MSI H310M Gaming Plus Motherboard Review: Affordable Basics

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How We Test

Comparison Products

We’ll compare the MSI H310M Gaming Plus to similarly priced and appointed boards, the ASRock H310M-G/M.2 and the Asus TUF H310M-Plus Gaming, which we’re also working on reviewing. The test system for this round of boards contains different hardware than other reviewers (video card and RAM) as well as an updated W10 64-bit OS (to use the RTX based GPU), so the data is not comparable to other reviews of the same chipset.

Test System Components

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CPUCore i3-8350K
MemoryFury DDR4
GraphicsGeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition
SSDOCZ RD400
CoolerCLC 240
PSUEVGA G3 750W
SoundIntegrated HD audio
NetworkIntegrated gigabit networking
Graphics DriverGeForce 419.67

Benchmark Settings

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Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
PCMark 8Version 2.7.613Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft)
3DMark 13Version 4.47.597.0Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets
SiSoftware SandraVersion 2016.03.22.21CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth
DiskSPD4K Random Read, 4K Random Write128K Sequential Read, 128K Sequential Write
Cinebench R15Build RC83328DEMOOpenGL Benchmark
CompuBenchVersion 1.5.8Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing
Application Tests and Settings
LAME MP3Version 3.98.3Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.9.9Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x265 mp4
BlenderVersion 2.68aBMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark
7-ZipVersion 16.02THG-Workload (7.6GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9"
Adobe After Effects CCRelease 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144PCMark-driven routine
Adobe Photoshop CCRelease 2015.5.0, 20160603.r.88 x64PCMark-driven routine (light and heavy)
Adobe InDesign CCRelease 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64PCMark-driven routine
Adobe IllustratorRelease 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit)PCMark-driven routine
Game Tests and Settings
Ashes of the SingularityVersion 1.31.21360High Preset - 1920 x 1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAACrazy Preset - 1920 x 1080, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA
F1 20152015 Season, Abu Dhabi track, RainMedium Preset, no AFUltra High Preset, 16x AF
Metro: Last Light ReduxVersion 3.00 x64High Quality, 1920 x 1080, High Tesselation, 16x AFVery High Quality, 1920 x 1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF
The Talos PrincipleVersion 267252Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AFUltra Preset, Very High Quality, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF

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Joe Shields
Motherboard Reviewer

Joe Shields is a Freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US. He reviews motherboards.

  • NightHawkRMX
    No vrm heatsyncs is a nogo for me. Even if Im not overclocking.
    Reply
  • helpstar
    Hi there, just had a look at the review´s specification.

    The form factor is not ATX, it´s micro-ATX

    legacy port is missing: PS/2 Combo Port as well as supported CPU generations of Intel

    In the RAM section, it would be nice to write in there, that this board will only use 2666MHz, no matter if better clocked RAM is installed

    What I missed in the review: the audio chip will work in 7.1 HD sound, if the front audio is used in combination with the rear ports

    Other than that, thanks for the nice review
    Reply
  • rsquared
    "for those on a tight build budget who don’t not plan on overclocking " ... What, "don't not"?? So who DO plan on overclocking?
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    I wish people wouldn't refer to total # of phases as a single number, i.e. "7-phase VRM" in this article. If you're going to list a single number it should be the # of phases for the CPU core IMO, otherwise list it as Core+Uncore (or Core+Uncore+Memory). This board appears to be 4+2+1.
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    Yea, agree there.

    Reminds me of the people selling "10 core gaming pcs" but in reality it has 4 bulldozer cpu cores and 6 radeon cores.
    Reply
  • MilanRoberto9
    No ARGB header i think? Why u include it on specifications ?
    Reply