okay as you can probably tell I have a pile of motherboard boxes sitting right
behind me and there's a good reason for that today marks a day where you can
actually buy one of AMD's b550 chipsets now what exactly is a b550
chipset or b550 motherboard well it's essentially bringing mostly higher end
features found on X570 boards more expensive ones to a more affordable
price point okay so this video was originally gonna be about b550 but as
of this morning AMD is rolling out a bunch of new processors for their lineup
so that will be the rise in 9 3900 X T P risin 7 3,800 XT and B risin 530 600 X T
now before I get to the specs do keep in mind that all of these CPUs are using an
updated and refined version of AMD's 7 an immediate manufacturing process so
what does that mean well looking at the differences between the Rison 930 900 x
and e 3900 XT there really isn't all that much going on here other than a
small 100 megahertz increase in the boost frequency the CPU will be priced
at $500 square as you can find me 3900 X for around $420 these days but what this
doesn't show is that all XD versions will supposedly maintain a higher clock
speed more consistently and for longer periods of time
according to AMD that will lead to raw performance increases of about 4 percent
the 3,800 xt follows the same mold but it gets a boost frequency increase of
200 megahertz and a price of $400 yeah that's a pretty big jump since the 3800
X is hitting around 330 dollars these days but don't forget that sepia was
officially launched at $400 as well finally there's the risin 5 3600 XD and
versus D 3600 X it gets a bump up a hundred megahertz and a price cut of two
hundred and fifty dollars another thing to note is that the 3600 XT will be the
only one that's gonna be shipped with a cooler whereas aim D recommends an
aftermarket cooling solution for the 3900 XD and the
3,800 XE also these updated CPUs will start to go on sale on July the 7th back
to motherboards now before I get too far into this video I do want to mention
something that I'm pretty sure most of you would think is pretty bad news and
that is AMD doesn't want to replace B450 with a B550 they will still be
offering b450 motherboards it's just that B550 is more of the cut-down
version of X570 that means most of these new motherboards won't be able to
hit the same kind of price point as B450 which is under the $120 price point
as a matter of fact we're gonna start to see a lot of overlap between higher end
B550 motherboards and some X570 boards as well and honestly we think that this
is gonna cause a bit of confusion so I decided to put together this quick
little video to explain b550 and its platform as well as walk you through
some of the motherboard options that will be available out there now about
this pile huge props to Asus for agreeing to our crazy idea basically she
sent us their entire B flat 50 stacks so we could do some proper comparisons and
see what the new B550 motherboards offer compared to B450 series also
if you're interested in any of these motherboards I'll leave timestamps in
the description down below so you can get to them relatively quickly there are
a lot of great things to discuss in this video but I also have some concerns as
well so let's kick things off by taking a closer look at the B550 chipset and
what it brings to the table when it comes to compatibility basically if you
have an older processor you can forget about upgrading to b550 without first
upgrading your CPU to it's only compatible with 3000 series processors
and upcoming next-generation CPUs based on sin 3 architecture but not ap use
with processor graphics like the 3000 G series it's also important to note that
next generation of desktop CPUs based on Zen 3 are supposed to be the last ones
on the aim for socket so if you're planning to upgrade in the future b550
and X570 will likely only be viable for one more CPU generation at first and II
tried really hard to push people towards their newer chipsets
by blockings n3 compatibility 4x4 70 and B450 motherboards and as we all know
that caused a major major outrage but since we all screamed really loud
certain beta biases for those chipsets allowed a next-generation support so
what's really new with B550 well I guess the obvious thing is PCI Gen 4 and
a few of the features so let's take a closer look let's start with the most
obvious and that's the capabilities that come directly from the CPU earlier
generation rising processors could natively offer the platform for five
gigabits per second USB connections and 16 Gen 3 PCI lanes for graphics there
were also four Gen 3 lanes dedicated to nvme storage that could be broken into
two nvme lanes and a pair of SATA 3 gigabytes per second links the arisin
