Cheapest AMD B650 Boards Tested, VRM Thermals: 100c+ Temps

[@syncmonism]

These videos are a godsend. This is extremely valuable information for people looking to buy a new motherboard! Remember, never trust any one brand. All of these motherboard brands have made good boards, bad boards, good value boards, and weak value boards.

[@vsammy_poet]

True dat..

[@Orcawhale1]

Except Asrock, you can always trust them to be bad.

[@DragonOfTheMortalKombat]

MSI, gigabyte have however made best value motherboards for quite a few years now. Sometimes ASUS comes close.

[@vsammy_poet]

@@Orcawhale1 Well thats not true on other than "cheap" or Value boards.. I have buyed in recent years 3 different Taichi boards and never have had any problems..

[@hristobotev9726]

@@vsammy_poet taichi is awful and greatful. It has tons of features to adjust, and one chipset update and .... everything from the scratch

[@TheGreatSpiff]

18:11 Wow, a motherboard benchmark that includes the boot times? Thank you for this. I've been waiting for exactly this. and look at the differences between them!! That's exactly why I wanted to see this kind of info, that difference is huge. If you do dual booting of any kind that is a huuuuuuuuge quality of life increase.

[@rsrsrsrsrs618]

Makes me wondering what causes such a massive difference... Maybe Gigabyte has some kind of "Fast Boot" enabled by default? Maybe they are cheesing the POST?

[@achannelhasnoname5182]

Yeah that's such an important test IMO. 30 seconds difference in boot times is quite massivem I didn't expect such a delta.

[@OutrunCid]

Ever since AM5 came out, this has been an issue, yet none of the reviewers actually bothers to quantify the issue and compare brands. Kudos to HU for including it.

[@HappyHubris]

Is Gigabyte the only company with AGESA .4? That might be the answer.

[@philistine3260]

Gigabyte is often less conservative. Even their XMP ram timings are usually set more aggressively. Wouldn't surprise me if other boards simply have "fast boot" or some other options set to "off" for the sake of stability. Doesn't mean the board itself is necessarily better

[@cherryonthecak3]

Awesome work as always... We know testing motherboards is a pain, but it is SO relevant! Super useful data (including boot time

[@kikogod]

I also have an B650 Rog Strix and hope its not as bad as these ones. It will be a shame, cause it has all kinds of cool extras and features, but aferall performance is king.

[@Jeff.55649]

It's their job lol 😂

[@hman6159]

Wow

[@Hardwareunboxed]

Thank you @cherryonthecak3, your support is much appreciated. @Haziza87 not really the point and no it's not our duty to sink weeks into tedious motherboard testing, there's plenty of other work we could do that would generate more income for the channel, but it's a service we offer as no one else is doing it. Gamers Nexus for example bailed on this testing for the reasons I've mentioned.

[@sniper2771]

that's why you are the best hardware testers in the whole world

[@binodynamic]

Thanks for including the boot time comparisons. Hoping that future bios updates will improve it

[@aliancemd]

It might also be that they are just cheaping out on the flash memory used for the BIOS

[@n.erdbeer]

Boot time is 20 sec from power button to windows if there were no memory issues.

[@deivytrajan]

Buy gigabyte - hard carry

[@n.erdbeer]

@@deivytrajan sadly they lack a GPU quick release button. With the current GPU sizes, it's near impossible to press it, when you use a big sized air cooler.

[@Hirnlego999]

Already happened on my Gigabyte going from 1.003 to 1.004. My soundcards works less fine though

[@EntekCoffee]

This is exactly what I am looking for! No wonder HBU is the gold standard of benchmarking PC hardware.

[@jemborg]

True. If I say HUB reviews say, "such and such" or pass on a HUB link it usually shuts up an opponent pretty quickly. 😁

[@vmafarah9473]

There is no one doing this much work in pc benchmarking, where as linus and other channels is behind clickbait type of topics.with ver few benchmarks.

[@DarkReturns1]

@@vmafarah9473 LTT is tech entertainment. HUB is tech education

[@brotherbunghole9562]

@@vmafarah9473 Gamer's Nexus does a ton of benchmarking, but they also test more than just hardware, but also cases and coolers. Their investigative reporting in the tech space has been highly beneficial for the average consumer too, forcing transparency for many companies in the space who have committed fraud or have shady business practices(Newegg and Artesian).

[@daniels.2594]

This is not true, gamers nexus goes above and beyond in their tests, generally go into much more detail than hub...

[@subham-raj]

Love your content and hard work

[@tmcprod]

These are the best motherboard test video's on youtube

[@peterscott2662]

CPU and GPU reviews are done by everyone, but only HWUB really does these detailed MB comparisons. Kudos. 👍

[@OfSheikah]

Second this. HWUB has succeeded capturing this space indeed

[@sp1hund]

Unless you count Actually Hardcore Overclocking aka Buildzoid. He goes way deeper than anyone else, but his videos are unorganized and long.

[@sjoerd104]

Yeah, I find his videos/streams impossible to watch for more than 15 minutes. I can't stand the way he jumps between subjects and keeps repeating "like", "ok so" etc. Not to mention the horrible music haha @@sp1hund

[@tuugestein96]

Providing a complete table of memory timings was a nice touch and yet another reason why i love your work. You manage to provide lots of high-quality data in a polished and easily digestible package at a level that i have yet to see another tech channel match.

