Asus PRIME B350M-A

Don't be greedy

Motherboards with an AM4 processor socket based on the younger A320 chipset, in my opinion, are not worth buying. They do not support overclocking of the processor and RAM, while both of these functions are quite important for the Ryzen platform (groups of cores interact with each other through the RAM). Therefore, the mandatory minimum is the Asus PRIME B350M-A motherboard based on the B350 chipset.

fast drives

This AMD chipset is an answer to the Intel B250 (motherboards cost the same). Both of them support the growing popularity of M.2 SSDs (see the article "Speed up any PC: the five best SSDs of 2017"). But the Intel B250 does not support overclocking of the processor and memory, thanks to which the Asus PRIME B350M-A looks more advantageous.

under protection

Made by Asus PRIME B350M-A with a focus on reliable and durable performance. The power subsystem is protected from power surges, the Ethernet socket is protected from a lightning strike (of course, it will not save you from a direct hit, for example, in a private house), and the printed circuit board is protected from delamination due to high humidity. The HDMI, DVI and VGA video outputs on the rear interface panel of the motherboard are made with a margin for the future, because so far all the released AM4 processors lack integrated graphics. Zen hybrid chips will go on sale in late 2017 or early 2018.

For medium processors

Asus PRIME B350M-A can only be scolded for the lack of heatsinks on the processor power circuit. Because of this, overclocking the 16-thread Ryzen 7 to the limit is unlikely to succeed. The rest is a solid and relatively inexpensive motherboard for eight- and twelve-thread Ryzen 5 processors.