Some say that the most important part of a PC is the CPU or the GPU. This is likely because it’s where most of the performance comes from, but if you ask me, I’d say the most important part is the motherboard. The motherboard joins all of the components in your PC together, helping them communicate and work in unison. And serve as a platform on which to build your PC.

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MSI B650M PROJECT ZERO

4 /5

Editor’s Rating

How We Review

Specifications

• Socket: AM5 (LGA1718)
• Chipset: B650
• Form Factor : Micro-ATX
• PCIe Version : PCIe Gen 4
• Memory speed : 6400MHz + OC
• Memory capacity : 128GB (4 x 32GB)

What We Think

This motherboard is quirky, but perfect if your a user that just needs an AM5 motherboard to get things done. It even features most of the connectivity on the back, for a clean, wireless aesthetic. If that’s your thing.

Reasons to Buy

• Good value for money
• Looks good, really like the white
• Thermal armour keeps VRMs cool

Reasons to Avoid

• Slight performance loss vs X670E
• Difficult to install if your case doesn’t accommodate for the rear connections
• Micro-ATX, so only 1 PCIe slot

• Shop on Amazon

The MSI B650M Project Zero occupies sort of the mid-range of 600 series AM5 motherboards on the market, but it has one special trick up its sleeve that could make it more desirable than most. Beyond that, it has a relatively robust power delivery system and a surprising amount of connectivity for a micro ATX motherboard.

Design

The MSI Project is a white and black motherboard, but mostly white. In my opinion, this helps a motherboard to look more elegant, there’s just something that looks good about white motherboards. A lot of the motherboard’s face is armored, meaning it is protected against shorts and accidental damage when installed.

The ace up the sleeve of this motherboard is that it’s wireless, well, not really, but all of the power and system connections are made on the rear of the motherboard. This gives an incredibly clean appearance on the face side, as there are barely any wires visible. This does mean you have to make some considerations when you choose a case, don’t choose one that’s too compact on the rear side of the motherboard. And you may have to finally make use of those right-angle SATA connectors you get with motherboards.

Specifications

Socket	LGA 1718 (AM5)
Chipset	B650
Form Factor	Micro ATX
RAM	4 x DDR5 6400+(OC up to 7600), 128GB Capacity
VRM	10+2+1
PCIe	1 x PCIe 5.0 x16
Storage	2 x Gen4 x4 64Gbps slots
Fan Headers	5 x 4-Pin (CPU, CPU OPT, PUMP)
Connectivity	2 x USB 2.0 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C 1 x 2.5 Gigabit LAN 1 x WiFi 6E

This might look like a lot to take in, particularly the power phases and the different DDR5 speeds, but on paper, this motherboard does well. We’ll have to see if the chipset affects efficiency at all, we’ll do that later when we get to the testing portion of the review.

The MSI B650 has a 10+2+1 phase power design, which is great thanks to the 3 layers of stabilization and filtration, but it only has 10 phases on the first layer. In contrast, the X670 Hero we reviewed had 18 phases, which means the power should be cleaner when using the Hero.

If you need to know more about the power phase, we explained them pretty well in that review, so feel free to check it out. But all you need to know for now is that the more layers and the more MOSFETs present on a motherboard, the cleaner and more stable the power will be. Clean, stable power is fantastic if you’re into overclocking CPUs.

PCIe and GPU specifications

The MSI B650M has only one PCIe X16 slot, and it’s only PCIe Gen 4. Don’t worry, tests have been performed on PCIe 3 motherboards against PCIe 4 motherboards, and it was concluded that there was very little difference when it came to GPU performance. PCIe Gen 5 is still relatively new, and no GPUs use it yet anyway, so it’s not exactly a huge drawback for this motherboard.

As this motherboard is a Micro-ATX, you do have to sacrifice a few features, such as a second PCIe slot. But who uses SLI anymore anyway? Unless you need to add an M.2 PCIe card, this B650 does already have 2 M.2 slots to use, so it’s unlikely that you’ll need one.

Performance and efficiency

We decided to keep things simple when testing the motherboards for review, we put a Ryzen 9 7900X in each motherboard and run it through 5 synthetic benchmarks. Cinebench, Geekbench, and Blender All the while we keep an eye on PPT and CPU package voltages, and VRM plus motherboard temperatures.