[@enthusiasticgmgaming4165]

Finally! Can't wait for the full B650/B650E Roundup

[@TehMagilla]

Thank you for the boot time tests! Awesome work!

[@carl4889]

Great stuff. Looking forward to you looking at the step-up B650E models, too.

[@jojordanmilew]

Great work, boys! I've been looking into building a new PC for a couple of months now and your videos have been my go-to for consmer-oriented reviews and reliable hardware testing! Keep up the good work! Greetings from Bulgaria!

[@babochee]

Love my ASRock Riptide. I got mine for $130 on newegg during black Friday, even if it did take 3 months to get the $20 rebate. Crazy to see the price increases.

[@cletheland6815]

Tariffs are brutal on the electronics now. Glad I went X470 a few years back so I can keep a $140 board for so long. The days of a solid board for $100-$120 seem to be gone unfortunately

[@skandats]

I am using X670E-PRO RS. With the new Bios it improved boot times drastically

[@kaiservulcan]

Very good comparison. Unfortunately, the AM5 platform is still very expensive in Europe. Here in France, the non X processors cost sometimes more than the X variants. The DDR5 is quite expensive and the boards are hard to find under 200€, event the cheapest Gigabyte B650 DS3H. The best value seem to be the 7700x with a Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX and 32 gigs of kingston best 6000, the price is around 900€. I'll go for a 5800x3D to upgrade my am4 system and wait for the prices to go down.

[@Frozoken]

Yeah here in Australia, our problem is the motherboards. B650 matches ddr5 z690 in terms of proce most of the way up the stack (until flagships ofc), it's absolutely fucking ridiculous. Shit like this is why I went intel. Your cheapest mid range board shouldn't not be the same price as the 2nd highest end chipset board of your competitor amd.

[@InternetListener]

If your gpu and you are tuned for high FPS gaimng (or cache intensive algorithms are your thing) the 5800x3D and ddr4 3200 CL16 at least are a good option. But higher resolutions or a broader use of your PC, with a 5600 (or even a 5500 if you are good with the pcie 3.0 limitation) and saving hundreds or spending them on a better gpu or display etc. will be better investement in my opinion here in Europe.

[@OutrunCid]

Well in all fairness, the non-X processors are the better ones. They can be clocked just as fast as the X-versions with just a single click, but by default they run at a much more reasonable configuration. And they come with a pretty decent stock cooler. The platform itself is just too expensive, especially with its RAM dependency forcing you to either do manual OC's on RAM and timings, or get an expensive CL30 DDR5 6000 kit.

[@robertcarhiboux3164]

@@OutrunCid it's true for most gen, appart for the 5xxx cpu. 5600x for instance is only 65watt, when the 3600x was 95watts, and same for previous gen. and the 5600 is also 65watt, so you can do the same thing with the 5600x than you would with a 5600.

[@Angel7black]

@@OutrunCid the problem is they didnt raise core counts. Cant help but feel like the 7600 should be at most $180 and the 7600 should be at most $280. Intel offers far better multithreading at the same prices an dif all you care about is gaming theres zero reason to go Zen 4 over Intel or 5800X3D

[@nightcoremetal2518]

I'm rocking the Asrock B650 PG Rip tide with a 7600x, and I love it. My only problem with it is that the BIOS it shipped with didn't let me boot from the SSD from my old build, but all AM5 boards ship with BIOS flash buttons (probably one of the reasons for the high entry prices) so it was an easy fix.

[@GewelReal]

bios flashback is cents per board

[@sjneow]

Huh I have the PG riptide as well after the build it boots into my old OS rightaway

[@peterpan408]

Assrock 🤮

[@Incinerate1212]

any idea how to use this flashback feature? i assume when the x3d comes out i have to do a flashback? how do i do this?

[@nightcoremetal2518]

There's a USB slot on the motherboard that's specially marked. You put the bios files from the manufacturers website into a flash drive, put it into the USB slot, and press the button next to it The computer just has to be plugged in, it can stay completely off otherwise.

[@HazewinDog]

I've been buying DS3H-series motherboards for years now, and this is the first time I've seen a comparison with other models of one... I know the older ones could have wildly different results against their competitors, but it's nice to see Gigabyte's budget offering score so well! Fantastic value (for a B650 board, anyway)

[@iikatinggangsengii2471]

very odd since prime-a usually the best prime, but 100> def unacceptable and will lower perf

[@kingplunger1]

Before watching: I just ordered the gigabyte 650 aorus elite ax last weekend and hope its decent ^^ thanks for doing these, steve. mainboard tests are criminally rare compared to other component reviews.

[@freejulianassange3143]

Very, very useful info for everyone. Thank you for putting in all that effort and making a concise presentation with all the relevant info. You're saving everyone else a ton of time here.

[@Acrylicza]

Thanks for the great video, Steve! I think a great future video would be to compare the best B650, B650-E, X670, and X670-E motherboards to each other in relation to thermals, synthetic benchmarks and gaming performance - and maybe, in turn, to look at how much more one would need to pay on average for more features and any improved performance.

