As part of the Arsenal Gaming line, the MSI MORTAR B350 is a low-cost mATX motherboard featuring the AMD B350 chipset that promises solid performance for a low-cost gaming system.
Product on Review: MORTAR B350M
Manufacturer & Sponsor: MSI
Street Price: £95 GBP / $99 USD
Coming in at around £10-15 cheaper than the MSI TOMAHAWK B350, the MORTAR is MSI’s mATX motherboard featuring the B350 chipset. Despite the price difference, MSI still see fit to incorporate their various technologies including the Steel Armour of the primary PCIe slot, Audio Boost (which is the title for a selection of technologies including: physically isolated audio circuitry, acting like a dedicated sound card for your system, dedicated PCB for left/right channels, de-pop protection, the use of audio grade capacitors, and more), DDR4 Boost (providing your memory with clean/stable power). Then, there is the dedicated peripheral USB ports at the rear that feature more gold/higher durability, ensuring reliable and responsive connection to your gaming equipment. As this is part of the Arsenal Gaming line, you can be sure that there is a whole host of software support too, including one-click VR Ready, Mystic Light (to control the RGB header) and various others.
One of the major selling points for the MORTAR would be its mATX size, which would appeal to many that either prefer a smaller system, or its use for HTPC duties. Many motherboards we have looked at have had a tendency to overlook the video output options, with many simply including a single HDMI port, if any. This is where the MORTAR is superior to even the TOMAHAWK B350, in that it features a DVI-D, HDMI, and a Display Port (rather than a VGA), meaning that the MORTAR is capable of 4K resolution @60Hz when paired with the yet-to-bereleased Bristol Ridge APUs.
MSI in their own words
As a world leading gaming brand, MSI is the most trusted name in gaming and eSports. We’ve dedicated countless hours and committed numerous resources to the eSports community to support the world’s most aspiring and best gamers and use their knowledge and expertise in our products in return. MSI integrated all gamers’ aspirational functions in its gaming rigs, eliminating the tedious trial and error by themselves and pushing the performance beyond limits. The determination to surpass past achievements has made MSI a ‘True Gaming’ brand with gaming spirit throughout the industry!
Technical Specifications
CPU
• Supports AMD® RYZEN series processors and 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors for Socket AM4
* This function will be supported depend on the CPU.
Chipset
• AMD® B350 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667(OC)/ 2933(OC)/ 3200(OC)+ Mhz *
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports non-ECC UDIMM memory
• Supports ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
* 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon ™ processors support a maximum of 2400 MHz. Please refer www.msi.com for more information on compatible memory.
Slots
• 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot
– RYZEN series processors support x16 mode
– 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors support x8 mode
• 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (supports x4 mode)
• 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots*
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x DVI-D port, supports a maximum resolution of 1920×1200@60Hz*
• 1 x HDMI™ 1.4 port, supports a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@24Hz*
• 1 x DisplayPort, supports a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@60Hz*
* Maximum shared memory of 2048 MB
Multi-GPU
• Supports 2-Way AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
– RYZEN series processors support x16/x4 mode
– 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors support x8/x4 mode
Storage
• AMD® B350 Chipset
• 4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports*
• 1 x M.2 slot (Key M)
– M2_1 slot supports PCIe 3.0 x4 (RYZEN series processor) or PCIe 3.0 x2 (7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors) and SATA 6Gb/s 2242/ 2260 /2280 storage devices
• Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10
USB
• AMD® B350 Chipset
– 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 (SuperSpeed USB) ports available through the internal USB connector
– 6 x USB 2.0 (High-speed USB) ports (2 Type-A ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB connectors)
• AMD® CPU – 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 (SuperSpeed USB) ports (3 Type-A and 1 Type-C ports on the back panel)
Audio
• Realtek® ALC892 Codec
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
LAN
• 1 x Realtek® 8111H Gigabit LAN controller
Internal I/O Connectors
– 1 x 24-pin ATX 12V power connector
– 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
– 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
– 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
– 3 x 4-pin system fan connectors
– 1 x RGB LED connector
– 1 x TPM module connector
– 1 x Front panel audio connector
– 2 x System panel connectors
– 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector
– 1 x Serial port connector
– 1 x Parallel port connector
– 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
Back Panel I/O Ports
– 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse combo port
– 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
– 1 x DVI-D port
– 1 x DisplayPort
– 1 x HDMI™ port
– 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
– 3 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C port
– 5 x OFC audio jacks
– 1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT connector
Dimension
• 9.6 in. x 9.6 in. (24.3 cm x 24.3 cm)
• Micro-ATX Form Factor
• Supports AMD® RYZEN series processors and 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors for Socket AM4
* This function will be supported depend on the CPU.
