Just saw this popping into stock at PCCG. A great mid-range B550 board with practically no compromises.
Its VRM setup is identical to the popular B450 Tomahawk / Gaming Plus / A-Pro, but also comes with Intel-3168 for AC Wifi, USB Type-C and ARGB headers, as well as dual M.2 slots with one running at PCIe 4.0.
I've got a X570
B450 Mortar is a little bit cheaper if you don't need the extras.
I'm not actually sure there's much of a reason to buy a b550. I got a b450 Tomahawk Max about a month ago for ($190) in a bundle with a Ryzen 3600 ($273). For all intents and purposes it's a good option for even the high end to-be-released Ryzen 4000 series. PCIe 4.0 is still not that useful.
Tomahawk also has the best VRM of all b450s except the vet expensive AC gaming Pro something something
Are y experience any problems with the vga led ?
VGA LED?
Gaming Pro Carbon is a bit of a trap. Even though it has more power phases, it's bottlenecked by its PWM controller and lack of doublers.
Tomahawk, A-Pro, Gaming Plus and Mortar are still the best for B450.
I got the carbon max because of the wifi and bluetooth. If i was to fork out 220 for a tomahawk (at the time) and add a good wifi card for 40, I might as well get the top version for a little extra.
@gram: Yeah, that does make sense for the time.
This board is today's version of that upgrade - when you want B450 Tomahawk but also need WiFi or one of the other missing features.
Well right now there is only about a $5-10 difference between this and the Tomahawk. If you don't mind the mATX form factor, I would definitely go with this, especially if you need wifi.
Yep, with Zen4 almost certainly going to be DDR5, B450 and B550 might support exactly the same CPU/APU. I can't see any benefit unless your system is limited by not having PCIe Gen4.
If only you want these;
- pcie4 m.2
- front panel usb-c header
- future ryzen zen 3 and above support
- equal B450 board is more or less the same price
Even if you go with the fastest pcie4 storage, external i/o is capped at USB 5Gbps (rear panel and front panel and ethernet port is 1Gbps), so not sure if that;s strong enough reason at-least for me.
B450 will have Zen3 support, Zen4 will use DDR5.
No rear USB-C is a minor annoyance, given how few of the cases that I like have front USB-C.
It's a shame that so few current generation boards have front and rear USB-C.
If you buy this you will lose touch with reality as you spend ever increasing time with electronic components and virtual worlds, to the exclusion of human contact.
Wait. Now I want one. Damn.
Does it have on boards graphics?
It supports onboard graphics if it's paired with an APU.
It does. You need supporting CPU for that. CPUs ending with 'G' have graphics processing unit inside. e.g. Ryzen 3 3200G / Ryzen 5 3400G, etc
weird that all modern ryzens CPU don't have onboard graphics like on most modern intel CPU
will the 4000 series all have onboard graphics or follow the same "G" only like 3xxx?
does the ryzen encode videos as fast a intel cpu with quick sync?
I think it comes to a point where onboard graphics won’t make sense. For entry level user that won’t use graphics card it would be worthwhile (hence some ryzen 3 and 5) But someone who is using a full 8+ core system almost always use an external gpu for their workstations.
Same reason why ryzen’s highest end cpu wont even ship with a cooler. Because someone with such need will almost always use custom cooling.
So remove the extras and pass on savings to customer ;)
This? Or the B450 GAMING PRO CARBON MAX WIFI for $50 more?
I need the WIFI (rental place), ARGB control and would prefer ATX with 2 x M.2 (so tomahawk is out). However, it's just for a R5 3600 CPU with a XFX 5700XT GPU so there's not much room for overclocking (waste of the Carbon Pro) or plans to upgrade to Zen 3 in the near future (waste of the B550).
The B450 Carbon Pro has better Dual Band Wireless-AC 9260 (more than double speed?), better Intel Lan (don't need it now, but maybe later) and better ALC1220 audio codec. Looks better too.
Pro-VDH's a newer chipset, has 2 ARGB connectors instead of 1 (does it matter? I think I have 8 fans and 2 other ARGB items to run).
Sounds like Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) ($279) might be a good option for your use case.
It has ALC S1220A, Intel AX200 for WiFi and better VRM than any B450 board. Only thing it's missing is Intel LAN.
Another good option is the ASRock B550M Pro4 ($195) and Intel AX200 kit ($49), getting you those same features for $244. No stock is available in Australia as of yet though.
ARGB hubs / splitters are easy to find so it's not a big deal.
Thanks mate, will have a look at your suggestions.
Also saw your comment above about how the Carbon Pro is inferior for overclock, although it shouldn't affect the R5 3600 very much. So perhaps the Carbon Pro is really poor value for what I am going to be putting on it.
Im on the exact same boat as you.
Did you finally selected a B550 board or stick with the B450 GAMING PRO CARBON MAX WIFI board ?
The only difference is that i dont really need the additional Wifi
@5cythe: No point going with either this board or Pro Carbon if you don't need Wifi at all.
For B450: B450M Pro4-F ($139) or Mortar ($175).
For B550: B550M Pro4 ($195) or Aorus Pro ($239).
@Cielescha: @Cielescha Thanks mate. Will look into these boards.
I believe neither the B450 board came with ARGB connectors hence my reason i went with the Pro Carbon initially.
I'll look into these B550 boards
@5cythe: B450M Pro4-F does actually have both 12v and 5v RGB headers, B450M Mortar only has 2 x 12v headers.
Both of the B550 boards of course, come with the full set of RGB headers.