[@TyagiAviral]

Yeah comparing high end B650 and B650E with entry level X670 and X670E will really be interesting.

[@hristobotev9726]

@@TyagiAviral even low end termals are great. So just features matters

[@TyagiAviral]

@@garrusvakarian8709 you need good motherboard for amd pbo since they will have better power delivery, also there can be some B650 or B650E boards which have better power stages than entry level X670 motherboards. Most people don't need pbo but some do like me.

[@SpookyKG]

@Garrus Vakarian that's... not true. A lot of the B650E mobos have more similar VRMs to X670 rather than B650.

[@UnluckyDomino]

Gigabyte would win

[@heresy0615]

this channel has been a blessing for me... im still on the edge on using the am5 platform because the price is just disgusting now i know which board to look for

[@mastroitek]

So true, I was waiting for such a video. Though after seeing all the problems that those mobo have with ddr5 6000 I will probably wait another year to upgrade to AM5 and I will probably consider intel 14th gen

[@stronkveak5917]

GIGABYTE B650E AORUS Master

[@heresy0615]

@@stronkveak5917 definitely not that one

[@AndyViant]

Looking forward to this for the next upgrade. Your feedback helped me pick out my current board.

[@kougar7]

Thank you for including the full range of DDR5 timings! Those have been extremely helpful with fine tuning my DDR5 settings. Crazy boot times for GB! Been really happy with my B650E Riptide so far. I would suggest that HUB strongly recommend or remind users to match EXPO rated kits on AMD platforms to avoid potential headaches since XMP profiles don't apply voltage or subtimings on AMD platforms.

[@jemborg]

👍

[@Gofr5]

I've been trying to find info on whether I should bother with the slight price premium of EXPO on my new build or just stick with XMP. This is good to know, thanks.

[@jemborg]

@@Gofr5 get the EXPO RAM. I've read numerous comments in reddit about people having serious issues getting going with non-EXPO RAM. It's hard to say what HUB thinks, even though they've had plenty to say about RAM... they've _never_ commented on EXPO to my knowledge. If you can't afford 6000MHz cl30 try for 5600MHz cl30. It seems just as good. Wish I'd known before I'd bought the G-Skill Flair X5 6000MHz cl36 kit from America. Good thing I'm gaming at 4k.

[@Technicellie]

I am really glad that someone really puts an effort into comparing most (can't always catch 'em all, especially when revisions drop later) Motherboards of one chipset, especially on the budget segment... Of 150-250$. Thank you for the testing, keep it up! ^^

[@manriquedanielmarperez7995]

With out a doubt a superb review....and just in under 20 minutes. Magnificent work.

[@samudrachetan6264]

Hey i really want to know when the next b650 motherboard review will be out I am planning on buying the b650 aorus elite ax on 28 feb and when will you be releasing the video really eager to know, and need your word before spending my money..

[@Hardwareunboxed]

Thanks for the support, we're working hard to get the full B650 roundup out as soon as possible.

[@LifeIsButaBluff]

Excellent work and presentation, thanks. I’m starting to believe ASUS are trying to produce to many boards at all levels and living on past reputations.

[@richarde98]

These boards were a failure, probably why they made the WiFi II (which I saw for the same price in Germany actually). Hopefully they unlaunch the old ones though, lol. Still their premium offerings are still excellent, like their ITX boards this generation. I really like where ASRock is going though too (their B650E-ITX offering is really nice, but overpriced). People need to finally stay away from buying for brands. It has never been a worse time for that philosophy.

[@moonlightknight6877]

As someone who always tends to buy Asus boards, you are right. It's a shame that they seem to be focusing on quantity over quality.

[@cletheland6815]

@@moonlightknight6877I agree. In general Asus boards were generally considered the best but their offerings for Ryzen have been pretty lousy the last few years. Disappointing to see them releasing clearly inferior products. Gigabyte has been on their game lately.

[@Rachit0904]

Asus has made some low quality or overpriced boards for a couple years now. Look at most of their B660 and Z690 lineup. Even many of their B550 boards. They’re living off their reputation in other products like laptops and graphics cards

[@zodwraith5745]

Asus has been milking their reputation for years now. How they got that reputation I'll never understand because they've never been notably better but have always notably more expensive. Even back in the 90s they were priced at a premium for pretty meh boards.

[@OmegaDmitry]

Again, insane amount of work! Thank you for doing these huge tests. I know it's too much too ask, but it would be great to see future X3D AM5 CPUs working on X670 and B650 boards, to see if it's worth to get a cheap X670 or the best B650.

[@NedjoKovacevic]

Thank you for massive effort and work put in this guide! Respect!

[@ramunasmakelis]

Just perfect review - all the things needed in one place, would take hour(s?) at least to browse and compare the data by yourself + timings and testing done - MARVELOUS!

[@creaturedanaaaaa]

Gigabyte getting things together this gen is crazy especially with how strong their lower end Z790 boards seem to be this time around

[@blogJM]

Gigabyte has always been good when it comes to motherboards. GPUs on the other hand though, one of the highest RMAs and let's not talk about their PSUs.

