The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTMSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi
As it currently stands, MSI has unveiled a single mini-ITX model to cater to small form factor users and enthusiasts, the MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi. Following a similar design to the ATX sized B550 Gaming Edge Wifi, the smaller mini-ITX version is packed with features including an 8-layer PCB, a full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, two M.2 slots, with a Realtek 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller and Wi-Fi 6 interface pairing.
The MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi is using an all-black theme throughout with subtle grey accents on the rear panel cover and heatsinks. The bulk of the feature set hangs around B550's PCIe 4.0 support including one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, and a second PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot. Although B550 models have generally ditched the actively cooled chipset heatsinks, the B550I Gaming Edge Wifi includes a cooling fan in what looks to be an amalgamation between the chipset heatsink and the PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot. For conventional SATA drives, MSI includes four straight-angled SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. While mini-ITX models have been favored for enthusiast memory overclockers due to shorter memory traces to the CPU, the B550I Gaming Edge Wifi supports up to DDR4-4600 officially which is much lower than other MSI MPG B550 models. Users can install up to 64 GB across two available memory slots.
The rear panel includes a varied selection of IO including a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. MSI includes a single HDMI 2.1 video output for users looking to opt for a Ryzen based APU, while a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combination port allows the use of legacy peripherals. For networking, there is a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller, with an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 interface which also allows the use of BT 5.0 devices. Rounding off the rear panel is a small BIOS Flashback button, and five 3.5 mm audio jacks and a single S/PDIF optical output which is powered by a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec.
The MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi is the only mini-ITX model at launch from the company, and it is seen as a direct replacement to the B450I Gaming Plus AC. While it offers a better controller set and includes official support for PCIe 4.0 via the full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot and PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, it comes at the much more premium price of $200. With two USB 3.2 G2 slots including a Type-A and Type-C pairing, and a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 G Ethernet controller, with Wi-Fi 6 and two M.2 slots, it looks a competitive model in the mid-range mini-ITX 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.