Review of B550 AORUS Master (AMD B550 chipset) with Ryzen 3 3300X

Conclusion

Conclusion

Are you buying into the future ? Yes, I would say so as it promises support for the Zen 3 architecture processors (to be launched).

On first sight, I was quite surprised that a B550 chipset motherboard to come with so many high end features. In fact, the B550 is an improvement over the B450 but it’s specification is very similar to the X570.

I like the idea of NVME PCIe M.2 and the WIFI 6 802.11ax a lot. That really speeds up the overall experience be it downloading (without dangling cables) or doing video files transfer.

I am a bit skeptical about the 2.5 GbE LAN port though. Do you really need that unless all your network devices also support the 2.5 GbE. If you really need that speed, available devices are Netgear’s Nighthawk Tri-Band AX12 router or NAS like the Buffalo TeraStation 3220 2-Bay NAS Drive.

Installation is easy. Just plug everything, power up, go into BIOS and load optimized default. Overclocking wise, the processors all can do a 4.3 GHz on air. Anything beyond really depends on luck and tuning. The multiplier options are readily available in the BIOS for you to choose from. Voltage levels etc. you can even fine tune other parameters like memory to 3800 MHz.

Performance wise, the low end Ryzen 3 3300X performed pretty well with the B550 board. There also shouldn’t be any material difference between B550 and X570 chipset if paired with the same processor and memory modules.

In Conclusion, this board has a lot of features built in, e.g. WIFI 6, 2.5 GbE etc. To tap on all this power, you will also need equivalent router to support it. Likewise, for faster data throughput, an investment into the PCIe 4.0 NVME is necessary to tap the power of B550. Thus, owning the board is the first step into the future. This board is priced at SGD 505 (SRP) which is slightly cheaper than it’s X570 equivalent.

Price : SGD 505, Amazon

Pros

• PCIe 4.0
• 2.5 GbE LAN port
• WIFI 6 802.11ax

Cons

• Documentation
• Pricing

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.