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

​@@blogJM Why avoid the PSU topic?It's just one word;"Kaboom!".

[@shadyyogainstructor932]

@@blogJM Nope, they have been consistent dogshit for me and their X570 Aorus Pro ITX boards all had busted bluetooth and sketchy wifi which is why I had to go Asus last gen. if they fixed their bio's and didnt use shit wifi / BT cards they would be awesome. I also love their triple M.2 board this gen but didn't wanna risk it considering how expensive new AM5 kit is

[@nagorak666]

Gigabyte definitely seems to have built some solid boards this time. I wrote them off after having a bad experience with their early AM4 boards, but in the end I couldn't ignore that they seemed to be offering a better product at a given price point this time around. Not to mention getting a give year warranty if you register the board on their site is also a plus.

[@pranze3484]

​@@nagorak666 the gigabyte "warranty" is "please reset bios, if not work contact seller directly"

[@headsmanenjoyer]

Been waiting for this for some time, thanks for your hard work 🙏

[@zbrkesbris5987]

boot time difference could be because of "fast boot" option state in bios. If enabled it skips memory (re)training on power up which speeds up boot time considerably, but can introduce instability at some point especially if user overclocked and/or tightened timings on their RAM.

[@peternedermann6751]

Very good stuff Steve - many thanks for the detailed comparison and structured review. Will be a bookmark for me, as reference material.

[@urosorlovic86]

I think the next motherboard round up should be the best buy and future proof and those are motherboards in the $260 to $350 range with plenty of B650E and some Cheaper X670E from AsRock which are already tested. I am really interested in their vrm's, stability and features... Great job as always Steve...

[@icyveins-24]

Hey I watched this video last month before building a PC and came back to say thanks a lot. It was really helpful and I ended up buying Gaming X AX from Gigabyte after seeing your recommendation. Price here was good against some other recommendations at the time I was in the market hence I chose this one specifically. I'm very happy with it for my 7900x and everything has been very stable and fast so far for the last 4 weeks

[@sublime2craig]

You guys helped me pick my AM4 setup from the CPU all the way down to the GPU, and now I have my picks for AM5! Thanks again for helping us all save money and giving us the knowledge to pick the right parts!

[@goldfries]

Glad to see our boards doing well. I've been using the PG Riptide, the Lightning and the Pro RS as well. LiveMixer's done too, and next up is the PG ITX.

[@brightbluesmurf]

There's a BIOS option called "Memory Context Restore" if you enable this feature POST times are decreased dramatically. I believe this is something to do with re-using the pre-existing DDR5 memory training, that is otherwise done every time for some reason.

[@brightbluesmurf]

On my ASUS B650E-I it takes around 16 seconds from pressing the power button to Windows 11 log in screen.

[@Bayonet1809]

I wonder if the Gigabyte boards had this enabled by default, thus giving them the faster tested boot times.

[@TorqueSpike40]

Thanks! Do you know if this is all AMD boards? My MSI Tomahawk 650 is terribly slow on boot.

[@markkoetsier6475]

@@Bayonet1809 According to another user with a Gigabyte B650, they don't have it factory enabled. So they're not 'cheating' or something by skipping memory training on boot. By the way, you might want to be a little careful about using that shit too readily, as it does seem to come at a price of worse stability. It's cool, but not some no-brainer option that should be applied to every single system. At least for now. Possibly once BIOSes have matured enough, it could be.

[@Kiyometa]

Huge thanks for all the hard work on this, that chart near the end with the features made me raise my hands in the air and yell, "This is what I was looking for!"

[@RasmusSchultz]

For the record, I ended up getting an MSI MAG B650M Mortar - which also had the extremely disappointing boot times they all have in this review. I finally discovered the "Memory Context Restore" option, which must be set to "Enabled", rather than the default setting, which was "Auto". With this enabled, my new system cold boots in under 10 seconds! Perhaps consider updating the review, as this does not seem entirely fair to the MSI boards? Boot times are just fine after fixing this. I don't know why they have the worst possible default setting there.

[@dedexter88]

thank you

[@V0LK4N]

Are you happy with msi now? I am also thinking to buy msi but i heard some voltage problems. Did you have experience like that? I would be happy if you give your opinions. Thanks

[@RasmusSchultz]

@@V0LK4N I'm definitely NOT happy - it's been 7 months of BIOS issues, random crashes and freezes, several Windows reinstalls. Boot times are terrible - you can read any review, it'll say the same. MSI support has been no help at all, I've tried everything - and now, my friend who used to build computers for a living says MSI was good, but it all went south some years ago, and never to buy MSI motherboards again, but I don't know... I don't have the equipment or spare parts to test every individual components, so I will probably take it to a PC repair shop soon to get answers.

[@V0LK4N]

@@RasmusSchultz i bought today asus tuf because my friend have with 0 issue thank you 🙏 for your attention 👍🏻

[@RasmusSchultz]

@@V0LK4N yeah, that's what my friend is recommending. :-)

[@slade178]

I ended up going with the MSI pro b650m-a,chose it before seeing this video,but due to sales was also able to get it for 100 bucks canadian 9 months ago and its been a great motherboard so far

[@stevybaby6542]

Gigabyte have a limit to how low they'll go on a cheap board. I have found them to always be good quality since I bought my first board 20 years ago. ASUS obviously don't have any problems producing mutton and using their name to pass it off as lamb. Great work Steve and perfect summary.

