The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTMSI MAG B550 Tomahawk
Perhaps one of MSI’s most important models on any B series chipset is its MAG Tomahawk series. Highly popular with consumers due to offering solid features at a very competitive price point, the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk has some interesting features with dual M.2 slots, dual Ethernet including a 2.5 G and Gigabit pairing, with a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec.
Starting with the design, the B550 Tomahawk has a contrasting black and grey design, including the heatsinks, rear panel cover, and a patterned PCB. There is one element of RGB LED lighting which can be found underneath the chipset heatsink. It features two full-length PCIe slots with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x16, and a second PCIe 3.0 x4 slot which derives from the chipset. For storage, the B550 Tomahawk includes two PCIe M.2 slots, with the top slot benefiting from PCIe 4.0 x4 support, and the second slot locked at a maximum of PCIe 3.0 x4. Both M.2 slots include separate M.2 Frozr heatsinks, while for SATA drives, MSI includes six SATA ports. A total of four memory slots are present with the capability to install up to 128 GB, with speeds of up to DDR4-5100 officially supported.
Like the majority of MSI’s B550 models, the B550 Tomahawk includes a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, and a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port, with two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports also present. For networking, there are two RJ45 Ethernet ports, with one controlled by a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE controller, while the other port is controlled by a Realtek’s Gigabit RTL8111H. A Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec powers the five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, while the rear panel also includes video outputs for Ryzen APU’s which consists of an HDMI and DisplayPort pairing. Finishing off the rear panel is a small BIOS Flashback button and a PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse combo port.
The MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk is an interesting model as MSI seems to have shifted its marketing position going from a solid entry-level model to a more premium offering. For MSI’s MSRP of $180, MSI includes dual Ethernet which its only B550 model at present to feature this, as well as slotting in Realtek 2.5 G Ethernet controller for good measure. It has all the hallmarks of its X570 counterpart, aside from full native PCIe 4.0 support, no Wi-Fi, and fewer USB 3.2 G2 connectivity, but at just $20 cheaper. It’s hard to make a case to not opt for the fully-fledged MSI X570 Tomahawk over this model.
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althaz - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Hmm, these seem mostly...pointless? More expensive than B450 by a lot, barely cheaper than the superior X570 boards (which have more PCIe lanes, more USB ports, etc)...these really need to be $50 cheaper across the (mother)board to make sense, IMO.sing_electric - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
It is interesting comparing similar X570 and B550 models within the same brand (or subbrand like Asus ROG or Gigabyte Aorus). It really seems like pricing is VERY close between them.Of course, if the VRMs are comparable, then for 90%+ of users, a X570 and a B550 are basically equivalent. In some cases it's almost like you're giving the user a choice between a newer B550 board with WiFi 6 and an older X570 board with AX but more USB ports or something, for within a few bucks of the same price (if you can find them at MSRP and in stock, which really has been an issue of late.)
jrbales@outlook.com - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I was looking at the boards on morning of Jun 16th. Very few B550 boards in stock (not too unusual so soon to release) and prices were high, in the range there just a few months ago I could have bought an X570 board. However, X570s were mostly out of stock everywhere I looked, and those in stick were generally pushing $300 USD or more. I suspect either manufacturing has not completely ramped up after COVID-19 in Asia, or that there is still a shipping back-load via ocean freight bearing ships between Asia and North America. Maybe if we ever see a return to a semblance.nce of normal, prices might lower and parts return to stock,
romrunning - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Shipping is main culprit here - big problem, including extra time spent in customs at ports (like LA in the US).sing_electric - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
Right - In February I picked up an X570 board for ~$30 under MSRP, so equivalent B550 board (same OEM, same 'line') would actually be a few bucks more... but adds a Thunderbolt header, WiFi 6 and 2.5 gig Ethernet (in exchange for PCIe lanes/slots and USB ports, and a 2nd m.2 connector). In the end, I think the X570 was a perfectly good choice on sale.willis936 - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I love that summary table. I wish it had an entry for “8 or more USB-A ports”. I actively use 15 on my desktop. The fewer PCIe cards and hubs needed, the better imo.GNUminex_l_cowsay - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Thanks for giving detailed and, hopefully, correct information about the PCIe configurations on these boards. Unfortunately many of the motherboard manufacturers don't give that information, make the information hard to find, give wrong information, or some combination of the above with regards to PCIe configuration.Out of curiosity, what happens when you put a pcie 3.0 x4 ssd in an x2 slot when the ssd's maximum read and write rates don't fully saturate x4? Is it just limited to the ~2GB/s bandwidth of the slot or does the ssd do something worse?
Lucky Stripes 99 - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Yeah, it will transfer just a bit under 2 GB/s due to overhead. I had this same issue with my H97 board and my Samsung 970, so I opted to purchase a cheap M.2 PCIe 3.0x4 card. HD Tune showed an improvement, but not by much to notice much real world difference.Allan_Hundeboll - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
What about the Gigabyte 550M s2h?It's 12$ cheaper than the ds3h, so I would like to know what gigabyte did to lower the cost.
xenol - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
A complaint I had in previous AMD boards was how prevalent VGA ports were. I'm glad to see they're not so prevalent this time around.