Comparison MSI B350 PC MATE vs MSI B350 TOMAHAWK

The general specialization of the motherboard is the type of tasks for which it is optimized. It should be noted that the division according to this indicator is often rather conditional, models similar in characteristics may belong to different categories. However, the data on specialization greatly simplifies the choice.

In addition to the traditional "motherboards" for home and office, nowadays you can find solutions for high-end PCs (High-End Desktop) and for servers, as well as gaming boards and models for overclocking(the last two options are sometimes combined into one category , however, these are still different types of motherboards). There are also specialized models for cryptocurrency mining, but very few of them are produced — especially since many boards that originally had a different purpose are suitable for mining (see "Suitable for mining").

Here is a more detailed description of each variety:

— For home and office. Motherboards that do not belong to any of the more specific types. In general, this kind of "motherboards" is very diverse, it includes options from low-cost motherboards for modest office PCs to advanced models that come close to gaming and HEDT solutions. However, for the most part, solutions from this category...are designed for simple everyday tasks: working with documents, web surfing, 2D design and layout, games in low and medium quality, etc.

— Gamer's. Boards originally designed for use in advanced gaming PCs. In addition to high performance and compatibility with powerful components, primarily video cards (often several at once, in SLI and/or Crossfire format — see below), such models usually also have specific features of a gaming nature. The most noticeable of these features is the characteristic design, sometimes with backlighting and even backlight synchronization (see below), which allows you to organically fit the board into the original design of the gaming station. The functionality of gaming boards may include an advanced audio chip, a high-end network controller to reduce lags in online games, built-in software tools for tuning and optimizing performance, etc. Also, such models may provide advanced overclocking capabilities, sometimes not inferior to the capabilities of specialized boards for overclocking (see below). And sometimes the border between gaming and overclocking solutions is generally erased: for example, individual boards positioned by the manufacturer as gaming ones, in terms of functionality, can more likely be related to overclocking models.

— For overclocking. High-performance boards with an extended set of overclocking tools — improving system performance by fine-tuning individual components (mainly by increasing the clock frequencies used by these components). On most conventional motherboards, this setup involves considerable complexity and risk, it is usually an undocumented feature and is not covered by the warranty. However, in this case, the situation is the opposite: boards "for overclocking" are called so because the possibility of overclocking was originally incorporated in them by the manufacturer. One of the most noticeable features of such models is the presence in the firmware (BIOS) of special software tools for overclocking management, which makes overclocking as safe as possible and affordable even for inexperienced users. Another feature is improved compatibility with built-in overclocking tools provided in advanced processors, RAM modules, etc. Anyway, this particular type of board will be the best choice for those who want to build a fairly powerful PC with the ability to experiment in terms of performance.

— HEDT (High End Desktop). Motherboards designed for high-performance workstations and other PCs of a similar level. In many ways, they are similar to gaming ones and are sometimes even positioned as gaming ones, but they are designed more for general performance (including in professional tasks) than for confident work with games. One of the key features of such "motherboards" is the extensive functionality for working with RAM: they provide at least 4 slots for "RAM", and more often 6 or more, the maximum RAM frequency is at least 2500 MHz (and more often 4000 MHz and higher ), and the maximum volume is at least 128 GB. The rest of the characteristics are usually at a similar level. Also, the firmware may provide tools for overclocking, although in terms of this functionality, such boards are most often still inferior to overclockers. Note that such solutions can initially be positioned as gaming; the basis for categorization in the HEDT category in such cases is the fulfillment of the above criteria.

— For the server. Motherboards specially designed for servers. Such systems are noticeably different from conventional desktop PCs — in particular, they work with large volumes of drives and have increased requirements for the speed and reliability of data transfer; accordingly, to build servers, it is best to use specialized components, including motherboards. Among the main features of such motherboards are an abundance of slots for RAM (often more than 4), the ability to connect numerous drives (necessarily more than 4 SATA 3 slots, often 8 or more), as well as support for special technologies (like ECC — see below) . In addition, such boards can be made in specific form factors such as EEB or CEB (see "Form Factor"), although more traditional options are also found.