Chipset
• AMD® B350 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667(OC)/ 2933(OC)/ 3200(OC)+ Mhz *
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports non-ECC UDIMM memory
• Supports ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
* 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon ™ processors support a maximum of 2400 MHz. Please refer www.msi.com for more information on compatible memory.
Slots
• 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot
– RYZEN series processors support x16 mode
– 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors support x8 mode
• 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (supports x4 mode)
• 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots*
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x DVI-D port, supports a maximum resolution of 1920×1200@60Hz*
• 1 x HDMI™ 1.4 port, supports a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@24Hz*
• 1 x DisplayPort, supports a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@60Hz*
* Maximum shared memory of 2048 MB
Multi-GPU
• Supports 2-Way AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
– RYZEN series processors support x16/x4 mode
– 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors support x8/x4 mode
Storage
• AMD® B350 Chipset
• 4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports*
• 1 x M.2 slot (Key M)
– M2_1 slot supports PCIe 3.0 x4 (RYZEN series processor) or PCIe 3.0 x2 (7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processors) and SATA 6Gb/s 2242/ 2260 /2280 storage devices
• Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10
USB
• AMD® B350 Chipset
– 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 (SuperSpeed USB) ports available through the internal USB connector
– 6 x USB 2.0 (High-speed USB) ports (2 Type-A ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB connectors)
• AMD® CPU – 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 (SuperSpeed USB) ports (3 Type-A and 1 Type-C ports on the back panel)
Audio
• Realtek® ALC892 Codec
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
LAN
• 1 x Realtek® 8111H Gigabit LAN controller
Internal I/O Connectors
– 1 x 24-pin ATX 12V power connector
– 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
– 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
– 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
– 3 x 4-pin system fan connectors
– 1 x RGB LED connector
– 1 x TPM module connector
– 1 x Front panel audio connector
– 2 x System panel connectors
– 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector
– 1 x Serial port connector
– 1 x Parallel port connector
– 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
Back Panel I/O Ports
– 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse combo port
– 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
– 1 x DVI-D port
– 1 x DisplayPort
– 1 x HDMI™ port
– 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
– 3 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C port
– 5 x OFC audio jacks
– 1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT connector
Dimension
• 9.6 in. x 9.6 in. (24.3 cm x 24.3 cm)
• Micro-ATX Form Factor
Packaging, Bundle & First Look
The front of the packaging is mostly model name/chipset and compatibility information, with the only image being the Arsenal Gaming related (Am I the only one think that maybe we shouldn’t be glorifying weapons and war?) image of a mortar shell.
The rear side contains an image of the product displaying its various included technologies as well as some details at the bottom along with a rear input/output map.
Inside MSI have included 2x SATA cables, a driver disc, a manual and quickstart guide, the rear IO plate, and information about memory compatibility.
The motherboard itself features a triple slot layout, so there is plenty of space should you wish to use this motherboard in a multi-GPU setup. There is a large MOSFET heatsink on the left, and a small chipset heatsink in the lower right.
Closer Look
The CPU is powered by a 4+2 power phase system, so there is plenty of juice for standard settings and enough for additional overclocking, though hot/high voltage overclocks for long periods of time may not be as stable as they would be as with a more robust design.
As with many of the MSI motherboards we have looked at, we do not find an AMD Fan RGB LED header, and there is only a single 4pin CPU fan header provided. There is another 4pin system fan header towards the rear/left side of the image.
The DIMMS feature a single clip mounting system, while the edge around the 24pin ATX socket you will find two SATA 6Gb/s ports and an additional 4pin system fan header.
The B350 only affords 4x SATA ports, which is enough for most people, though only 2x SATA ports featured are right angled. MSI have seen fit to include a right angle USB 3.1 Gen1 front panel header which is a nice inclusion.
Around the bottom right corner we find the traditionally placed front panel headers, accompanied by another USB 3.1 Gen1 header and 2x USB 2.0 headers.
In the bottom left area we find the isolated audio circuitry supporting the Realtek ALC 892, an older, but competent audio codec. The internal headers available here are the front panel HD audio header, the final 4pin fan header, RGB LED header, a COM header, TPM header, Parallel port header, and just beneath the PCIe slot, there is the Clear CMOS jumper (left two pins) and a chassis intrusion header (right two pins).
The back panel ports provides: a universal PS/2 port, 2x ‘game ready’ USB 2.0 ports, DVI-D, HDMI 1.4a, Display Port, 1x USB 3.1 G1 Type A, 1x USB 3.1 G1 Type C, 2x ‘VR Ready’ USB 3.1 G1, Optical S/PDIF, and a selection of gold plated multi-channel audio ports.
