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 DS3H
Sitting at the bottom of GIGABYTE's B550 product stack is the B550M DS3H, which is one of just a handful of micro-ATX sized models to choose from. Aimed specifically at the sub $100 market, the B550M DS3H includes support for DDR4-4733 memory, dual M.2 slots and a Realtek Ethernet and audio codec pairing.
The GIGABYTE B550M DS3H has perhaps one of the funkiest black and grey patterned PCBs from GIGABYTE, with small black heatsinks that feature gold text for contrast. Included is a full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, with another full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. There are four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4733, and up to a maximum capacity of 128 GB across four available memory slots. For storage is a pair of PCIe M.2 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 and the other PCIe 3.0 x4, with four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays.
Included on the rear panel is the bare necessities to what an entry-level board should include, with four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. For users looking to utilize an AMD Ryzen APU, GIGABYTE has included a pair of video outputs consisting of a DVI-D port, as well as an HDMI output, with a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port for legacy devices. A single Realtek Gigabit Ethernet controller powers the RJ45 port, while a Realtek ALC887 HD audio codec drives the board's three 3.5 mm audio jacks.
The B550M DS3H has an MSRP of $94 which sets it as the cheapest GIGABYTE B550 model at launch. With its budget controller set including a Realtek Gigabit Ethernet controller and Realtek ALC887, it has all the basics needed for a low-end and entry-level system. It has no Type-C or USB 3.2 G2 connectivity, but that's acceptable for a board in the sub $100 market space.
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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.