MSI B450i Gaming PLUS AC review - Introduction

MSI B450i Gaming PLUS AC
A downsized motherboard, fully capable of empowering a high-performance PC.

We're downsizing! Read our review of the new the MSI B450i Gaming PLUS AC review, based on the new B450 chipset it is aimed at for Ryzen processors, and in specific the new Ryzen 2000 / Zen+. And with a 17x17cm, mini-ITX form factor this puppy is small, offers value and really has it all.

Yeah, Zen+ was launched in April, aka Ryzen 2000 or 12nm optimized Ryzen processors, the 'refresh' SKUs so to say. The new 12nm Zen+ processors will work fine with your X370 chipset based motherboard and vice versa, however, AMD launched the X470 chipset alongside these new Zen+ processors. The new chipset offers small improvements in combo with the new 12nm products. For example, to better facilitate XFR2 options. It has been a year already ever since AMD launched the first generation Ryzen processors. It had a bit of a rocky launch with the inter-core latency discussion a 1080p gaming performance as well as memory support. But the tide definitely turned for AMD as more and more people are considering to purchase an AMD processor-based PC, for their next purchase. The memory compatibility issues are mostly all gone, of course, we'll look at game performance in this article as well. But yes, things are looking good. The new 12nm processor generation can be clocked a notch higher. The upper range frequencies at 4.2~4.3 now are feasible, that also means that on the lower end of the spectrum, AMD is now capable to increase base-clock performance ion the more high-end parts. All these little tweaks bring the benefit of an overall faster processor series. Add to that improved memory latency and improved XFR2 ranges and you'll notice that the new ZEN+ generation now has become a really viable and more competitive product. So the ones that have not made a move towards AMD Ryzen just yet, now potentially could or will.  

Most motherboards are at a standard ATX form factor solution, this puppy might have just one PCIe x16 Gen3 slot, but at 17x17c it is Mini ITX. This board also comes with an M.2 slot, but that is a full four PCIe lanes Gen3 connection (tucked away at the backside). It has four SATA ports as well as AC WIFI. 

Today's tested motherboard, the MSI B450i Gaming PLUS AC, is obviously based on the B450 chipset and thus its feature set. This more value series board includes support for one M.2-NVMe SSDs, USB 3.1. The primary PCIe slot is metal reinforced to withstand the weight of high-end cards.  The audio features a Realtek ALC 887 codec (7.1 channels). The motherboard is reasonable in its features but certainly grand considering its size in any DIY PC build. The dark and red styled PCB does not have any RGB accents, basically. Combine this motherboard with any Ryzen 2000 series four, six or eight-core processor and you'll have an excellent high-end DIY PC! Let’s start up the review, shall we?