The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTASRock B550M Steel Legend
The smaller mATX version of the Steel Legend is, for the most part, similar to the larger version but with the same features in a smaller form factor. We still get the design that comes across as a stainless steel implementation, with RGB LEDs on the rear panel cover and chipset heatsink, but this time the chipset heatsink covers the main M.2 slot rather than the secondary one (and the secondary one doesn’t have a heatsink at all).
The CPU power is an 8-pin and a 4-pin, and the socket area has access to three 4-pin fan headers within easy reach. The DRAM slots are single sided latch designs, and on the right hand side of the board we get an RGB LED header, the 24-pin ATX connector, the USB 3.0 header, two vertical SATA ports, and four regular SATA ports. All the SATA ports in this configuration come from the chipset, with no additional controllers.
On the bottom of the board is another RGB LED header, three more fan headers, two USB 2.0 headers, and another USB 3.0 header. Above this is a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot without a heatsink.
The PCIe slots are configured for an x16 PCIe 4.0 from the CPU, and the other full-length slot is a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset. On the right side of the board is the upgraded audio, which has signal separation, filter caps, and runs a Realtek ALC1200 codec without an additional amp.
On the rear panel of the motherboard, we get a Clear CMOS button, HDMI video output, Display Port, two USB 2.0 ports, a combination PS/2 port, a Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 gigabit Ethernet port, and audio jacks.
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Operandi - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Looks like some nice mATX versions this round, nice!YB1064 - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
I was hoping to see a $75-$90 board.kenjiwing - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Fortunately, this component is a unique motherboard among B550 and well worth reading up on [add link].Needs to be edited.
anirudhs - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
There's a noise sensor which can adjust fan speed for maximum quietness with good thermals. Saw it on the KitGuruTech video. The noise sensor isn't there to spy on you though.PeterCollier - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
The quality of the editing here is shit tier. Seriously, just run the articles through Grammarly before publication. It's free and it spots plenty of errors.Heavenly71 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Sadly none of the mITX boards have more than 6 external USB ports. My old ASUS mITX has 8! And in really small mITX cases you can't add a bracket with more USB, because the two brackets are already used by the gfx card. Guess I have to wait for an enthusiast mITX board )-:damianrobertjones - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Or, just maybe, get a usb dongle with 4 ports?Mr Perfect - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
That is disappointing. The number of USB devices people need to plug in can't be dropping, surely? I know I've got more now then even a year ago.rrinker - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Are they really going up? I have 2 USB devices plugged in to my system - a keyboard and a mouse. I occasionally plug a USB stick in one of the front ports to transfer files. My phone and tablet sync over wifi, they don't get plugged in. I have a charger behind my desk and a cable to charge them. My printer is on the network.The one place I DO need lots of USB ports is also the place where I have a small cube case machine, with no discreete GPU, because it doesn;t need one. On that one I added a USB PCI card to get enough ports. In addition to the keyboard and mouse, that machine is on my workbench where it connects to several electronic test instruments and I have multiple cabled for programming microcontrollers. I also have a USB microscope for board inspection. And then I have 3 more USB devices connected for my other hobby that shares the bench. Plus a front port kept free for USB sticks.
So the use case I have for more USB has the PCI slots open to add expansion cards, the use case where I have a discrete GPU eating up the slot space doesn't need an excess of USB ports.
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
I use 3 USB 3.0 ports just for my Oculus Rift