Amazon [amazon.com] has
ASUS Prime B550M-A WiFi II AMD AM4 (3rd Gen Ryzen™) Micro ATX Motherboard for
$99.99.
Shipping is free.
Price:
$30.00 lower (
23% savings) than the list price of
$129.99
Customer reviews:
★★★★★ / 1,686 global ratings
About this Item:- AMD AM4 Socket and PCIe 4.0: The perfect pairing for 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen CPUs
- Ultrafast Connectivity: 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 SafeSlot, WiFi 6 (802.11ax), 1Gb LAN, dual M.2 slots (NVMe SSD)—one with PCIe 4.0 x4 connectivity, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A , HDMI 2.1 (4K@60HZ), D-Sub & DVI
- Comprehensive Cooling: VRM heatsink, PCH heatsink, hybrid fan headers and Fan Xpert 2 utility
- 5X Protection III: all-round protection with LANGuard, DRAM overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection, SafeSlot Core safeguards and stainless-steel back I/O
- Boosted Memory Performance: ASUS OptiMem proprietary trace layout allows memory kits to operate at higher frequencies with lower voltages to maximize system performance.
- Enhanced Power Solution: 8+1 DrMOS power stages with high-quality alloy chokes and durable capacitors to provide reliable power for the last AMD high-count-core CPUs
- Aura Sync RGB: Synchronizable LED effects across a wide range of compatible PC gear, plus RGB LED and Addressable Gen 2 RGB headers for greater customization
amazon.com/dp/B0B5M97W1T [amazon.com]
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13 Comments
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank Andrepartthree
I found myself grateful for the EZ Bios flash feature on the above mentioned MB after I found out the hard way (albeit with an AS Rock brand MB) that the bitter amazon complaints about MB's that don't support what they consider to be a "newer" CPU out of the box are very true.. I ended up having to return my MB and purchased the Asus MB I mentioned primarily for the EZ Bios flash function which allows you to update the BIOS without having the PC assembled and up and running, just plug the power supply into the MB, download the bios onto a usb thumb drive and hit the button on the MB itself to update the BIOS.
From what I can see this MB does not have the EZ Bios flash feature .. I know there are people who will argue that it's a newer MB out of the box that should support most CPU's but that's what people told me too in support forums about my AS Rock MB too and sure enough the worst case scenario came true and it flat out refused to cooperate with the AMD 7 5700X CPU I bought. I noticed some bitter amazon review complaints about this exact same problem so be aware of that when you buy the MB (though as usual amazon had an excellent return policy, just make sure you hang onto the box and packaging that came with the MB).
I'd also recommend snagging some paper coffee filters (strange but true, works great as a thermal paste remover without leaving thread "residue" on the CPU) and 90 percent rubbing alcohol which you can snag cheaply enough at a local walmart
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate.../276040459
and some arctic thermal paste also very cheap right now
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...UTF8&
so if the worst case scenario does happen you can clean the thermal paste off more easily when you have to remove the CPU and return the MB to amazon. Honestly I've been told on various online support forums that it's best to use the arctic thermal paste instead of the pre-applied thermal paste on the CPU anyways, it will make removal of the CPU more easy in the future apparently the pre-applied stuff hardens to a rock like consistency sometimes.
I found myself curious as to whether or not plugging in one or two m2 drives (crazy cheap right now even the higher quality ones so definitely grab that) would disable any of the other 4 sata ports as is the case with some MB's.. not finding anything specifically stating that on the Asus documentation so maybe you get to have all 4 sata ports enabled and both m2 slots? Which would be really nice
Here's the documentation I was referring to
https://www.asus.com/motherboards.../techspec/
https://dlcdnets.asus.c
Even then you may have to plug one stick of ram in at a time, let the MB recognize the one stick, then plug the second one in and rinse and repeat if necessary until the MB recognizes it.. this was an issue with all three of my ASUS MB's that I purchased. Definitely read the pdf of the motherboard manual that I linked and make sure you're putting the ram in the slots that the manufacturer recommends too.
Even then you may have to plug one stick of ram in at a time, let the MB recognize the one stick, then plug the second one in and rinse and repeat if necessary until the MB recognizes it.. this was an issue with all three of my ASUS MB's that I purchased. Definitely read the pdf of the motherboard manual that I linked and make sure you're putting the ram in the slots that the manufacturer recommends too.
I found myself grateful for the EZ Bios flash feature on the above mentioned MB after I found out the hard way (albeit with an AS Rock brand MB) that the bitter amazon complaints about MB's that don't support what they consider to be a "newer" CPU out of the box are very true.. I ended up having to return my MB and purchased the Asus MB I mentioned primarily for the EZ Bios flash function which allows you to update the BIOS without having the PC assembled and up and running, just plug the power supply into the MB, download the bios onto a usb thumb drive and hit the button on the MB itself to update the BIOS.
From what I can see this MB does not have the EZ Bios flash feature .. I know there are people who will argue that it's a newer MB out of the box that should support most CPU's but that's what people told me too in support forums about my AS Rock MB too and sure enough the worst case scenario came true and it flat out refused to cooperate with the AMD 7 5700X CPU I bought. I noticed some bitter amazon review complaints about this exact same problem so be aware of that when you buy the MB (though as usual amazon had an excellent return policy, just make sure you hang onto the box and packaging that came with the MB).
I'd also recommend snagging some paper coffee filters (strange but true, works great as a thermal paste remover without leaving thread "residue" on the CPU) and 90 percent rubbing alcohol which you can snag cheaply enough at a local walmart
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate.../276040459
and some arctic thermal paste also very cheap right now
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...UTF8&
so if the worst case scenario does happen you can clean the thermal paste off more easily when you have to remove the CPU and return the MB to amazon. Honestly I've been told on various online support forums that it's best to use the arctic thermal paste instead of the pre-applied thermal paste on the CPU anyways, it will make removal of the CPU more easy in the future apparently the pre-applied stuff hardens to a rock like consistency sometimes.
I found myself curious as to whether or not plugging in one or two m2 drives (crazy cheap right now even the higher quality ones so definitely grab that) would disable any of the other 4 sata ports as is the case with some MB's.. not finding anything specifically stating that on the Asus documentation so maybe you get to have all 4 sata ports enabled and both m2 slots? Which would be really nice
Here's the documentation I was referring to
https://www.asus.com/motherboards.../techspec/
https://dlcdnets.asus.c
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https://pcpartpicker.co
You can't beat this for $75. 2 m.2, pcie 4, but only 1 fan header so grab some Arctic case fans that you can daisy chain or run molex to 4 pin.
https://pcpartpicker.co
There are better options with bios flashback at around $100.
I got it new on Thursday for $90, sorry the new price went up, but I prefer Gigabyte after my ram issues on Asus boards. Pretty comparable features-wise to this asus.
The system is already built and working, first boot with ram profile enabled, no issues like I had with my asus b550 strix board.
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