Hot take: B550 is DOA for enthusiasts. Your thoughts?

[cucker tarlson]

Ok well at least you are backtracking like a sold out politician and coming off in a reasonable manner now rather than crucifying me instantly without understanding the heart of what i was really trying to say...

how am I backtracking.

you presented one example
I presented five

it's you who needs a fact check

 

[EarthDog]

Edit* Earthdog you are getting rather redundant and tiresome quickly.

Funny. I was thinking the same thing about your posts that were lacking the qualifiers you just recently posted. If you said what you meant out of the gate (and looked at more boards) we wouldn't be here. This isn't a chicken or the egg. I know the cart came before the horse.

My point was that IF YOU CAN upgrade from a b450 to a b550 at price that is neglible (TO YOU) then it could (PERHAPS) be worthwhile...

If that was your point, with respect, you did a poor job getting it across. You started out with one example while others showed several the other way (and even mentioned it wasn't every board).

If there is anyone backtracking, it's you bud. Read your posts.

That said, I agree with your amended point. IF you can find a board that isn't as horribly priced, that upgrade can be worth it. Otherwise......it isn't negligible in most cases and PCIe 4.0 storage few care about in the first place.

Move on. I'm done here.

 

[kapone32]

Just going to add my 2 cents here and say I think the biggest issue with B550 boards compared to the enthusiast X570 boards (excluding the MSI Godlike and AORUS Extreme from my point due to the fact that they're both stupid-expensive for MSDT; I've seen Threadripper boards cheaper than them, and that's HEDT!) is the price. I'm sorry, but there's something not quite right when you see the "mainstream" B550 AORUS Master and ASrock B550 Taichi going for MORE than what my X370 Crosshair VI Hero ($230, got it on sale) was going for at the time -- at $280 and $300 respectively! At those prices, you may as well get an X570 board for about the same price.

So yeah, I definitely think prices are one of B550's biggest fails. Going to end my opinion piece here.

The high end of B550 and X570 does pale even in comparison to TR4 but the top end boards are not for enthusiasts as there is no value in the B550 Taichi from As Rock vs all X570 boards. Those kinds of boards are for people that want to believe that the board's quality and ability are directly tied to price.

 

[AusWolf]

No intention to join the battle (or start another one) here, but can someone explain to me how the B550 is less of an enthusiast platform than the X570 besides the name?

 

[jayseearr]

One example , 5 examples, 10 examples...Doesn't matter
Once again, i never said anybody using b450 should instantly upgrade to b550 because it's a phenomenal value across the board. Like both of you are trying desperately to insinuate

what i was TRYING to say was the increase of features from b450 to b550 is worthwhile (IF) you can upgrade for a marginal cost.

Evaluating the b550 at it's current price point given the other options on the market and the fact that the b550 just released is unfair. Once again, they JUST released good grief, give it a little while for more boards to come out and let people speak with their wallet. If they are overpriced in general NOW that will change.

I could just keep repeating myself until you understand what my actual point was but apparently you are not reading between the lines. Let's stop harping on what you THOUGHT i meant and just move on, shall we?

 

[kapone32]

No intention to join the battle (or start another one) here, but can someone explain to me how the B550 is less of an enthusiast platform than the X570 besides the name?

It depends on your definition of enthusiast e.g. if you are someone that looks at value the best B550 board is the Asus Prime WIFI for $189.99 but someone else could look at the Asus Strix-F for $289 as the most common sense. Propaganda (and board quality) has made the Tomahawk and Mortar popular. At the end of the day though there is less expansion potential on B550 and even though it is a new launch it is not better than X570 in any way, which makes the prices are stupid for the flagship boards period.

