MSI PRO B650M-P ProSeries Motherboard (AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 Series Processors, AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, M.2, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI/DP, 2.5Gbps LAN, mATX)

The board thus far has been very easy to work with. The 4 "EZ Debug LEDs" are a great addition and saved me a lot of time. ... Because the board (Pro B650M-P) came with a BIOS revision > 1.5 years old, and my processor (Ryzen 7 9700X) was not supported. Both the CPU and Memory LEDs will stay on, (and the board will not display anything on the video out). Some googling quickly turned up the typical "reseat", "make sure it's connected properly" advice, as well as reports that this board often needs a BIOS update.This leads me to the second feature that is really nice: the ability to update the BIOS with NO components installed on the board -- no memory, and not even a CPU. Simply insert a USB drive with the properly named firmware file on it and hold the "Flash BIOS button" and you're off to the reflashing races. (search on-line for full details, there's plenty of youtube videos) The board level indicators (LEDs) were helpful to know that the flashing process was progressing and when it had finished -- takes some number of minutes.So, despite the need for a firmware update, I found this board very easy to work with and install. I will certainly look for both early boot status LEDs and a "flash button" on motherboards I purchase in the future - good job MSI.

This review is only with people getting this mobo for the 7800x3d .Though it don't support the 7800x3d without flashing first . Despite that this motherboard works great. I at first put a 1 star review. See When the 5000 series came out and i had to flash the mobo I installed every part cpu.. nvme.. gpu.. and I was able to flash right away. With the 7000 series to install you need everything off your mobo. I went through 4 usbs trying to get it to flash when i noticed i had the power leds from the tower case on. So if anyone installs the 7800x3d and other parts into their case before flashing the bios. The flashing won't work I confirmed this by testing 4 different usb flash drives... everything from the case and everything from the mobo.. even the ram.To flash this product you are going to need a 4gb-32gb flash drive formatted to fat32 now go to msi website. in the msi website find the support option in the website and click downloads. Now you are going to want to find your product for the first two rows click on mother board. Now you are going to want to click mag series. You should then beable to find the B650 Tomahawk wifi option.Now proceed and you will find the bios files download either one of last 3 files I personslly would go for the choose the most recent download that came out. Once you have the file downloaded transfer that to your flash drive ( don't include the notepad) again make sure the flash drive has been formatted to fat32.Once the bios update file is in your usb you are going to have to rename that file to (MSI.ROM) do not inclide the () in the renaming.Now that you have your file downloaded you are going to want to connect your power supply to your motherboard it is okay if the motherboard and power supply is in the case as long as there is nothing else connected to the motherboard.You are going to want to look at the usbs on the outer side of the case and there should be a usb slot that has a square line around it stating bios flash back with a little button on top that states bios ect.. insert usb hold button for a few seconds and release your finger a green and yellow light shows on the motherboard.Do not take out the usb do not disconnect the power supply either just let it be it may appear frozen but it is not . It should take about 5-10 minutes for it to flash once your motherboard either restarts or shuts off after 5-10 minutes your flashing is complete now install your 7800x3d now when installing you don't have to worry about your pins being flat;)Now for the rest of the review the motherboard is just like any other motherboard except for the cpu area. I upgraded from a 5800x so it was alien to me. For some reason the am5 board has a black plastic over the cpu slot that you have to remove... watch a tutorial for this part or you might mess up anything. I am using amd expo at 6000mhz by default. Do not use expo if you don't know what you are doing. Watch a lot of guides before changing voltages and timings. My 3080ti connected and the slot is nice and sturdy. The wifi is great and the bluetooth. This perfected my non rgb build ;)

I am building a workstation computer from scratch to primarily run Solidworks 3D CAD (computer aided design) and wanted it to be as powerful as possible for the lowest reasonable cost. I try and go for products that represent the “knee” in the price-performance curve. For example, you are generally far better off getting something that at half the price that might only perform at 90% of the device costing twice as much. Frequently the difference is only in milliseconds, which you will never notice. I also look for products that are from reputable manufactures and have received decent reviews. This MSI Pro B650M-A motherboard was part of my build and meets the above criteria.

Update: New board had no defects, installed perfectly, running like a champ in no time. Easy bios settings, recognized usb keyboard and mouse, and easy to flash the rom. Cable management was a little tricky with the msi mid sized case but the final build is super clean.The quality and look of the board are great…other than a potential issue on the MB socket. The board heat sinks are amazing. It fits into a MSI case great. The back connections are wonderful and work very well with all components. Even if there is a wire that’s a little short there are multiple ways to route them and for them to be hidden. You will need a magnetized screw driver to install and it will be difficult to install peripherals without mounting in the case first. Comes with a magnet which I assume is to magnetize a screw driver. Very small trade off for a clean build.Loading the most recent rom was an absolute breeze with a usb stick and the rom flash button on the board. Great feature and adds rom comparability.The issue I had with a red cpu light. Research provided 2 potential issues, incompatibility of ram or damaged cpu/socket. 4 hours later pulled the cpu and got a microscope on the socket. I am not sure what it’s supposed to look like but I could find 3 areas that did not look right that were not uniform. 2 were pins that did not look right and one looked like a solder bridge. I have never dealt with a bad socket before so I am making some assumptions. I will say I am surprised as the overall quality of the board looked great and it did look like a new board. Waiting on a replacement and will update this review. 4 stars of the new board is good, 5 if my cpu is the issue.