The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTIn regards to product stack size, MSI has quite a varied range of B550 models set for launch, with many of its series making a reappearance. This includes the Gaming Carbon with a premium controller set for a budget-focused chipset, and the Unify series known for its sleek all-black aesthetic makes its B series debut. Quite a few of MSI's models include 2.5 GbE Ethernet controllers, more so than it did with its X570 models, and makes it for a competitive selection for users to choose from.
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi
Focusing on its premium B550 model, the MSI MPG B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi, it's very similar in design to the X570 Gaming Pro Carbon. Underneath the carbon inspired heatsinks is an advertised 12+2 power delivery, with dual 12 V ATX CPU power inputs including an 8-pin and 4-pin pairing. The most notable features include support for DDR4-5100 memory, dual M.2 slots, a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec and a Realtek 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller.
Looking at PCIe support, the B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi includes two full-length slots including a PCIe 4.0 x16 and PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, with three additional PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. MSI includes four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-5100, with a combined total of up to 128 GB. For storage, there are two M.2 slots with the top slot supporting up to PCIe 4.0 x4 drives, while the second slot which is driven by the chipset and as a consequence, is limited to PCIe 3.0 x4. This is in additional six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. MSI has included support for up to DDR4-5100 memory, with a combined total of up to 128 GB across four memory slots.
On the rear panel is a whole host of connectivity real estate which includes a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports. A pair of video outputs including a DisplayPort and HDMI output, although MSI doesn't go into detail on the specifications. In regards to networking, the board is equipped with a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller and an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 interface which also includes support for BT 5.0 devices. Also on the rear panel is a handily located BIOS Flashback button, with the board five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output which are controlled by a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec.
The MSI MPG B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi directly replaces the previous B450 Gaming Carbon Max Wifi and has an MSRP of $220. This makes it the most expensive of MSI's B550 models and it looks to come with a solid design, 2.5 GbE Ethernet and Wi-Fi wireless networking. MSI has stuck to a design it knows and implements it all on a solid looking board if RGB enabled carbon inspired styling is the desired theme.
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Kougar - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Most of these boards are a serious VRM upgrade over the B450 boards. If I was buying Ryzen right now I'd easily go B550 over X570.So, only the ASUS boards offer bios flashback? Seems like a cheaper, just as userful version of dual BIOS anyway.
Brane2 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Finally ONE mini-ITX board with 3-monitor output.Gigaplex - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Colour me disappointed. I was hoping to do a mATX file server build using an APU. No support for existing APUs, no ETA on when consumers can buy the newer APUs, and most of these boards only have 4 SATA ports.I really don't want to have to buy a crappy NVIDIA 710 just to get it running.
mm0zct - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
If you're booting Linux, you might be able to get away with either a good old fashioned serial cable (a lot of boards still have a serial port header) or a USB-HDMI/VGA dongle, since these are supported by the mainline kernel. The main issue might jus tbe getting the BIOS to boot your install media, but a serial port might work still here.You could also just borrow a graphics card from any other system you own to do the initial install, and then let it run headlessly once it's up and running.
Gigaplex - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I am booting Linux, and have tried completely headless in the past. It's not really worth the trouble (especially if I need to quickly diagnose issues), I'd rather just buy the crappy GPU.IBM760XL - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
I'm probably missing something, but what's the point of including HDMI/DP/DVI outputs if the boards don't support APUs? Aren't you going to need to use the output on your dGPU anyway?I appreciate the summaries on the last page, but wish it could be enhanced a bit. E.g. what's the cheapest board with 2.5G Ethernet? What are the cheapest boards in general? I probably wouldn't go with the cheapest one, but given the prices on a lot of these, it's likely I would choose one of the less expensive ones.
Gigaplex - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
They will support the Zen 2 APUs, which aren't out yet.IBM760XL - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
So checking my local store's inventory, they have 25 B550 boards in stock, of all varieties, but are completely sold out of both B450 and X570 (there are a few cheap A320 boards available as well, and nine TRX40 boards that start at $450).Something tells me Ryzen 3000 chips have been selling quicker than the motherboard manufacturers can keep up, and maybe that's part of the reason B550 prices are starting out high. If they're selling out, it makes sense for them to start with a higher MSRP, which they can always lower if demand falls.
Unfortunately for AMD, if B450 doesn't come back in stock, that's going to hurt Ryzen 3000 sales. Intel mobo inventory is also a bit limited, but about half of the Intel models they offer are available, including some in that $75-$125 range, versus about 15% of the AMD models being in stock currently.
romrunning - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I think the delays are all shipping-related. It's affecting all computer parts, like power supplies, motherboards, and the like. I wish a bunch of the mfgs would just pool resources to buy dedicated air cargo flights; maybe pooling will mitigate some of the losses on the lower margin items.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
"Most of these boards are a serious VRM upgrade over the B450 boards. If I was buying Ryzen right now I'd easily go B550 over X570."Why does that matter? Overclocking died with Zen, especially Zen 2.
As long as it doesn't throttle, you're good.