 

[cucker tarlson]

One example , 5 examples, 10 examples...Doesn't matter

does.
it's exactly what matters in a thread that reads

B550 loses out big time on connectivity, with only a single PCIe 4.0 slot for the GPU and M.2 each. Most B550 boards also have vastly lower numbers of USB ports, and only a handful come with a front USB-C header. And yet they're consistently priced around the same price, or even higher, than X570 boards with better feature sets. Heck, there are many B450 boards with superior IO connectivity!

 

[EarthDog]

Like both of you are trying desperately to insinuate

I won't speak for cucker, my post was to show you that your single example means little compared to the majority of boards. If you were more clear on your point (below) we wouldn't be here.

what i was TRYING to say was the increase of features from b450 to b550 is worthwhile (IF) you can upgrade for a marginal cost.

Cool. Say that out of the gate, next time.

I've already moved on... I was simply adding information to your example, then it turned into a shitstorm of backpeddling and moving the goal posts (clarifying the point you were trying to make).

GL to you.

No intention to join the battle (or start another one) here, but can someone explain to me how the B550 is less of an enthusiast platform than the X570 besides the name?

Price is, on average, lower. There are less PCIe lanes and therefor less flexibility on PCIe lane bifurcation for storage etc. They needed to bump the VRMs up (what I think jays is calling 'better thermals') to support the processors so 'all' of them got that bump.

 

[AusWolf]

It depends on your definition of enthusiast e.g. if you are someone that looks at value the best B550 board is the Asus Prime WIFI for $189.99 but someone else could look at the Asus Strix-F for $289 as the most common sense. Propaganda (and board quality) has made the Tomahawk and Mortar popular. At the end of the day though there is less expansion potential on B550 and even though it is a new launch it is not better than X570 in any way, which makes the prices are stupid for the flagship boards period.

I see your point. My definition of enthusiast is something that has no problem running any compatible CPU out of the box, besides my usual GPU, SSD and HDD(s). I don't need a million PCI-e lanes for petabytes of SSD storage, but I do need a solid VRM with good cooling on it, just in case I want to upgrade to the best compatible CPU. That makes the £170 MSI B550M Mortar just as desirable in my eyes as the £300 ASRock X570 Taichi (only that the latter is ATX, which doesn't fit into my case).

 

[jayseearr]

does.

It matters in general if you are evaluating the overall price difference of b450 vsb550 sure i agree with you there cucker. but for like the tenth time that was not my goal, you still aren't getting it, If you haven't by now you are not going to.

I won't speak for cucker, my post was to show you that your single example means little compared to the majority of boards. If you were more clear on your point (below) we wouldn't be here.
Cool. Say that out of the gate, next time.

I've already moved on... I was simply adding information to your example, then it turned into a shitstorm of backpeddling and moving the goal posts (clarifying the point you were trying to make).

"Cool say the out of the gate next time"
Haha wow, somebody woke up feeling self-righteous this morning...Check yourself dude, forgive me for not perfectly conveying my complicated view on the matter that would resonate with your particular mind in the first couple of sentences or paragraph of a discussion...

"i've already moved on"...are you sure about that? it doesn't seem like it...

 

[cucker tarlson]

but for like the tenth time that was not my goal, you still aren't getting it, If you haven't by now you are not going to.

 

[jayseearr]

saying something for the tenth time VS backpedaling? hm...interesting juxtaposition.

If you are gonna resort to cheesy memes to support your ghost argument at least be original about it...I just called you out for backtracking like 10 minutes ago come on dude, surely you can do better.

https://media.makeameme.org/created/one-does-not-45mdua.jpg

 

[cucker tarlson]

saying something for the tenth time VS backpedaling? hm...interesting juxtaposition.

If you are gonna resort to cheesy memes to support your ghost argument at least be original about it...I just called you out for backtracking like 10 minutes ago come on dude, surely you can do better.

https://media.makeameme.org/created/one-does-not-45mdua.jpg

Get lost dude

 

[jayseearr]

No problem, Don't let your meatloaf and keep in touch with yourself.

