Conclusion

Final Words 

We're going to see B450 based motherboards in many versions from really affordable to nearly high-end looking. The B450 Tomahawk sits in between the middle. A board that will offer most, if not all you need for a very decent Ryzen enabled PC. We had no problems with an 8-core 2700X, it ran great on defaults, and allowed for a good overclock as well. You can argue the phase design, but when overclocked it did not overheat. So nothing there is worrying to me. This B450 Tomahawk is a bit more cut down, just one M2 slot, no thermal heatsink for that M2 and sure, you just get to fool around with one full x16 slot PCIe Gen3. Realistically though, how many people actually run multiple graphics cards or multiple M2 SSD cards? As next to that one M2 slot (fully enabled x4 PCIe Gen3 btw), you still have up-to six SATA3 ports. Memory also is a no-brainer these days, we tested a 3200 CL14 kit, all works fine. Tweaking wise, the motherboard will not be a serious limitation, not all Zen+ processors will reach that 4.2~4.3 Ghz domain, but I do not see this motherboard to become the actual bottleneck. Our all-core 4200 MHz tweak was done by merely enabling a 42 multiplier, we left the rest at auto settings and sure, we had the XMP profile active. Do get some proper cooling though. Btw one remark here, I find the default FAN RPM settings to be rather extreme and thus loud for most coolers. That, however, is quite easily tweaked in the BIOS, of course.

Gaming performance

Previous Ryzen reviews have taught me that it is hard to convince a big part of the guru3d community and reader base that Ryzen is plenty fast for gaming. The new Zen+ processors and the respective platform overall bring a bit more oomph compared to last year's Ryzen. The fact remains, that if you take a Core i7 8700K it will still beat Ryzen in CPU bound gaming situations (low resolutions or extremely high refresh rate where a game is not GPU bound). The difference and gap towards Intel are getting smaller though. Get yourself a nice G.Skill FlareX memory kit at 3200 MHz and you've covered your gaming bases. Keep in mind that a CPU bottleneck has always been far less important compared to a GPU bottleneck, which is why I'll keep saying it, that differential is trivial at best. Honestly, with the money you save on this processor compared directly to the cheapest eight-core Intel processor you can find, you probably should invest in a faster graphics cards. 

DDR4 Memory

The latest firmware for both the older 300 chipsets series and the new 400 Chipset series including the B450/X470 have matured and is an accumulation of DDR4 memory support that evolved when the original Ryzen series was released. Memory compatibility should not and likely will not be an issue as long as you stick to recently released DIMMs. I'll keep repeating this, but there are some really good Ryzen optimized kits out there. The G.Skill Flare X series at 3200 MHz CL14 is hitting a nice sweet-spot and is 100% stable + optimized for your Ryzen infrastructure. We also quickly tested a new Ryzen Sniper X optimized kit from G.Skill, it runs 3400 MHz perfectly fine with our processor and this mobo. However, take my advice:  Flare X at 3200 MHz CL14. Install it, activate the profile in the BIOS, restart and never look back. 

Energy efficiency

With the 2700X processor now fabbed at 12nm TDP now has risen towards 105 Watts, that is a bit steep. Realistically, does anyone really care? I doubt it. A full PC at idle will sit in the 50~60 Watt range with a dedicated graphics card installed (GeForce GTX 1080 / 16 GB memory / SSD and the motherboard). When we stressed the processors with a Prime 1024M run we reached roughly 166 Watts. A threaded CB15 run, however, reveals close to 200 Watts of power consumption (for the entire PC). That certainly is on the high side. When we game we hover at 270~280 Watts, but obviously that factor is dependent on the type of game and graphics card you use of course. So yeah, it's all a notch higher with the 2700X for sure, it's up to you whether or not this is a relevant thing for your purchasing choices. Remember, this is a fully locked & loaded eight-core and 16-threads processor. 

Conclusion

If you're on the lookout for a Ryzen platform, need good looks and 'just enough' features. Hey, the B450 Tomahawk delivers it all. You can fit a heavy duty graphics card and give it 16 PCIe Gen3 lanes. Next, to that, you can run an M2 SSD and up-to six SATA storage units. Drop in 16GB of memory (do check the QVl list for best compatibility) and sure, something 2933/3200 MHz DDR4 wise. Pair that with a processor like shown today and you need to ask yourself, do I need more features? My bet is that 95% of you are fine with a configuration as shown above. That means for a motherboard priced at 109 USD/EUR marker, this might be a golden deal. There's no extravagant RGB bling either, just a subtle array of LEDs underneath the motherboard for a bit of a halo effect. While it does not have the most impressive VRM implementation, overclocking options are fine and did the VRM area did not run hot thanks to heatsinks on that area. Audio is okay with an ALC892 Realtek CODEC. So heck, this is very decent stuff really. So yes, recommended if you are not planning more than one graphics cards, and one full speed M2 SSD, due to more stringent PCIe Lane availability. A fairly simple uncomplicated motherboard with very decent looks and everything you need, I ask you, how can we not like this?

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