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 Elite
Opting for a simplistic design and functional set of features is the GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Elite which is reminiscent of its larger ATX sized counterpart, the B550 Aorus Elite. Slotting in behind the Pro models in its product stack, GIGABYTE has equipped it with two M.2 slots, four SATA ports, support for DDR4-4733 and a Realtek Gigabit Ethernet controller.
Set upon a black and grey patterned PCB, the GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Elite includes two full-length slots which operate at PCIe 4.0 x16 and PCIe 3.0 x4, with an additional PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. For storage, GIGABYTE has included two M.2 slots with one with support for PCIe 4.0 x4 drives, while the other slot runs at PCIe 3.0 x4. For SATA devices, there are four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. Users can install up to 128 GB of DDR4-4733 memory across four memory slots. Compared to GIGABYTE's premium models, the B550M Aorus Elite has a more modest 5+3 phase power delivery, which draws power from a sing
The rear panel includes four USB 3.2 G1 and four USB 2.0 ports, and a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combination port. Featured is a pair of video outputs including a DVI-D and HDMI port, with three 3.5 mm audio jacks powered by a budget Realtek ALC887 audio codec, and a single RJ45 port driven by a Realtek based Gigabit Ethernet controller.
The GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Elite has no USB 3.2 G2 connectivity, nor does it feature any Type-C ports, but it is one of the cheaper B550 models with an MSRP of $109. With a Realtek Gigabit and ALC887 HD audio codec pairing, it represents an entry-level model of current times with budget the main focus, while still benefiting from PCIe 4.0 through the top full-length slot and CPU driven PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot.
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Savikid - Tuesday, August 25, 2020 - link
But the new oculus stuff only uses 1 usb port, so that right there is a drop. I use 2 for keyboard and mouse, one for a wireless controller, and one for my HMD.Gigaplex - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
"On that one I added a USB PCI card to get enough ports."That's not really helpful to the user who said they can't add in a card on their mITX system.
eye4bear - Wednesday, July 1, 2020 - link
Must be nice to have no external hard-drives, I have 3 all needing their own USB 3 port, along with a Logitech dongle that runs both my mouse and keyboard, finally a Bluethooth dongle as my computer has none built-in. Yes I would need 6 USB ports (one open for USB sticks) just to keep even.consolessuck - Friday, November 6, 2020 - link
No, I have 3 usb ports on my laptop and i only use 1 for my mouse. As it turns out, the most amount of usb ports i use at once is two when i am making a wired data transfer with my mouse plugged in. Actually, I almost never transfer data to my phone with a wire, instead just sharing them via bluetooth. and considering i never make large data transfers to my phone, this works out just fine. as for a desktop, however, i'd like a minimum of 3 as i'll always have not only a mouse, but a keyboard plugged in all the time.taz-nz - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
The Asrock B550M Steel Legend has 8 port on the back:4x USB-A 3.1 ports
1x USB-A 3.2 port
1x USB-C 3.2 port
2x USB-A 2.0 ports
And you still have two USB 2.0 internal header, plus two USB 3.1 internal headers.
So that allows you to have another
4x USB-A 3.1
4x USB-A 2.0 ports.
so that's 16 Ports
Now if you like me and need Internal USB 3.2 USB-C header, you can use the PCIe 3.0 x2 m.2 slot to add one of these:
https://www.delock.de/produkte/S_63998/merkmale.ht...
or if you want two more USB 3.1 internal header you could add one of these:
https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_62843/merkmale.ht...
So if you can live without a second m.2 slot you have four more USB-A 3.0 ports.
That gives you 20 USB ports without giving up a PCIe slot.
taz-nz - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
oops, just noticed you said mITX not mATXdesii - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Do any of these motherboards support ECC RAM (either buffered or unbuffered)?drSeehas - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Socket AM4 CPUs support only unbuffered RAM.PixyMisa - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I did a quick look on ASRock's site, since they're pretty good on ECC support, and every B550 board I checked lists ECC as supported.Samus - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
I think AMD screwed up here with pricing their platforms appropriately. I understand the push for PCIe 4 but they can't have average motherboard prices hovering between $200-$300. There has to be $100 motherboards to be taken seriously especially by OEM's if they want 4000 parts to become mainstream.But maybe they don't...maybe they plan to milk the 3000 parts for a few years. After all, there isn't much reason not too. They have no competition from Intel in the budget segment right now.