@5cythe: Not yet, I'm suffering budget creep now as I'm eyeing the Asus TUF Gaming B550M or the much more costly MSI MPG Gaming Edge B550 Wifi(prob very poor value at this time)
ASRock B550M Pro4 with added Wifi is a tempting budget pick too but I'm not too sure about the colour scheme as it's supposed to be a mainly black/grey theme!
Also, all uses different RGB control software and I'm inclined to go with MSI although Asus used to have the best support with Aura Sync.
So far, I can't find any lower priced boards to add a Wifi card to that makes sense vs going with the above 3 if I want ALC1200 and 2.5G lan.
If you're mainly concerned with ARGB, might be worth researching the ecology of Asus vs MSI vs AsRock. I would stay away from Gigabyte's…kept reading about buggy RGB software and poor RMA services. Good luck!
The wifi is much too slow for anything other than internet, but you are using wifi in place of ethernet so need as fast as possible. You are better of spending less on non wifi board and getting a wifi6 (1gbit) card for $50 as commenter below me suggests.
It looks like it's got 400 mbps wifi. What's that too slow for?
I could stream 80 4gig movies at once with that wifi. 80. That's INSANE.
my apartment only gets 20 mpbs via wifi, which i require
so in theory this motherboard should be fine? lol
It depends on your uses. He was talking about using wifi instead of Ethernet due to renting. I was thinking a home network situation and moving files between computers and devices, potentially huge. It sounds like a nice motherboard for the money anyway and could easily upgrade the wifi in the future if needed.
@bobvegas: So "much too slow for anything other than internet" means "not fast enough for moving potenitally huge files" which I still say is crazy, given that it's almost half as fast as gigiabit.
It just sounds like people are measuring stuff purely by stats like they did with cameras back in the day, instead of by its actual impact on your day to day life - which in this case is most likely to be nothing.
@Joker042: lol
im renting solo and require wifi.. my uses are just gaming and streaming
i think this will do for me
@minatosensei: Wifi and gaming can lead to ping and stability issues (less these days than it used to, but it's worth mentioning in case you notice some jumpiness or rubber banding), but if wifi is your only option, then I'd be surprised if this board was noticeably worse than any other onboard wifi.
I used to agree RE PCIe 4.0 but the next gen console use of it has changed my opinion that it can matter if you don't plan to upgrade for 2 or more years. Entirely depends on how things play out of course but I'd expect once the door is opened to more efficient game making and resulting improved game engine operation or capabilities that the change in storage philosophy or approaches will take place. Really hard to tell though how this might play out given what is required to support or enable it for PC's.
Yeah, failing to see a reason to grab this besides WiFi.
Onboard audio is crap, VRM is mediocre (on B550 at least), 1Gbps Realtek LAN, rear IO only has 6USB.
Compared to something like the DS3H which is a whole… $50 less, it has the same audio, same LAN, slightly worse VRM, and more IO.
I'd rather front up the extra change if I was mATX-only and get a B550M-Plus WiFi. Actual stages ((profanity) high/lowside), 2.5Gbit LAN, better IO, much better audio, and WAY better WiFi.
Are we considering B450 Tomahawk crap now? :p
This board is of course, only useful if you need Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
I reckon ASRock B550M Pro4 (6x50A) + Intel AX200 for $244 added up will be a good combo once stock arrives.
It's not crap, but on B550 it's among actual competition, most of which are shit like the Aorus Elite ($250 for a 6x2 with 50a stages..)
The aorus elite is crap? I don't follow vrm stuff, but i was looking at the aorus master
@justtoreply: Wow I can see how that could be misconstrued. Meant boards in that sort of category/range - Tomahawk, Elite, etc
The Aorus Master is a really great board, absolutely nuts. Awesome VRM, can do 300A with very little ambient airflow, more than enough even for a pushed 3950X.
If that's a bit much for your taste I'd grab a Pro. VRMs comparable to the old Crosshair flagship boards and it's not too pricey.
@maybe a bot: Thanks. For me it's more about rear usb ports and a spare pcie (and preferably wifi, else more usb or pcie)
What is the onboard audio? The specs in the link didn't say. Cheers
ALC892 for PRO-VDH Wifi, ALCS1220A for B550M-Plus Wifi.
Thanks. :)
Would this be an alright choice? Asus PRIME B550M-A (WI-FI)
B550M-A has better WiFi (Intel AX200) but everything else is better on the B550M Pro-VDH (VRM, Audio, headers).
If anyone needs decent Wifi, i can recommend the Gigabyte GC-WBAX200 (Comes with an external Antenna):
https://www.mwave.com.au/product/gigabyte-gcwbax200-wifi-6-a…
I bought one last Christmas with a MSI B450-A Pro Max and a Ryzen 5 3600. Works great.
Second this, unfortunately in my mATX board it's been causing GPU airflow issues because it's so close to the fan. Moving to powerline adapters.
Any B550M with AX200 is a better choice than this combination (this card + the board in the post)…
Non PC gamer (as use Xbox) what's a decent budget board
B450M Pro4-F or B550M DS3H
If you want more sata ports do you use a pci card to expand or buy a different motherboard?
Much easier to buy a different motherboard, an expansion card could potentially block airflow as well.
Thank you.
I bought this https://www.pccasegear.com/products/47123, which looks to have more features, and is cheaper. PCIe 4.0 not exactly useful for most hardware at this point as well (Wifi not a requirement for me as well).
I cant reccomend this store unfortunatly, maybe its covid related but the customer service its really bad. you cant call them and they take days to answer emails (and when they reply it always seems to be at 5 minutes to 5pm, interesting) You may get lucky and if its a bargain and all, but just wanted to say if you have issues with anything can be a risk.
I'm looking for a reason not to buy this.