Gigabyte B550 AORUS Pro

[Black Haru]

At long last, B550 has arrived! The B550 AORUS Pro from Gigabyte features a 12+2 phase VRM, Gigabyte's famed finned VRM cooling solution, 2.5 Gb/s LAN from Realtek, and a full set of mainstream features.

Show full review

 

[TheLostSwede]

No mention of which interfaces as multiplexed? As this board has a lot more interfaces than what can be used at once. This might be something important to point out in reviews of boards based on such chipsets.

 

[Blaazen]

Don't you know if the sibling board Aorus Pro B550 AC (i.e. with WiFi) has bundled external antenna or just those sticks?

@ TheLostSwede: From their web:

1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX4), integrated in the Chipset:

1. Supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 mode
   * The M2B_SB connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2B_SB connectors.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX2), integrated in the Chipset:

1. Supporting PCIe 3.0 x2 mode
   * The PCIEX2 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The PCIEX2 slot will become unavailable when a device is installed in the SATA3 4 or SATA3 5 connector.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Don't you know if the sibling board Aorus Pro B550 AC (i.e. with WiFi) has bundled external antenna or just those sticks?

@ TheLostSwede: From their web:

1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX4), integrated in the Chipset:

1. Supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 mode
   * The M2B_SB connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2B_SB connectors.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX2), integrated in the Chipset:

1. Supporting PCIe 3.0 x2 mode
   * The PCIEX2 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The PCIEX2 slot will become unavailable when a device is installed in the SATA3 4 or SATA3 5 connector.

My point was, it might make sense to point these limitations out in reviews, since not everyone is going to go to the product page to find this out.

 

[cucker tarlson]

I so wanna get b550 and 3300x

 

[r.h.p]

I so wanna get b550 and 3300x

why you wanna get so it is so much young CT ...

 

[cucker tarlson]

why you wanna get so it is so much young CT ...

so that GeForce may be stronger with me

but srsly,cause it'd be fun to play with one.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

this is definitely my pick when I go shopping for new parts. RGB on this isn't much of an issue since I prefer subtle glows over bright lighting that is over-the-top.

 

[iuliug]

Gigabyte is very slow with Bios updates and leaves platforms behind in terms of updates. Also it has bad customer support.

 

[john_]

1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX16), integrated in the CPU:
1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX4), integrated in the Chipset:
The M2B_SB connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2B_SB connectors.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX2), integrated in the Chipset:
* The PCIEX2 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The PCIEX2 slot will become unavailable when a device is installed in the SATA3 4 or SATA3 5 connector.
2 x PCI Express x1 slots

These are HUGE RED FLAGS. Sorry for the expression but PURE BS. Not paying a single dollar over $100 for this pathetic joke.
I have a GA-990XA-UD3 that makes much better usage of it's PCIe lanes.

Spoiler

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode. )
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All PCI Express slots conform to the PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
2 x PCI slots

Granted a very old model, not for Ryzen, but I am using it here as a example. It's obvious that motherboard manufacturers are trying to push consumers to the more expensive models making stupid decisions for the models that sell under $200.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Gigabyte is very slow with Bios updates and leaves platforms behind in terms of updates. Also it has bad customer support.

Sorry, but this couldn't be further from the truth with their recent boards. My X570 boards has had timely updates with every new AGESA release from AMD and then some. They've fixed all the issues that the platform had as quickly as they've been able to.
I thought I got a dud of a CPU to start with, but as the UEFI has matured for my board, it turned out I got some really good silicon.
So no, Gigabyte is NOT every slow with UEFI updates.

As for their customers support, well, it ain't great, that much I can agree on.

These are HUGE RED FLAGS. Sorry for the expression but PURE BS. Not paying a single dollar over $100 for this pathetic joke.
I have a GA-990XA-UD3 that makes much better usage of it's PCIe lanes.

Spoiler

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode. )
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All PCI Express slots conform to the PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
2 x PCI slots

Granted a very old model, not for Ryzen, but I am using it here as a example. It's obvious that motherboard manufacturers are trying to push consumers to the more expensive models making stupid decisions for the models that sell under $200.

