MSI Codex ZS 3-002BUS, AMD B550M, 550W 80 Plus Bronze, Forge 100R Barebones Tower Computer

I looked hard at this barebones system six months ago for another project, I liked the value, but really just needed a motherboard, so I went another route.A couple of weeks ago I was looking into a budget/parts bin build. I didn't have much to start with, a Ryzen 3 3100, a awful case with some dents, and a questionable Corsair 550w PSU.I can across this barebones again, at a much lower price, low enough that the motherboard by itself would have been a bargain. I pulled the trigger and am happy I did.The kit came in a typical MSI retail box, well packaged. The motherboard and PSU were installed, but not wired. The kit came with the standard bag of accessories (power cable and wifi antennas) on the outside of the case, and another bag with the motherboard and case hardware zip ties to a rail inside the case. I was surprised that the kit included all of the hardware you expect when buying a better case and motherboard, I didn't have to scrounge my parts bin for anything, it even came with enough zip ties for a decent job of cable management.The example I got had a standard BIOS installed, not a prebuilt variant. I was using a R3 3100, so that wasn't really a problem anyway. The kit didn't come with a printed MB manual, just a QR code that linked to the digital version. The ARGB controller can be wired to the MB and the MSI software works well with it. The cooler bracket preinstalled was the clip on type I have used with Wraith Prism coolers before, I was using a Wraith Stealth this time, so I removed the top brackets and screwed it into the bottom bracket.The case is smaller than I expected, if you are going to use a large GPU and water cooling, you will need to mount the radiator on the top. This is only an issue for large cards, like an RX 6900 or RTX 3080. On this build I used a RX 6500 XT, so it wasn't an issue at all.With this MB PCIE 4.0 is supported, however if you are using a Ryzen APU (any CPU with onboard graphics) you will only get PCIE 3.0, many of the non graphics Ryzen CPUs released in the last two years don't support PCIE 4.0, the R5 5500 for instance. This is an issue for those wanting to use a 4 lane graphics card such as the RX 6400 and 6500, they will work at PCIE 3.0, but at a lower performance level. This is an AMD issue, not unique to this MSI system.The PSU is the weak point here, it seems decent, but just that. If I was building a higher end system I would have replaced it with a higher quality PSU, an EVGA perhaps.The case is a bit light, but was nice to build in. It has a two slot HDD cage with removable brackets in the bottom, which can be removed. It has mounts for SATA SSD drives on the back of the MB tray, and the MB has two M2 slots, so storage options are great. The pass throughs for cable management aren't perfect, but on the back side there are lots of loops for zip ties and sufficient space for routing cables. I had plenty of room in the basement to bundle tuck away the unused wires from the PSU, as it isn't modular, without having to remove the HDD cage.Overall, for the price I paid I got a great deal. A similar quality case with ARGB/fan hub, three ARGB fans and good airflow would have been $70 or more, the PSU I wouldn't have paid much more than $30 for, which basically makes the Motherboard free, and it is a nice Motherboard for a entry to mid level build.Another way to put it is, if you want to build a cheap gaming system, this is a great start, and for the price of an "Optiplex and a GPU" which is likely to have a 6th or 7th Gen i5, you can put together something that will run current AAA games at decent settings at 60FPS.

I'm super happy with this product but keep in mind it is not plug-n-play. The BIOS on the MSI site will not, I repeat, will not be able to be used to flash this motherboard. Booting to the bios and attempting to update it there will also not work (hence the bad reviews saying they cannot update the bios). It CAN be done, though. It requires a special tool MSI called "UEFI Shell Flash tool" makes for forcing a bios onto a MB, you MUST Have an old processor (I used a Ryzen 3600) because it will work on the motherboard without a bios update. Then use the UEFI Shell Flash tool and the old processor to update the bios, which required two steps, using a newer bios than the MB had but not the newest, then doing again with the newest. Then the bios did update and the Ryzen 5600G worked. If you search for the UEFI Shell Flash tool you can learn more. It's really not hard. If you're up for it, this package is a great deal. You could always go with a Ryzen 3600 and not bother updating the bios. You would only need to update to go with a newer chip like the 5600. Nice case, great RGB, good motherboard, decent power supply.

Awesome fun little project to do for a weekend I had parts from a previous build and I did a case swap and put it in this case You can put an AMD Ryzen 7 5800x you have to update the bios if you dont feel comfortable in doing so you can ask the guy that is selling this Barebones PC Make sure its CompuCell-tech thats selling this case he was awesome and I am a very happy customer and I will gladly do service with this guy again also this motherboard can hold 128GBs of ram and I was able to put a Nvidia RTX 4060 without any problems 10/10 will do it again!

I bought 3 of these at an absolutely great price, $99 a piece at the time, which was less then what the motherboard inside cost on its own. So fantastic value, now when you try and upgrade and add to the system that's when things get frustrating. Luckily I bought a ryzen 7 3700x cpu which the motherboard would boot up with the first time no problem but no one wants to stay on old gen tech, so when I went to upgrade to a newer ryzen 5 5600x cpu and update the bios is when I discovered its not a standard bios. Two ways around this, 1) buy another motherboard or 2) force flash the bios. I grabbed another mobo and went on my way, I still have one original board so when I do force flash the bios I'll update my review with some tips for others to do the same.

Very good product for the price. Shipping was prompt and product arrived as described. Worked without issues and was completed in 30mins. By default the RAM runs are 2133, just select the XMP profile to run at 3200. BIOS navigation is not bad but could be better. All in all good for the next few years.All other MB connections are done for you. cant get easier than that. Would definitely recommend.

The bios won’t allow secure boot and all update attempts to the bios failAlso the glass side panel explodedI’m currently hoping to get support from the sellerWill hopefully update when it’s fixed

Everything works great. Was able to flash the bios to get my ryzen 5600x working on it. Case looks good with great airflow. I just don’t think anything has a warranty if any kind without the boxes for the motherboard or power supply. Still it’s way cheaper than buying this separately so it’s a decent trade off imo.

It’s honestly the best deal out there, watch for price drops. Make sure you see which vendor you’re buying from. Took me 30 minutes to figure out the specific bios. I’ve bought 2, one came with a regular bios, the other with a prebuilt bios. 30 minutes of google searching I came across a forced bios program that’ll allow you to switch to a regular bios and then update. Really not that difficult if you know how to build pcs and do workarounds.Great product.