[Test] Asus Prime B450M-A – An entry-level motherboard that has everything you need? |Specs | Price

Introduction

Hi all!

Today I am going to offer you a test that changes the products I am used to testing, and those which are generally chosen by the manufacturers to show their know-how. Indeed instead of all motherboards oriented “gamers” with more or less useful features to no longer know what to do with it today it will be an entry-level model which is in fact aimed at a little everyone, because in practice few people really need a high-end model.
So, to do this I am offering you the Asus Prime B450M-A, a micro-ATX motherboard equipped with the very latest B450 socket from AMD, this one replacing the B350 and of course still on socket AM4. After the X470s, which are the top of the range for the general public, here we are, therefore, facing a mid-range chipset which is designed to meet the needs of almost the majority of users on the market.

[Test] Asus ROG STRIX X470-I Gaming, mini ITX for a mini PC!

Offered at a price of around 95 € the Asus B450M-A does not come with great claims, but even at this price we are still entitled to expect a minimum, given that some cards “old generations ”can be found around € 70. Also note that all AM4 motherboards are compatible with all AM4 processors, like the second generation Ryzen (Ryzen 5 2600X tested here), so if you have a B350 or X370 there is no need to change, the performance will be the same!

Characteristics

As we can see we are here facing a motherboard which is very classic and which clearly does not stand out for all its functionalities or its technical characteristics, but that is not what we are asking! The Asus B450M-A is therefore a motherboard in micro-ATX format, one between two between the ATX and the mini-ITX with 24.4 cm by 24 cm side, which therefore intends it to a rather compact case, to less than installing it in an ATX box but I find it hard to see the interest that this would have 😉
As said above of course the new B450 chipset was invited on our motherboard, 4 slots for DDR4 memory up to 3200 MHz are available, allowing a maximum of 64 GB, enough to cover a very large majority of uses !

[Test] Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming & AMD Ryzen 5 2600X

On the storage side, the Asus B450M-A is rather well supplied, with 6 Sata ports as well as an M.2 port, compatible with both PCIe 4x and Sata, so you have the choice of weapons! RAID 0, 1 and 10 is of course part of it for those who would like to indulge in it.
Micro-ATX forces the number of PCIe ports to be rather small, with of course still a 16x PCIe port for a graphics card but also 2 PCIe 1x ports for expansion cards. You should therefore not expect to make a dual-GPU configuration, it is not really made for that!

The “classic” features that any motherboard must have nowadays are of course present. The sound part managed by a Realtek ALC887 chipset which is not the most high-end but will do its job well, unless of course you want to connect high-end Hi-Fi speakers. The network controller for its part is also left to Realtek with the RTL8111H, again not the most upscale and it is a shame not to have been entitled to a variant from Intel, but hey that should be more than enough for the majority of users!
Let’s take a closer look!

Unpacking and bundle

Here is the box of the beast! Here it is clear that Asus has not gone into the extravagance that can be found on ROG models, still happy since it is not really a model oriented “gamer”, and by I am talking about “gamer” marketing, because a motherboard will not enter at all (or very little) in the overall performance of the machine. In short, a black box that displays the photo of the beast, with its name, the brand’s logo as well as a listing of the highlights.
On the back, another photo of the B450M-A as well as a table of technical characteristics, just to know what to buy!

Inside the box we fall directly on the beast in its antistatic bag, the whole price in a cardboard mold, transport should not be a problem.

The bundle is summarized here to the strict minimum, we are entitled to the manuals and user manuals, the CD of drivers, the I / O plate as well as 2 Sata cables and the necessary screws for the M.2 port. We do not ask for much more, however, even if it is always a shame to have only 2 Sata cables, anyone who wants to take an SSD, a Mechanical hard drive as well as a DVD player will have to go back to the cash register, but this is the case for almost all motherboards on the market.