Question 1

how many sata cables does it come with?

Accepted Answer

If I remember correctly it came with 2 black ones. One has a right angle connector on one end. Came in handy for my build.

FWIW this board and I think all of the B350 boards can only use SATA ports 1-4 when an NVMe is installed.

Question 2

Are the fan headers powerful enough to hold 2 fans via a fan splitter?

Accepted Answer

It will, of course, depend on the fans you're using.  But I am able to run three fans (a 70, 120 and 140 mm) with a three-way splitter off of one case fan header , an AIO pump off the CPU header and the two 120 mm radiator fans with a two-way splitter off of the other case fan header. all at once. all at full speed. all with no problems.  The headers have current over-load protection but I've not seen them work as all fans operate at full rated RPM.   Also, any properly made splitter connects only one fan's speed sense through to the motherboard header; that's the only fan that will be reported.  You can tell which by looking for the fan connector with the extra wire.

Question 3

What brand of ram should I get?  I have Ryzen 7 1700. I would like ddr4 2666 8gbx2. I checked QVL but can't seem to find anything on the list.
Thanks

Accepted Answer

Good day,
I also have a Ryzen 7 1700 with this motherboard, and I ordered the ram, "Team T-Force DARK 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Memory (Desktop Memory) Model TDGED416G3000HC16CDC01 " from Newegg.

My understanding is that generally speaking faster RAM is good for Ryzen, and that 8gbx2 is a good choice. Furthermore, for the most part all RAM works, and unless it explicitly says it doesn't work then it is probably safe.

Question 4

Does this board support overclocking on ryzen 7 1700?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but it's VRM is only ok. It is a big limiting factor to how much you can overclock, your system won't be that stable with anything more than a small overclock.

Even if you're lucky and have a good piece of silicon, you'll only get so much. I couldn't get my 1700x past 3.8 ghz, due to power limitations.

The interface for overclocking is also extremely limited. I think it literally only has VCORE offset and that's basically it. It's a nice little mobo, and you can play with the clock a bit, but look elsewhere if you are an enthusiast overclocker.

Question 5

can you use 3 sticks of ram?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but I would stick to either 2 or 4 sticks for the best performance.

Question 6

Can you install wifi card in this motherboard or should i buy an adapter?

Accepted Answer

My USB adapter works great. Just make sure you get the USB drivers installed correctly the first time.

Question 7

can I crossfire on this board?

Accepted Answer

Crossfire yes, SLI no. FYI The AM4 Ryzen chips have 20 PCI-E lanes, 16 of which are used for a single GPU. In crossfire it is 8 lanes per card. I don't think any GPU comes close to saturating the newer PCI technologies. But it's something to consider.

Question 8

how do i update bios on this board?

Accepted Answer

If you are building around a Ryzen 1000 series processor, you can enter the bios flash menu from the bios screen. If you are building around a Ryzen 2000 series processor, you will need to substitute in a carizzo based APU to do the bios update before installing the Ryzen CPU. AMD has a support program that will lend you a cheap APU to perform the bios update, or you can supply you own.

Bios images can be found on the Gigabyte website, packaged in a zip file. Unzip the desired image onto a FAT formatted USB drive for use with the bios flash menu.

Question 9

Can this board support two graphics cards?

Accepted Answer

No, it's a B350 board, B350 boards don't support SLI or Crossfire, you would need an X370 or better board.

Question 10

I updated the bios to the latest F4 version and now the memory voltages cannot be changed. I wanted to set the voltage manually due to odd boot loop that occurs when powering on. It eventually works at 3200mhz using XMP but 2133mhz starts right up without looping. I used G.skill anyone having luck with the faster Corsair?

Accepted Answer

My BIOS is updated to F4 and I can change memory voltages. You have to hit the + or - (plus or minus) keys to change voltage; I think you can also type the voltage in directly.  The odd boot loop is the processor trying to 'train' memory at the settings specified.  It usually tries three times, with a re-boot in between, then defaults to JEDEC standard (2133) if it can't get it to work.  Be sure to also increase SoC voltage to 1.1 to 1.15 volt range when running over-clocked memory; my AB350M SoC is less than 1 volt on auto setting.  I think 3200 Mhz is about all you can expect out of Ryzen right now.  Also anything over 2933/3000 offers very small performance improvements anyway, and this is being reported by multiple tech-review web sites, so if you got yours at 3200 I think you doing great!

Questions & Answers