Product Comparison: MSI B350 Gaming Plus vs MSI X370 Gaming Plus

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MSI B350 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 ATX Motherboard

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MSI X370 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 SLI CFX ATX Motherboard

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General Specifications

Brand

MSI

Model

B350 GAMING PLUS

X370 GAMING PLUS

Origin

China

About the Product

MSI B350 GAMING PLUS supports all the latest storage standards. This allows you to connect any ultra-fast storage device, giving you in-game benefits. Start games faster, load levels faster and have a real advantage over your enemies. Integrating the very best of cutting edge technologies on MSI hardware provides a smooth VR ride. Through joint efforts with major VR brands, combined with unique MSI features geared to VR, MSI brings gamers and VR professionals a vivid and realistic experience in which content truly comes alive.

MSI X370 GAMING PLUS supports all the latest storage standards. This allows you to connect any ultra-fast storage device, giving you in-game benefits. Start games faster, load levels faster and have a real advantage over your enemies. Integrating the very best of cutting edge technologies on MSI hardware provides a smooth VR ride. Through joint efforts with major VR brands, combined with unique MSI features geared to VR, MSI brings gamers and VR professionals a vivid and realistic experience in which content truly comes alive.

Key Specs

Form Factor

ATX

Socket

Socket AM4

Chipset

AMD® B350 Chipset

AMD X370 Chipset

Supported Processors

AMD® RYZEN series processors, 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors

Memory Slot Type

288 pin

What customers say about "Key Specs"

MSI B350 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 ATX Motherboard

BIOS updates since launch have added a lot of additional compatibility with RAM and 2000 series Ryzen APU's
This board has all the essentials needed to get a Ryzen system up-and-running.
As with most B350 chipset boards, the overclocking left a little more to be desired, but the OC’ing was quite serviceable for the price and great for someone who isn’t going to push their system too much anyway
I wanted to give this more stars but I like how it looks. But If you guys buy this mobo with the AMD Ryzen Gen 2 processors (GPU embedded with CPU) you'll more than likely need to find a way to update the BIOS before it boots up correctly.
Motherboard is amazing, only downside is that its build for integrated graphics within the processor.

MSI X370 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 SLI CFX ATX Motherboard

This board is worth every cent. I'm satisfied with the product I got for what I paid and will recommend it to anyone wanting an ATX X370 board.
Great product I bought this motherboard after having to ram an asus x370 prime pro. I have always used msi for my build, but decided to go a different route this time for my ryzen build and bought asus. I will never again buy from asus I'll stick to the brand that has work for me everytime.
This motherboard is amazing, with the x370 chipset, you will be ready to overclock your CPU, top of the line compositors, and DD4 boost makes this a must buy!
One of the best motherboards I've purchased. Well made, looks great and has everything I ever would need on it. Updating of BIOS is easy, especially through USB flash. Mounting of NVMe SSD was trivial. Installation of CPU with socket, very easy.
This motherboard is great. I was planning on using this in as/in backup computer, but the multi-tasking with AMD has me using this motherboard for school and fun everyday without any problems.

Size & Weight

Height

12 in.

Width

9.6 in.

Depth

3.1 in.

Weight

2.75 lbs.

4 lbs.

MSI B350 Gaming Plus

MSI X370 Gaming Plus

MSI B350 Gaming Plus

MSI X370 Gaming Plus

MSI B350 Gaming Plus

MSI X370 Gaming Plus

MSI B350 Gaming Plus

MSI X370 Gaming Plus

Memory

Memory Type

DDR4

Maximum Speed

3200 MHz

Number Of Memory Slots

Max. Memory Supported

64 GB

MSI B350 Gaming Plus

MSI X370 Gaming Plus

MSI B350 Gaming Plus

MSI X370 Gaming Plus

MSI B350 Gaming Plus

MSI X370 Gaming Plus

What customers say about "Memory"

