In the meantime, the new AMD B550 chipset can be viewed as another nail in Intel 10th-gen Core series coffin. The B550-UD3H is the only motherboard under Gigabyte’s eponymous Ultra Durable line, but as the $95, this one comes with the bare essentials for a … You might wonder how does a $280 B550 board manage to match a $700 X570 board from the same company? kenjiwing - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link Fortunately, this component is a unique motherboard among B550 and well worth reading up on [add link]. This makes the B550 platform delay all the more frustrating for those who purchased a Ryzen 5 3600 with a new motherboard. © At long last AMD more budget-oriented B550 motherboards will finally go on sale. The B550 Tomahawk, on the other hand, has been upgraded beyond any B450 board with a massive 10-phase vcore VRM featuring 60A Intersil powerstages -- the same you’ll find on the excellent X570 Tomahawk, which packs two more powerstages for a 12-phase vcore VRM. Die Mainboard-Mittelklasse für AMDs Ryzen-CPUs ist auf dem Markt und attackiert die teuren X570-Boards. TECHSPOT : Tech Enthusiasts, Power Users, Gamers, TechSpot is a registered trademark. We know that putting a twelve core Ryzen 9 3900X is probably overkill for the majority of people who will be looking to base their system around a B550 motherboard, but it's also a great test of the attention to detail in the power department. With all latest tech in PC industry like PCI-e 4.0 support, WiFi 6, Intel 2.5 Gb Ethernet, Audio USB Type-C and more, this board gives a completely immersive pc experience. There are a number of AMD X570 boards that have fallen in price since release, though admittedly pricing and availability is very messy at the moment due to the pandemic. To test the onboard audio of any motherboard, I follow the guide on RMAA’s site that talks about … That’s the extent of on-board RGB, though. “B550 is a very important product line for AMD and the motherboard vendors. On the surface those prices are quite shocking, but when you start to dig into what these boards offer, you may realize the price increases aren’t nearly as extreme as they first appear. Before we get into testing, let's briefly discuss why B550 motherboards are more expensive than what most were expecting. The most expensive MSI B450 board was the Pro Carbon and it sold for around $130 - $140. For recording temperatures we're using a digital thermometer with K-Type thermocouples and we’ll be reporting the peak rear PCB temperature. Equipped with a PCI-e 4.0 slot as w Assuming these are not deal breakers for your build, the MSI B550 MAG Tomahawk deserves consideration if your budget is around the $180 mark. But enough about pricing for now, and let’s get on with testing the VRM thermal performance of the four boards we already have. Also included is dual-GPU support (though that’s a feature with far less appeal in recent years), along with a doubling of the bandwidth of the motherboard’s general-purpose PCIe lanes from the chipset, from 2.0 to 3.0. The MSI B550 Tomahawk was also excellent, peaking at just 60C, making it 2 degrees hotter than the X570 Tomahawk and just 5C hotter than the $700 Aorus Extreme. Hier sind die besten Boards mit AMD B550 Chipsatz. Despite these extreme test conditions, the B550M Mortar passed with relative ease, peaking at just 80C, putting slightly more expensive Asrock and Gigabyte models like the Steel Legend, Pro4 and Gaming X to shame. This test typically involves a 30 minute Prime95 run at the maximum overclock the motherboard can maintain, again with no airflow over the VRM. But the key thing to note with B550 is that, while AMD has confirmed the chipset will support future Zen 3 processors, the boards didn’t support Ryzen 2000 and earlier processors, or Ryzen 3000 APUs like the Ryzen 5 3400G--at least at launch. Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 3000, 4000 G-Series and 5000 Series Desktop Processors; 8 Power Phase Design, Digi Power; Supports DDR4 4733+ (OC); 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, D-Sub; AMD CrossFireX™; 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1200 Audio Codec), Nahimic Audio; 6 SATA3, 1 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4), 1 M.2 … Ryzen has made it through that period of uncertainty since the first generation, as a result B450 sales were significantly higher than that of B350, which we're told by all accounts did very well. For example, the entry-level Asus TUF Gaming X570 Plus which launched at $190 dropped a few months later to $165, and has remained there despite rave reviews. Popular components in PC builds with the Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS Motherboard. Denn falls ihr einfach irgendein B550 Mainboard kauft kann es sehr gut sein, dass ihr zu viel Geld für zu wenig Features ausgebt (zumal viele B550 Mainboards zu nahe am Preis von X570ern sind). Is there some b550 vrm tier list so I can compare them with b450 and x570 motherboards. The ASRock B550 Taichi Razer Edition is a great B550 board, which lacks for very little, but faces tough competition from less-expensive X570 boards. It also has fewer USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, although it does have more Type-A ports than Asus’ ITX board. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing... You need to be a member to leave a comment. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, And depending on features on given board models, that may not be possible to do without also having a different CPU that works with the board out of the box. Also consider that upcoming A520 motherboards look to be far more affordable, though you’ll likely be foregoing PCIe 4.0 with these lower-priced boards, which is a key selling point of AMD’s latest platforms. If a $250+ B550-based motherboard is what you’re looking for, the B550 Aorus Master should be on your short list. That same VRM can be found on the $130 B550M Bazooka. Needs to be edited. Read: Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master review, Socket: AM4 | Chipset: AMD B550 | Form Factor: ATX | Voltage Regulator: 13 phases | PCIe x16: (1) v4.0 PCIe x16; (1) v3.0 (x4) | USB Ports: (2) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A and Type-C (10 Gbps), (2) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-A (5 Gbps), (2) USB 2.0, Type-A | Warranty: 3 years. Manual CPU Overclocking: To test the ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/AX motherboard’s CPU overclocking potential, we set the CPU Core Voltage to 1.3V and applied the Level 1 LLC setting. The b550 aorus master has 3 pcie 4.0 m.2 slots. The Z490 Tomahawk costs $180, the X299 Tomahawk is around $250, and the X570 Tomahawk is meant to be $200. The VRM heatsinks are also larger and you get a better quality PCB with 2 ounce thickened copper. But again, this is to be expected when lots of high-end features get jammed onto such a small board. This makes the B550 platform delay all the more frustrating for those who purchased a Ryzen 5 3600 with a new motherboard. There’s really no comparing the two generations as they’re in completely different tiers, and pricing reflects that. This is a fairly extreme VRM test setup, as the idea was to stress high-end X570 boards to ensure they could handle all conditions. The best result we’ve recorded to date of any AM4 motherboard was the Aorus Xtreme at 55C while the worst result technically comes from the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge WiFi which had to throttle the CPU during this test for its own survival. The B550 Tomahawk, for example, isn’t just the B450 Tomahawk with the newer chipset. While the AM4 socket remains the same, ROM size limitations make it impossible for board makers to include support for all current, future, and past Ryzen processors with a single firmware package. Plus, CPU support and overall board quality was almost always worse, making them an easy pass. So in theory the B550 Tomahawk has 83% of the X570 Tomahawk’s current capacity. Unfortunately for now we don’t have any of the more entry-level B550 boards, but those will come eventually. Please refresh the page and try again. It’s a good option around the $200 mark, though if you don’t need Wi-Fi capability, the non-Wi-Fi version of the same board costs $30 less with the same specifications, making it easy to recommend if you plan on using Ethernet or have your own wireless card. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. If you’re after a B550 board in the compact Mini ITX form factor, you only have a handful of choices, but Asus’ ROG Strix B550-I Gaming stands out. That board is similar in many ways, but trades a couple video ports for a PS/2 port and more audio jacks. The ASRock B550 Taichi Razer Edition is a great B550 board, which lacks for very little, but faces tough competition from less-expensive X570 … The ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming motherboard is Asus’ cream of the crop motherboard for its B550 line-up. And active VRM cooling means you shouldn’t have to deal with the heat issues we saw with the Asus Prime B550M-A Wi-Fi and our 3900X. Rather than installing the boards in an ATX case like we often do, we’re using an open air-test bed with no direct air-flow. Read on as we take a look at some tasty motherboards that will be right at home in your current and future PC, with Ryzen 4000 series support adding extra peace of mind. The X570-A Pro ran hotter, but avoided throttling in this test. Mit unseren Empfehlungen in diesem Artikel passiert euch das aber nicht. The B550M Mortar which we have on hand costs $160, the Gaming Plus $150, the A Pro $140 and the Bazooka $130. This is where branding can get a little tricky as the Tomahawk name doesn’t target a certain price point. There are other considerations (and complications) if you’re choosing the best B550 motherboard, as well. If you’re still a heavy SATA-based storage user and six of those ports isn’t enough, look to the the ASRock B550 Taichi. That means the closest ATX model to the B450 Tomahawk would be the B550-A Pro, it costs $140, or ~20% more, but again you’re getting more motherboard. B550 motherboard use a 10+3 phases pure digital PWM + Low RDS(on) MOSFETs design to support the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ CPUs by offering incredible precision in delivering power to the motherboard's most power-hungry and energy-sensitive components as well as delivering enhanced system performance and ultimate hardware scalability. Although it was one of the best B450 boards in terms of VRM quality, the Tomahawk was still a basic board, featuring a 4-phase vcore with doubled up On Semiconductor discrete mosfets. And overall, B550 prices are  lower than their X570 counterparts. The MSI B550M Bazooka comes in at $130, slightly more than the B450 Tomahawk and it features the same VRM. AMD’s B550 chipset brought high hopes of PCIe 4.0 support at low prices, given the high cost of most X570 boards and the appealing low price of many previous-generation B450 motherboards. Again, we’re using a high voltage to stress the boards and help us weed out the runts like the X570-A Pro and Gaming Edge WiFi, MSI’s regrettable mistakes. Prime B550-Plus caters to daily users and all builders looking for well-rounded specs and a range of options for performance tuning via intuitive software and firmware. Now that we’re months out from the B550 launch, we know that AMD’s more mainstream AM4 platform delivers on at least one of those two promises--PCIe 4.0. You will receive a verification email shortly. You’ll also have to deal with some inconveniently placed headers, like the front-panel audio pins which are wedged between the primary M.2 heatsink and the two RAM slots. In short, these new B550 motherboards are certainly a significant upgrade from the now two-year-old B450 platform. Again, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe 4.0 are included, there’s two additional USB ports on the I/O panel and you get front USB Type-C support. AMD’s B550 chipset brought high hopes of PCIe 4.0 support at low prices, … Reply At $230, it’s on the pricier end, but $100 less than Gigabyte’s B550I Aorus Pro AX, while still delivering two M.2 slots (one around back), Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5Gb Ethernet. At $180, you’ll have to live without Wi-Fi, and some potential drawbacks are the six total USB count on the rear IO as well as the lesser audio codec compared to many other boards. Guidance requested regarding upgraded configuration of computer, Ad-free TechSpot experience while supporting our work. There’s been plenty of talk about the B550 chipset and all the supporting boards for weeks, and we’re now able to share our results with you. But many B550 motherboards --  particularly the high-end models -- approach and even surpass the price of many X570 options. Best AMD AM4 B550 ATX motherboard, lightning PCIe 4.0, lightning M.2, Extended heatsink, USB 3.2 Gen 2, M.2 heatsink, powerful overclocking, MSI PRO Test Platform & Supporting Components There will also be cheaper A520 boards, but unless something really special happens, we’ll largely ignore those for future tests as we did with the A320 boards. We expect this list to grow once we test more of these mainstream AMD motherboards. Do note that X570 boards were tested some time ago using earlier AGESA versions, so there might be some small discrepancies there. AMD’s B550 chipset enables PCIe® 4.0 compatibility for NVMe storage and graphics on mainstream motherboards, giving you confidence that your system won’t go obsolete before its time. Performance is up there with the more expensive boards, and the VRMs held their own even when overclocked. SSD; 970 Evo NVMe PCIe M.2 500GB Samsung $60 Bench 273%, 276,120 samples: 113x: SA2000M81000G 1TB Kingston Bench 259%, 20,992 samples: 109x: P1 3D NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB Crucial $95 Bench 237%, 85,263 samples: 102x: 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 500GB Samsung $80 Bench 290%, 216,676 samples: 102x: 970 Evo NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB Samsung $130 Bench 306%, 170,859 … Also, rüstet euch für Zen3 oder schafft eine solide Basis für einen Zen2-Build. So what are some of the reasons why the B550 version of the Tomahawk costs ~$60 more than the B450 version? As we've done before, our focus will be testing VRM thermal performance with the goal of finding the best B550 boards that can comfortably support the Ryzen 9 3900X and 3950X, as those processors will make for nice second-hand upgrade options down the track. For Razer Chroma ecosystem support A strong feature for this motherboard is that both SSD M.2 … There are plenty of cheaper B550 based options than the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master, but if you’re looking at flagship mainstream parts, you likely already know that you are set with a single GPU and PCIe 4.0 M.2 module. The motherboards are left to determine the appropriate voltages on their own, so it’s a very basic overclock that anyone can do with the help of AMD’s Ryzen Master software. Whatever the use case, there’s a B550 motherboard to suit. So if you have an older Ryzen 2000 CPU or Ryzen 3000 APU, be sure to double check the board’s product page to see if it’s compatible with your processor. The plan was to revisit the testing with the Ryzen 9 3950X, given the 3900X was the most high-end AM4 CPU available at the time of testing, but after all the 3950X doesn't use that much more power than the 3900X, so we didn’t bother. The previous-gen B450 Tomahawk hit shelves at around $110 and through the course of its life typically sold for somewhere between $110 - $120. It’s one of the more well-appointed B550 motherboards, though that also means it’s expensive. Powered by AMD Ryzen AM4 processors, the MSI MPG B550 GAMING PLUS offers perfect balance between appearance and performance with Wi-Fi, Extended Heatsink Design, Core boost, Pre-installed I/O Shielding and Mystic Light. For this discussion we’ll use the MSI B550 range as a point of reference for a number of reasons: they had some of the best quality B450 boards with the Tomahawk and Pro Carbon, we have two of their new B550 boards for testing, and they also provided us with a detailed breakdown of their entire B550 range, including VRM configurations and pricing. Best B550 Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi, Best B550 Motherboard (if Price Is No Object): Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master, Best Mid-Range B550 Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk, Best Mini ITX B550 Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming, We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices, AMD has confirmed the chipset will support future Zen 3 processors, Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi review, Cyberpunk 2077 Hotfix 1.05 Launches with Major Bug Fixes, Microsoft Reportedly Moving Its Servers to Custom Chips, Best Holiday Tech and PC Hardware Deals 2020: CPUs, SSDs and More. This video is an in depth review of the Asus Rog Strix B550 F-Gaming motherboard. In our case the MSI MAG B550 has only the first PCIe x16 that supports PCIe 4.0, while the other slots are PCIe 3.0. Thank you for signing up to Tom's Hardware. MSI and Gigabyte have done an excellent job with the specific models we checked out today and we're very keen to review the base models to see how they handle the 3900X. On hand for testing today we have the MSI B550M Mortar, MSI B550 Tomahawk, Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro and Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master. Unfortunately, reaching the top of the mountain translates to the ROG Strix B550-E’s steep pricing brought upon by the “ROG Tax” and the B550 chipset itself. Not only do these B550 boards support PCIe 4.0 graphics cards and storage, but they will also offer a more seamless transition to Zen 3 processors in the future. If you bought a Ryzen 5 3600 a year ago, there's a real possibility that you might want to buy a Zen 3 part with more cores, but we guess that’s a story for later in the year. The MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk comes up trumps with 4.4 GHz across all of … Below are our tested picks for the best B550 motherboards, at various price points and form factors. The main reason why the B550 range costs more than the B450 is simple: it’s way better. As we saw with the latter, you often stood to save a mere $10 while losing CPU and memory overclocking in the process. We’d expect something similar to happen with B550, with higher launch prices for a few months, and a drop by the holiday season. We're also not reporting Delta T over Ambient, instead we maintain a room temperature of 21 degrees as this is by far the most accurate way to conduct this testing. If you need Wi-Fi, buy a motherboard with Wi-Fi at the time. However, through further testing we’ve found that the results in a poorly ventilated case are actually worse, so we guess this isn’t an absolute worst case scenario, no pun intended. Then we have the B550 Aorus Master matching the X570 Aorus Xtreme with a peak temperature of 55C. There seem to be other X570 boards around that $160 price point, too. You don’t want to do lots of research to choose the best B550 motherboard, only to find out after you buy it that it won’t boot with your existing CPU. The ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming Motherboard is a small packet with big punch, a mini ITX motherboard that offers feature-sets usually found in the higher-end X570 motherboards. Here the B550 Taichi takes a leading position in every part of the test, except for the CPU physics test, where it loses to the ASUS B550-F by a sliver of a margin. The ~20% premium doesn’t sound too unreasonable given those upgrades. Socket: AM4 | Chipset: AMD B550 | Form Factor: Mini ITX | Voltage Regulator: 10 phases | PCIe x16: (1) v4.0 | USB Ports: (4) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 Type-C), (2) USB 2.0 (1 Type-C) | Warranty: 3 years. The B550 Aorus Master is a very capable board, loaded up with premium features like Wi-Fi 6 and high-quality VRMs. For this test we'll be mirroring the setup we used with the X570 motherboards as we want to compare that thermal data. This is pretty important stuff and should be listed. AMD B550 ATX motherboard features dual M.2, PCIe 4.0, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C, 1 Gb Ethernet. 25 votes, 12 comments. Then in terms of features, you’re getting an additional M.2 slot which supports PCIe 4.0 SSDs, and of course, the primary PCIe x16 slot supports PCIe 4.0 as well. If you’re planning on building with an APU, you get a trio of video ports, and the analog audio jacks light up. Designed for those seeking to get the most out of their build, ROG Strix B550 Gaming series motherboards offer a feature-set usually found in the higher-end ROG Strix X570 Gaming series, including the latest PCIe ® 4.0 connectivity. Test Setup and Notes. Read: Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi review, Best B550 Motherboard (if Price Is No Object), Socket: AM4 | Chipset: AMD B550 | Form Factor: ATX | Voltage Regulator: 16 phases | PCIe x16: (1) v4.0 PCIe x16; (2) v3.0 (x4) | USB Ports: (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-C (10 Gbps), (4) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (10 Gbps), (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (5 Gbps), (6) USB 2.0, Type-A | Warranty: 3 years. MSI’s MAG B550 Tomahawk delivers a well-balanced feature set at a competitive price. B550 brings PCIe 4.0 at lower price points, but higher-end models still stray into X570 price territory. This motherboard has a formidable cooling diagram onboard including an aluminum duvet, M.2 Defend Frozr technology, and total fan alter. it is a weird setup. There’s more features onboard as well. This is why pricing for the new B550 boards wasn’t well received: the B550 Gaming Carbon WiFi is coming in at an eye watering $220, while the new B550 Tomahawk will set you back $180. Get instant access to breaking news, in-depth reviews and helpful tips. At the very least, you may need to update the board’s BIOS to support a given chip. If you want more lighting, you’ll have to provide that with other components and accessories. The only difference here is that the B550 AORUS PRO requires a slightly higher Vcore of 1.4V for our Ryzen 3 3300X to clear an hour-long Realbench stress test without any signs of instability, while the MEG X570 GODLIKE requires a lower Vcore of 1.38V to clear the same stress test. There was a problem. That being the case the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro and Master were extremely impressive, as was MSI’s B550 Tomahawk. Asus’ ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi delivers premium features including SupremeFX Audio, Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200, solid power delivery and more. AMD B550 AORUS Motherboard with True 12+2 Phases Digital VRM, Enlarged Surface Heatsinks, PCIe 4.0 x16 Slot, Dual PCIe 4.0/3.0 x4 M.2 with One Thermal Guard, 2.5GbE LAN, RGB FUSION 2.0, Q-Flash Plus Supports AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series/ 3rd Gen Ryzen™ and 3rd Gen Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics Processors While you can add more modules, you’ll be limited to PCIe 3.0 (still plenty fast enough for many) with those extra drives. Socket: AM4 | Chipset: AMD B550 | Form Factor: ATX | Voltage Regulator: 12+2 phases | PCIe x16: (1) v4.0 (x16), (1) v3.0 (x4) | USB Ports: (2) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), (4) USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), (2) USB 2.0 | Warranty: 3 years. It steals 8 lanes from the primary x16 slot and splits them between the bottom 2 m.2. Here are our baseline results with essentially out of the box Ryzen 9 3900X performance with PBO enabled. With all that out of the way, what exactly does B550 offer? Features: One of the features that provide the B550 chipset with an edge over the B450 chipset is its support for the new PCIe 4.0 slots. 3DMark Time Spy Therefore having seen strong demand for B450 boards priced over $100, motherboard makers are confident that B550 can command higher price points, allowing them to make better, more expensive motherboards. Whether that experiment pays off, we'll know eventually. The MPG B550 has a formidable 12 2 1 segment energy form, which facets 12 digital energy phases, dual energy connectors, and uncommon Core Boot technology. While there’s less bandwidth for multiple next-generation high-speed storage and graphics card setups, B550 motherboards do deliver PCIe 4.0 support for the typical setup of a single speedy drive and graphics card. Just note that one of the six ports is a USB 2.0 Type-C port designed for audio. Offering robust power delivery and effective cooling, ROG Strix B550-A Gaming is well-equipped to handle 3 rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ CPUs. Visit our corporate site. One point that users are very keen on, is the support of the PCie 4.0 standard. Looking at overclocked results with the Ryzen 9 3900X running all cores at 4.3 GHz using 1.4v. So you’ll still be able to purchase B450 boards for some time after the B550 release. It’s also worth noting that the B450 Tomahawk and its Max variant aren’t going away overnight either. Now, we're not trying to defend any price hikes, we’re always pushing for better pricing, but we like to do so while being realistic in our demands. New York, The Best B550 motherboard for you might not be a B550 board at all. To test the on-board audio on the MSI B550 Gaming Carbon WIFI motherboard, I use the Rightmark Audio Analyzer benchmark. From the looks of it, for a little over $100 you’ll be able to buy a motherboard that supports PCIe 4.0 along with high-end AM4 CPUs. The Best B550 motherboard for you might not be a B550 board at all. NY 10036. © 2020 TechSpot, Inc. All Rights Reserved. However, it still offers an additional M.2 slot which supports PCIe 4.0 x4 bandwidth, front USB Type-C and the thickened copper PCB, though it does drop USB 3.2 Gen 2 and two of the SATA 6Gbps ports. With a small amount of air-flow there is no AM4 CPU this board won’t handle with ease. What we may be witnessing here is increased demand for Ryzen products and board makers want to get in on the action. So B550 motherboards may not have as broad appeal as cheaper B450 options -- especially as most of those last-gen boards are still on the market. For B550, I chose 4.2 GHz at 1.35 V as the most intensive load I could manage in long tests without thermal throttling the CPU. The answer: it uses the exact same VRM with the same real finned heatsinks, oh and it’s a little over 20% cheaper than the X570 Aorus Master. You’ll have to live with just six USB ports on the rear IO, but that’s par for the course with these small B550 boards. Audio Testing. Here’s how AMD sees it: In short, you get PCIe 4.0 support through the CPU, delivering enough lanes for a fast NVMe storage drive and the GPU. Monitoring the ambient temperature is a thermocouple positioned next to the test system. Other features include USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2.5 Gigabit LAN, front USB Type-C, M.2 shields, better PCB, pre-installed I/O shield, much larger VRM cooling to go with the bigger VRM, a better board layout and just a higher quality motherboard in general. Gigabyte’s own B550 Aorus Pro ran a few degrees cooler than the X570 board with the same branding and it’s around 30% cheaper. The ASUS B550 series motherboards are PCIe® 4.0-ready and features a robust power design, cooling controls, and AI Noise-canceling Microphone software. The B550 Tomahawk, for example, is slightly cheaper than the Z490 Tomahawk, but you get PCIe 4.0. You actually get all of the lanes directly from the CPU so storage nuts should love it, but gamers probably won't like there gpu at x8 if they use those slots. Not only do these B550 … What’s incredible to note here is just how cool these B550 boards run, even the Mortar which was comparable to the X570 Aorus Pro WiFi under these test conditions and that board costs almost $100 more. But if you need three M.2 slots and loads of USB, the Aorus Master delivers. Superman/Witcher star Henry Cavill upgrades to an Nvidia RTX 3090, Cyberpunk 2077 v1.05 fixes a laundry list of issues, Freebie week: Ubisoft is handing out free games and DLC every day this week. For about $30 less, you can pick up MSI’s MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi. That increased per-lane throughput allowed AMD to reduce the number of lanes between the chipset and CPU from six PCIe 2.0 lanes to four PCIe 3.0. Join thousands of tech enthusiasts and participate. The option to add M.2 KEY Wi-Fi later could be handy if your needs change and this is cheaper than buying a discrete Wi-Fi PCIe card so there is still value in the “Wi-Fi upgrade” option ASRock incorporated int the B550 Extreme4. Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 3000, 4000 G-Series and 5000 Series Desktop Processors; 14 Power Phase Design, Digi Power, Dr. MOS; Supports DDR4 4733+ (OC); 1 PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi; Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort; AMD CrossFireX™; 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec), Nahimic Audio; 6 SATA3, 1 Hyper M.2 (PCIe …