This is going to be the same, or worse, on all B550 boards outside of mini-ITX and maybe a few mATX boards.
The chipset is limited to six PCIe lanes. One has to be used for Ethernet, as AMD doesn't have a custom bus for Ethernet, like Intel does.
That leaves five PCIe lanes, two of which are share with two SATA ports.
It's really hard to make an advanced board out of that and AMD really should've gone for 6+2, rather than 4+2 as it is now.
That said, I doubt most consumers use more than one NVMe drive and one or two SATA drives in addition to that, so for most people, this is unlikely to be an issue for most of the target market.
Also, you have the top of the range chipset for that generation, so maybe compare with the X570 chipset instead, which doesn't have any real limitations?

 

[Chrispy_]

Gigabyte is praised for its VRM cooling but all I can see is a plastic box completely surrounding the CPU VRM heatsink and preventing and real airflow through it whatsover.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Gigabyte is praised for its VRM cooling but all I can see is a plastic box completely surrounding the CPU VRM heatsink and preventing and real airflow through it whatsover.

Ah, but all the cool motherboards have those plastic boxes now...
You can thank Asus for that...

Still, this board does at least have a partial "proper" heatsink, rather than just a slab of aluminium on top of the VRMs.

 

[john_]

This is going to be the same, or worse, on all B550 boards outside of mini-ITX and maybe a few mATX boards.
The chipset is limited to six PCIe lanes. One has to be used for Ethernet, as AMD doesn't have a custom bus for Ethernet, like Intel does.
That leaves five PCIe lanes, two of which are share with two SATA ports.
It's really hard to make an advanced board out of that and AMD really should've gone for 6+2, rather than 4+2 as it is now.
That said, I doubt most consumers use more than one NVMe drive and one or two SATA drives in addition to that, so for most people, this is unlikely to be an issue for most of the target market.
Also, you have the top of the range chipset for that generation, so maybe compare with the X570 chipset instead, which doesn't have any real limitations?

Have a look at the $300 Taichi from ASRock.

- 3 x PCI Express x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3/PCIE5: single at Gen4x16 (PCIE1); dual at Gen4x8 (PCIE1) / Gen4x8 (PCIE3); triple at Gen4x8 (PCIE1) / Gen4x8 (PCIE3) / Gen3x4 (PCIE5))*
*If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.

- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slots

- 1 x Vertical M.2 Socket (Key E) with the bundled WiFi-802.11ax module (on the rear I/O)

- 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
- 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
- 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) (with Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s)*
- 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)*

They are doing a great job IN THIS motherboard with the PCIe lanes. Because they connect the two PCIe x16 on the CPU. On the other hand in the case of Gigabyte, almost everything is connected on the chipset, a chipset that can't provide enough lanes. So it's more like a microATX board with a price and looks of an ATX board. This is ridiculous and Taichi proves that the PCIe lanes that 550 provides are more than enough to create something that will offer REAL possibilities and not an illution to justify a higher price tag.
To be fair, ASRock doesn't say what happens if you try to populate everything, all PCIe slots AND those two M.2s. Best case scenario it downgrades the slots to x4, x2, x1. But it doesn't clarify this either.

As for that old AM3+, it wasn't the top model. It was based on the 990X chipset, not the 990FX. 990X was offering only 22 PCIe lanes (plus 4 I think from the SB950), where 990FX was offering 42. And if I remember correctly(too many years), it's price was around 120 euros, with the FX model going for around 170. Now for $170 they try to sell you a microATX in an ATX form.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Have a look at the $300 Taichi from ASRock.

Sorry, what's your point?
That they split up the lanes from the CPU into a mess instead?
Still a lot of slots that can't be fully utilised. I guess you missed the fine print?

*If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.

ASRock isn't very forthcoming about how the rest is supposed to work, as they have more PCIe devices than they have lanes on that board.
I guess PCIE5 is also shared with the second M.2 slot
ASRock also has to use some kind of PCIe splitter/bridge, as there simply aren't enough lanes from the chipset to support all the features they've put on the board.
If you tally up all the devices alone, you end up with more devices than PCIe lanes, since they only have a total of six to play with.
Ethernet 1x PCIe, Wi-Fi, 1x PCIe, ASMedia SATA controller 1x PCI, M.2 slot 4x PCIe, bottom x16 slot 4x PCIe, two PCIe x1 slots 2x PCIe, that's a total of 13 PCIe lanes, which is impossible, as none of these are using lanes from the CPU. So the bottom x16 slot is shared with the x1 PCIe slots, fair enough, but that still doesn't explain the second M.2 or how there can be three peripheral chips connected via PCIe, at least not without the use of a PCIe splitter/bridge. There also seems to be an additional USB 3.x host controller on this board, which eats up another PCIe lane, although they could be using a hub.
But as ASRock isn't being honest and provides a diagram of how things are connected, this is just speculation right now.

