The Best Motherboards for a Ryzen 3000 CPU
Everyone knows that having a good GPU for gaming is very important, but that does not mean that you can just use whatever CPU you have and get good frames in games.
At the same time, this situation also does not mean you need to go buy the highest-end CPU you can find on the market while selling your kidneys off. There are a lot of great last-gen CPUs like the Ryzen 3000 series that can perform well in games and productivity.
To make use of these CPUs though you need to buy an appropriate motherboard that will have a chipset that is compatible with the architecture present on the 3000 Ryzen CPUs.
To make sure you do not spend too much money on this motherboard purchase, or buy something that will simply not be good enough for the higher-end 3000 CPUs, we will give you a list of the 5 best motherboards that will fit any Ryzen 3000 CPU you plan on using for your budget build!
Best Motherboards for Ryzen 7 3700X You Should Buy
MSI B450 Tomahawk Max II
The Best Motherboard Overall
- B450 chipset
- NVMe support
- Extended heatsink design
Technically the B450 chipset present on this Tomahawk motherboard is an older model but is still compatible with the Ryzen 3000 and even Ryzen 5000 CPUs making it an amazing deal if you plan on staying on the AM4 platform.
The reason this motherboard is one of the best choices for a Ryzen 3000 even though it’s an older model is because of the extremely well-designed VRMs that allow the motherboard to power even higher-end CPUs like the 3900X – 3950X.
The MSI B450 Tomahawk Max II can be bought for around 115$ and it offers everything you need and more from a motherboard for the 3000 CPUs. There is no reason to overspend on an expensive motherboard since that money can be better invested in something like a GPU upgrade, or RAM upgrade that will impact the performance of your PC more.
You should also not skimp on motherboards even for budget builds since a cheap one will just limit the performance of your CPU while also inhibiting the potential overclocking capabilities of your Ryzen 3000 CPU.
- Very well priced
- Has very good VRM cooling and power delivery
- Can power CPUs that are power-hungry
- Pretty basic board with basic IO
MSI B450 Mortar Max
The Best mATX Motherboard
- B450 chipset
- mATX size
- Extended heatsink design
If you are on a tighter budget or if you want to build in a smaller mATX case then instead of the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max II, you should opt for its little brother the MSI B450 Mortar Max.
The main reason for this decision is the fact that this board has the same power delivery and VRM cooling like the Tomahawk (extremely good for a budget build) but can be bought for as low as 50$.
The board has the same features as the Tomahawk but in a smaller form factor and is nothing short of the best budget motherboard for the lower TDP Ryzen 3000 CPUs. The only real disadvantage of the Mortar Max is that it is widely available in Europe but can sometimes be harder to find in the US.
The MSI B450 Mortar Max is small and mighty and once again can power the Ryzen 3000 and even Ryzen 5000 CPUs with the necessary BIOS updates making it and absolutely insane value purchase.
- INSANELY good price to performance ratio
- Can be used for smaller builds as well
- Will beat a lot of the X570 boards in terms of cooling performance
- Can be hard to get in the US
Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite
For Those That Want an X570 Chipset
- 12 phase digital VRM
- Dual ultra-fast NVMe PCIe 4.0/3.0 x4 M.2 &
- Intel Gigabit LAN
When talking about the best motherboards for the Ryzen 3000 series you cannot skip over the Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite motherboard since at that point in time this was the top-end choice for many. This is a more expensive board since it uses an X570 chipset and has a better overall roundup of features compared to the more budget B450 motherboards mentioned previously.
The main reason why the Aorus Elite is still an acceptable choice is because of the X570 chipset and the fact that it can power a 3950X with the true 12 phase digital VRM it has. In short, this means that this motherboard can run any AMD CPU on the AM4 platform and power it properly without overheating the VRMs on the board.
Besides the good cooling, the board has 2x NVMe slots that support PCIe 4.0, a lot of IO, and can support XMP profiles for your RAM that go above 4000MHz in case you want to play around with RAM overclocking.
- Can overclock anything that AMD produces
- A lot of IO for all of your devices
- Good for overclocking RAM as well
- Costs a bit more than the B450 offerings
- Lacks Wi-Fi, unlike other X570 motherboards
Asus Prime X570-P
Best Budget X570 Motherboard
- Good power delivery and VRM cooling
- Chipset heatsink and fan
- 10 Gbps LAN
If you still want the best X570 motherboard for the Ryzen 7 3700X but are a little bit low on cash you can go for the Asus Prime X570-P motherboard.
The main reason for suggesting this motherboard is as you could have guessed the fact that this Asus Prime motherboard has excellent power delivery and can support hard overclocking for high core-count CPUs like the 3700X – 3950X.
This is due to the improved VRM power delivery structure and the fact that like the Aorus board, it has a dedicated chipset fan to keep the components of the motherboard cool.
It also boasts dual PCIe Gen 4 M.2 slots for your NVMe drives and is compatible with 10Gbps LAN connectivity. The motherboard also has plenty of IO for you to use and even has a touch of RGB for that extra shine that some gamers do enjoy.
- Less expensive than the Aorus Elite but has close enough features
- Good power delivery and VRMs
- Has RGB?
- The software for the Prime is notoriously annoying
- No Wi-Fi
- RGB?
Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus
For When You Need Wi-Fi
- 2+2 Dr. MOS power stages
- VRM heatsink, M.2 heatsink, etc
- Intel Wireless AC-9260 Wi-Fi
The last choice for a good motherboard for a Ryzen 3000 CPU goes to the Asus TUF Gaming Plus, another X570 motherboard. Since this motherboard is rocking the best chipset AM4 motherboards can have, you can guess that it has the same great features as all other X570 motherboards.
Just like the Asus Prime, the TUF Gaming Plus board has very good VRM cooling and power delivery for high core-count CPUs (12+2 Dr. MOS power stages) with a lot of heatsinks and fans that will keep the board running under any OC.
You get the same dual PCIe 4.0 M.2, Gigabit ethernet, BUT this time you also benefit from having Intel Wireless AC-9260 Wi-Fi 5(802.11ac) with 2×2 MU-MIMO and wide 160MHz channels.
You can basically drop any AMD AM4 CPU in this X570 motherboard and you will be good no matter what kind of strenuous task you are executing on your PC.
- Can cool and power any AMD CPU
- Has Wi-Fi!
- TUF products mean stability and durability
- Quite expensive
How to Choose the Best Motherboard for a Ryzen 3000 CPU
All of the motherboards mentioned in this article are offering extraordinary value in their respective category, so all you have to do is to figure out which category you are in.
Do you mind having an older chipset like the B450, or is saving money the most important aspect for you? Do you mind smaller-sized boards like the mATX Mortar Max?
In terms of cooling your CPU and making sure it works well both the Tomahawk and the Mortar do as well as the X570 motherboards so do you need to go any higher in the product stack?
Do you perhaps value upgradability and want the X570 chipset, therefore, do not mind spending a bit more? Then the question becomes do you want the best possible VRM? (Aorus Elite). Do you want a Wi-Fi connection ( TUF Gaming Plus)? Or do you perhaps want a budget X570 motherboard that still has all the perks of an X570 chipset but without breaking your bank (Prime P).
Depending on how you answer these questions, you will arrive at your own conclusions and will be able to select the best motherboard for your Ryzen CPU for sure!