I hope you learned a valuable lesson in the proper way to conduct a fair discussion today...If something doesn't add up in your mind instantaneously next time maybe ask a question or engage the discussion so you can have a better understanding of what someone was perhaps trying to say rather than instantly disagreeing or coming off like an arrogant turd stain. We're chatting a on a forum just reading a bunch of letters, it's not always possible for someone to convey exactly what they think or how they feel about a multi-layered idea or subject in a sentence or two, much less a paragraph.

 

[Space Lynx]

The only features it has over X570 are (possibly, depending on the board) WiFi 6 and 2.5Gb LAN (and the lack of a chipset fan, if that really bothers you). Motherboard manufacturers are trying to sell B550 by claiming it has better VRMs and memory overclocking but let's face it, OC on Ryzen is pretty much non-existent and due to the Infinity Fabric wall there's no reason to want to run RAM any faster than DDR-4000, which pretty much every X570 board does already. And the VRM argument is mostly moot because (most) X570 boards, being flagship products, have strong VRMs anyway - unless you're on a 3900X/3950X it really isn't going to matter.

B550 loses out big time on connectivity, with only a single PCIe 4.0 slot for the GPU and M.2 each. Most B550 boards also have vastly lower numbers of USB ports, and only a handful come with a front USB-C header. And yet they're consistently priced around the same price, or even higher, than X570 boards with better feature sets. Heck, there are many B450 boards with superior IO connectivity!

In short, I don't see any reason why you'd want to choose B550 over X570. Supplies of X570 boards are somewhat restricted due to le COVID, but the B550 launch has effectively been a paper one (the boards are out of stock almost everywhere) for the same reason, so once again it's a moot point.

I also have a strong suspicion that we're going to see refreshed X570 boards, with all of B550's features and more, drop at the same time that Zen 3/Ryzen 4000 launches (still supposedly later this year). Those will certainly be pricier than the current crop of X570, but in terms of features they'll have it all.

I'll be sticking with my 3600X/X370 combo until the next socket from AMD, so I won't be affected, but for anyone putting together a new system in the near future, tell us: what are you going to choose, and why? Do you disagree with my opinion on B550, or not?

p.s. please try not to derail this thread with irrelevant BS about AMD's driver quality and such.

well B550 is still sold out everywhere, Amazon and Newegg, so I guess its not DOA at all.

 

[cucker tarlson]

well B550 is still sold out everywhere, Amazon and Newegg, so I guess its not DOA at all.

it isn't.
I'd take b550 were I building an amd system now

 

[Space Lynx]

it isn't.
I'd take b550 were I building an amd system now

I think the Gigabyte Aurous mini ITX b550 mobo looks great personally, TPU reviewed it with a 3900x, its vrm thermals are insanely good for mini itx. i have always wanted a cute mini itx build. might go for it

 

[$ReaPeR$]

Really?

The GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master's MSRP is $280. The first thing you see when you go to its product page is "Direct 16 Phases Digital VRM".

Tell me again how that's not targeted at enthusiasts.

I also made a distinction between AMD and the board makers. AMD didn't create the b550 for enthusiasts, they have the x570 for exactly the enthusiast audience. Gigabyte, and any other manufacturer for that matter, can put it in a board and market it to whoever they like.

 

[sepheronx]

The high end of B550 and X570 does pale even in comparison to TR4 but the top end boards are not for enthusiasts as there is no value in the B550 Taichi from As Rock vs all X570 boards. Those kinds of boards are for people that want to believe that the board's quality and ability are directly tied to price.

Especially when the price of the B550 mid end is about same as that of a x570 Asus TUF motherboard which is a good motherboard and has both PCIe 4.0 M.2, not 1 and the other being PCIe 3.0. Plus it has a good audio chip compared to most of the B550's from what I can tell. Only thing it lacks is a USB-C header on the motherboard which for me is necessary (I know that is nitpicking). But otherwise, its a fantastic board and with that price, makes no sense to buy a B550.

