Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTASRock B450M-HDV
The B450M-HDV features an microATX form factor and has a pairing of Realtek controllers to take care of the onboard audio solutions and networking capabilities. The B450M-HDV also represents the base B450 model from ASRock with a few of the bells and whistles associated with ASRock’s other models with the aim to shave as much from the overall cost as possible. The design across the entirety of the board is plain, with little attention to the aesthetic. ASRock takes advantage of as much as it can from what is integrated onto the board chip wise.
In terms of PCIe support, the B450M-HDV has a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot with a single PCIe 2.0 x1 slot located just above this. This particular microATX board supports up to 32 GB of DDR4-3200 memory. Storage on the B450M-HDV is provided by four SATA 6 Gbps ports with two of them having right-angled connectors, and the remaining two featuring straight angled ports. A single Ultra M.2 slot is also present with support for both PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA capable SSDs.
The power delivery looks to consist of 7-phases with them being split into a 4+3 configuration. The B450M-HDV is also the only board from the launch models of any brand on the B450 chipset to feature a single 4-pin 12 V ATX power input; a 24-pin ATX motherboard power input is also present. While the power delivery would seem sufficient for general use, the power delivery heatsink looks a little on the bare side and it wouldn’t be advisable to do too much overclocking on this model as VRM temperatures could be a potential problem.
On the rear panel are four USB 3.1 5 Gbps Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as a PS/2 combo port. The single RJ45 LAN port takes command from a Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit networking controller, while the three 3.5mm audio jacks come provided thanks to a Realtek ALC887 audio codec. The B450M-HDV has support for the Ryzen 5 2400G ($169) and Ryzen 3 2200G ($99) APUs thanks to a trio of video outputs consisting of a D-Sub, a DVI-D and an HDMI port.
The ASRock B450M-HDV represents good value for money with an expected price of $69.99 at launch depending on retailer. The inclusion of a 'good value' Realtek ALC887 audio codec and Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit networking controller shows that users looking to avoid spending extra money on fancy aesthetics and more of the budget on actual sustenance which will have a bigger bearing on actual performance than fancy naming schemes.
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tonecas1 - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
Asus Prime 450M-K has only 4 Sata ports, audio is Realtek’s ALC887 only, and memory support goes to 3466 (OC)tonecas1 - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
Asus Prime 450M-K has 2 PCIe 2.0x1 and 1 PCIe 3.0 x16 by CPU supporttonecas1 - Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - link
MSI B450M Pro-M2 only supports 2x DIMM slotstonecas1 - Wednesday, October 31, 2018 - link
ASRock B450M Pro4 is not a 6+3 power system but a 3+3. You have to remove the heat sink to see the MOSFET Hi and Lo combos and IC controlersQuarterPunder - Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - link
So if i buy this motherboard do i still need to buy a wifi card/Bluetooth receptor???msroadkill612 - Wednesday, March 20, 2019 - link
"Strix B450-F Gaming ..... Also present is a duo of M.2 slots with both having support for PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 drives, while the top slot which supports both PCIe and SATA drives up to a size of M.2 2280 (22 x 80 mm), the bottom slot only supports PCIe 3.0 x4 drives with a sizing up to M.2 22110 (22 x 110 mm)."ALARMINGLY WRONG!
Newegg:
"AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation / Ryzen 1st Generation Processors: *
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)**
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)***"
msroadkill612 - Wednesday, March 20, 2019 - link
edit - to remove any doubt - in full, the specs are:"AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation / Ryzen 1st Generation Processors: *
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)**
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)***
AMD Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics Processor: *
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)**
* Support StoreMI and NVMe RAID.
** When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA or PCIE mode, SATA6G_5/6 ports will be disabled.
*** When the M.2_2 is occupied by M.2 device, PCIe x16_1 will run at x8 mode."
g0rnex - Sunday, June 23, 2019 - link
I run windows from external SSD so I need fast USB ports for it to run smooth. Can I replace the USB ports by 3.2 gen2 when needed?g0rnex - Sunday, June 23, 2019 - link
I run win10 from an external SSD. for that I need a fast USB connection for windows to run smooth.Would it be possible to change the USB ports in the future? OR even now already by a 3.2 gen2. Or wouldn't replacing the ports speed up my connection with the external SSD?
Also I would like a good bluetooth connection. Do I need to use an adapter?
looking into making this build:
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/hXzKHx/entry-level-...
GayCock69 - Monday, August 19, 2019 - link
ryzen 3700x + aorus pro wifi b450 + radeon rx5700xt, will it work optimally?