It’s July 7th, and Ryzen Zen 2 is finally here – meaning Ryzen builders across the country will begin to get their hands on and build their new Ryzen builds for 2019.
All of the new Zen 2 processors, including the Ryzen 5 3600, Ryzen 7 3700X/3800X and Ryzen 9 3900X all offer fantastic value for money for the amount of performance they bring to the table.
In this particular guide, we will focus on getting the most out of your new Ryzen 5 3600 build, by picking the best motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600 to provide a stable platform for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600.
A good motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600 will ensure stable power delivery with a decent VRM, a large amount of connectivity and features such as the new WiFi 6 or perhaps decent BIOS software to help with overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600 and making it a breeze to work and tinker with.
For the new Ryzen Zen 2 processors, including the Ryzen 5 3600, previous generation chipsets are compatible with the new Ryzen 3600, including the X470 and B450 chipset – with many only requiring a BIOS update out of the box. The X570 chipset has been announced specifically for the new Ryzen 3000 processors, but motherboards for this new chipset have not yet been released, command quite the price premium over the B450 and X470 chipset motherboards, and if you aren’t planning to utilise the new PCIe 4.0 on these X570 motherboards – then we recommend if you’re building a Ryzen 5 3600 build – to instead build with a B450 or X470 chipset motherboard. Note – if you do want to use a B450 or X470 motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600, then you will need one that has a BIOS flashback feature so you can update the BIOS out of the box.
In the next sections I will go over the best motherboards for the Ryzen 5 3600, including decent budget options, motherboards for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600 as well as Mini ITX and Micro ATX options for small form factor (SFF) Ryzen 3600 builds in 2019.
Related: List of AM4 Motherboards with USB BIOS Flashback (for Zen 2 compatibility)
Best motherboards for Ryzen 5 3600 – My Recommendations
| Award | Motherboard | Design | Retailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best budget motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600 | MSI B450 Tomahawk |  |  |
| Best motherboard for OC'ing Ryzen 5 3600 | MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC |  | |
| Best mITX motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600 | MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC |  | |
| Best micro ATX motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600 | ASRock B450M Pro4 |  | |
Best budget motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600 – MSI B450 Tomahawk
My first motherboard recommendation for the Ryzen 5 3600 is the MSI B450 Tomahawk, which offers fantastic value for money at just under $100, given its range of features, connectivity and fantastic best-in-class VRM quality.
MSI have absolutely nailed their B450 lineup of motherboards, with the B450 tomahawk leading its range with the best VRM cooling of any B450 motherboard out there – making it ideal for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600 on a budget. Only its bigger brother, the Gaming Pro Carbon AC probably has better VRM cooling than the B450 tomahawk, but given the low TDP of the Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 5 3600X we expect either of these motherboards be overkill for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600.
Connectivity wise the B450 Tomahawk has USB Type C, 6 SATA, as well as 4 DIMM slots supporting up to 64GB of 3466MHz of memory.
Downsides of the B450 Tomahawk are small but are present nonetheless, with no VCore offset function, as well as only a single M.2 slot whereas most other B450 ATX motherboards have at least 2 M.2. slots onboard.
Best motherboard for overclocking Ryzen 5 3600 – MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
Our favorite motherboard for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600 also comes from MSI, with their B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC – a jack-of-all-trades B450 motherboard.
With arguably the best VRM design and VRM heatsink on the B450 motherboard market – this motherboard will be ideal for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600 past its clock speeds. Features on this motherboard such as integrated WiFi, RGB, BIOS software as well as a great sleek design makes this my favorite B450 motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600. And it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, too. Suprisingly the B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC is great value given its VRM, features and perfromance. Our top pick for the Ryzen 5 3600 – given you want to build an ATX Zen 2 system in 2019.
Best mini-ITX Motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600 – MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC
The third MSI pick of this list is the MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC, and is our favorite ITX motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600. This goes toe-to-toe with the ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac for the best ITX B450 motherboard, but we prefer the 6+2 phase VRM of the MSI compared to the 3+2 phase design of the ASRock. The MSI B450I has a very decent VRM and heatsink, as well as BIOS (lacking voltage offset) this is a great ITX motherboard for overclocking the Ryzen 5 3600.
The downside of this ITX B450 motherboard is that it lacks USB 3.1 gen 2 – which the ASRock does have – so if this is an issue or you want USB Gen 2 for your Ryzen 5 3600 build – we recommend going for the ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX instead.
Related: Best mini ITX cases for Small Form Factor builds in 2019
Best micro-ATX motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600 – ASRock B450M Pro4
The new X570 chipset only has one, I repeat one, micro-ATX motherboard supporting the new Ryzen Zen 2 processors – which is quite the shame this form factor is not being fully supported by the major motherboard manufacturers. If you do want to do a micro-ATX Ryzen 5 3600 build, then we recommend turning to the B450 chipset, where the Ryzen 5 3600 is fully compatible out of the box, or with just a BIOS update (varies from motherboard model).
In our eyes, the best micro-ATX motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600 is the ASRock B450M Pro4, a fantastic B450 chipset motherboard with plenty of features, great VRM and performance for its compact form factor.
Although the MSI’s micro ATX B450 motherboards are fantastic in terms of their VRM quality, the B450M Pro4 has a great and arguably better BIOS than the MSI mATX motherboards, and also due to its low price point is hence why it gets our recommendation as the best mATX motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600.
We would recommend this motherboard if you aren’t planning on doing any heavy overclocking of the Ryzen 5 3600, since the VRM only has a 3 phase design for the CPU, but because of its feature set such as dual M.2, USB 3.1 Gen 2 and Type-C and 4 SATA ports, this is overall a great mATX option for the Ryzen 5 3600.
Related: Best CPU Coolers for the Ryzen 5 3600