MSI Performance Gaming AMD Ryzen 2ND and 3rd Gen AM4 M.2 USB 3 DDR4 DVI HDMI Crossfire ATX Motherboard (B450 GAMING PLUS Max)

I purchased the B450 Gaming Plus ATX motherboard for my recent budget build. The motherboard came is an attractive and secure box with all the hardware required for installation. Note that I purchased the ATX version so I did not have any issues with CPU cooler installation like others have stated with the mAtx boards. As you can see in the pictures, I have a fairly large cooler attached to the board without issue or interference from neighboring components (Ignore the cable routing, was not done routing when this picture was taken).This board states it is compatible with Ryzen 3 series CPU's out of the box, I can verify this as my Ryzen 5 3600 booted up without issue and no driver updates were needed. The locations for the ports on the board are fairly well thought out, the only thing I would like to see is more fan headers but luckily my cooling fans also had a plug to directly wire to the power supply. Downside to this is you lose fan control but that is not an issue for me as my fans are static rpm.Cons:The bios boot time for this board is extremely slow. I would guess about 10-15 seconds for the board to post and boot the computer. While not a deal breaker it is definitely an annoyance. Good news is that MSI has addressed this and released an updated firmware that resolves this issue.I would recommend this motherboard for budget builds or PC builders that do not care for all the flashy RGB and RGB controller components. This has been installed for over three months of daily use and I have not had one issue with this motherboard.You will notice in the pictures there is an RTX 2060 GPU, unfortunately two weeks after purchase this card was freezing and failing. I made the switch to a RX 5700 and do not regret that decision one bit. The RX 5700 is much more stable, costs less and benchmarks up there with the RTX 2070.----------------------------------------List of parts I ordered for my budget buildThermaltake SMART 600W ATX 12V Power Supplyhttps://amzn.to/36jPrOCXFX Rx 5700 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Cardhttps://amzn.to/30LxiYCCrucial Ballistix Sport LT 3200 MHz DDR4 DRAMhttps://amzn.to/2Ge3YALWD Blue 1TB PC Hard Drive - 7200 RPMhttps://amzn.to/30Y4BYRADATA SU760 512GB 3D NAND 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSDhttps://amzn.to/2NSIb5Ouphere 3-Pack Long Life Computer Case Fan 120mmhttps://amzn.to/2NVwafTCougar MX330 Mid Tower Case with Full Acrylic Transparent Windowhttps://amzn.to/38vr81BB450 Gaming Plus Max Motherboardhttps://amzn.to/2sSyblRAMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core CPUhttps://amzn.to/30PlKnuupHere CCF150RD High Performance CPU Air Coolerhttps://amzn.to/2Gf5Mta

This motherboard performed well above expectations in all tests that I have completed.I upgraded to this motherboard after purchasing a Ryzen 5 3600 and, man, does this board work incredibly well.This board was recommended to me by a large Youtube channel and I think he knows his stuff.PROS:1. Easiest installation ever. The motherboard instructions are great for any first time builders, or you can watch many of the MSI sponsored build guides on Youtube.2. This motherboard came Ryzen 3000 ready out of the box, and for only $5 more than a non-max version, it's very much worth it, and it even comes with a Bios flashback button anyways.3. Plenty of fan headers; would be very hard to run out of space for fan headers.4. Pre-marked "No-standoff" zones on the motherboard. These spaces do not have places for standoffs and I appreciate that they marked them so you don't stab your motherboard with standoffs. They've managed to save space by doing this to allow more features on the board as well.5. Plain old looks. No fancy LEDs but I don't need that. Very well put together and it's aesthetically pleasing to me.6. Extremely simple software and BIOS. Software was super easy to navigate for drivers, and the BIOS was easy to use. OC'd my RAM very quickly and with no issues.CONS:1. Nothing much besides the motherboard seems to be slightly bigger than other full ATX boards. Just make sure you have good case clearance since mine was close, but fit fine in an mATX case.- Buy this board if you have the $100 for it, MSI has great customer support, easy software, and sturdy boards.

Purchased this board for a handful of very direct reasons:1) Wanted to use the 3000 series Ryzen chips2) Didn't need Gen 4 PCI-E3) Wanted it to work, out of the boxThe board delivered on all 3, perfectly. I paired this board with a Ryzen 5 3600. Because it was the "Max" model, no BIOS update was needed. I plugged in my chip, tossed on the included AMD Wraith Spire cooler, and away it went. I even jumped into the BIOS and did a quick overclock, just to test it out. Pushed the CPU up to 3.8ghz, no problem. Super quick and easy. Also recognized my XPG SX8200 m.2 drive immediately. Plugged my USB drive in, installed Windows, and the board automatically selected the m.2 as the boot drive thereafter.I have absolutely no complaints. If you're looking for a B series motherboard to use a Ryzen 3000 series chip with (I would recommend staying at 3900X and below. VRMs might not like the 3950X), and have it work immediately with no extra trouble, this is a solid choice, and the right price.

After BIOS flashing, the product works perfectly and is especially suitable for stable overclocking without too much effort.Despite this, I would expect a product from 2020 to cost tens of percent less than the current price, but at the same time it is still a profitable and good product compared to other products currently found on the market.