The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTASRock B550 Pro4
The B550 Pro4 is a more cost-down version of the Extreme4, where we replace features like the 2.5 gigabit Ethernet with single gigabit Ethernet, as well as reduce the number of power phases and such. Because Pro4 is a different line to Extreme4, there’s also a major overhaul in the styling.
In this instance the power delivery is all situated on the left hand side, with a single heatsink and a shortened rear panel cover that doesn’t cover all the rear panel segments. The socket area is a little busy, with ASRock going for a mix of angles here, so it’s hard to make out but there are three 4-pin headers around the socket, while the CPU is powered by an 8-pin and a 4-pin.
The DRAM slots are still single sided latch designs, and on the right hand side of the board we get an RGB header, the 24-pin ATX connector, a USB 3.0 header, and six SATA ports. Underneath the SATA ports are some built in RGB LEDs.
Unlike some of the other ASRock boards, because Pro4 is a more cost down model, the chipset heatsink is smaller than most. There is an M.2 heatsink, but it’s not attached to the chipset heatsink and sits on its own, but covers the PCIe 4.0 x4 slot from the CPU. There is another M.2 slot below the chipset heatsink, and this is a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot from the chipset. For the PCIe slots, the top slot is a reinforced PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, while the second full-length slot is a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset.
For the rear panel, we get a combination PS/2 port, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, an analog D-Sub port, a HDMI port, space for Wi-Fi antenna, a Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, gigabit Ethernet via a Realtek RTL8111H controller, and audio jacks from a Realtek ALC1200 design.
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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.