ITX build: Choosing an AM4 B450 board - what's your experience in terms of reliability?

[AnitaPeterson]

Alright... let's revisit the thread, five years later.

As it happens, by 2024, I have become familiar with all the B450 boards mentioned in the entire discussion.

I got the Asus first... then the Gigabyte, during a sale.
And during the pandemic, I built computers for others, using the Asrock and MSI boards.
They all turned to be great choices, and AFAIK are all still functional to this day.

So if anyone finds this thread, it is a testament to the reliability of these ITX models, and the amazing resilience of the AM4 platform.

 

[Iron Woode]

I am still using my Asrock ITX board in my HTPC. I did upgrade the CPU to a Ryzen 5 5600G. This system works great. I am running windows 11 on it and it is fast and stable.

There was a new BIOS released about 2 months ago for security issues.

 

[Brainonska511]

I built my wife's PC with a Gigabyte B450 I Aorus Pro mITX board, first with a Ryzen 5 2600, an RX570, and a standard SATA SSD, then upgraded to a Ryzen 5 5600X, an NVME SSD, and an RX6600. Even recently upgraded it to a fresh install of Windows 11 from the original Windows 10 install. Board has been running flawlessly since December 2019.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The ASRock B450 Fata1ty gaming ITX/ac I had worked great. Recently sold it as a complete build minus ram, with a 5700G in it. Just a side note, but there is a 5700G for $100 in the for sale/trade forum at the moment if anyone is looking for a capable APU for one of these boards.

Been using the Gigabyte B550i AORUS PRO AX for almost 2yrs and it's a great little board. For me it has been a full 5 stars. Currently has a 5800X3D and ARC A750 in it with 32GB kit of 4000MTs.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The ASRock B450 Fata1ty gaming ITX/ac I had worked great. Recently sold it as a complete build minus ram, with a 5700G in it. Just a side note, but there is a 5700G for $100 in the for sale/trade forum at the moment if anyone is looking for a capable APU for one of these boards.

Been using the Gigabyte B550i AORUS PRO AX for almost 2yrs and it's a great little board. For me it has been a full 5 stars. Currently has a 5800X3D and ARC A750 in it with 32GB kit of 4000MTs.

I had an ASRock B450 that died - I think my PSU was wonky and fried it out. It was a good board until one day it just... boom.

Replaced it with that same B550i AORUS (open box sale at MicroCenter) and have been happy with that as well.

Same CPU (5600X) for both.

 

[IEC]

I have a ASRock AB350 Gaming ITX mobo I purchased in November 2018 which is still going strong in a friend's rig. They originally had a Ryzen 1700 in it but recently upgrade to a Ryzen 5700X. He was very impressed with the drop-in upgrade and how much snappier his workflows got with minimal effort to upgrade.

Same with a ASRock X370 Taichi - originally had a Ryzen 1600. Friend upgraded it a while back to a 5600X.

I'll also be sending some old AM4 parts to another friend I built a rig for back during the Sandy Bridge era... he is still running that same i5-3570K / GTX 1060 build and when we game together it's painfully obvious he needs more CPU horsepower.

AM4 has a well-deserved reputation as one of the best bang for the buck platforms in recent memory. And with how inexpensive used parts can be it's the baseline circa 2020+ spec I'll be upgrading all my friends and family to.

P.S. If your user wants to be on Windows 11 rather than Windows 10, you can use Rufus to disable TPM requirement and get rid of online account requirement as well. Since I figure AM4 builders may want to be aware of workarounds/alternatives given that Windows 10 is anticipated to be EOL in October 2025 (next year).