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 Pro4
Even though there is a mATX version of the Pro4, the two boards are not variants of each other. The B550M Pro4 has a different layout of where the boards are by comparison, as well as a different arrangement on the rear panel.
There is still the 75% rear panel cover over the top of the controllers from the back panel, also covering the power delivery (6-phase) this time, and the chipset heatsink / M.2 heatsinks are not connected either. The CPU takes power from a single 8-pin, and the socket has access to three 4-pin fan headers within reasonable distance.
To the right of the socket are four memory slots, all using single side latches as to not interfere when large bulky graphics cards are used. On the right hand side of the board, at the top we have an RGB header, then a 24-pin ATX connector, then a USB 3.0 header, two vertical SATA ports, four regular SATA ports, and then a chipset based PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 slot.
For the PCIe area, the top slot is a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot with additional reinforcement, and that sits just above the PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot for storage, which has its own heatsink (but isn’t connected to the chipset heatsink). The board also has a PCIe 3.0 x4 full-length slot at the bottom, between which is a M.2 Wi-Fi connector for anyone to add in their own Wi-Fi card.
Along the bottom of the motherboard is the video output header, two RGB LED headers, a COM port header, three more 4-pin fan headers, two USB 2.0 headers, another USB 3.0 header, and the front panel outputs. On the far left is the audio solution, which uses an ALC1200 with PCB separation and some filter caps.
On the rear panel from left to right is a spot for Wi-Fi antenna, an analog D-Sub video output, a HDMI port, a DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports, a combination P/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 RTL8111H gigabit Ethernet port, and the 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