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 B550M Pro4
Even though there is a mATX version of the Pro4, the two boards are not variants of each other. The B550M Pro4 has a different layout of where the boards are by comparison, as well as a different arrangement on the rear panel.
There is still the 75% rear panel cover over the top of the controllers from the back panel, also covering the power delivery (6-phase) this time, and the chipset heatsink / M.2 heatsinks are not connected either. The CPU takes power from a single 8-pin, and the socket has access to three 4-pin fan headers within reasonable distance.
To the right of the socket are four memory slots, all using single side latches as to not interfere when large bulky graphics cards are used. On the right hand side of the board, at the top we have an RGB header, then a 24-pin ATX connector, then a USB 3.0 header, two vertical SATA ports, four regular SATA ports, and then a chipset based PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 slot.
For the PCIe area, the top slot is a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot with additional reinforcement, and that sits just above the PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot for storage, which has its own heatsink (but isn’t connected to the chipset heatsink). The board also has a PCIe 3.0 x4 full-length slot at the bottom, between which is a M.2 Wi-Fi connector for anyone to add in their own Wi-Fi card.
Along the bottom of the motherboard is the video output header, two RGB LED headers, a COM port header, three more 4-pin fan headers, two USB 2.0 headers, another USB 3.0 header, and the front panel outputs. On the far left is the audio solution, which uses an ALC1200 with PCB separation and some filter caps.
On the rear panel from left to right is a spot for Wi-Fi antenna, an analog D-Sub video output, a HDMI port, a DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports, a combination P/2 port, a Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a Realtek RTL8111H gigabit Ethernet port, and the audio jacks.
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Lucky Stripes 99 - Sunday, June 21, 2020 - link
Same here. Both DVI and DP can be converted to VGA using an inexpensive passive dongle. I'd much rather see either of those ports over VGA.Gigaplex - Saturday, August 1, 2020 - link
DVI-I can be converted easily. DVI-D (which most of the modern boards have) need a more complex adapter.iranterres - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
Why so expensive...cybersirf - Friday, June 19, 2020 - link
more expensive, less features. what happened to x2 slots?miss5tability - Saturday, June 20, 2020 - link
whata abiut VRM the biggest issue on b450 MOBOs, i dont see any single word about that ? wtfMem - Saturday, June 20, 2020 - link
I believe you will find Asus use S1220A so not S1200A , it's custom version of ALC1220, when you go by Asus website for their B550 boards.awonglk - Saturday, June 20, 2020 - link
There seems to be no mentions of Thunderbolt 3 header that apparently comes with this motherboard according to Asia’s own website:https://edgeup.asus.com/2020/b550-motherboard-guid...
Does anyone know how or what this connects to on a mITX motherboard?
blakflag - Monday, June 22, 2020 - link
Does "USB 3.2 G2 Type-C" imply Thunderbolt 3 support?dennphill - Friday, June 26, 2020 - link
And here it is a couple of weeks after the 'release' and there are no boards (well, no mATX versions) to buy...unless you want to deal with the scalpers on NewEgg asking $25 to 35 over the regular price - oh, and BTW, they will ship/deliver in mid-July - AND I see no reviews or comparisons other than manufacturers' sites advertising for the B550 boards. The few articles I see are all based on the pre-release data and not from actual delivered, installed and tested MBs. Poor AMD hardware release, as far as I am concerned.dennphill - Friday, June 26, 2020 - link
Oh, and the listing is incomplete with a couple of manufacturer-advertised versions od mATX boards not listed in this article.