 

[john_]

Sorry, what's your point?
That they split up the lanes from the CPU into a mess instead?
Still a lot of slots that can't be fully utilised. I guess you missed the fine print?

ASRock isn't very forthcoming about how the rest is supposed to work, as they have more PCIe devices than they have lanes on that board.
I guess PCIE5 is also shared with the second M.2 slot
ASRock also has to use some kind of PCIe splitter/bridge, as there simply aren't enough lanes from the chipset to support all the features they've put on the board.
If you tally up all the devices alone, you end up with more devices than PCIe lanes, since they only have a total of six to play with.
Ethernet 1x PCIe, Wi-Fi, 1x PCIe, ASMedia SATA controller 1x PCI, M.2 slot 4x PCIe, bottom x16 slot 4x PCIe, two PCIe x1 slots 2x PCIe, that's a total of 13 PCIe lanes, which is impossible, as none of these are using lanes from the CPU. So the bottom x16 slot is shared with the x1 PCIe slots, fair enough, but that still doesn't explain the second M.2 or how there can be three peripheral chips connected via PCIe, at least not without the use of a PCIe splitter/bridge. There also seems to be an additional USB 3.x host controller on this board, which eats up another PCIe lane, although they could be using a hub.
But as ASRock isn't being honest and provides a diagram of how things are connected, this is just speculation right now.

You are kidding. You have to be kidding. What do you call a mess? The fact that they offer the option to use those slots at their full potential and if necessary to use all or most of them, at a downgraded mode? That's not a mess, that's a STANDARD feature that EVERY board SHOULD offer. And no I didn't miss that "downgrade" note. I will take a downgraded PCIe 4.0 at x8 or x4 ANY time instead of that ridiculous PCie 3.0 x16 slot that is connected on the chipset and runs at x4 or the other x16 that runs as an x2. Not to mention that they will be rendered useless the moment I connect an M.2 drive in the second M.2 slot or a SATA drive. I mean someone is giving you the option to fully utilize the motherboard that you just bought and you call it a mess? And someone else is selling you a half functioning product and you find it better?

P.S. Hope this is not an ASRock vs Gigabyte thing. I took that ASRock as an example. I am not an ASRock fun.

 

[TheLostSwede]

You are kidding. You have to be kidding. What do you call a mess? The fact that they offer the option to use those slots at their full potential and if necessary to use all or most of them, at a downgraded mode? That's not a mess, that's a STANDARD feature that EVERY board SHOULD offer. And no I didn't miss that "downgrade" note. I will take a downgraded PCIe 4.0 at x8 or x4 ANY time instead of that ridiculous PCie 3.0 x16 slot that is connected on the chipset and runs at x4 or the other x16 that runs as an x2. Not to mention that they will be rendered useless the moment I connect an M.2 drive in the second M.2 slot or a SATA drive. I mean someone is giving you the option to fully utilize the motherboard that you just bought and you call it a mess? And someone else is selling you a half functioning product and you find it better?

P.S. Hope this is not an ASRock vs Gigabyte thing. I took that ASRock as an example. I am not an ASRock fun.

But that simply not true.
This board has a ton of limitations and ASRock isn't even honest enough to release the proper spec.
Did you not understand anything of what I wrote?
The board has EXACTLY the same issues as the Gigabyte board you trashed.
I don't even know what to say to your comment, but you need to learn to read.

 

[john_]

But that simply not true.
This board has a ton of limitations and ASRock isn't even honest enough to release the proper spec.
Did you not understand anything of what I wrote?
The board has EXACTLY the same issues as the Gigabyte board you trashed.
I don't even know what to say to your comment, but you need to learn to read.

I totally understand what you wrote, it just looks like you are trolling me when you prefer a gazillion of slots on a chipset that offers only 6 REAL lanes.
I don't need to trash the Gigabyte board. Gigabyte itself did a nice job to make this motherboard look bad. That's why I am having a real problem with your post and I don't thing you are doing a sincere dialog here. Maybe you love Gigabyte and hate ASRock. That's not the point here. You have a $170 motherboard that connects two x16, two x1 and one M.2 slot on a chipset with only 6 PCIe lanes. This is a joke. Period. They totally avoid fully utilizing those 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes on the CPU. This is a cheap and lazy design on a motherboard with great looks to fool the consumer who will buy it. That's my opinion.

