MSI ProSeries AMD Ryzen 2ND and 3rd Gen AM4 M.2 USB 3 DDR4 D-Sub DVI HDMI Crossfire ATX Motherboard (B450-A Pro Max) (B450APROMAX)

I was looking for a reasonably priced board as for a productivity/light gaming/light media creation build. I was biased toward Gigabyte from my last two builds, but their boards were expensive relative to features. After researching, I decided to try the MSI B450-A Pro Max, even though my only previous experience with MSI was a bad board a long (AMD K-6) time ago.Six months after purchasing, I could not be happier. Installing the board in my case was a snap, and component installation was easy, too. Having multiple 4-pin fan connectors allows me to have a cool, quiet system. BIOS settings are clear and easy. Everything just worked, and with a bit of tweaking, it works great!Yeah, the board is chocolate brown. My Noctua fans are ugly brown, too, and they work great...like this board. I could deduct a 1/2 star of the lack of printed manual in the box, but I have one after printing the manual downloaded from the MSI site.The balance of price and features makes the MSI B450-A Pro Max the best value I could find.My build:Fractal Design Define R5MSI B450-A Pro MaxAMD Ryzen 5 2600XCorsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB 3000nVidia GeForce 1650 OCSamsung 970 EVO PLUS 250 GB m.2Seagate BarraCuda 2 TBWD Black 1 TB

A couple of times now I've had to buy a board on a tight budget. Both times have been MSI boards, and both times they have been great purchases. After a lot of searching around for the best price/features ratio, I decided to pull the trigger on this board, after realizing my last MSI board has been running flawlessly for the last 8 years.Without going into much detail, its got a Ryzen 5 2600x , and a RX 570 running beautifully. It's used in a primarily gaming PC and does what it needs to do. Everything on the board was clearly labeled and easy to plug into (especially the case plugs, very appreciative of that!)It powered up on the first attempt, and has ran perfectly since. The BIOS is clear and easy to read. Other than check to make sure that everything is running as it should I haven't used it for anything else.I usually have a lil panic attack on whether I chose the right mobo when I build a PC, and thankfully I feel very confident that I did in this case.

I don't use the computer for games, nor do I overclock.It's a solid AMD motherboard, every bit as good as the now discontinued B450-A Pro this board replaces.I have one serious criticism: the SATA ports are located at the edge of the board, and you must plug cables from the very narrow space separating it from the "cage" where hard drives are usually located. You must bend four of the cables 90-degrees. This is the first time I've encountered such a problem with any board - and I've built over 25 computers in my lifetime.This model will probably be discontinued soon, replaced models that use the B-550 chips. So, it's a buying opportunity for a low price.

At the time of purchase this board was basically the best board within ~100$ budget, if you don't care about the looks. If you care though, tomahawk was the way to go, having also slightly better sound card on board.There's not that much to say since the product is universal representation of good enough. It wouldn't push too crazy. However it handled R5 2600 and handles now R5 5600 very well without any issues.

I ordered this when AM5 came out and paid 80$ for it. A bit expensive but it is an ATX board. Super easy to install and flash with the BIOS button the Bios for the Ryzen 5000 series CPU's. Worked right out of the box. The board is better than the B450 board I have from Asus. Easy to install in my XPG Invader case.At the beginning when freshly installed Windows 11 I got lots of sound problems. After installing the crap of MSi drivers and Utilities which actual version MSi's MSi Center was offering, my sound got messed up completely. Sound stutters becauso of the new sound drivers, Chipset drivers and the like. Headphones and 5.1 Speakers intermittently connected/disconnected causing delays and stutters. Looked like an software issue of MSi software. That foreced me to reinstall and erase from scrap Windows 10 and it offered then to upgrade to Windows 11. After that the problem was gone with only Windows drivers. Do not download the crap MSi Center offers. It can break your OS.Other than that this board suggests it has 2 full fledged PCIE x 16 slots of the 3.0 type. At least that is what customers will think easily. Think twice. It has only one x16 PCIE 3.0 slot and the long one below has x16 openings but only half of those have connector pins installed and the manual says it is not even an x8 slot but rather an x4 only. And to add insult to injury that slot is only 2.0. Completely misleading for an new buyer.On the lower slot I have the GT 1030 GDDR5 from MSi installed I had still from Q1 2020. It works on low settings on some games like HnG from 2016 and gets between 52 fps and 60 fps.Other than that this MSi board works way better than the Asus B450 board I have on my other system from last year. The RAM slots are way easier to use and the sticks slide into them like lubricated. The dual channel works on this board which is on my Asus most likely defective (Asus refuses warranty). I use it with 32 GB (2 x 16) TeamGroup TCreate RAM sticks. High quality 3200 Mhz sticks for relatively cheap.It is a good strong board with 2 massive coolers on the Mosfets. These massive coolers impressed me as an new inexperienced buyer for my very first build. So it slipped to me the issue with the PCIE "x16" slots.This Motherboard worked straight out of the box. I use the Ryzen 5900X with this with an Gamemax Gamma 500 AM4 cooler. The coolers does not fit well the AM4 system since it's clip is way to stiff so I had to take the cooler off the CPU and bend a bit the clips till it fits just with a little pressure. Install the air coolers without too much pressure so it is not loose but can slide a bit is fine before snapping it gently in place. As original fit I got 66 Celsius to 70 Celsius on idle or doing basic work with that processor, but after bending the clips to aliviate the pressure I get now at the moment 51 Degrees Celsius. So if too much pressure is applied by the cooler onto the processor that rises the heat to a difference of about 20 Degrees Celsius. Any of these standard air coolers with heat pipes will be able to cool the Ryzen 5900X easily. While gaming it gets to about 61 degrees Celsius. My case has 3 fans in the front and 1 in the back.MSi's UEFI is a bit confusing if one is used to the Asus UEFI. But it has basically the same features but it is way more confusing. The fans can be adjusted better on MSi's BIOS. But with this 5900X duo deca core CPU, the PSU is annoyingly loud all the time. While on Ecomode with 65 Watts the whole system draws on gaming about 150 Watts. The board seems to have no problems to deliver power to the 5900X.Running Cinebench with this board and 5900X CPU with settings to Ecomode 65Watt, the case fans kick in, the CPU has an temp of 61 Degrees Celsius after 5 Minutes Cinebench, the Mosfets have an temperature of 58 Degrees Celsius and the PCH has an temperature of 50 Celsius while the Cooler Master Silencio 120mm fan I put on the Gamma from GameMax CPU cooler, turns 1000 rpm and all 4 Arctic F12 120mm case fans show an rpm of 700.I am surprised how this GameMax Gamma air cooler is able to maintain cool this CPU. So the huge aluminum coolers on the Mosfets of the MSi board sure do their job.The board has lots of fan headers. Thats very good.I recommend this board for the AM4 system but be aware of the cheating PCIE slot advertisement, the sound problems and the rather difficult to use UEFI settings. But this is an robust board.