3000 series cpus pretty much increased that in every way instead of the four
USB ports operating in five gigabits per second they're able to run at 10
gigabits per second which is twice the data rate and then of course there's the
move to PCI Gen 4 for that you get 16 graphics lanes that some boards can
divide into 2 8 X links for nvidia sli or crossfire and there's an additional 4
dedicated to nbme storage those can also be separated for either a single x4 nvme
drive 2 X 2 drives or a single extra connection along with SATA one of the
carryovers from b450 is the CPU to chipset interface which sticks to for
Gen 3 lanes whereas boards based on x5 70 again Gen
4 support the reason for that is pretty simple basically b550 gets all of its
Gen 4 lanes from the CPU and the chipset doesn't have any itself so there's no
need for a higher bandwidth path between the 2 X570 on the other hand offers a
ton of PC engine for connections from the chipset what the chipset offers is
the same number of USB connections as B450 but at the top end there's a pair of
native 10 gigabits per second ports the b550 chipset also offers six more
flexible PCI gen3 lanes instead of Gen 2 so there's more possibility of seeing
higher bandwidth features like Wi-Fi 6 added to these new motherboards
meanwhile the possibility of SATA connections
stay pretty much unchanged what this all leads to is actually a serious problem
for intel on many levels these b550 motherboards offer a very similar
feature set to Z490 while also including overclocking and PC engine 4
so that's an overview of what you can expect from B550 but just like any
other motherboard there is a pretty big catch you see
everyone needs to remember that it is ultimately up to the motherboard
manufacturer to implement the full extent of B 50 features in order to save
money and offer different products at separate price points a lot of these
features do tend to get cut down on lowering boards so that could mean that
a higher end B550 motherboard could end up offering more connectivity options
than a mid tier or a mid-range X570 board just think about that for a second
so I guess this makes for a perfect introduction into the Asus lineup now I
do need to repeat this one more time and that is generally b550 motherboards
are much more expensive compared to b450 and the reason for that is PCI Gen 4
signalling requires upgraded PCBs and it's not only that a lot of these
motherboard manufacturers are packing these boards with features like you know
upgraded VRMs more heat sinks to support higher core council use 2.5 g LAN
Wi-Fi 6 and a bunch of other stuff I want to get things kicked off with the
lower end Prime series since their prices have increased the least from B450
but that means there's less new features added as well basically there's
an uptake of 20 to 25 dollars and there's a new b550m-a board that
includes a Wi-Fi 6 module in this price range the m80 X form factor is really
popular since it cuts down on price without killing off too many features
the B550M-K is pretty typical of what you would normally find in an
entry-level board but it isn't something that I'd want to run a risin 9 CPU on
but it does have PC edge and for compatibility for a GPU and a single 4
Lane and dr. slot those two items give some good future upgrade options on the
other hand the prime b550m-a is supposed to be the sweet spot but to be
honest with you attics a bit more from $135 motherboard it
actually looks a lot like the K or with the only editions being an expanded BRM
design with heat sinks - or RGB headers and a single addressable RGB header the
one that I have here has an optional Wi-Fi six module which adds about 15
dollars to the price personally I gladly pay a small premium for a Wi-Fi enabled
motherboard but that's just me stepping things up and we're out of the m80
exports to the full-size ATX b550-Plus that's supposed to go for $150 cos it
has all the features from the smaller ones but there's also a Thunderbolt 3
header a USB 3 point to gen2 type-c on the backplane and a second full-length
m2 slot just make note that like all of these p50 motherboards only the top m2
slot uses a high-speed Gen 4 connection while the lower one has PCI gen3 and
SATA support speaking of Gen 3 that second x16 PCI slot uses for Gen 3 lanes
from the chipset on the top slot gets the CPUs 16 gen 4 lanes oh and the be 50
plus doesn't have Wi-Fi either moving on to the B550 tuf series and now is
when we're starting to see some major price increases versus previous gen just
so you know I had a B450 pros to the list since the new plus series have
features that align more with those than the B450 pluses either way I think
