 32gb gskill @4000mhz

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 22, 2021

Obviously 3700X is better than 3600X because it has more cores and threads. Well if you are looking for B450 motherboard, you have to be prepared that it might require bios update, so you have to choose the one with bios update button because otherwise you would need to get it to service center so they update it for you.

 

I cant buy on newegg because I'd have to pay 110% of the item price in VAT, only in Brazil :/

 

@Kuuhaku
You should excuse me, old fart here , i keep forgetting you are in Brazil. Prices on comp hardware considering the wages people get there are completely outrageous. You guys should do something about it. But yeah, politics fuck everything everywhere as usual.
Anyway, best i could find for you is:
https://www.kabum.com.br/produto/115703/placa-m-e-asrock-b550m-pro4-amd-am4-micro-atx-ddr4
It still comes with a 35% worse price than in Europe (900 Br.Real = ~135 euros), at least it won't break the bank, so to speak. If you go with this board you better have enough workflow and OC is not an option, not even a mild one.
The other option i can find is:
https://www.pichau.com.br/hardware/...g-b550m-plus-ddr4-socket-am4-chipset-amd-b550
This might be even a better option (in VRM and mobo protection) than the AsRock Pro 4 but not in features since it comes with 4 Sata slots and the second m.2 slot when used, it disables some Sata as well afaik. If you don't plan to use many hdds it's a (sort of) solid option. At 950 Br.Real (145 euros) it's about the same price as the ASRock Pro 4.
A review of the Asus WiFI model (this one is the same but doesn't have WiFi) is here:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asus-tuf-gaming-b550m-plus-wi-fi
Hold on. This one looks like the best option :
https://www.kabum.com.br/cgi-local/site/produtos/descricao_ofertas.cgi?codigo=114337
The MSI Bazooka will hold even a mild OC, meaning turbo speeds won't be affected even with a 12 or 16 core cpu.
Cheers

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2021

Oooh, Thank you!! I was thinking about the MSI Bazooka since its reminds me the Tomahawk one that you mentioned for me a year ago, I plan to run the 3700x on 4,00ghz, do you think this board would be able to handle it?

 

Yeah yeah, the Bazooka is one of the best budget boards. It was an original recommendation for the B450 as well, but those B450 Bazooka boards disappeared quickly from the market as the Micro ATX market is not big in the western world. For example a short while after release, there were no B450 Bazooka boards available anywhere in the US and in Europe it was only avail under order and you had to wait for it.
The B550m Bazooka is even a better board than the B450 one was, with very good VRM, especially when considering the other boards in the same price range. Always remember having good VRM also means the mobo will be able to handle even a 16core 5950X with no problem and no shortcomings in turbo speeds etc.
https://epicgametech.com/msi-mag-b5...ble-matx-vrm-motherboard-for-ryzen-5000-zen3/
PS: Why run the 3.6ghz 3700X @ 4ghz ? This way you are cancelling the turbo boost (Precision Boost for AMD) feature of the cpu. I'd leave it as it is really and use OC only as a last resort solution. First try with stock clocks and if its not enough then OC. Only proper this way mate. FYI, read this:
https://www.digitalcitizen.life/overclocking-amd-ryzen-7-3700x/
EDIT: I forgot, if you can find a Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G for a decent price, go for it. It will save you a lot of trouble right now with the gpu shortages, as it essentially is a 3700X with integrated Radeon graphics. I can find one here for 340 euros (2235 Br.Real) now :
https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-7-pro-4750g

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2021

Thanks buddy, I learned a lot with you and all you guys

 

I feel your pain.