ASRock B550M PRO4 AM4 AMD B550 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (PCI-E 4.0, ECC RAM support, 6x fan headers, 6x SATA) $90 + tax with free shipping

[MisterE]

ASRock B550M PRO4 AM4 AMD B550 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (PCI-E 4.0, ECC RAM Support, 6x fan headers, 6x SATA) $90 + tax with free shipping

ON SALE AGAIN, NewEgg has the Asrock B550M PRO4 AMD mATX motherboard for $90 + tax with free shipping. Features include:

Expansion slots: 1 PCI-E 4.0 x16 (x16 mode), 1 PCI-E 3.0 x16 (x4 mode), 1 PCI-E 3.0 x1, 1 M.2 socket for wifi/bluetooth, 1 Gen4 x4 NVMe socket, 1 Gen3 x4 NVMe socket. Also has 6 SATA ports, 6 Fan / waterpump headers (2 for the CPU, 4 for the chassis), and a couple of different style RGB headers. The Gen3 x4 NVME socket shares the same PCI-E lanes as 2 of the SATA ports, so you lose 2 SATA ports if you use the 2nd NVMe socket. 6 USB 3.x ports on the back (1 Type-C), 2 USB 2.1, HDMI / DisplayPort / VGA ports, no wifi built-on but it does have a bracket on the back to support antennas in case you add an M.2 wifi module. Headers for 4 more USB 3.x ports and 4 more USB 2.1 ports. Does not support Ryzen 3 3200G or Ryzen 5 3400G, so you will need to wait for AMD's new CPUs to come out if you want to use integrated graphics.

I own this motherboard and like it a lot. I'm using it with a Ryzen 7 3700X, 64GB RAM (4 x 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200), and a puny nVidia GTX950 video card, booting from a Gen3 NVMe in the Gen4 slot. It is fast and stable, and encodes video ridiculously fast.

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

EDIT: Same price at Amazon, check link for stock: https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-B550M-PRO4-Processors-Motherboard/dp/B089VY5WVM

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wow,
GREAT deal on a decent
B550 board.

 

[PrinceXizor]

Tempting....

 

[MisterE]

In-stock for the same price at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-B550M-PRO4-Processors-Motherboard/dp/B089VY5WVM

 

[PrinceXizor]

Oooh...now the plot thickens. With Discover 5% CB that would be $90.25 + tax

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI for $99.99 @ Newegg

Has front USB-C connector, 2x NVMe, proper PCI-E x16 slot-spacing, and what appears to be a "BIOS flashback" button.

Cons: Taking off one egg because the following situation is not clearly addressed by MSI: Once assembled board would not post. My first guess was it needed a bios update since Ryzen is known to be picky with regards to memory. But how can you flash the bios if i you can't get into it? Thankfully this board features a bios flash button on the back panel. Follow the instructions from MSI to use this feature. In summary: download latest bios from MSI, rename bios file to MSI.ROM and drop it in the root of a FAT32-formatted flash drive. With the computer POWERED OFF, put the flash drive into the lower usb port and push the flash bios button. A red LED will begin blinking indicating the bios is being updated. Once the update is complete the LED will turn off. After I did this the board posted and I was able to move onto installing the OS. Hope this helps anyone who is in the same situation.

B550 shipping BIOS, not good enough for a 3600? Weird.

 

[PrinceXizor]

Man! B550 started off not THAT much different in price that the cheaper 570 boards, now everyone and their brother is dropping prices.

Wow, a lot of 1 star reviews although most are about compatibility with R5 3600.

 

[MisterE]

B550 shipping BIOS, not good enough for a 3600? Weird.

At least they have that fancy BIOS update utility built in that lets you fix the problem. I'm pretty sure that the Asrock doesn't have this problem with the 3600, definitely no problem with the 3700X.

 

[PrinceXizor]

How is quality MSI vs ASRock? Are they both still considered quality boards?

 

[PrinceXizor]

And Amazon is matching again as well so the Discover CB would make it $95 + tax. The BIOS flash, USB-C Front, 2 x NVMe and proper PCIe spacing are calling my name...

Some additional specs for the MSI Board that could be relevant:
Wifi is
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168
Bluetooth is only 4.2 not 5 or 5.1

The ASRock board has 1xUSB-A 3.2 Gen 2 and 1xUSB-C 3.2 Gen 2 so they are rated for 10 vs 5 Gbps.
The video ports are also rated for higher max resolutions (the displayport especially) then the MSI

Just some things to consider.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

pretty stripped-down B550 mATX for $80.99.

 

[jiffer]

Some additional specs for the MSI Board that could be relevant:
Wifi is
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168
Bluetooth is only 4.2 not 5 or 5.1

I don't think the Intel AX200/201 WiFi modules are compatible with AMD motherboards, at least not if you want to use a PCI-Express x1 slot for them. In other words, the 3168 might be the best option you can get with an AMD motherboard. I don't trust product reviews from people who are building a computer for the first time. Does anyone know the real story?

 

[MisterE]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

pretty stripped-down B550 mATX for $80.99.

That's a nice price and an adequate feature set for a basic build. Reviews are a little iffy at NewEgg, though, and finding a supported CPU with integrated graphics is effectively impossible. It only supports the Ryzen 3/5/7 Pro CPUs with built-in graphics, and AMD doesn't sell them boxed do they? Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G are not supported (the text and NewEgg even states this).

