The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTASRock B550 PG Velocitá
The new Velocitá branding from ASRock, as started on Z490, is an attempt to define a high-end motherboard based on speed, but also style, hence the name ‘Velocitá’. In previous incarnations, ASRock motherboards would often show pictures of high performance sports cars that eerily looked very close to the popular Lamborghini of the day, but those boards were focused on overclocking. This time Velocitá is more about the gaming, hence it falls under the Phantom Gaming family.
The PG Velocitá is a relatively clean board to look at, with the main style focused on a 45-degree downward slope from left to right, and a number of jagged edges on decals around the motherboard. As we can see, there is also some element of RGB here, on the chipset heatsink and on top of the rear panel. There is also a pair of onboard RGB headers at different ends of the board.
The power delivery heatsinks in the Velocitá are connected via a heatpipe, hiding a 12+2 phase design indicative of which market ASRock wants to push this product. Powering the CPU is an 8-pin and a 4-pin, while the socket area has access to five 4-pin fan headers within easy reach.
Down the right side of the motherboard is a Type-C front header, a USB 3.0 front header, six SATA ports from the chipset, and a two digit debug. Along the bottom are more fan headers, two USB 2.0 headers, power/reset buttons, and a front panel connector.
For the PCIe layout, the top full-length slot is a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot from the CPU, while the second full-length slot is a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset. Surprisingly both of these have additional reinforcement. There is also a PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot above the top PCIe slot for the main M.2 drive, and ASRock puts another PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 slot on the bottom of the motherboard, and this heatsink is connected to the chipset heatsink.
The audio on the right of the motherboard is an enhanced Realtek ALC1220 design, featuring an NE5532 amp.
The rear panel gives the user a HDMI port, a combination PS/2 port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, a Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 gigabit Ethernet port, space for an add-in Wi-Fi antenna output, and the audio jacks.
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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".