Intel is the midst of launching its Comet Lake-S desktop CPUs to beef up the high-end, but the Red Team is working hard on making B550 offerings that might just tempt you to the mid-range. After all, does one really need more?
Along with the announcement of the new AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X CPUs today, AMD shared details on five B550 motherboards: the Asus ROG Strix B550-E Gaming, ASRock B550 Taichi, Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master, MSI MPG B550 Gaming Pro Carbon WiFi and Biostar Racing B550 GTQ.
These are the respective manufacturers' best motherboards in their B550 lineups. They come with very elaborate power delivery subsystems, premium audio solutions, two or three PCIe x16 ports each, multiple M.2 slots and all the shiny trim and RGB goodness you should ever want.
The new B550 chipset is great because not only does it bring PCIe 4.0 to the mid-tier, it also adds multi-GPU support to the mid-tier AMD platform and will be compatible with the Ryzen 4000 Zen 3-based CPUs that have yet to be announced. Those that don't like noisy systems will also be pleased to know that the B550 chipsets don't require a fan on the motherboard. With all these features, this platform will stand out over the X570 for most.
B550 Motherboards Price and Release Date
There are over 60 B550 motherboards in development, AMD said. B550 motherboards will be available on June 16 staring at $100. For the boards pictured above though, expect to pay a premium for their extra flagship features.
