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Review: B550 Aorus Pro

by Tarinder Sandhu on 16 June 2020, 14:00

Tags: AORUS, Gigabyte (TPE:2376), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaelxc

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Conclusion

The Aorus Pro model, priced at £195, does most thing well, including overclocking...

The introduction of the B550 chipset is a big deal as it allows PC builders to extract the goodness of PCIe 4.0 at a lower price point than X570.

Though it has fewer high-speed lanes and lacks the sheer expandability of the premier chipset, B550 makes a strong case for a broad section of users who don't need the extra bells and whistles, and is a great partner for those looking solely at mid-range Ryzen 3000-series chips.

Board prices start at under £100 and rise to, believe it or not, £300 for the premier versions, going against the very grain of B550. The Aorus Pro model, priced at £195, does most thing well, including overclocking, and we have no qualms about its performance credentials and general feature-set.

B550, however, works best as a sub-£150 solution because such a sum undercuts all X570 models out there... and value is the primary reason to look at this chipset. That being the case, the Pro becomes difficult to recommend in the face of Aorus' own X570 Elite priced at similar levels.

Bottom line: a really solid board whose pricing is somewhat at odds with the B550's raison d'être.

The Good
 
The Bad
Good feature-set
Clean layout
Overclocks well
 
Feels expensive
No front USB Type-C


B550 Aorus Pro

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TBC.

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HEXUS Forums :: 27 Comments

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PCIe 4.0-toting AMD chipset

The B550 chipset doesn't feature PCI-E 4.0.
Hoonigan
The B550 chipset doesn't feature PCI-E 4.0.

But it doesn't cause the BIOS to suppress it on the lanes coming from the AM4 socket, which for most of us is enough.
DanceswithUnix
But it doesn't cause the BIOS to suppress it on the lanes coming from the AM4 socket, which for most of us is enough.

I just wanted to be a clever clogs.
Yes, if it wasn't for product segmentation there is little reason why B450 refresh boards (MSI Max etc.) couldn't have coaxed PCIe 4.0 out of Zen2 CPUs for one GPU and a M.2 slot. (Personally I'd rather have two PCIe 4.0 M.2 and leave the GPU at PCIe 3.0 but I guess that is less marketable.)

Still, I guess the only ones happy with AMD's decisions here are probably the motherboard manufacturers as they get to flog B550 and X570 boards.
£200=X570 price.

Edit!!

Looking at a few retailers,the cheapest B550 motherboard is from ASRock and starts at around £110. A520 is going to be expensive IMHO,especially if it's locked for CPU overclocking. AT says August is when the A520 is being released.