[@winterscrescendo]

It's not a recent board, but the ga970-a ud3 had significant issues with vdroop, no LLC. It also throttled 8 core cpus (my old fx-8350 would see linear cinebench score increases from 1-6 cored, but then the gain would fall off with cores 7 and 8. With all 8 cores running, the score was what it would have been with 7 cores if the gain remained linear). Not saying they're a bad manufacturer, just that all manufacturers have duds so it's always a good idea to research the motherboard a bit before buying.

[@falsemcnuggethope]

It's good to note though that even the Asus boards might be fine when paired with less power-hungry CPUs. In that case, other features might matter more than the VRM.

[@jskop566]

I've been building for quite some time, yet I still don't make a major purchase without checking in on what you guys are doing beforehand. Absolutely top notch. You really set the standard. On a side note, the PG Riptide is a hidden gem in my experience. I'm running one in my daily driver currently and it's been extremely solid.

[@stennan]

Hey Steve! Very interesting results. When you do your 7000X3D review, could you include benchmark data from one of these cheap B650 boards? Would be great to know if they would throttle the CPU without the premium X670 components 👍

[@Incinerate1212]

i thought the advantage of the x3d is that u are supposed to be able to get away with using a basic motherboard and basic ram. i want to know whats the best cheap motherboard for the 7800x3d.. definitely getting that cpu but hopefully we dont hear horror stories with certain mboards for it.

[@mrdali67]

@@Incinerate1212 I think the main issue with the first Zen4 gen is not if you have a B650, X670 or X670E mobo. The issue is the memory controller which for what I see from memory tests seems to be the main issue with this gen and can said to be meh at best and that sits in the cpu. So I would defo go with one of the offers in the 200$ range that suits your prefered needs in pci-e slots, usb or m.2 connectivity. Then you can get a better mobo later if needed if/when you upgrade the CPU. I think I'll wait for 2'nd gen Zen4 as it seems AMD need to work some issues out with the 1st gen.

[@Incinerate1212]

@@mrdali67 x3d suppose to make that a none factor though right? I keep hearing from Steve that's the strength of the x3d.. pair it with shitty ram and mboard. U still gonna get most of ur performance

[@mrdali67]

@@Incinerate1212 yeah theoretically if the game is optimized to use the local cache memory. Still have to take into account dependent on the game the 5800X3d is still performing lesser effective in some games compared to the non 3d versions tho. It's not a guarantied win/win in all titles. I really don't think its a solves all the problems with Ryzen 7000 series memory controller if you buy a basic cheap 5200 ram kit. Will be interesting to see how well the 7000 series 3d version performs and what impact it has that the 3d cache only works on one of the chiplets. I really like to see some tests around this if the dispatcher is able to use primarily those cores first.

[@Incinerate1212]

@@mrdali67 I heard the strength of x3d isn't really that it gives more frames but that the lows are way better .. u get a consistent experience, vs say another CPU that blast up high fps but dropping lower in the lows

[@arnoldshmitt4969]

so much work , thanks steve and the team

[@prosecanlik4296]

This B650 DS3H amazed me. I always knew that Gigabyte knows what they're doing.

[@Spidapida006]

_cough cough_ kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXvQgYioYqeYe68 Well, I'm not here to bash on them simply because of the *KABOOM!* But they better not do the same thing again

[@stolemycoconut5448]

Most likely for my new build I will get myself that mobo really impressed never was really blown away from their graphics cards neither their mobos but damn!

[@hristobotev9726]

Never buy gigabyte if you work in this PC. Asus is the best in middle/high end and low end is ... just miss them

[@nimrodery]

@@hristobotev9726 I don't work in a PC so that shouldn't be a problem. Plus I want to dominate the games.

[@prosecanlik4296]

​@@hristobotev9726 bro I have B550M DS3H and using 5600G with it. And it runs flawlessly.

[@terkoiz50]

Appreciate these videos so much! Thanks Hardware Unboxed. You guys are the MVP!

[@mayykara]

i was having doubt with "Gigabyte B650M DS3H" becouse its cheap but they really did great job with this , i hope it will drop the prices back other boards

[@GewelReal]

never judge a book by its cover

[@infernal140]

Just built a new PC using the DS3H and was a bit worried. Needless to say, after this video I'm very happy with my choice

[@rogdex24]

btw he did kinda said thank you to Gigabyte to for sponsoring the video

[@torporvasflam8670]

I never knew motherboards could vary so greatly. Excellent info for my next build.

[@nKrandom]

Best comparisons! 👏🏻

[@zxcvgvgv1]

You're a hero. It's so hard to find motherboard reviews, and your work is S-tier as always.

[@Foomanshoe]

Wish more boards came with optical audio, I'm an extremely budget buyer, but that is one of the VERY few things I will spend some extra cash on.

