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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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.