ASUS Prime B550M-A WiFi AMD AM4 mATX mobo (PCI-E 4.0, Wifi 6, ECC RAM, 1Gb LAN, HDMI 2.1) $103.99 @ Newegg

[VirtualLarry]

ASUS Prime B550M-A WiFi AMD AM4 (3rd Gen Ryzen) Micro ATX Motherboard (PCIe 4.0, WiFi 6, ECC Memory, 1Gb LAN, HDMI 2.1/D-Sub, 4K@60HZ, Addressable Gen 2 RGB Header and Aura Sync)

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www.newegg.com

I added "ECC RAM" to the title, since it's in the product title, but I'm actually a bit curious, does the B550 do ECC now? Is it basically, "whether or not the BIOS supports it"? If so, kudos to Asus for adding support.

Also claims to contain Intel AX200 "Wifi 6" NIC, but still only 1GbE onboard, not 2.5GbE. That's about the only down-side to this board. Seems to have two M.2 NVMe slots, that's nice too. Four SATA6G, front USB3.0, no front USB-C.

All-in-all, a pretty fair price, for system-builders or whomever to use as a basis for a rig, with PCI-E 4.0 support for the primary GPU slot and the primary NVMe slot.

(According to the Newegg listing, this is $40 off list.)

 

[PrinceXizor]

I saw this yesterday but didn't get a chance to post it. This does seem to check all of the basic boxes:
3rd Gen Ryzen, PCIe 4.0 to NVMe and GPU (why else get 500 series MB), Enough SATA 6GBps for "legacy" devices, even built in decent WiFi

Is this hot enough to jump on without a definite build date in sight?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is this hot enough to jump on without a definite build date in sight?

I think so. Unless you were looking for a deal on an ATX board.

 

[Herr Kutz]

B550 is supposed to support the upcoming Ryzen 5000 processors right? Will a bios update be required?

 

[VirtualLarry]

ASUS TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS AMD AM4 (3rd Gen Ryzen) Micro ATX Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 4.0, 2.5Gb LAN, BIOS FlashBack, HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Addressable Gen 2 RGB Header and AURA Sync) $127.99

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www.newegg.com

This board is roughly $25 more, but has 2.5GbE, dual PCI-E x16 (physical) slots, as well as a usable x1 slot, AND "BIOS flashback".

Wifi version of this board is still $179.99. Way too much.

 

[gibster]

Can these boards do both ECC and non-ECC memory? Could not find any place that mentions that...
Looks like a nice board except for the useless middle x1, not sure why MB mfrs do that... The second board is much better in this category, but more expensive too.

 

[PrinceXizor]

x1s are great for expansion cards
I didn't need WiFi on my computer for 5 years...until I did. I can't predict the future so it was nice to have a slot to install a WiFi card into. Need more SATA than 4? Use that x1. Want to run a second video tuner card, video capture? x1. At this price point, dividing up the PCIe lanes is always an exercise in what do you want the most.

 

[gibster]

x1s are great for expansion cards
I didn't need WiFi on my computer for 5 years...until I did. I can't predict the future so it was nice to have a slot to install a WiFi card into. Need more SATA than 4? Use that x1. Want to run a second video tuner card, video capture? x1. At this price point, dividing up the PCIe lanes is always an exercise in what do you want the most.

Yes they are useful, no disagreement there. But if they put it in a place that is obscured by a 2-slot video card in the x16 slot, then it's of no use to just about anybody. That's why I like the x1 slot to be above the x16, or at least 2 slots below the x16, so it can actually be used for something. I think I got an ASRock B450M board that got that right, wish I could exchange it for this Asus TUF Gaming board...

 

[PrinceXizor]

Ah, I get what you're saying now.

 

[PrinceXizor]

While it is indeed mostly useless it looks like that is the trade-off for having two NVMe slots including the one above the x16 which I presume is the PCIe 4.0. And since there are two slots, if the other is blocked you still end up with the same amount of useable slots as the TUF. Just a thought (unless I'm seeing that wrong).

 

[MisterE]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

I added "ECC RAM" to the title, since it's in the product title, but I'm actually a bit curious, does the B550 do ECC now? Is it basically, "whether or not the BIOS supports it"? If so, kudos to Asus for adding support.

Also claims to contain Intel AX200 "Wifi 6" NIC, but still only 1GbE onboard, not 2.5GbE. That's about the only down-side to this board. Seems to have two M.2 NVMe slots, that's nice too. Four SATA6G, front USB3.0, no front USB-C.

All-in-all, a pretty fair price, for system-builders or whomever to use as a basis for a rig, with PCI-E 4.0 support for the primary GPU slot and the primary NVMe slot.

(According to the Newegg listing, this is $40 off list.)

AMD does support ECC with their CPUs on B550. My Asrock B550M Pro4 board supports it, too. Something that these B550 boards don't (officially) support are the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G CPUs. I think that the Asus will at least boot with one of those CPUs, but I've read that my Asrock will not. 4350G Pro and 4560G Pro are supported, but you can't find those anywhere (except NewEgg has the 4560G Pro for $340 with no heatsink/fan or product box). Here's a link to Asus' supported CPU list for this motherboard: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B550M-A/HelpDesk_CPU/

I'm happy with my Asrock B550M Pro4. It's on sale for $95 right now, I'll post a deal link for it.

 

[Steltek]

B550 is supposed to support the upcoming Ryzen 5000 processors right? Will a bios update be required?

Yes, it may require a BIOS upgrade if the BIOS on the board you receive is below version 1004.

The v1004 BIOS available on the ASUS support page includes AGESA Combo v1.0.8.0. That means the board, with at least that v1004 BIOS installed, can identify and post a Zen3 processor but won't be optimized for all Zen3 features.

For full optimized support, you'll want to watch for the next BIOS released which updates AGESA to v1.1.8.0 or higher (AGESA 1.1.8.0 is supposed to represent full Zen3 feature compatibility).

 

[killster1]

ASUS TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS AMD AM4 (3rd Gen Ryzen) Micro ATX Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 4.0, 2.5Gb LAN, BIOS FlashBack, HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Addressable Gen 2 RGB Header and AURA Sync) $127.99

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

This board is roughly $25 more, but has 2.5GbE, dual PCI-E x16 (physical) slots, as well as a usable x1 slot, AND "BIOS flashback".

Wifi version of this board is still $179.99. Way too much.

i really try to stay away from asus, but for 128$ it sounds good, to bad its 151 atm, but it is tempting if i wanted to buy a 5000 series ryzen id prob get it, 2.5gb ethernet, optical, lots of usb3.2 looks good.