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 B550 Gaming Plus
The MPG series represents its gaming-centric range, and the MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus sits at the bottom of its performance gaming-inspired series. The design follows a simple sleek all-black aesthetic, with integrated RGB LED lighting underneath the chipset heat sink. Included in the core feature set is a pair of M.2 slots, a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec and a Realtek Gigabit Ethernet controller.
The MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus includes two full-length PCIe slots with the top slot capable of supporting up to PCIe 4.0 x16, and the second slot is locked at PCIe 3.0 x4. In addition to this is two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Making up the board’s storage is six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays, while MSI also includes two M.2 slots. These consist of a PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot which includes a heatsink, and a second PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot which does not. There are four memory slots which can accommodate up to 128 GB, with speeds of up to DDR4-4400 officially supported.
On the rear panel are a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1, and four USB 2.0 ports, with a pair of video outputs including an HDMI and DisplayPort. There is five 3.5 mm audio jacks and a single S/PDIF optical output which is powered by a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec, while a single RJ45 is driven by a Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit Ethernet controller. Finishing off the rear panel is a small BIOS Flashback button and a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port.
The MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus is one of its more affordable B550 models with an MSRP of $150. This price point represents a highly competitive space for MSI to duel it out with other vendors, and the inclusion of a budget Realtek RTL811H and ALC892 controller pairing is what is expected at this price point. It does, however, include some USB 3.2 G2 connectivity which is a huge plus point.
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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.