[@JF42506]

Another fantastic video from the H.U. channel! Thanks for the hard work this video was to make. I can't imagine doing all this work, I'd go crazy hahaha

[@TheAsmileXD]

So that's why Gigabyte had the lowest sales drop of only 17% when everyone else had 25+% sales drops. They simply make the best boards

[@backlogbuddies]

No everyone makes good and bad ones. Gigabyte has had some very bad boards.

[@nateTrh]

​@Backlog Buddies and Game Highlighter True, but after their vrm fiasco 3-5 years ago, they've made a 180 and have consistently been making the best value and quality motherboards compared to the competition. On the other hand, Asus has been resting on their laurels and their entry boards have been pretty trash for the past few generations sadly.

[@saricubra2867]

MSI destroys them

[@nateTrh]

@@saricubra2867 I'd say MSI is 2nd to them but they do have advantages. Their bios is easier to use and navigate and their boards are aesthetically more pleasing. Their boards do tend to be a little more expensive than gigabyte ones but at least they arn't Asus overpriced.

[@saricubra2867]

@@nateTrh I put MSI number 1 for their budget options that are pretty rich on features. Their BIOS is the best i ever seen, well designed UI.

[@ethansurveski2452]

Thank you Steve and team. No one else does this in depth and quality motherboard reviews!

[@eternalwingspro4454]

I am really glad ASRock doesn't cheap out the VRM anymore. I like how good their board in terms of value. Usually comes at cheaper price, or have better features at the same price. The memory issue is a bit of a let down but I think it is fair to say that ASRock have nicely improved the quality of their "cheap" motherboard from unworthy to be really worthy.

[@kingofstrike1234]

i would think differently from you i think because it's amd, if it's intel board they'll probably cheap out

[@tomstech4390]

Like AMD FX, it's not that hard to improve on dogshit.

[@colinmcbottle]

Asrock do cheap out VRMs in models that dont have a direct chipset replacement version. For example, it was common for them to ship the same exact version in a A320, B350, X370 version of the same model. So if you were buying the A320 version, you were getting better than normal VRMs, but if you were buying X370, you were getting kind of anemic ones for the price. This is why Asrock tends to be so popular with budget builds, you just need to aim for the board that is known to have an exact chipset replacement version, as they are guaranteed to keep the same VRM config for both the budget and the higher tier board.

[@TheRealPotoroo]

@@MrA-ir3me Yes, I was just wondering how many people knew that Asus spun Asrock off to be the budget manufacturer back in the day when Asus products were premium. Once upon a time I bought nothing but Asus, these days alas they're not just stupidly expensive for what they are but they're apparently trash to boot.

[@blkspade23]

@@MrA-ir3me Yeah I don't know what's up with Asus. The only AM5 board I'm interested in feature wise is the their 670E Pro Art, but those are still having memory support issues. My X470 Strix board has been having random freezes that I finally narrowed down to the board after swapping it out for a spare Asrock B550 board I had laying around. Makes me a bit hesitant on getting their X670E board.

[@mikesunboxing]

Got the b650 tomahawk and really like it

[@speedracer9132]

I hope y’all have a video of more higher end boards planned because I just got the Asus Strix B650EF from the microcenter deal as I’m sure many others have as well. I’m curious how the vrms, thermals, and boot times compare to other boards

[@mepplin3508]

This video is amazing. Very useful for deciding between Microcenter's build bundles since they use primarily cheaper b650 boards. Thanks for the video!!

[@hwsmith69]

Excellent work as always, though it was a bit late for me. I typically wait on your reviews to upgrade my motherboard but I had to pull the trigger. I went for the Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX after a little research. I got it for $200 on Amazon and I haven't been disappointed. When I watched your review I just had to give this board a plug and recommend you review it for your viewers. It's the best bang for the buck outside of the DS3H. I needed more USB ports. In the past I have been an ASUS fan but this is the second generation that I have selected Gigabyte over Asus. I find ASUS has fallen off drastically.

[@arx117]

Asus is now following Sony. Charging money more while having less than competitor.

[@apster07]

How are the boot times for this board??

[@joaojgac]

Such a hard work that you deserve my comment ! Congrats on benchmarking and helping people decide which board is the best to go. Cheers!

[@thegrimmtv3532]

Damn, that Gigabyte B650m DS3H is putting on a show.

[@bignicnrg3856]

Great work!!! The community is very appreciative of you work. Thank you 😊

[@DarkReturns1]

Shocking boot time results considering the RAM and CPU. I never thought that just the motherboard could have that much of an effect.

[@nykraftlemagnifique]

Love this kind of motherboard test ! Really it's a great plus on your channel ! You give us a real data on motherboard and help us to see clear on this market ! Thanks a lot, keep up the good work, hope you the best !

[@BertieJasokie]

AS rock stepping it up, I'm glad to see. ASUS always seems to have really competitive mobos but results like these will make anyone wary of their products.

[@SpookyKG]

Yeah this confirms my return of my B650E-F (I've been experiencing memory woes). I had seen ASUS as a reliable brand.

[@OfSheikah]

@@SpookyKG that F sku... B450-F flashbacks with HORRID vrms... B550-A was rather fine and not disastrous, probably I would see it put to how good this gen's MSI MAG B650 is, guess Asus going for disappoinment every 50% of the time...