 

[Blaazen]

The other tested board, ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming (WiFi), behaves the same as this Gigabyte:

1 x M.2_2 socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)*
* Share bandwidth with PCIe3.0 x1_1, PCIe3.0 x1_2, PCIe3.0 x1_3
* When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is populated , SATA6G_5/6 ports will be disabled.

Taichi B550 has only this limitation:
*If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.

Taichi has extra ASMedia ASM1061 chip(s), therefore its 8 SATA ports can be utilized always.

 

[Chrispy_]

Ah, but all the cool motherboards have those plastic boxes now...
You can thank Asus for that...

Still, this board does at least have a partial "proper" heatsink, rather than just a slab of aluminium on top of the VRMs.

The cooling fins on that heatsink could be made of pure copper and twice the size but it still won't matter if they can't get any airflow.
I took mine off on the one board I've bought for myself that actualy had one. I had to remove the bulls**t RGBLED that was soldered to it, too.

It was good for a ~25C VRM temperature reduction with no other changes whatsoever; A severe case of "form-over-function" and I'd be okay with that if it didn't hurt the function quite so badly or if I actually liked the form. To me, though, it just looked cheap, ugly, and vomit-inducingly RGBLED by default. I cannot imagine a world where that is the preferred option but 2020 seems to be proving that we are living in the worst timeline.

 

[john_]

The other tested board, ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming (WiFi), behaves the same as this Gigabyte:

1 x M.2_2 socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)*
* Share bandwidth with PCIe3.0 x1_1, PCIe3.0 x1_2, PCIe3.0 x1_3
* When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is populated , SATA6G_5/6 ports will be disabled.

Taichi B550 has only this limitation:
*If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.

Taichi has extra ASMedia ASM1061 chip(s), therefore its 8 SATA ports can be utilized always.

I had a look at most boards with the 550 and only two seems to try to take advantage of the PCIe lanes of the CPU, other than just driving them to the first PCIe x16 and throwing all other slots on the chipset. The ASRock Taichi and the Aorus Master from Gigabyte.
I wrote about the Taichi. It splits the lanes in the two first PCIe x16 slots. The Aorus Master on the other hand, it gives the option to split the 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes of the CPU between the first PCIe x16 slot and the 2nd and 3rd M.2 slots that it integrates. That's a nice option for anyone who needs more than one M.2 slot with the best possible bandwidth.

 

[TheLostSwede]

The cooling fins on that heatsink could be made of pure copper and twice the size but it still won't matter if they can't get any airflow.
I took mine off on the one board I've bought for myself that actualy had one. I had to remove the bulls**t RGBLED that was soldered to it, too.

It was good for a ~25C VRM temperature reduction with no other changes whatsoever; A severe case of "form-over-function" and I'd be okay with that if it didn't hurt the function quite so badly or if I actually liked the form. To me, though, it just looked cheap, ugly, and vomit-inducingly RGBLED by default. I cannot imagine a world where that is the preferred option but 2020 seems to be proving that we are living in the worst timeline.

Yeah, too much "design" crap going into a lot of boards these days. They save 2 cents on something useful and spends $2 on some useless shroud with blinking lights on, because it looks cool...

Now that's an interesting way of attaching the Thunderbolt chip by Gigabyte.

 

[RealNeil]

I just bought an AORUS B450 ELITE and a Ryzen 3600 CPU for my wife's office machine.
I had planned to upgrade her ASUS STRIX B350-F Gaming and Ryzen 1600X CPU setup, giving her a nice jump in power.
When I went to get her PC for the upgrade, she warned me off, saying that she's happy with what she has.
So it looks like I have another system to play with.

The B550 prices are a little too much for me.

 

[Chrispy_]

I just bought an AORUS B450 ELITE and a Ryzen 3600 CPU for my wife's office machine.
I had planned to upgrade her ASUS STRIX B350-F Gaming and Ryzen 1600X CPU setup, giving her a nice jump in power.
When I went to get her PC for the upgrade, she warned me off, saying that she's happy with what she has.
So it looks like I have another system to play with.

The B550 prices are a little too much for me.

Curious why you bought a new board for the 3600 when the B350-F already supports the 3600?

 

[RealNeil]

Curious why you bought a new board for the 3600 when the B350-F already supports the 3600?

I have (had) plans for the 1600X and B350 setup.
Now I'm not sure what I'm gonna do.