PPT, if you didn’t know, is the voltage that the motherboard is allowing through its voltage rails to the CPU. It’s basically how much power it gives the power supply that the CPU needs. Package power is the amount of power that the CPU is using. So if we subtract package power from PPT, we should get a very crude efficiency value. Of course, we measure the CPU’s performance too, to see if changing chipsets has any measurable impact on performance.

Results

Metric	Blender Monster	Blender Junkyard	Blender Classroom	CB R23 Multi	Geekbench 6 Multi
Score	185 spm	132 spm	92 spm	27992 points	18404 points
PPT Max (Watts)	172.17W	165.86W	174.40W	177.67W	158.42W
Max Package Power (Watts)	176.39W	169.95W	178.63W	182.04W	162.49W
Power lost (Watts)	4.22W	4.09W	4.23W	4.37W	4.07W
Max VRM Temp (°C)	52.5°C	54°C	52.5°C	50°C	40°C
Max Mobo Temp (°C)	53.5°C	53.4°C	50.2°C	50.3°C	50°C

As we can see, the 7900X did pretty well when it came to the actual performance aspect of the benchmark, but how efficient is the B650M? At most, we’re losing 4.37W (remember Watts is Joules per second) which isn’t a whole lot, but it adds up over a long period. You still have to pay for that 4W of energy, even though it’s going nowhere.

This is normal for electrical circuits, nothing is 100% efficient, although it is apparent that the power loss fluctuated far more than the X670 Hero, which has 18 power phases on the first layer.

• The average power loss for the B650M was 4.196W
• The average power loss for the X670E was 3.978W

This is a difference of 0.218W, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you add that up every day for say 4 years, it makes a difference. 20 cents difference to be exact, if you use today’s rates. It’s clearly not about money, its more about supplying a clean accurate flow of power, mainly for overclocking and stability purposes. If you have power fluctuating all over the place it can be a detriment to performance, as we witness here.

Motherboard	Blender Monster	Blender Junkyard	Blender Classroom	CB R23 Multi	Geekbench 6 Multi
B650M MSI	185s	132s	92s	27992 points	18404 points
X670E ASUS	179s	131s	90s	28204 points	18425 points

As you can see, there is a minuscule performance difference between the two. Yes, it is small, but it is present. Is this conclusive proof that power and stability always equate to better performance, no, probably not. One thing it does tell us though, is that despite the same conditions, and the same tests, dropping a chipset nets us worse performance overall. Marginally worse, but worse nonetheless.

Temperature

We observe the B650 reach a maximum temperature of 53.5°C, while we see the VRM temperature reach a maximum of 54°C, which isn’t really anything to worry about. This motherboard features a “Heavy Plated VRM Heatsink” which seeks to keep the upper MOS cool. This is likely why the Project was able to keep the VRMs relatively cool.

You have to remember that this test was conducted on an open test bench, meaning airflow was probably the best it’ll ever be. So temperatures in our case usually represent the best-case scenario. Keep that in mind, especially since this motherboard is designed to go in micro-ATX cases, where good airflow is scarce.

All in all, this motherboard is great for the $210 price mark, it’s a great high-middle tire motherboard that offers aesthetics above all else. There is evidence to suggest that dropping a chipset can reduce performance, but the impact of this performance loss on real-world workloads is questionable at best.

If you want to know how we test our systems, then you can check out our PC Guide testing labs page, here we detail all of the tests we put each component through. All this is to give you a more thorough understanding of how we come to the conclusions that we do.

Installation

Installation of this motherboard went almost as smoothly as any other, the 6-layer PCB and the armored front made the motherboard durable and solid. What you have to watch out for is the connections on the rear of the motherboard. As the B650M has all of the fan, power, and other connectors on the rear of the board to hide them it’s like trying to blindly put a hedgehog into your PC case, prick after prick, and be careful you don’t bend any of those fan headers!

If your case doesn’t have well-positioned cutouts for this motherboard then it’s game over, thankfully ours did, and when the MSI Project is properly seated onto its standoffs, no metal touches metal, eliminating the possibility of a short. The right case makes building a PC easy, a pro tip for you.

Thankfully, this motherboard has a pre-installed I/O shield, giving you one less way to slice and dice those things you call fingers. All in all, the MSI Project Zero is fine to install, but just like a teething puppy, she bites. it takes a second to contort the cables to the back of the PC, and you quickly learn that you’re better off installing some of the cables first, and then installing the motherboard, but this is probably case-dependent.

BIOS usability

Everyone’s favorite part of a motherboard is the BIOS. There’s nothing basic about some of these input/output systems, so you’re probably eager to see whether or not the Project Zero’s BIOS got our approval. And it does!