Overall prices need to be dropped in order to be competitive.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I think the Gigabyte Aurous mini ITX b550 mobo looks great personally, TPU reviewed it with a 3900x, its vrm thermals are insanely good for mini itx. i have always wanted a cute mini itx build. might go for it

That's a pretty impressive board for $180 actually. 8 phase vrm with 90 amp power stages.... A couple more USB would be nice but otherwise it seems even slightly better than the X570 variant.

 

[Space Lynx]

That's a pretty impressive board for $180 actually. 8 phase vrm with 90 amp power stages.... A couple more USB would be nice but otherwise it seems even slightly better than the X570 variant.

its only 6 phases to the cpu, 2 to igpu from what i heard buildzoid say. but regardless, the tpu review used a 3900x, and stress thermal load on vrm's never broke 42 celsius, and everything else is stable. honestly have no idea why anyone would need these $280 direct 16 phases mobo's... seriously ryzen oc's on its own easily based on thermals, the old days of cpu overclocking our gone and its just time to accept that. 200mhz boost on one core once in awhile is most you will get on any decent board high end or mid range from what i have read.

the 6 phases is only reason i am hesitant but again i dont know much about this stuff. im assuming though its just fine... as mentioned above the tpu review used a 3900x with it and it was fully stable. i think max clock it said was 4.4 ghz though? i thought 3900x was supposed to boost to 4.6? so maybe itx does limit performance? i don't know, i have no knowledge on itx. below image is from the tpu review found here:

Gigabyte B550I AORUS Pro AX Review

The B550I AORUS Pro AX from Gigabyte comes with a lot of hardware packed into a small package. Among the features are 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet, WiFi 6, dual M.2 slots, and top-tier 90 A power stages. Let's see just how good this new SFF option from Gigabyte really is!

www.techpowerup.com

 

[oxrufiioxo]

During normal usage it rarely boost to 4.6 I typically see mine at 4.1-4.3 depending on what I'm doing... That is on 2 of the best x570 boards. Aorus Master/Crosshair 8

You can technically overclock the CPU to 4.4 but the gains vs the power and heat difference isn't worth it.

You only ever very briefly see 4.6 but the overall performance is still there especially with good cooling.

 

[Blaazen]

@ Especially when the price of the B550 mid end is about same as that of a x570 Asus TUF motherboard which is a good motherboard and has both PCIe 4.0 M.2, not 1 and the other being PCIe 3.0. Plus it has a good audio chip compared to most of the B550's from what I can tell. Only thing it lacks is a USB-C header on the motherboard which for me is necessary (I know that is nitpicking). But otherwise, its a fantastic board and with that price, makes no sense to buy a B550.

But $15 cheaper than TUF X570 is ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WI-FI) - which has the same audio, 2.5Gb LAN and 802.11ax wifi + Bluetooth5.

 

[Edwired]

I know this isnt somewhat related as a friend of mine just builded his pc with the ryzen 5 3600 with msi b450 max pro i think what happened really he put it together and it never worked correctly after that even did the flashback bio via usb it refused to post at all. I had a look around the board with the dmm to see if anything is failed turned out the vrm section on the left side of the cpu there's four vrm chips went to short to ground causing the no post problem as the build was only barely a week old. But judging the fact the b450 series is showing alot of hits on the internet relation to issues and failures

 

[EarthDog]

I know this isnt somewhat related as a friend of mine just builded his pc with the ryzen 5 3600 with msi b450 max pro i think what happened really he put it together and it never worked correctly after that even did the flashback bio via usb it refused to post at all. I had a look around the board with the dmm to see if anything is failed turned out the vrm section on the left side of the cpu there's four vrm chips went to short to ground causing the no post problem as the build was only barely a week old. But judging the fact the b450 series is showing alot of hits on the internet relation to issues and failures

You can google anything and get hits... B450 is OLD... there are going to be hits on everything.