MSI B350 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 ATX Motherboard

There has been talk of memory problems with Ryzen, but with this motherboard and the G.Skill FlareX memory, I had no problem moving the clock speed for the memory to 3200 and the voltage to 1.35, which the memory and motherboard were rated for.
Overclocking the memory was pleasantly painless which was a relief after hearing that this was an issue at Ryzen's launch. It recognized my Gskill flare x 3200 kit with 14 14 14 14 34 timings with no issues and has been running at 3200 trouble free.
RAM overclocks aren't great. With my Corsair 3000MHz RAM, I struggle even getting 2666 to be stable, regardless of the settings.
Could not get my 3000 MHz TridentZ RGB RAM to run at advertised speed (but did get it to 2800 MHz, which I was fine with)
Slight instability; with my overclock the board did not always POST on the first try, and would sometimes reset my RAM speed to stock 2133 without it being obvious during boot.
There is still memory issues with this board currently so if you have any ram currently running over 2667MHz it will not work and it will default back to 2133.

MSI X370 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 SLI CFX ATX Motherboard

Board works with F4-3200C14D-16GTZKW RAM at the full speed. (QVL verified and from advise of one of the reviewers here) although, needs current version of bios to work.
Memory overclocking was easy as well. Just select the XMP profile and it works.
I'm running GSkill TridentZ F4-3200C14D-16GTZ @ 3200MHz 14-14-14-34-48 2T. I will note here that I am running the latest current BIOS version at the time of this review. I had no problems at all clocking straight to 3200MHz. I recommend setting the timings, voltage, and speed manually.
On top of that the many fan and ram slots leave plenty of room for any upgrades I do in the future.
This doesn't reliably over clock RAM kits that generally reliably over clock.

Connectivity

PCI-E

1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (PCI_E2), 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (PCI_E4, supports x4 mode), 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, 2 x PCI slots

2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE_2, PCIE_4), 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (PCIE_6, supports x4 mode), 3 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots

HDMI

USB

2 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, 3 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A Ports, 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C Port

2 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type A+C), 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, 4 x VR Ready USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports

SATA

Other Interfaces

1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector, 2 x USB 2.0 connectors (support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports), 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 connectors (support additional 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports), 1 x 4-pin CPU fan connector, 1 x 4-pin water pump fan connector, 4 x 4-pin system fan connectors, 1 x 4-pin RGB LED strip connector, 1 x Serial port connector, 1 x Parallel port connector, 1 x TPM module connector, 1 x Front panel audio connector, 2 x System panel connectors, 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector, 1 x Clear CMOS jumper, 1 x PS/2 mouse & keyboard combo port, 1 x VGA port, 1 x DVI-D port, 1 x LAN (RJ45) port, 6 x OFC audio jacks

1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector, 2 x USB 2.0 connectors (support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports), 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 connectors (support additional 4 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports), 1 x 4-pin CPU fan connector, 1 x 4-pin PUMP fan connector (supports up to 2A), 4 x 4-pin system fan connectors, 1 x RGB LED connector, 1 x TPM module connector, 1 x Serial port connector, 1 x Parallel port connector, 1 x Front panel audio connector, 2 x System panel connectors, 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector, 1 x Clear CMOS jumper, 1 x PS/2 mouse & keyboard combo port, 1 x LAN (RJ45) port, 6 x OFC audio jacks

What customers say about "Connectivity"

MSI B350 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 ATX Motherboard

Even though I didn't use it, this board has an M.2 slot, which is nice.
This board has a metal-reinforced PCI-e slot, perfect for holding bulkier graphics cards.
Reinforced PCI-E x16 slot (it may be placebo, but it’s nice to have)
I love the layout of this mobo, it has all the connectors i need. I don't like that it has pin connectors for com and parallel ports, i guess some people may use it in some cases but those connectors should not be in a gaming motherboard.
Only 4 Sata ports and if you use an m.2 one of those Sata ports is taken over by the m.2

MSI X370 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 SLI CFX ATX Motherboard

Just enough USB slots for what I need. Can always use a hub or something, but why pay double for a flashy board just for a few more.
Plenty of room to install Noctura DH14 + mod kit CPU cooler.
6 SATA ports. Usually seen only 2 or 4 unless you got a higher end board with 6 or 8. Maybe times are changing.
I haven't tested SLI or any any NVIDIA cards with this board but I have been successfully running 3 MSI RX480s in 3 way Crossfire for awhile now without any serious issues. As usual, you'll want to make sure ULPS is disabled when running Crossfire to avoid hangups and have a beefy PSU on hand.
USB 2.0 ports not working right with VMWare. Problem is some devices don't get recognized and can't connect them to VM. Still working on a fix for that.

