The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTChoosing The Right B550 Motherboard
Looking at the current discussion online around the launch of AMD's B550 chipset, a lot of fanfare and focus has been put on the price. There is a stark contrast in the current pricing of some B550 models when compared to models released two years ago for B450. Commonly referred to as AMD's mid-level budget chipset, it was thought B550 would bridge the gap somewhere between X470 and X570 while offering strong feature sets and the benefits of PCIe 4.0, but for a reduced price. It feels as if some vendors decided to unleash a few models with price tags of upwards of $200, with better controller sets, and more premium qualities which are more expected from the premium X570 chipset. Users might ask, if they're going to spend that much, why not go for X570 instead?
When it comes to picking a motherboard for a system, it will usually come down to one of three things, sometimes two or three, and sometimes all three are a necessity for the user; I'm talking about price, features, and aesthetic. The first of the three is the budget, which is varied across B550 dependent on the kind of feature. A large selection of the B550 product stack includes a 2.5 G Ethernet controller (Intel or Realtek), which is a huge step up considering B550 is supposed to be an entry-level alternative to X570. Not only 2.5 G, but Wi-Fi 6 is available on more than 12+ models, some models generally feature both which adds to the cost, but also gives superior networking capabilities to anything seen from the previous B450 chipset.
Although on paper, there isn't much difference between B450 and B550 with slightly more SATA available due to the removable of eSATA support, both remain PCIe 3.0 bound. The onus on expansion support comes down to vendors different implementations with some impressive designs, the most notable model coming via the GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master. This is the only model to include support for more than one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, in fact, it has three, not to mention the dual BIOS and three full-length PCIe slots which operate at PCIe 4.0 x16, and PCIe 3.0 x4/x4. This, of course, comes at a high price with an MSRP of $280, and it is one of the small handful of examples of B550 models pushing above and beyond X570 pricing.
Another model set apart from the rest is the GIGABYTE B550 Vision D, which includes an Intel Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller and adds two Type-C ports onto the rear panel, but opts for dual Gigabit Ethernet as opposed to 2.5 G and comes with an MSRP of $260.
The cheapest B550 motherboard at present is the GIGABYTE B550M DS3H which is a micro-ATX model, with a very basic feature set, and costs just $95; that's the price range MOST B450 models launched at. This is the point that needs to be brought across, PCIe 4.0 support doesn't seem to come cheap.
Regardless of the feature a user is looking for, below is a list of which models include specific features worth highlighting.
Choosing the Right B550 Motherboard | ||
Options | Size | Price |
5 or 10 Gigabit Ethernet | ||
None - add your own | ||
Wi-Fi 6 / 802.11ax | ||
ASRock B550 Taichi | ATX | $300 |
ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax | mITX | $200 |
ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming | ATX | $280 |
ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wifi | ATX | $210 |
ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus Wifi | mATX | $180 |
ASUS Prime B550M-A Wifi | mATX | $150 |
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
GIGABYTE B550I Aorus Pro AX | mITX | $180 |
GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi | ATX | $220 |
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge Wifi | ATX | $190 |
MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi | mITX | $200 |
MSI MAG B550M Mortar Wifi | mATX | $170 |
2 or more PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 | ||
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
8 or more SATA ports | ||
ASRock B550 Taichi | ATX | $300 |
3 or more USB 3.2 G2 (Rear Panel) | ||
ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming | ATX | $280 |
ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
Thunderbolt 3 | ||
GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
Dual BIOS | ||
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
PCIe x8/x8 Bifurcation | ||
ASRock B550 Taichi | ATX | $300 |
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
Mini-ITX | ||
ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX/ax | mITX | $200 |
ASRock B550M-ITX/ac | mITX | - |
ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
GIGABYTE B550I Aorus Pro AX | mITX | $180 |
MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi | mITX | $200 |
Type-C Audio | ||
ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming | ATX | $280 |
ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
In our previous round-ups, we have included which boards come with most commonly used audio codec, which for B550 looks to be the Realtek ALC1200, or in the case of ASUS models, the Realtek S1200A. It's easier and quicker to list which models don't include it.
B550 Motherboard Audio | |
Codec | Boards |
Realtek ALC1200 | Everything except the following |
ASUS S1200A | ALL ASUS ROG Strix |
All ASUS TUF | |
Realtek ALC1220 | ASRock B550 Taichi |
ASRock B550 Steel Legend | |
ASRock B550 PG Velocita | |
ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX/ax | |
ASRock B550 Extreme4 | |
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | |
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Pro AC | |
GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Pro | |
GIGABYTE B550I Aorus Pro AX | |
GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | |
Realtek ALC892 | MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus |
MSI B550-A Pro | |
Realtek ALC887 | ASRock B550-HDV |
ASRock B550-ITX/ac | |
ASUS Prime B550M-A | |
ASUS Prime B550M-K | |
GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Elite | |
GIGABYTE B550M Gaming | |
GIGABYTE B550 DS3H | |
Realtek ALC1150 | Biostar Racing B550GTA |
Biostar Racing B550GTQ |
Reviews for B550 motherboards should start to be available from today. We have started getting samples of a few boards in for testing, and we expect to get underway with them very shortly.
Intro, ASRock, and ASUS covered by Ian Cutress,
GIGABYTE, MSI, Biostar, and Conclusion by Gavin Bonshor
101 Comments
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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.