[@Mark_Williams.]

Superb effort Steve! Happy to see boot times and memory stuff included, very handy.

[@chestercopperpot3793]

This far down the AM5 road and motherboards are _still_ having issues with "sweet spot" DDR5. Really makes those price hikes even more of a kick in the teeth. Those boot time differences are shocking.

[@N0N0111]

Even when you compare DDR5 brands and same speeds, they all have wacky slow latency speeds as default. Manual tuning you can gain 10 to 20 FPS on the cheapest DDR5 kits.

[@crylune]

Why do you think I'm waiting until Zen 5 X3D, keeping my trusty 5800X3D in the meantime? I don't trust AM5 just yet, nor does Zen 4 or Zen 4 X3D offer any significant boost.

[@kingplunger1]

​@Crylune with a high end cpu like that upgrading already is dumb anyway, has nothing to do with am5

[@crylune]

@@kingplunger1 uh, that's what I meant, AM5 is my only upgrade and it's unnecessary therefore AM5 is irrelevant to me rn

[@807800]

As always, thank you for your hard work. This is really helpful for all interested buyer out there.

[@Atilolzz]

Those bootimes are a great, great addition tbh, I am very annoyed my ASRock X570 Boot Times

[@N0N0111]

OMG that made my eyes go wide open, seriously! Hope this open these brands eyes and they all start coding for the fastest upstart time haha.

[@raym7441]

That was a lot of work and quite a thorough break down. Much appreciated Steve!

[@octobertenth4402]

for mid-range b650 when? currently considering either the b650 tomahawk or the b650 asus tuf gaming plus

[@kemalramadhan1960]

So what do you get bro? Asking the same thing here. I want either tomahawk or tuf.

[@faithful2008]

@@kemalramadhan1960 b650 asus tuf gaming plus has only 12+2 Phase VRM with 60A stages and has more weaker heatsink design (price 228 euro in my country same as tomahawk), while b650 tomahawk wifi has 14+2 Phase VRM with 80A and more premium thermal heatsink design, so look like b650 tomahawk may be better in that aspect, the downside is has only PCIe Gen 4 for nvme while asus tuf has 1 slot for PCIe Gen 5, but tomahawk has also Intel Wi-Fi 6E Solution. I see tech4gamers review saying that the ''Best High-End B650 Motherboard is MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi'', and the ''Best B650 Motherboard For Overclocking is MSI MPG B650 Carbon WiFi'' who has 18+2 Phase VRM but it's more expensive than tomahawk to in est europe ( 345 euro vs 228 euro tomahawk), and ''Best Value B650 Motherboard ASRock B650 Pro RS'' (this one is the same price as tomahawk in my country 226 euro) but this one has the PCI-E x1 slot for my sound card more up in the middle than at the bottom, while the tomahawk has the slot for my sound card at the very bottom. As for the boot time msi has also 'Memory Context Restore' to be enabled in bios to cut in half the boot time, but i read on reedit some asus and msi users say they get some bsod blue screen with 'Memory Context Restore enabled (not all of them) , but some say when they enabled both 'Memory Context Restore and 'DRAM Power Down Mode' the say was fixed blue screen. I will test myself this week, since i was owned x570 tomakawk wifi before, now i choose to go with msi to with b650 tomahahak wifi, will see. tech4gamers.com/best-b650-motherboard/

[@kemalramadhan1960]

@@faithful2008 yeah same price too in my country. But power phase shouldn't be a problem as current motherboard really overkill interm of power phase, though i choose tomahawk for better heatsink and 6x sata. Thank you for your reply

[@bendavis3545]

Your channel is one of the few places that actually provides meaningful measureables to justify or not justify a purchase. Most other channels just read through the specs, thank you for not taking the easy road and instead giving real value to us. I buy all my motherboards based on your excellent investigations. Great work, as always.

[@kalestra4198]

Yeah these informations are not accesible elsewhere as long as i know.

[@Fourside__]

Man i was struggling with the boot times on my b650 tomahawk. If i disable mem training it boots in about 30 sec, but my system is instable (firefox suddenly closing etc) so i have to do with minute long boot times. Seeing here that the MB has such a huge impact makes me kinda mad. WTF MSI get your sheit together, literally stealing 30 seconds of my life every time i boot my pc up 😂

[@四as]

Fuuuuck that's the one I'm looking to buy :( MSI suddenly the worst one of them all.

[@WitmerXL]

Doesn't anyone use sleep mode? I can see the boot times being annoying, but that alone wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. I barely ever power off my computer. Sleep mode is an excellent feature and faster than any boot up :P I get much more annoyed when hardware manufactures and Microsoft have issues getting sleep mode right with drivers/updates. With the AM4 platform, I had problems with specifically Gigabyte boards out of the box with latest drivers where sleep mode has issues, like not waking up properly, sometimes requiring tinkering in bios to make it work properly. Granted, some of my hardware choices and usage may have an impact since not everyone has these issues, like the built in controller on lexmark drives may not always agree with Gigabyte UEFI firmware?, or using features wake on lan. Gigabyte has been my favorite mobo brand for many many years, with flawless AM3 boards, but having to tinker around to get suspend/wake up to work properly is more of an annoyance (to me, at least) than slow boot times. Meanwhile, the AM4 MSI boards I've had experience with, sleep mode just works even before installing chipset drivers! While Gigabyte is more personal to me, being on AM4 MSI is a nice switch up. Going AM5 I would def give Gigabyte another shot, as things change & AM4 and AM5 work very differently.