these motherboards will be a good balance for price versus compatibilities
they aren't as expensive as the ROG products but they also offer more
features that are overclocking and a lot of other upgrades when compared to the
prime series I actually really like the look of these new tough motherboards
especially in the smaller more compact m ATX format like the B550m-plus it has
an eight plus two stage doctor most power design that's covered in massive
heat sinks one PCI gen 4 x16 slot and an X 4 gen 3 slot along with a single X 1
connector the m dot 2 area is interesting but in an odd way
even though pci gen 4 drives tend to run harder than other nvme SSDs the top m2
area with its Gen 4 connection doesn't have a heatsink while the lower one does
compared to the prime Series tough boards also have an upgraded PCB with a
2 ounce copper layer a better real tech audio controller 2.5 g LAN
a handy BIOS flash back button and in general just more connectivity the
sample that I have here is the B550m-plus Wi-Fi which is identical to the
standard plus but it has Wi-Fi 6 and as usual you'll need to pay a bit more for
that be tuf b550-Plus is essentially a copy and paste of the m80 export but
in a larger 18 expect the only real changes are a longer end to slot 6 SATA
connectors instead of for a key m2 slot for a scissors optional Wi-Fi module and
2 more x1 PCI slots and finally we've come to the ROG strict series and these
guys are starting to get expensive but even the flagship b550-e barely
reaches a mid-level X570 price so for some people who want tons of features
without going X570 a higher end B550 motherboard might be the way to go
sometimes I mean maybe another thing I need to highlight is the premium for
Wi-Fi is $20 here even though both b550-F boards are otherwise identical
you'll also notice a lack of ma takes options here and the only ITX b550
motherboard that issues will be offering at launch that's really too bad since it
seems like ITX is now being considered a premium form factor of a lot of
motherboard companies these days but let's start with that one and see what
you can get for $230 well the Strix B550i is just jam-packed
with absolutely everything Asus could possibly fit into a smaller
form factor it has an 8 plus 2 face pwm design that's actively cooled by a fan
and it also is the only motherboard in the entire lineup that supports memory
speeds up to 50 100 megahertz for connectivity you name it and this board
has it other than thunderbolt that is the larger boards do have a Thunderbolt
header for an optional add-in card but either way there's Wi-Fi 6 and Intel 2.5
g LAN port plenty of USB 3.2 gen 2 connectors and a built-in IO shield the
boards back is also pretty straightforward but it's where the
additional m dot two slots it's now moving on to the B550-F this is the
lowest-priced ROG board and I have to wonder if this thing will cut into some
of a scissors X570 sales it gets a lot of the ITX features like 2.5 g land plus
there is a 12 + 2 phase power section that's spent with an 8 + 4 pin
connection a thunderbolt header and unlike meetup boards both m dot 2 slots
again heatsinks these are all huge upgrades over the B450-f motherboard but
you also can't forget they've pushed this thing's priced by a good $60 or if
you add Wi-Fi by $80 finally we've got the king of the hill the Strix b550-e
think of this like b550-F on steroids it has every feature that I've talked
about up to now with the addition of splittable gen for GPU lanes so you can
run crossfire or SLI in a by 8x8 mode this is also the only board in aces be
50 lineup that has aq code debug led a 14 plus 2 power architecture and Wi-Fi
that you don't technically have to pay extra for with this motherboard you'll
need to seriously ask yourself if you need to pay extra for next I'm 70 with
the same feature set or Weather b550 is enough from the way I see it the b550
e has more than most people would ever need in a motherboard so that's it while
B550 isn't necessarily replacing b450 like everyone was hoping for
it certainly complements those cheaper products now I should also mention that
this is an interesting platform that bridges the gap with X570 I mean in
some cases I do wonder if some of these new B550 motherboards end up carrying
entry-level X570 boards a run for its money not only that it's also really
difficult to spending money on a comet Lake and a Z490 motherboard because
it's just it's just really hard to justify spending that much either way
I'm excited for this new platform I'm actually looking forward to working on
some budget focus bills and if you're in the market looking around to build new
PC would you consider going B550 curious to know thank you so much for
watching I'll talk to you guys in the next one