This BIOS, even in its most advanced form is really easy to understand and navigate. You get clearly defined areas in which related settings reside, it’s very GUI rather than information, which is what a lot of us are used to now. It didn’t seem like the overclocking settings were lesser than that of the X670E, and the EXPO profiles were really easy to set. Although it did take a few voltage tweaks to get it to boot at 6400MHz.

If the advanced options give you too many, well, options. You can direct your attention to the easy mode, which simplifies the selections and still allows you to apply somewhat of an overclock, which not all motherboard easy modes do.

Flashing the BIOS is as easy as finding the file, putting it onto a USB, inserting that USB into the USB port labeled “BIOS”, and booting into the M-FLASH utility from the BIOS. The M-FLASH utility basically does everything for you, just select your drive, and then the file. Don’t worry about bricking your motherboard, you literally can’t install a BIOS file that the motherboard doesn’t recognize.

CPUs that pair well with this motherboard

This is a motherboard in the sort of mid-range of boards, meaning we should select a CPU in a similar range to that. Technically speaking, this motherboard is compatible with all AM5 CPUs, even the upcoming Ryzen 9000 series CPUs. But you should probably wait to sit them on an 800 series motherboard, which is rumored to be launching in September.

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  Hands-on Review

  AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

  • Cores: 6
  • Threads : 12
  • Boost clock speed: 5.3 GHz
  • Base clock speed: 4.7 GHz
  • L3 Cache: 32 MB
  • TDP: 105W

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  Hands-on Review

  AMD Ryzen 7 7700X

  • Cores: 8
  • Threads: 16
  • Boost clock speed: 5.4 GHz
  • Base clock speed: 4.5 GHz
  • L3 Cache: 32 MB
  • TDP: 105W

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  Hands-on Review

  AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

  • Cores: 8
  • Threads: 16
  • Boost speed : up to 5 GHz
  • Base speed: 4.2 GHz
  • L3 Cache: 96 MB
  • TDP: 120 W

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If you’re a gamer, looking for a motherboard that can facilitate top performance on the PC, then the 7800X3D with this motherboard is a no-brainer. Together they will run you about $500, but it’s a worthy investment.

Conclusion

The MSI Project Zero is certainly a quirky motherboard with its backward-facing connectivity and wireless aesthetic. but that’s not to say it shouldn’t be seriously considered. It’s not an expensive motherboard in any sense, and it has enough features and connectivity to keep you going well into the future. If AMD kept AM4 going for almost 10 years, imagine what they can do with AM5.

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MSI B650M PROJECT ZERO

4 /5

Editor’s Rating

How We Review

Specifications

• Socket: AM5 (LGA1718)
• Chipset: B650
• Form Factor : Micro-ATX
• PCIe Version : PCIe Gen 4
• Memory speed : 6400MHz + OC
• Memory capacity : 128GB (4 x 32GB)

What We Think

This motherboard is quirky, but perfect if your a user that just needs an AM5 motherboard to get things done. It even features most of the connectivity on the back, for a clean, wireless aesthetic. If that’s your thing.

Reasons to Buy

• Good value for money
• Looks good, really like the white
• Thermal armour keeps VRMs cool

Reasons to Avoid

• Slight performance loss vs X670E
• Difficult to install if your case doesn’t accommodate for the rear connections
• Micro-ATX, so only 1 PCIe slot

• Shop on Amazon

If you need just a simple B650 to get the job done, then this may not be for you, thanks to the slight inconveniences that this board can bring. Mainly figuring out how to install it into an unforgiving case that doesn’t have the right cutouts in the right places. But apart from that, installation is as easy as any other motherboard.

The power phases on this board prove to be a little less capable than that of the X670E for example, but that motherboard is around $300 more than this one is. So is a tiny bit of performance and efficiency really worth $300? If so then great, go for it.

All of the AM5 CPUs will work with this motherboard, including the Ryzen 9000 series. So if you’re thinking of getting this motherboard, or have just got it, you can rest assured that AM5 is still fully accessible to you. You can sit and wait to upgrade your motherboard in the future. There really are a few possibilities here with this motherboard.

This board is designed to be used by the middle of the pack of AM5 users. What I mean by this is people who just want a PC to get the job done, and that aren’t really enthusiasts, and for that this motherboard is perfect. Especially so if you care about aesthetics and hate cables. In that case, this motherboard is a must!