The Ryzen 5 2600 is one of the most popular Zen 2 CPUs for mid-range AMD builds – and when building a system that is capable of overclocking the Ryzen 5 2600 and getting the most out of this fantastic and capable CPU, it is important to pair this CPU with an equally good motherboard.
We recommend to go for a B450 motherboard with the Ryzen 5 2600 since it is the successor to the B350 chipset, provides better performance – not as much as going for an X470 chipset motherboard but this would be overkill for the Ryzen 5 2600. Therefore, when picking the best motherboard for your Ryzen 5 2600 build – you will want to narrow it down to B450 motherboards only.
In this guide we will go over the best B450 motherboards for Ryzen 5 2600 builds – covering different buying preferences such as form factor, budget and features. Enjoy!
Our motherboard recommendations for the Ryzen 5 2600
| Award | Design | Model | Retailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best budget motherboard |  | ASRock B450M Pro4 |  |
| Best value motherboard |  | MSI B450 Tomahawk | |
| Best micro-ATX (mATX) motherboard |  | MSI B450M Mortar | |
| Best feature rich motherboard |  | MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC | |
| Best mini ITX (mITX) motherboard |  | MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC | |
Best budget motherboard for Ryzen 5 2600 – ASRock B450M-Pro4
We generally don’t advise to pick ultra-cheap motherboards for higher-end CPUs since the low-end motherboards don’t have great thermal cooling performance and inability to handle any overclocking – it’s best to spend an extra $10 on the motherboard and save $10 somewhere else in the build. The cheapest B450 motherboard for the Ryzen 5 2600 is the B450M-HDV from ASRock but we recommend for a few extra dollars to go for the ASRock B450M Pro4.
This is a micro-ATX motherboard and provides decent build quality and VRM heatsinks, which the cheaper models do not, and help provide stable power delivery to the components.
One of my only complaints about the B450M-Pro4 is that the M.2 and SATA slots share PCIe lanes – apart from that it’s really difficult to fault this board for the price. You will be able to overclock the Ryzen 5 2600 on this motherboard, but only to a certain degree.
The B450M Pro4 provides a very decent quality motherboard for a equally decent price.
Best all-around (value) motherboard for Ryzen 5 2600 – MSI B450 Tomahawk
If you’re looking for a feature-packed B450 motherboard that provides decent VRM quality and plenty of connectivity without breaking the bank – then the MSI B450 Tomahawk is our recommended motherboard for your next Ryzen 5 2600 build. The bigger brother of the B450 mortar – the B450 Tomahawk has best-in-class VRM quality and cooling, using OnsSemi design mosfets. The VRM cooling is so good that it is even possible to overclock the Ryzen 7 2700X on this motherboard, so overclocking the Ryzen 5 2600 with the MSI B450 Tomahawk will be a breeze.
Feature wise this AM4 motherboard has plenty to offer, including RGB lighting onboard, USB flashback capability, USB Type C, Debug LEDs and more – all at a very conservative price point.
This is our top recommended motherboard for Ryzen 5 2600/2600X builds in 2020, hands down.
Best micro-ATX motherboard for Ryzen 5 2600 – ASRock B450M Mortar
There are generally two micro-ATX motherboards that are considered to be the best for Ryzen 5 2600 CPUs, and they are the ASRock B450M Pro 4 and the MSI B450M Mortar. These are two highly capable micro-ATX B450 motherboards that are capable of overclocking the Ryzen 5 2600, are feature packed and are within most builders budgets.
Personally, between these two motherboards, we would recommend the MSI B450M Mortar as the best micro-ATX motherboard for the Ryzen 5 2600 as it has the superior VRM with a 4 phase VRM design, composed of SM4337 high side FETs, SM4503 low side FETs and a capable heatsink for the VRM and VCore. In comparison, the B450m Pro4 has only 3 phases and the MOSFETs are produced by NIKO SEMI – that arguably produce the worse MOSFETs currently by any manufacturer.
The only things where we would conclude the ASRock B450m Pro 4 does better than the Mortar is superior APU support and BIOS – but we think this is less important for Ryzen 5 2600 users given what the B450M Mortar is capable of and can achieve thanks to its impressive VRM design and cooling.
Our favorite micro-ATX cases are covered here – which may be of use if you’re looking to build a Ryzen 5 2600 mATX PC.
Best feature rich motherboard for Ryzen 5 2600 – MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
Hands down the B450 motherboard with the most premium features comes from MSI with their B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC. This motherboard has one of the highest quality VRM heatsinks from any B450 motherboard, has a fantastic BIOS usability, has Wi-Fi and bluetooth integrated out-of-the-box and really does look fantastic thanks to its RGB design. There are dual M.2 slots on the Gaming Pro Carbon AC, which can be especially useful if you want to clone M.2 SSD’s, as well as a superior audio chip compared to the B450 Tomahawk.
For around $130 (or less if on sale), MSI have packed a plethora of premium features into this B450 motherboard for the price, and thus we recommend it for Ryzen 5 2600 builders who want plenty of features such as WiFi, high quality audio, connectivity and ability to overclock and push the Ryzen 5 2600 to its limits.
Best mini ITX motherboard for Ryzen 5 2600 – MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC
We had a tough time deciding the best mITX motherboard for the Ryzen 5 2600 as there were a few equal contenders, including the ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming ITX/ac and the MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC.
We ultimately decided that the MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC is our recommended mITX motherboard as it offers a decent VRM 6+2 VRM phase design – in comparison to the ASRock’s doubled phases. This means that the MSI offers superior power delivery – even on par with most high-end X470 chipset motherboards – which is a testament to MSI’s motherboard VRM quality. Our only nitpick of opting for the B450I Gaming Plus AC is MSI’s notoriously lacklustre BIOS, which can be a pain to use.
It will be possible to overclock the Ryzen 5 2600X on this mini-ITX motherboard, and since the B450I Gaming Plus AC has the best VRM out of any AM4 mITX motherboards – if you want to overclock it this is your best bet!
Summary
| Award | Design | Model | Retailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best budget motherboard | | ASRock B450M Pro4 | |
| Best value motherboard | | MSI B450 Tomahawk | |
| Best micro-ATX (mATX) motherboard | | MSI B450M Mortar | |
| Best feature rich motherboard | | MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC | |
| Best mini ITX (mITX) motherboard | | MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC | |