B550 Mobos Are out! (Kinda) Which Itx Motherboard Looks Good?

confidantduk on 17/06/2020 - 12:33
Last edited 17/06/2020 - 12:43

been camping for them to be released and they've finally popped online! 🎉

any of you have had thoughts on them? the asrock b550m is the cheapest at 259 and the rest are around 350~400

Prices seem standard across our usual au sites with pccasegear showing a 29th June stock availability

https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Motherboards/AMD-Socket-…

edit: little sum up on b550 offerings https://www.anandtech.com/show/15850/the-amd-b550-motherboar…

the GIGABYTE B550I Aorus Pro AX looks good!

Computing

Comments

Kill Joy on 17/06/2020 - 12:50

+3

We really wont know until reviews come out. Every board is always completely different even in the same series so it's always good to wait for reviews before committing. If your not overclocking RAM/CPU/CPU then it doesnt matter as long as it has the IO you need.

That being said I'm desperate so I've ordered a ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax from Amazon at $325 delivered (OOS now) since it was a very good price and I intend to OC in the future.

EDIT: my (almost) SFF build for reference https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/damanptyltd/saved/4Mg9NG
- confidantduk on 17/06/2020 - 17:38
  
  woahhhhhh damn nothing would pop out even if I typed b550 in the search bar, how'd you find it(amazon.com or amazon.com.au?)
  
  Such a good price too
  - Kill Joy on 17/06/2020 - 19:22
    
    I was refreshing amazon every 10 minutes on release day. I missed it twice, but got it on the 3rd restock round. It was also on the last result page for the search term "B550 ITX".
    - confidantduk on 17/06/2020 - 22:35
      
      wow dude legit, that actually worked(no itx mobos rn) but wow, saw shitty results on the first page so didn't think to look at the last page
      
      genius!
- Ryanek on 17/06/2020 - 18:13
  
  With that setup, what advantages does the B550 give you?
  - Kill Joy on 17/06/2020 - 19:31
    
    +2
    
    The short answer is upgradibility, but feel free to read on to understand my reasoning.
    
    I need a new PC now - my gaming laptop is falling apart. I have 3 options:
    
    Buy they bare minimum, and buy a completely new PC in 2-3 years
    
    Buy a high spec machine now
    
    Build something with next generation in mind
    
    Now the last one was my choice for a few reasons:
    
    We are at the end of a generation of desktop parts with new PC parts arriving imminently
    
    PS5 is arriving with some powerful claims around NVMe utilization for gaming that appears will make current PC performance seem like a joke
    
    Prices aren't exactly low (though they have dropped from their peak last month) so its silly to spend too much
    
    My thinking is I get the best value for performance parts that lets me 1440p/144hz for now, but give myself the ability to slowly upgrade internals to match the new technology coming in:
    
    NVMe PCIE 4.0 x4 - thinking that is the secret sauce to the PS5s claimed advancements
    
    B5xx chipset - can upgrade to 4xxx series CPU and possibly even 5xxx series for future proofing
    
    PCIE 4.0 16x slot -No chance of throttling a new RTX 3xxx card which will have more tensor cores to support DLSS (if DLSS 2.0 is as great as it appears to be, you'll want to be using it)
    
    I'd have bought a 2070s if DLSS was more wide spread, but its not so I didn't want to pay the $350 premium for 5% performance gains.
    - idjces on 18/06/2020 - 05:56
      
      On the topic of future proofing and life cycles, ddr5 should be around the corner. These upcoming zen3 cpu's are likely to be the end for this life-span of am4 socket that's done so well.
      
      Be worth keeping in mind that everyone will be forced into a cpu/mobo/ram upgrade following this year's releases
      - Kill Joy on 18/06/2020 - 09:04
        
        @idjces: There is usually a 1-2 year lag time between a new DDRX landing, and it being widely enough used to be recommended. I suspect you wont 'need' DDR5 for another 2-3 years.
        
        And to be honest, If i'm going to miss out on one upgrade, RAM would be it. Otherwise i'll wait for ram then the next CPU chipset is just around the corner, etc…
        
        idjces on 18/06/2020 - 16:15
        
        +1
        
        @Kill Joy: Yeah i agree it shouldn't affect your 'need' for performance today. The point about ddr5 was that it will kill your options on upgrading and re-purposing future components. You won't be simply upgrading to a new ryzen 5/6/7000 and re-purposing your ryzen 2/3/4000, or swapping out faster/larger ram.
        
        That's what's nice about am4, I can buy a high core chip, and re-use my old ryzen chip into an existing am4 board I have from years ago. Most gear for the 4 years between 2017 and 2020 are all interchangeable. That span of gear ends this year, with the b550/ryzen 4000/ddr4.
        
        Next year will be the start of a new generation of gear, hopefully spanning 2021 to 2025 and later. There's a generational leap we've just hit.
        
        It's just worth keeping in mind that apart from the graphics card and nvme drive, the market of gear available for your system won't be forward compatible, only backwards (2017-2020).
        
        Kill Joy on 18/06/2020 - 19:51
        
        +1
        
        @idjces: Fair points. May have to eat my words.
- penguinswillrise on 19/06/2020 - 01:49
  
  +1
  
  Real solid build, I too am finding a b550 board to fit my itx build currently. Pretty envious of some of the more premium components you managed to nab but I insisted on a 3700X for my Adobe workflow: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/dTY6f9
starburstyellow on 17/06/2020 - 13:28

Yeah just checked PLE as well.
https://www.ple.com.au/NewProducts

Decisions decisions. Just waiting on reviews to see which has the best VRMs.

ASUS Prime $189. https://www.ple.com.au/Products/641601/ASUS-PRIME-B550M-K-AM…
- confidantduk on 17/06/2020 - 17:39
  
  +1
  
  tbh till now I don't understand why VRMs are important, saw something about ripple protection and OC stability but I don't plan to OC so 🤷‍♀️
  - Kill Joy on 17/06/2020 - 19:35
    
    +1
    
    Honeslty its not important at all unless your overclocking. I's just read reviews to ensure their isnt any hardware flaws to watch out for in revision 01 of this release.
- starburstyellow on 17/06/2020 - 19:22
  
  +1
  
  A better page: https://www.ple.com.au/AMDB550
MagicMushroom on 17/06/2020 - 14:29

Waiting for tier list to be updated.
- confidantduk on 17/06/2020 - 17:39
  
  ooo cool, didn't know this existed
D C on 17/06/2020 - 16:18

Thought it said moobs at first…
- confidantduk on 17/06/2020 - 17:40
  
  damn 👀
vee124 on 18/06/2020 - 09:12

+2

For me, the MSI B550 Tomahawk looks the best, the IO, and the fact that a second m.2 doesn't reduce the 16x PCI-E to 8x.
pennypincher on 18/06/2020 - 14:54

+2

Just purchased the Asus B550M Tuf + wifi from PcCaseGear
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/50516/asus-tuf-gaming-b5…
- confidantduk on 18/06/2020 - 23:10
  
  nice!

B550 Mobos Are out! (Kinda) Which Itx Motherboard Looks Good?

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