MSI B360M PRO-VDH
 | Outdated Product Balanced microATX motherboard with LGA 1151 v2 CPU socket for 8th generation Intel processors based on Coffee Lake microarchitecture. It is a universal platform for creating performant configurations of home, office and gaming personal systems based on Intel Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron processors with Coffee Lake microarchitecture. Uses the Intel B360 chipset, can become the basis of a compact entry-level workstation. Equipped with a full set of current video outputs (D-Sub/DVI-D/HDMI) to support the video core built into processors. Due to the presence of a PCI-E Gen3 x16 slot connector, it can work with high-performance discrete graphics cards. Unlike most motherboards in the microATX format, it is equipped with 4 slots for installing DDR4-2666/2400/2133 RAM modules, which can operate...in dual-channel mode. The maximum amount of memory can reach an impressive 64 GB, which is useful for workstations that use virtualization. The available M2 port (PCI-E Gen3 x4, up to 32Gbps) allows MSI B360M PRO-VDH motherboard to work with high performance NVMe SSDs. For regular SSD/HDD drives, there are 6 SATA3 connectors (up to 6 Gbps). An integrated Realtek 8111H Gigabit Ethernet controller is responsible for network communications, and Realtek ALC887 audio codec is available for processing and outputting multichannel audio. 12 USB ports are implemented, including 1xUSB 3.1 Type-C Gen1 (with a convenient reversible connector), 5xUSB 3.1 Type-A Gen1 and 6xUSB 2.0. |
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Balanced microATX motherboard with LGA 1151 v2 CPU socket for 8th generation Intel processors based on Coffee Lake microarchitecture. It is a universal platform for creating performant configurations of home, office and gaming personal systems based on Intel Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron processors with Coffee Lake microarchitecture. Uses the Intel B360 chipset, can become the basis of a compact entry-level workstation.
Equipped with a full set of current video outputs (D-Sub/DVI-D/HDMI) to support the video core built into processors. Due to the presence of a PCI-E Gen3 x16 slot connector, it can work with high-performance discrete graphics cards. Unlike most motherboards in the microATX format, it is equipped with 4 slots for installing DDR4-2666/2400/2133 RAM modules, which can operate in dual-channel mode.
The maximum amount of memory can reach an impressive 64 GB, which is useful for workstations that use virtualization. The available M2 port (PCI-E Gen3 x4, up to 32Gbps) allows MSI B360M PRO-VDH motherboard to work with high performance NVMe SSDs. For regular SSD/HDD drives, there are 6 SATA3 connectors (up to 6 Gbps). An integrated Realtek 8111H Gigabit Ethernet controller is responsible for network communications, and Realtek ALC887 audio codec is available for processing and outputting multichannel audio. 12 USB ports are implemented, including 1xUSB 3.1 Type-C Gen1 (with a convenient reversible connector), 5xUSB 3.1 Type-A Gen1 and 6xUSB 2.0.
Inexpensive but high quality motherboard
MSI B360M PRO-VDH is an inexpensive but high-quality motherboard based on the B360 logic set, which belongs to the middle level. Among the features of the board, it is worth highlighting reinforced PCI-E slots to protect the graphics card from electromagnetic interference and physical damage, optimized memory module layout for more reliable memory overclocking, a utility for automatically optimizing the cooling system, and an M.2 port with support for ultra-fast NVMe drives. And 4 DDR4 slots for complete happiness.
The basis of the multimedia centre
With an $80 price tag, the MSI B360M PRO-VDH looks like an interesting option for an entry to mid-range computer. It is extremely rarely complained about on specialized forums, it has a fairly wide functional set and there are no obvious weaknesses. Unlike previous boards in this series, this model has a full-fledged HDMI output for normal connection of processors with an integrated graphics core. Given that MSI is positioning this board as a solution for a home multimedia centre, this is encouraging.
Intuitive BIOS and useful utilities
Finally, I would like to note the set of utilities that comes with the board. Usually, almost any motherboard is stuffed with this stuff, but the kit from MSI looks like one of the most thoughtful and useful. So, here you can find a full-fledged command centre for overclocking the system (but you shouldn’t count on serious overclocking), managing disks or controlling the cooling system, utilities for speeding up system boot and optimizing the bundle of drives (useful when a hybrid array of HDD and SSD is installed in the computer ). Plus, MSI managed to make one of the most understandable and user-friendly BIOS shells on the market.
