Gigabyte B450m Ds3h MotherBoard Review – Should You Buy It In 2021?

• The B450M DS3H’s main focus is on quality over quantity in terms of features and overall quality.
• The general controller choice does mean that this board falls in the lower range of AM4 boards available, but the Realtek ALC887 audio codec still does a pretty nice job of taking care of the onboard sound.
• Moreover, with a Realtek GbE LAN controller, the DS3H is quite suitable users on a tight wallet kitty, but who also need a smaller microATX form factor.

Much like most GIGABYTE’s launch day B450 motherboards, the B450M DS3H has four memory slots capable of supporting DDR4-3200 memory.

In simple words, you have the option to wrack up to 64 GB of system memory with both ECC and non-ECC Un-buffered memory types being compatible. There is also support for DDR4 memory with XMP profiles built-in.

• Storage-wise, the main bulk comprises of four SATA ports.
• These ports all use straight angled slots, which is a budget measure and also a result of the board’s entry-level pedigree.
• The SATA ports also support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays.
• Also present is a single PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot with support for up to M.2 22110 (22 x 110 mm) SSDs.

Let’s talk a bit about power now. The B450M DS3H looks to sport a seemingly simple, but quite potent, 4+3 hybrid digital design, with a compact mall and lightweight heatsink across the CPU section of the VRM. One Con could be that this leaves the SoC area at the mercy of the system’s passive cooling capabilities. However, that may not be a huge issue when using a discrete graphics card but could cause potential heat issues if a user intends to use one of the Ryzen 2000 series APUs and overclock them for better performance.

• The rear panel on the B450M DS3H microATX motherboard features all the basic selection of ports and connections including four USB 3.1 5 Gbps ports and four additional USB 2.0 Type-A ports.
• You also get a PS/2 combo port, along with a solitary LAN port controlled by a Realtek GbE networking chip.
• The three 3.5mm audio jacks making up the onboard audio are powered by the Realtek ALC887 audio codec.
• Finally, the rear panel boasts a pair of video outputs which consist of a DVI-D and HDMI 2.0 port which makes this board suitable for a low-end and entry-level gaming system when paired up with an APU.

• The best part about GIGABYTE B450M DS3H is its value and that too without sacrificing core features that are used frequently in most modern-day desktops.
• From the Realtek ALC887 which is a more budget-friendly audio codec opposed to say the ALC1220, to the use a cheaper Realtek GbE networking chip opposed to say the Intel I211-AT featured on their own B450 Aorus Pro/Aorus Pro WIFI models; it gives the B450M DS3H more function and value over style, over the top aesthetics and unnecessary cost spiking componentry.