— Designed for mining. Motherboards specially designed for cryptocurrency mining (BitCoin, Ethereum, etc.). We emphasize that we are not just talking about the possibility of such an application (see “Suitable for mining”), but that the motherboard is initially positioned as a solution for creating a cryptocurrency “farm”. Recall that mining is the extraction of cryptocurrency by performing special calculations; such calculations are most conveniently carried out using several high-performance video cards at once. Accordingly, one of the distinguishing features of mining boards is the presence of several (usually at least 4) PCIe 16x slots for connecting such video cards. However, this category of “motherboards” has not received much distribution: similar characteristics are also found among more general-purpose boards, it is quite possible to achieve performance sufficient for efficient mining on them.

The number of processor power phases provided on the motherboard.

Very simplistically, phases can be described as electronic blocks of a special design, through which power is supplied to the processor. The task of such blocks is to optimize this power, in particular, to minimize power surges when the load on the processor changes. In general, the more phases, the lower the load on each of them, the more stable the power supply and the more durable the electronics of the board. And the more powerful the CPU and the more cores it has, the more phases it needs; this number increases even more if the processor is planned to be overclocked. For example, for a conventional quad-core chip, only four phases are often enough, and for an overclocked one, at least eight may be needed. It is because of this that powerful processors can have problems when used on inexpensive low-phase motherboards.

Detailed recommendations on choosing the number of phases for specific CPU series and models can be found in special sources (including the documentation for CPU itself). Here we note that with numerous phases on the motherboard (more than 8), some of them can be virtual. To do this, real electronic blocks are supplemented with doublers or even triplers, which, formally, increases the number of phases: for example, 12 claimed phases can represent 6 physical blocks with doublers. However, virtual phases are much inferior to real ones in terms of capabilities — in fact, t...hey are just additions that slightly improve the characteristics of real phases. So, let's say, in our example, it is more correct to speak not about twelve, but only about six (though improved) phases. These nuances must be specified when choosing a motherboard.

The design of the motherboard has a separate heatsink for VRM.

VRM is a voltage regulation module through which power from a computer power supply is supplied to the processor. This module steps down the standard power supply voltage (+5V or +12V) to a lower value required by the processor (usually just over 1V). At high loads, the voltage regulator can get very hot, and without a specialized cooling system, the matter can end with overheating and even burnout of parts. The VRM heatsink reduces the likelihood of such situations; it can be useful for any CPU, and highly desirable if the board is planned to be used with a powerful high-end processor (especially overclocked).

The presence of its own LED backlight on the motherboard. This feature does not affect the functionality of the "motherboard", but gives it an unusual appearance. Therefore, it hardly makes sense for an ordinary user to specifically look for such a model (a motherboard without backlighting is enough for him), but for modding lovers, backlighting can be very useful.

LED backlighting can take the form of individual lights or LED strips, come in different colours (sometimes with a choice of colours) and support additional effects — flashing, flickering, synchronization with other components (see "Lightning synchronization"), etc. Specific features depend on the motherboard model.

Synchronization technology provided in the board with LED backlight (see above).

Synchronization itself allows you to "match" the backlight of the motherboard with the backlight of other system components — cases, video cards, keyboards, mice, etc. Thanks to this matching, all components can change colour synchronously, turn on / off at the same time, etc. Specific features the operation of such backlighting depends on the synchronization technology used, and, usually, each manufacturer has its own (Mystic Light Sync for MSI, RGB Fusion for Gigabyte, etc.). The compatibility of the components also depends on this: they must all support the same technology. So the easiest way to achieve backlight compatibility is to collect components from the same manufacturer.

Number of PCIe (PCI Express) 4x slots installed on the motherboard.

The PCI Express bus is used for connecting various expansion cards—network and sound cards, video adapters, TV tuners, and even SSD drives. The number in the name indicates the amount of PCIe lanes (data transmission channels) supported by that slot; more lanes mean higher bandwidth. 4 PCIe lanes provide a data transfer speed of about 4 GB/s for PCIe 3.0 and 8 GB/s for version 4.0 (for more about versions see "PCI Express Support").