Test Setup & Overclocking
Test SetupCPU AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
Cooling Noctua U12S
Motherboard MORTAR B350M
Memory 2x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz @ 2667MHz
Graphics AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
Storage Corsair Force LE 480GB
PSU Corsair RM750X 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Cooling Noctua U12S
Motherboard MORTAR B350M
Memory 2x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz @ 2667MHz
Graphics AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
Storage Corsair Force LE 480GB
PSU Corsair RM750X 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
Other Software
Temperature Analysis: Aida64 & Ryzen Master
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Performance Monitoring: MSI Afterburner
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Performance Monitoring: MSI Afterburner
BIOS
The MORTAR B350M benefits from MSI’s awesome BIOS which is easy to navigate to find all the settings.
Overclocking
In our attempts to overclock, we found that it wasn’t quite up to the task of a 4GHz overclock with any real stability. though knocking the 1800X down to a respectable 3.9GHz was no problem at all. The voltage increments are rather clunky, jumping between 1.4375 – 1.5V, making it difficult to fine tune the voltage. Though, this isn’t a motherboard that can be compared to the premium X370 motherboards where one would expect to be having a high voltage OC as a 24/7 solution.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z270 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but we believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Benchmarks: POV-RAY
Persistence of Vision Raytracer’s PovRay is a free and open source 3D animator application with versions for computers with different operating systems.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
Benchmarks: TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a discontinued source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or encrypt a partition or (under Microsoft Windows except Windows 8 with GPT) the entire storage device (pre-boot authentication).
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product PageThis simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8
PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8 Photoshop
The PCMark 8 Applications benchmark measures system performance using popular applications from the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. You can choose which tests to run based on the applications installed on your system. Each test automatically steps through a series of actions such as opening, editing and saving a file. The results are used to calculate the PCMark 8 Applications scores for the system.
Benchmarks: 3DMark
3DMark FireStrike Product PageFire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
VR Performance – VRMark
VRMark Product PageVRMark includes two VR benchmark tests that run on your monitor, no headset required, or on a connected HMD. At the end of each test, you’ll see whether your PC is VR ready, and if not, how far it falls short.
Gaming Performance – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two recent gaming titles.
Conclusion
The MSI MORTAR B350M Many people enjoy downsizing their PC system to save space, or to have a more convenient system, making mATX motherboards rather popular. The MORTAR B350M provides users everything they need for a straight up single-GPU gaming system. MSI haven’t neglected the coming APUs either, providing users with several video output options (DVI-D, HDMI, Display Port), meaning that this would also be well suited for media-PC, or even productivity duties.
We did pick up on various things worth considering in our time with the MORTAR B350M. Firstly, is that is suffers from the sluggish ‘Smart Fan’ feature (something we have noticed across several MSI motherboards recently), despite not being equipped to be the most robust motherboard in regards to overclocking, if you choose to do so, you may find that you will need to set your CPU fan speed to 100%. Another recurring theme we have noticed with various MSI AM4 motherboards is the lack of the AMD Fan RGB LED header, which is simply non-existent. This could cause disappointment for those wanting to create a flashy system, though, we could also argue that RGB lighting isn’t going to be much of an issue for a motherboard that only features red LED lighting. Finally, we would liked to have seen an extra 2x USB 3.1 (Gen2?) ports on the rear I/O, 5x USB Type A is reasonable, but if your chassis provides limited expansion, many people will find that they will soon run out. This point leads us to make a shout out to the manufacturers about the B350 chipset why aren’t we getting that native 2x USB 3.1 Gen2?
Aside from that mentioned, the MORTAR B350M has all the features you need to create a good quality home/media/budget gaming system. It includes the high-speed NVMe M.2 slot for the latest SSDs, and features various MSI technologies including: DDR4 Boost and Audio Boost. We managed to find this motherboard for around £85-95, (a little less than its white/’Arctic’ twin) making it a steal considering the potential of the latest AMD CPUs.
The MORTAR B350M motherboard comes in as a competent, high-quality, good-value motherboard, capable of creating an impressive budget gaming system.
Pros
+ Attractive design
+ Solid performance
+ Several onboard video out (including Display Port)
+ NVMe M.2 socket
+ Attractive, easy to use BIOS
+ Glowing Red LED lighting
+ Dedicated features for gamers and VR
+ EZ Debug LED
+ Price
Cons
– Could do with more USB ports (preferably USB 3.1 G2)
– Only Red LED lighting
+ Attractive design
+ Solid performance
+ Several onboard video out (including Display Port)
+ NVMe M.2 socket
+ Attractive, easy to use BIOS
+ Glowing Red LED lighting
+ Dedicated features for gamers and VR
+ EZ Debug LED
+ Price
Cons
– Could do with more USB ports (preferably USB 3.1 G2)
– Only Red LED lighting
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