 

[PrinceXizor]

Also something to keep in mind with these B550 motherboards is that they are dependent on the generation of CPU as to how much PCIe 4.0 goodness you receive. Most of these have two sets of PCIe 4.0 lanes but it appears that you need the latest generation of AMD processors in order for you to get the second set of lanes. I'm not entirely sure of the technical reasons, nor know for certain if its just a matter of future BIOS updates. It's something to keep in mind. Check those asterisks to see which PCIe 4.0 slot is fed by the chipset and which is fed by the processor package itself.

 

[VirtualLarry]

ASRock B550M PRO4 AM4 AMD B550 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $94.99

 

[Replay]

$89.99 today, $25 off. Sale ends Sunday. Also the same price at Amazon.

 

[PrinceXizor]

Nice! Too bad I bought mine before November 1st so BF price protection doesn't help me...

 

[VirtualLarry]

I don't think the Intel AX200/201 WiFi modules are compatible with AMD motherboards,

I would like to hear more about this topic. I just bought two of the mobos in the OP, and then also two "Intel AX200 Wifi 6 kits", from Newegg last night. Is AX200 wifi somehow actually incompatible with AMD? What about the Rosewill AX3000 PCI-E x1 NIC, which is also an AX200-based card? I bought a couple of those, too.

The AX200 wifi kit I bought is this one. I didn't see where it said in the specs that it requires an Intel CPU, though I will check again in detail:

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

OH! Darn it!

Compatibility: Only for use on Intel Windows 10 64-bit machines, that are not currently on a BiOS lock, and do not contain an Intel 9560 CNVI part.

Do they really mean Intel, or just x86/x64 compatible? Do the drivers for this wifi card, actually LOCK OUT AMD rigs?

Edit: This Reddit thread says that the "-NGW" suffix IS compatible with AMD rigs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/ez0h9c

The thread for my build is here:

Question - Elegant white RGB gaming build with Ryzen R3 3100, B550 micro-ATX, Dark Flash DLM21 MESH (White) mATX case.

Here's what I have ordered thus far: Note that prices reflect the time of posting, some of these deals are ShellShockers or Daily Deals, and thus are time-sensitive, if you want to replicate this build, at this price. Total is $483.92, not counting storage (SSD) and GPU (required with Ryzen...

forums.anandtech.com

 

[jiffer]

The description at NewEgg says, "Compatibility: Only for use on Intel Windows 10 64-bit machines." Note the use of the word "Intel". I've seen more specific descriptions for the next generation of that chip (AX201NGW) which specifically say it is only compatible with an Intel 10th gen processor. The Intel H470 chipset specifications say it has an integrated AX201NGW "solution" but I don't know how it is implemented and it certainly isn't enabled on every H470 motherboard. I did a little bit of research to see which Intel Wifi chips are compatible with the Asrock B450M Pro4 and couldn't find much real information. According to people posting on message boards, some chips work for some people, but sometimes they don't. I'm curious about this too. (I don't use Wifi much but I currently have an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 card with a Fenvi PCI-Express adapter.)

 

[Replay]

Some buyer's remorse here... Bios 1.10 on board, from June 19th. Need the 8/24 1.20 or 11/3 1.40 bios for the latest chips. Will have to settle for something like a Ryzen 3600 (Friends have older Ryzen chips, which won't work in a B550). My instincts said go for the Asrock B450.

 

[Steltek]

Some buyer's remorse here... Bios 1.10 on board, from June 19th. Need the 8/24 1.20 or 11/3 1.40 bios for the latest chips. Will have to settle for something like a Ryzen 3600 (Friends have older Ryzen chips, which won't work in a B550). My instincts said go for the Asrock B450.

The B550M Pro 4 supports Ryzen 3000 processors out of box with the exception of APUs.

If you were wanting to directly buy a 5000 series processor for the board, AMD will probably loan you a CPU to use to flash the BIOS. They did it for Ryzen 3000 series CPUs, so I can't imagine them not doing it for the Ryzen 5000 CPUs as well as it is exactly the same situation. With the 3000 series CPUs, you had to file a warranty claim to be offered the CPU loan.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-100#faq-Short-Term-Processor-Loan-Boot-Kit

You've got nothing to loose by sending AMD support an email to ask if this program is being extended for Ryzen 5000 chips.

 

[MisterE]

The B550M Pro 4 supports Ryzen 3000 processors out of box with the exception of APUs.

If you were wanting to directly buy a 5000 series processor for the board, AMD will probably loan you a CPU to use to flash the BIOS. They did it for Ryzen 3000 series CPUs, so I can't imagine them not doing it for the Ryzen 5000 CPUs as well as it is exactly the same situation. With the 3000 series CPUs, you had to file a warranty claim to be offered the CPU loan.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-100#faq-Short-Term-Processor-Loan-Boot-Kit

You've got nothing to loose by sending AMD support an email to ask if this program is being extended for Ryzen 5000 chips.

Wow, that's a pretty awesome support program to actually loan out CPUs!

 

[Zstream]

Some buyer's remorse here... Bios 1.10 on board, from June 19th. Need the 8/24 1.20 or 11/3 1.40 bios for the latest chips. Will have to settle for something like a Ryzen 3600 (Friends have older Ryzen chips, which won't work in a B550). My instincts said go for the Asrock B450.

Shouldn’t matter. The chip will boot, but at a weird reduced speed. You can update afterward.

 

[Dug]

I don't think the Intel AX200/201 WiFi modules are compatible with AMD motherboards, at least not if you want to use a PCI-Express x1 slot for them. In other words, the 3168 might be the best option you can get with an AMD motherboard. I don't trust product reviews from people who are building a computer for the first time. Does anyone know the real story?

Strange that x570 MB's use ax200. At least my Gigabyte x570 does, and a lot of 550 mb's have that chip onboard.