The general rule for PCIe is: the card should be connected to a slot with the same or greater number of lanes. Thus, in a standard PCIe 4x slot, you can install cards with 1 or 4 PCI Express lanes. However, it should be noted that modern "motherboards" may feature larger slots—in particular, PCIe 4x slots that are sized similarly to PCIe 16x. The type of such slots in our catalog is specified based on actual bandwidth, meaning the aforementioned example will also be considered a PCIe 4x. Meanwhile, physically, you can connect peripherals with 16 PCIe channels to such a slot—but ensure the bandwidth will be sufficient for proper operation of such peripherals.

Number of PCIe (PCI Express) 16x slots installed on the motherboard.

The PCI Express bus is used to connect various expansion cards — network and sound cards, video adapters, TV tuners, and even SSDs. The number in the name specifies the number of PCIe lanes (data transmission channels) supported by the slot; the more lanes, the higher the bandwidth. 16 lanes is the maximum number found in modern PCI Express slots and boards (technically more is possible, but the connectors would become too bulky). Accordingly, such slots are the fastest: they have a data transfer rate of 16 GB/s for PCIe 3.0 and 32 GB/s for PCIe 4.0 (see "PCI Express Support" for more details on versions).

It's worth noting that PCIe 16x is considered the optimal connector for connecting video cards. However, when choosing a motherboard with several such slots, it is important to consider the PCIe modes it supports (see below). Additionally, remember that the PCI Express interface allows connecting cards with fewer lanes to connectors with more lanes. Thus, PCIe 16x is suitable for any PCI Express card.

It is also worth mentioning that modern motherboards sometimes feature enlarged slots — in particular, PCIe 4x, which are the same size as PCIe 16x. However, the type of PCIe slots in our catalog is indicated by the actual bandwidth; thus, only connectors supporting speed at the 16x level are considered PCIe 16x.

Operating modes of PCIe 16x slots supported by the motherboard.

For more details about this interface, see above, and data on the modes is provided in case there are multiple PCIe 16x slots on the board. This data specifies the speed at which these slots can operate when expansion cards are simultaneously connected to them and how many lanes each can use. The fact is that the total number of PCI Express lanes on any motherboard is limited, and there are usually not enough for all 16-channel slots to operate at full capacity simultaneously. Accordingly, the speed inevitably has to be limited during simultaneous operation. For example, a 16x/4x/4x configuration means that the motherboard has three 16-channel slots, but if you connect three graphics cards to them simultaneously, the second and third slots can only provide speeds at the PCIe4x level. Accordingly, for a different number of slots, the quantity of digits will match. Some boards offer multiple mode variants, such as 16x/0x/4 and 8x/8x/4x (0x means the slot becomes unusable).

This parameter mainly needs attention when installing multiple graphics cards simultaneously: in some cases, (for example, when using SLI technology), for the adapters to work correctly, they must be connected to slots with the same speed.

Motherboard support for AMD's Crossfire technology.

This technology allows you to connect several separate AMD graphics cards to a PC at once and combine their computing power, respectively increasing the system's graphics performance in specific tasks. Accordingly, this feature means that the "motherboard" is equipped with at least two slots for video cards — PCIe 16x; in general, Crossfire allows up to 4 separate adapters to be connected.

Such functionality is especially important for demanding games and "heavy" tasks like 3D rendering. However, note that in order to use several video cards, this possibility must also be provided in the application running on the computer. So in some cases, one powerful video adapter is more preferable than several relatively simple ones with the same total amount of VRAM.

A similar technology from NVIDIA is called SLI (see below). Crossfire differs from it mainly in three points: the ability to combine video adapters with different models of graphics processors (the main thing is that they are built on the same architecture), no need for additional cables or bridges (video cards interact directly via the PCIe bus) and somewhat lower cost (allowing the use of this technology even in low-cost "motherboards"). Thanks to the latter, almost all motherboards with SLI also support Crossfire, but not vice versa.