Review on 💻 ASUS Prime B450M-A II AMD AM4 (Ryzen 5000, 3rd/2nd/1st Gen Ryzen Micro ATX Motherboard with 128GB DDR4, 4400 O.C., NVMe, HDMI 2.0b/DVI/D-Sub, USB 3.2 Gen 2, BIOS Flashback, Aura Sync) by Jeff Henkhaus

First review for me but I have a feeling other (Linux users) might be interested in it . Good value for the money, and it comes (as another reviewer noted) with BIOS 1201. 1201 lets you boot Ryzen 3 or 5 3200G/3400G (note that these chips are actually built on last year's 11nm process and are therefore not true versions of 3000 processors). However, what non-ASUS motherboard users may or may not be aware of is that the BIOS EZ Flash 3 utility provided by ASUS (within BIOS0) does not require the operating system to update the BIOS. In fact, you can upgrade the motherboard without or HDD/SSD/etc.). When I received this Prime B450M-A, I immediately popped it into a spare case I had laying around, put in a Ryzen 3 3400G I bought from Revain that sold for $88, and used the included AMD cooler . comes with paste pre-applied (unless you're a 24/7 gamer, don't listen to the babble on the internet about the need for expensive branded thermal paste), then this RAM installs - Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 3000MHz DDR4 DRAM for desktop games. Storage 16GB (8GB x 2) CL15 BLS2K8G4D30AESCK (White) Kit along with a completely blank, unformatted new Crucial 120GB SSD I had lying around. All of this was powered by a 400W Corsair PSU. Before doing anything with the operating system, I booted the system and clicked "Erase" to enter the BIOS. Use the ASUS EZ Flash Utility in the BIOS, which gives you the option of using your own FAT16/32 formatted flash drive (don't use any other format), or you can use an Ethernet connection to the internet, which the board already has Recognizes, I immediately updated the BIOS to the latest ASUS BIOS, 1820 (just yesterday I did it again and updated 1823). I then waited for the BIOS to reboot, then pasted the Ubuntu 18.04.3 ISO on the DVD (just select CD/DVD burner on the main BIOS page as the first boot option) and hit delete again to return to the BIOS. . I selected my CD/DVD drive as the first boot option on the first page of the excellent ASUS BIOS and then booted. Within minutes, Ubuntu was fully installed on the SSD (this chip/memory/board is fast), the system rebooted, and I was looking at Ubuntu 18.04-inch. A plasma TV was also chosen as a "second" screen. That/was great, don't mess with it, the correct resolution is 1920x1080 too. Since then (around 9-10 days) I haven't had a single crash or problem with the board running a 18.04. This computer system resides in the living room where family and kids use it extensively for everything from Netflix streaming to PC sharing and more (I won't talk about the gaming performance of this Ryzen 3 3200G as it's already well represented online - below This price for games is just fantastic and incredibly the included cooler handles everything very well - again until the kids play 24/7 if that's a statistic maybe when they see how fast this system is and what can it handle, I will take a bigger and better cooler to be on the safe side). Also, here's what I found (over the past few days of testing) on what can successfully boot Linux on this Prime B450M-A motherboard with the latest AMD Ryzen 3 3200G chip mentioned above: (You'll notice if I list successes and failures , Linux OSes that come with kernel 5 or later all boot fine, some don't, and you need to use some tricks and install the kernel to make it work if you're using a Linux OS that doesn't come with it Kernel 5 or higher): Achievements: Ubuntu 18.04. Download: Debian 10.1Linux Mint 19 (and version) MX-Linux 19Opensuse LEAP & Tumbleweedetc etc (tried about 6 others, all failed because they didn't come with kernel 5 or higher). The last thing I want to point out is the latest BIOS updates where ASUS has (per the instructions) disabled PCIe4. This "PCIe4 shutdown" isn't ASUS's fault, it's AMD's. AMD still doesn't enable PCIe4 on 300/400 series motherboards and instructs motherboard manufacturers (if they have PCIe4 enabled) to disable PCIe4. AMD, if you know that last year's CPU cluster Pinnacle Ridge is still trying to completely wipe out, this board with the newly released Ryzen 3/5 3000 CPU is a welcome change. ASUS did nothing wrong here. AMD still says it has no intention of releasing Ryzen drivers for Linux, which is quite interesting since we Linux folks kept AMD afloat during the dark ages when Intel was thought to be bankrupt push. . I really hope that AMD will reconsider the situation and gather strength from a Linux point of view in the next 4-9 months as the truly new 3000 processor comes out next summer. Generally the ASUS Prime B450M-A board I tested here with Ryzen 3 3200G. The CPU and 3000MHz DDR4 was a fun and trouble free build. I also know that this board will be easy to use for years to come and provide a future upgrade path for AMD processors. I hope this review helps other Linux users.