Best AMD B550 Motherboards 2021

Best
AMD B550 Motherboards
Windows Central
2021

Best Overall: ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming

ASUS makes some of the best motherboards out there, for both Intel and AMD processors. The company’s BIOS interface is refined and user-friendly for both newcomers and experienced enthusiasts. It’s one of (if not) the best BIOS solutions. The ROG Strix B550-E Gaming is a top-of-the-range B550 chipset-based motherboard, rocking some serious features to compete with even X570 boards.

You’ve got an excellent BIOS for overclocking, supplemented by the 14+2 DrMOS power phase design. This allows for stable, reliable power to be delivered to the CPU and other components even when pushed beyond advertised speeds. Then you have Intel Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5Gb LAN… on an AMD motherboard.

Finally, ASUS motherboards come with RGB connectivity, which can be controlled by the available software package from ASUS. While it’s a little on the expensive side, even compared against X570 motherboards, it’s well worth it if you plan on taking advantage of everything this board offers.

The ASRock B550 Taichi is very similar to our top recommendation, although you’d be hard-pressed to find a motherboard from a reputable brand that isn’t good. The Taichi is a solid foundation for an AMD-powered gaming PC thanks to its extensive feature list and capable components, it’s just a little weaker on the rear I/O front.

While it’s not quite as good as ASUS, in my opinion, the ASRock BIOS experience is still a solid pick, allowing you to configure various settings without issue. There’s also a similar 14+2 DrMOS power phase design as in our top pick, which again allows for stable, reliable power to be delivered to the CPU and other components even when pushed beyond advertised speeds.

Then there’s the same Intel Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5Gb LAN. As I said, these motherboards are very similar. Like ASUS, ASRock also allows one to control various RGB lighting accessories through the motherboard itself and the design of the B550 Taichi is better than most motherboards, resulting in a slightly more unique appearance.

The NZXT N7 B550 is one of my favorite B550 motherboards due to its design and component layout. What makes this board particularly good for system builds is the metal shroud that can be painted or modded. Then, you have the various headers for fans and other attachments positioned accordingly for better cable management.

Because the motherboard is technically made by ASRock, you get to enjoy all the fruits of the company’s good BIOS. Everything works through NZXT’s CAM Software, too, so you’ll be able to control all RGB and cooling connected to the board, including NZXT’s own offerings. This makes for a complete experience using a single software.

As for the motherboard itself, the 12+2(+2) DrMOS power design is great for power-hungry processors, especially when overclocking. Interestingly, NZXT managed to work in not only 2.5Gb LAN, but also Wi-Fi 6e. There are countless RGB and fan headers that allow this board to be used in powerful gaming PC builds. It’s a stunning board packed full of handy features.

If you don’t feel comfortable spending upwards of $200 on a motherboard, fear not as the ASRock B550M-HDV is a great option for those on tighter budgets. It’s also incredibly affordable for a motherboard with PCIe 4.0 support, as well as capabilities for even Ryzen 3000 or 5000 series processors.

Sure, you won’t be able to overclock processors due to the slightly less capable six-power phase design, but if you’re spending this much on a motherboard you shouldn’t be looking at squeezing more performance out your processor. Still, you can throw up to 128GB of speedy DDR4 RAM into the four DIMM slots.

The BIOS is pretty good from ASRock and there’s connectivity for your favorite RGB accessories. The weaker Realtek ALC887 audio codec shouldn’t cause any problems unless you plan on working with audio where I’d recommend an aftermarket sound card.

When you’re hunting down a compact motherboard for AMD Ryzen 3000 or 5000 processors, you’ll want to consider an ITX board like the Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX. Pairing this board with one of the best Mini-ITX PC cases will result in a killer gaming PC that’s less than half the size of a full-tower chassis.

The BIOS from Gigabyte is really good for configuring all the necessary settings for the processor and other components. There’s a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot for your best graphics card, and even two M.2 slots so you can get away without relying on slower SATA III storage

Unfortunately, this compact size does have limitations, which comes in the form of a single PCIe slot, fewer fan headers than full-sized motherboards, and less capable power delivery so you won’t be able to overclock a Ryzen 9 processor and break world records in benchmarks.

Choosing the best AMD B550 motherboard

The best B550 motherboards cover a wide range of prices. You can find boards from around $70 like the ASRock B550M-HDV all the way up to $200 and beyond, which is where you’ll be able to buy the excellent ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming. It all boils down to your budget and what you plan on doing with the PC.

Regardless of which B550 motherboard you buy, you’ll be able to enjoy PCIe 4.0 support for the GPU and a single M.2 SSD. But more premium B550 motherboards will also come with other advanced features like Wi-Fi 6, 2.5Gb LAN, and more headers and ports. You’ll find our two top picks here will rival even affordable X570 motherboards.

So long as you have a Ryzen 3000 or Ryzen 5000 processor, the B550 chipset will be able to power everything without issue. If you plan on pushing your PC a little further through overclocking, I will recommend buying a motherboard with a decent power delivery system.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

Rich Edmonds is a staff reviewer at Windows Central, which means he tests out more software and hardware than he cares to remember. Joining Mobile Nations in 2010, you can usually find him inside a PC case tinkering around when not at a screen fighting with Grammarly to use British words. Hit him up on Twitter: @RichEdmonds.

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