The MSI B350M GAMING PRO Motherboard uses the AMD B350 chipset, which can support the new Rzyen APUs (Raven Ridge) with Vega-based integrated GPU. It is a value-oriented motherboard with tons of additional features. (The latest B450 motherboards have been released, but this review was done before that.)
Unboxing
The MSI B350M GAMING PRO Motherboard is a microATX board, that supports AMD AM4 socket. The board includes all standardized B350 chipset features, such as overclocking and USB 3.1.
The packaging has no difference with other motherboards in the market. The model name, AMD’s Ryzen, AM4 and MSI logos covers most of the area at the front, while the back shows the best features of the board.
The motherboard is wrapped and protected by an anti-static bag.
Inside the packaging, you get the usual I/O shield, two SATA 3 6 Gb/s cables (one straight, one 90 degrees), driver DVD and user manual. Also, there is a quick installation guide, a piece of instruction sheet about AMD stock cooler and some cable stickers.
The I/O shield has a nice coated surface at the front, which feels more premium and blends in better with your PC case with the black color.
MSI B350M GAMING PRO Motherboard
As the “GAMING” name implies, the motherboard is pimped with some red color accents at the VRM and chipset heatsinks, main PCIe x16 slot and RAM slots. As with any other AMD sockets in the consumer market, AM4 is a zero insertion force socket. This mean the contact pins are on the CPU itself (PGA).
The 24-pin motherboard power connector is located at the right side, while the 8-pin CPU power connector is at the top left corner. There are two DDR4 RAM slots next to the CPU socket, that support a total of 32 GB of DDR4 memory clocked from 1866 MHz to 3200(OC)+ MHz in dual channel.
Three 4-pin PWM fan headers can be found on the board, which all of them can be controlled via the BIOS. There is a backplate included as well.
At the back I/O, you can find the PS/2 combo port, two USB 2.0 ports and four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports. All USB ports are full-sized Type A, not Type C. For display output, there are a VGA port, a DVI-D port and a HDMI port. You also get a RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port and three audio jacks for mics, headphones and speakers.
An internal USB 3.1 Gen 1 (USB 3.0) header at the bottom, as well as a 12V RGB LED header.
A total of four SATA 3 6 Gb/s ports are located on the lower right of the board. Two of them are rotated 90 degrees for easier access and cable routing.
The main PCIe 3.0 x16 slot is sitting between two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, with steel reinforced brackets for holding heavier graphics card. Also, there is a M.2 slot for PCIe 3.0 x4 (Ryzen processors) or SATA SSDs. It supports Key M 2242/ 2260 /2280 storage device.
Review
Testing System:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X @ 3.6 GHz (95W TDP)
- Motherboard: MSI B350M GAMING PRO Motherboard
BIOS
The motherboard’s BIOS offers a very similar if not exactly identical UEFI interface as the more expensive high-end MSI motherboards. It is simple enough to use and navigate around.
This is the EZ mode, where you can quickly change some basic settings, like the storage boot orders.
You will need to press the “F7” button to enter the advanced mode. This is where you can control the CPU and RAM overclocking settings.
CPU performance
The Ryzen 5 1600X performed as expected on the MSI B350M GAMING PRO motherboard as other non-overclocked result. In Geekbench 4, we got a single-core score of 4048 and a multi-core score of 18004.
In Cinebench R15, the 1600X reached a score of 1228 at stock clock speed.
Overclocking
The board is using a 3+2 phase VRM design. For our specific CPU, we were able to push the clock speed to about 3.8 GHz to 3.9 GHz when voltage is set to around 1.35 V, with proper cooling.
Conclusion
The MSI B350M GAMING PRO motherboard is a value-oriented board for AMD Ryzen CPU/APU platform. The board is decently built, along with the red/black “gamer” aesthetic. Despite the lower price, MSI still managed to pack quite a lot of useful features inside the board, like the full speed M.2 SSD slot.
The on-board video outputs make this board a perfect companion for the Raven Ridge APUs, such as the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G. The BIOS will even allow users to overclock the integrated GPU for some extra performance.
The board is priced at $79.99 (MSRP), which is very affordable. You get everything you need to power and overclock your Ryzen CPU/APU, as well as additional features like the reinforced PCIe slot. But bear in mind, newer USB 3.1 Gen 2 or USB Type-C ports cannot be found on this board. Even now that B450 motherboards are released, this is still a pretty solid budget board, if you can find a great deal.
You can purchase the motherboard from your local/online resellers or the links below from Amazon.
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