The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE B550M Aorus Pro
The GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Pro is a micro-ATX motherboard and is the condensed version of the ATX B550 Aorus Pro model. Following a similar design to its larger counterpart, the B550M Aorus Pro is decked out with black heatsinks on a black PCB, with a silver Aorus falcon logo on the chipset heatsink. It is advertised as featuring a 10+3 phase power delivery, two M.2 slots, and a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec.
Despite including a similar aesthetic and sharing the same core naming scheme, the GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Pro is micro-ATX and as such, includes fewer expansion slots. It includes two full-length PCIe slots including a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, and one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, with a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot sandwiched in-between. For storage, there are two M.2 slots with the top slot allowing support for PCIe 4.0 x4 drives and comes provided with an M.2 heatsink, while the second slot is controlled by the chipset and can support up to PCIe 3.0 x4 SSDs. Also present are four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. The board includes four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4733, with up to a maximum capacity of 128 GB.
Underneath the chunky looking power delivery heatsink is a 5+3 phase power delivery which is driven by an Intersil ISL229004 PWM controller with five high-side phases and ten low-side phases, with three high and low-side phases for the SoC.
Included on the rear panel is one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. A Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec powers the five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, while a Realtek RTL8118 GbE Ethernet controller handles the single RJ45 port. GIGABYTE has included a pair of video outputs for users planning to use Ryzen APUs including a DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI output, while a Q-Flash button finishes off what is a bountiful rear panel for the price.
The GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Pro has an MSRP of $130 which represents good value for money considering the price hike in B550 models over the previous generation B450 models. A Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec is still favorable and GIGABYTE opts for a Gigabit Ethernet controller which ultimately brings the cost down. The B550M Aorus Pro is one of five micro-ATX models from GIGABYTE’s product stack, which is the most from any vendor for B550 at present.
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kerwyn - Monday, June 29, 2020 - link
The second M.2 slot for the Aorus Elite seems to support PCIE3.0x2 instead of x4 stated in the review unless I read wrong. Could anyone else confirm? This is the swaying factor for me to lean towards the Mortar. Specs from Gigabyte website below:Storage Interface
1 x M.2 connector (M2A_CPU), integrated in the CPU, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SSDs:
3rd Generation AMD Ryzen™ processors support SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSDs
3rd Generation AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics processors support SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSDs
1 x M.2 connector (M2B_SB), integrated in the Chipset, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SSDs:
Supporting SATA and PCIe 3.0 x2 SSDs
sd7832kjd3bcds - Tuesday, June 30, 2020 - link
Almost all of the boards include PS/2 connector. Why they put it in 2020? They stopped making PS/2 devices 15 years ago. Better would be to have an empty space there.Ethos Evoss - Sunday, July 5, 2020 - link
I ordered this then I quickly cancelled and ordered B550I AORUS PRO AXQuestor - Sunday, July 12, 2020 - link
"One of the main complaints about the AMD X570 motherboard line was the wide variation in pricing."This can't be said of Intel based motherboards? Yes it can and accurately so. What is the point with this pointless statement?
Cards_ - Sunday, July 26, 2020 - link
Does the WiFi module connect to any WiFi Network, or is it only ASUS Networks if so would I need to buy a WiFi adapter?CamoGeko - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
Hey, so is there any cheaper alternative to the Aorus 550M Pro with similar or better feature set? I'm in the middle of building a Ryzen system with 3300X and motherboard is the last thing I need to decide on. Other mATX at the same price or cheaper just don't look as good as the B550M Aorus Pro.Iqbalusamah - Sunday, October 25, 2020 - link
I need help..the mob manual says the m.2 slot for the chipset suport sata n pcie 3.0x2..but this review says it suport pci3.0x4..i bought a samsung 970 evo with a pcie 3.0x4..can it be used in the slotIqbalusamah - Sunday, October 25, 2020 - link
Help me..i cant understand which one is true..the 2nd m.2 slot for chipset runs at pci3.0x4 or pcie 3.0x2(mob manual).and can a pcie3.0x4 be used in the slotZwirley - Sunday, July 18, 2021 - link
Question, is this board capable of overclocking and does it have a good power phase design? I was wondering because I want to build an all-white system but then came across another concern of this motherboard and that is if this supports BIOS Flashback feature so that I don't have to go out of my way to purchase an older gen CPU for it to support my 5900xcharlesa365 - Tuesday, August 3, 2021 - link
My personal computer running Debian has had four GIGABYTE B550 Vision D motherboards. The first and fourth had NIC initialisation on power up problems. The second one's NICs died after ~6 months. The third did not show voltage/temperature values properly. GIGABYTE warranty agents wrote "We do not give support to Debian OS".