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 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax
The budget chipsets are often a good place to find the smaller mini-ITX based motherboards, because in those small form factors, users are unlikely to be pushing the frequency limits of their processors, and something using less power and is more compact often benefits the design. This this case the B550 PG-ITX/ac seems to be a more mid-range platform, with a rear IO cover as well as a combination M.2 and chipset heatsink at this size.
There are three 4-pin fan headers on this motherboard total, often a minimum for these sorts of systems, and they are equally placed around the board. There are RGB LEDs on the edge of the board at the bottom, as well as a pair of RGB LED headers at the top for anyone who wants to add some flash. As with most designs of this size, there are only two DDR4 memory slots.
On the right hand side we get a 24-pin ATX power connector, four SATA ports in a standard configuration (this is good, normally they are sticking out of the motherboard on mITX), a USB 3.0 header, a USB 2.0 header, a front panel header, and a Type-C header.
The PCIe 4.0 x16 slot is reinforced, and the PCIe 4.0 x4 slot is just above this, sharing the heatsink with the chipset. There is another PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 slot on the rear of the motherboard. Just to the left of the chipset is the ALC1220 audio, although there isn’t much more room to offer an improved audio scenario.
On the rear panel we have the Intel I225-V 2.5 gigabit Ethernet port, a Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, DisplayPort, HDMI, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, the audio jacks, and antenna for the Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 module.
Truth be told, with these features, users will be hard pressed to tell the difference between most X570 mini-ITX motherboards and this motherboard.
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Ghan - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Right now, it seems more like B for Backordered. They may be priced a bit high, but the demand still seems to be there.yannigr2 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
This is a great article but it needs a follow up with a table for every motherboard explaining how they use the PCIe lanes in conjunction with M2 and SATA slots. It seems that motherboard makers are totally f up(sorry for the expression) the more reasonably priced models in that area.romrunning - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Does anyone know if the boards that have the Intel i225-V are shipping with the fixed hardware (v2)?R3MF - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
+1mooninite - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Wow, another broken Intel NIC? I wish motherboards would stop using Intel NICs.mooninite - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
After Googling it looks like v2 is not fixed either... a v3 is coming out. Time to buy Realtek.romrunning - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Which is hilarious - I remember when Realtek was the worst when it came to NICs, and Intel/3Com was the standard. :)WaltC - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Yes, indeed...;) My x570 Master has an Intel gigabit & a realtek 2.5gb. It's amusing because my interface is an EWAN that tops out at 1Gb, but I thought I'd try the realtek just to see and then I forgot about it...;)...Seems every bit as stable as the Intel--still on it, lol...;) Six of one, half-dozen of another.eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Thanks Ian and Gavin! One question, related to a likely use case for B550 mini ITX or mATX Boards: is it true that AMD will, at least initially, limit Ryzen 4000 APUs to OEMs? If that is so, I am definitely not interested in a B550 board in those form factors, and I don't think I am alone here. An answer is appreciated - thanks!mrvco - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
I'm just here for the Next mini-ITX boards. I'm liking the Aorus Pro AX quite a bit.