[@samudrachetan6264]

Thanks a lot for these videos really love your content will be waiting for your other b650 motherboard video love your work🙌

[@erichintonband]

I just built with the MSI B650 P. My boot time is 28 sec.

[@Sattelight897]

Clutch comment. Thank you sir!

[@gagmarcol]

I’ve been waiting for this video. Thanks!

[@N0N0111]

The whole motherboards series is so much more interesting than GPUs series to me. Cause so many TechTubers don't do motherboards comparisons anymore, it's all GPU GPU GPU... sad.

[@martimattia1997]

Thank you for this video, is really valuable for all of us, i did pick my MB thanks to your videos about the z690 roundup and im really pleased with the MB so thanks a lot!

[@1ddenis1]

wanted to go for Gigabyte B650M GAMING X AX but after searching for reviews (there aren't many actually) I came to conclusion seems like these motherboards produce loud coil whine. Almost every review was about this so it seems it's definitely a thing and I don't want an annoying squeaking PC. Seems like avoiding gygabyte mobos in this section for this solo reason

[@fendel_]

Thanks for this test. Looking forward to the next level of B650 board tests, hope to see it soon!

[@Faisal-SR]

B650E comparison VRM tests

[@Faisal-SR]

@@alwaysright6969 Depends on proper heat definition 80c is bad even with 7950X

[@frankdegan8972]

Awesome. I just bought the Asrock 650m wifi for $185 in the states 3 days ago. Should have it tomorrow! Solid cheap option it seems. Thanks for all your work so the average person can make informed decisions!!!

[@falsemcnuggethope]

Who's surprised that Gigabyte has the tightest timings with the kit they sent?

[@BuzzKiller23]

Thanks Steve for all the effort you put into these roundup videos. You are a legend!

[@THU31]

What the hell happened to ASUS? I've been using their motherboards exclusively since 2008 (a total of 8 motherboards) and I've never had any issues at all (been using the PRIME Z370-A for 5 years now). But for a while now their boards have been very expensive with much less value. They're skimping on VRM, USB ports, M.2 slots. The quality and feature set have gone down significantly. I might go with a different brand for my next build.

[@VideogamesAsArt]

Great video! Thank you for all this testing

[@samay5902]

i guess gigabyte knew what they were doing when they sponsored this video, they know that they have the better b650s

[@Tanktaco]

Always have to watch these more than once to understand, there's so much!

[@Rosaslav]

Also, it seems a bit unfair in terms of RAM performance testing, given that Gigabyte Aorus RAM modules were used, which are more likely to be optimized on Gigabyte boards than on other boards, which probably optimize more mainstream RAM vendor modules first (G.Skill, Kingston, ADATA, ...). EDIT: I checked and didn't find AORUS RAM modules in any Memory QVL lists other than Gigabyte ones.

[@AL12rs]

Thank you very much for testing boot times! Slow boot times really bother me, so I appreciate it!

[@psgtonato]

B650 is simply crazy pricing, above 200 € here in Germany, big turnoff for me.

[@Gazer75]

Its mostly 230 and up here in Norway when converting NOK to EUR. Only a few micro ATX boards below.

[@nguyendinh2052]

B650M DS3H can be found around 150€ in Germany

[@kingplunger1]

the 650m variants prices are similar to those mentioned by steve though. the atx models are at or above 200

[@backfromearth1]

@@nguyendinh2052 link, please ?

[@nguyendinh2052]

@@backfromearth1 There was a double discount from Gigabyte + Shoop on January, it’s over now. However you can buy it for 170€ in Mindfactory, and get 70€ discount when buy along a 7000 CPU, so it’s only 100€.

[@gotscroogled]

Ended up going with the Gaming X AX for my friends build and looks like we chose a good one!

[@ChristmasCrustacean1]

motherboard vendors are extremely greedy with pricing.

[@InAwOrLdOfIdIoTs]

I got the Àsrock PG Lightening B650 using Corsair CL 30 32gb using EXPO DDR5 6000 and have been running Cinebench R23.2. Installed the latest bios update 1.24.AS02 and it's been stable as anything, not a single problem to report. I also get a boot time of about 10-15 seconds from power on. And I am very happy. With PBO on, I have been getting 29,698 on cinebench R23.2 with R9 7900. I think this is a higher score than the 7900x you tested. Thanks for all the great work you have done, us lime'es appreciate it.

[@N0N0111]

The whole PRIME Asus branding is insane trash!

[@m_sedziwoj]

This video is very helpful. Thx for taking time to make it.

[@kingofstrike1234]

asus "cheap boards" is just a ripoff

[@riddlex]

Thank you so much Steve for reviewing the B650 series of Motherboards. Now I'll take an informed decision.