Features

Native Audio

Realtek® ALC892 Codec

Additional Accessories Included

Drivers & Utilities Disc, User's manual, I/O Shield, SATA Cable x2

Drivers & Utilities Disc, User's manual, I/O Shield, SLI Bridge Connector, SATA Cable x2, SATA Cable Labels

Extras

VR Ready and VR Boost, MULTI-GPU: With Steel Armor PCI-E slot. Supports AMD Crossfire, Mystic Light RGB and Mystic Light Sync, In-Game Weapons: Game Boost, GAMING Hotkey, X-Boost, Xsplit Gamecaster, EZ Debug LED: Easiest way to troubleshoot, Click BIOS 5: Award-winning BIOS with high resolution scalable font, favorites and search function, GAMING CERTIFIED: 24-hour on- and offline game and motherboard testing by eSports players, WHQL certified for Windows 10

What customers say about "Features"

MSI B350 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 ATX Motherboard

This board has an RGB header on it for connecting RGB LED strips to be used with MSI's Mystic Lighting software.
This board's UEFI is very intuitive and easy to use, even for beginners like me.
Over-clocking support and it handles it well
Looks amazing. Really pulls together my white and black theme.
While the BIOS has gotten better, competition like ASUS is still easier to use
I had some problems mounting AMD's stock Wraith Spire cooler to the board, but I got it on properly eventually.
"Mystic Sync" capabilities extremely limited. Have only eight color options, with none of the effects I anticipated having.

MSI X370 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 SLI CFX ATX Motherboard

All drivers worked. No need to do lengthy troubleshooting and searching for others not on the disc.
Rugged design, simple installation, and extremely easy and intuitive bios and features. I had windows installed in under 10 minutes.
Temps are going great, stock and overclocked
While the white and black color scheme with claw marks may not suit everyone's taste, it definitely makes for a unique board design to set your rig apart from the rest.
Really ugly BIOS interface. I mean, it will work and it is easy to navigate, but you would expect something on the prettier side with an X370. Especially with what other brands offer.

Power

Power Connectors

1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector

What customers say about "Power"

MSI B350 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 ATX Motherboard

Also be sure to set power plan to performance as recommended by AMD if you plan on doing any overclocking or benchmarking!
I have no intention of adding another graphics card so the 500 watt EVGA power supply will be plenty.
It only has 4 fan headers, I use splitters anyways so I can power all my fans, but it also only has 4 sata. Which may or may not be a future problem.
Died after a little over 6 months of use, after loosing power on startup (I kicked the power switch, so there definitely wasn't a surge).
I have not been impressed with this boards power management at all.

MSI X370 Gaming Plus Gaming AMD Ryzen DDR4 VR Ready HDMI USB 3 SLI CFX ATX Motherboard

As compared to my last AM4 motherboard (B350 Tomahawk Arctic), this board delivers solid power to all the important components which helps make your overclocks more stable.
All drivers worked. No need to do lengthy troubleshooting and searching for others not on the disc.
Unfortunately, two of the boards will not boot in my wife's PC, and I've tried two CPUs in each. Ive sat and resat the CPU, cleared BIOS, used two different power supplies, tried minimal configurations, multiple GPUs, as far as I can tell nothing is shorted.
Great power delivery with good VRM coolering
Installation of CPU with socket, very easy. Positioning of all pins for SATA3, audio, power, etc. nicely done.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

1 year(s)

Certifications

FCC, CE