Almost sorry to ask this after all the work you did for this roundup, but would it be possible to ad some ITX Boards as well? Like the Gigabyte and MSI ones, those seem to be the most interesting :)
Thank you Steve for this VRM testing video. I bought the MSI B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI last month. And must say this is truly fabulous motherboard. It has everything. I am using it with R7 3700X. Really very cool and stable. No issues at all. I am watching your every video Steve. Love from India.
After seeing all this I am confused even more. Looking for a board with dual GPU(rtx 2060s or rtx 2070) support (need not to support SLI) Should I consider one of these or consider entry level x570 such as Prime x570_P or X570 gaming plus both supporting extra pcie 4.0 x16 with x4 speed (equivalent to pcie 3.0 x8 speed)??
I saw literally all of Buildzoid's B550 videos and your videos on the same. Absolutely love to spend my time on your extremely informative videos. Thanks Steve and Mustache Tim for the amazing updates.
Suggestion for future roundups: Maybe you could color-code by cost tier in the big graph? That way it'd be easy to spot outliers - budget offerings with better than expected results, or poor-performing expensive ones. E.g. main stack could be split into 3 tiers (shades of blue; light to dark), plus you could have 1 for "cheap" (grey) and 1 for "exorbitant cost" (gold yellow). In my opinion, all colors of the rainbow wouldn't be very intuitive, but the mnemonics of light to dark blue, as well as "expensive gold" and "boring grey" would work better.
@@adrianafamilymember6427 Now? as of 31.07.22? If you see a GPU that you *want* near i.e 10 to 15% above msrp for AIB models then buy it. If you come across any GPU around performance you need that is below MSRP buy it there and then. Prices aren't going to get any cheaper.
@@wakaflockaproject The X570 Aorus Pro only has 40A stages, so kind of, yeah (especially if you look at the B550 Aorus Master - though this is a bit more expensive than the X570 Aorus Pro).
Steve could use the break, because after nVidia/AMD release new graphics cards, plus the release of Zen3... Christmas is going to be a nice time to relax. lol
Amazing how hard manufacturers and marketers find it to bring an honest product to market. Thank you ever so much for such thorough interest. You're obviously a greater service to the idea than you get credit for. If your looking for a cheap easy video idea, a seasonal roundup of fallouts like asrock and tracking their change or not. I know I appreciate your standup integrity I want to reward it with buying brands willing to be responsible for what they do, say and, make. Maybe even bonus points for making it a collaboration. Since you may deal with different reps than most non Australian reps. I'm a conscious budget buyer sick of being burned by inaccurate marketing. Seems the worst always gets funneled down the bracket. So to speak.
18:02 In 2020 "We can't afford to go and spend thousands of dollars on motherboards to test them" vs 2022 "we can't afford to go and spend tens of thousands of dollars on motherboards to test them"
I just got a Vision D for a nice monochrome build I just finished. Running and looking great. Very happy with it at the moment. Running R5 3600X currently on it. Great testing guys thanks for sharing!
@@iceberg20mr 3600, could've went for a cheaper b450 option, but I plan on upgrading in the future, and the added features on the steel legend is good value
I'm wondering about buying that cpu too, but still waiting on 4th generation ryzen or buy ryzen 3600 at black friday with much lower price. Maybe better value will be with new desktop apu's from AMD. But first they will be selling oem's
You're the best channel... I mean best of the best... There is no youtuber reviewing like you... Thank you so much... This channel help me a lot for choosing what the best for me.. Continue the great job.. You deserve 50M subscriber
Steve, this is just such a detailed and nice comparison of the boards, And that Aorus Master though, what a great design indeed! I got that Aorus Pro though, working good I guess...
Hey mahn! There's a lot of threads on the internet stating some random USB disconnects on the B550 Aorus Pro..Is that true?...I have mine in transit to be delivered 2moro... Maybe your findings could help me decide if i should keep it or cancel the order.
@@alimbhanwadiya So I got the Auros Pro, I am using some of the USB ports never seen any disconnection issues with it, I updated the bios from the gigabyte site. Currently, I think they have another update available for this board including other boards obviously. Board VRM as Steve pointed is very accurate and good. there are other choices currently available in the market compared to when I bought it. I think it depends on what you are planning to do with the computer of this build and the processor of your choice. you could easily pare a 3900x with it with ease. You could overclock a bit without any problem provided you use a good aio cooler. I use a mid-level 240mm Deepcool AIO with it. I mostly run it 24x7 for rendering. My work with this machine is 3d rendering and plan to lightly overclock my 3700x with it. Even without overclocking, I hit 4+ - GHZ nearly all the time throughout all core. Temp max is about 70 - 76 degrees centigrade. Stays at 70+- average. I guess I could go up to 4.2 or so with ease. I don't really want to overclock high and put pressure on components as that can reduce the life of the parts, P:) In all my experience is good but not the best, hardcore overclock is not what it is meant for though. Cheers!
This was the last little bit of info I was looking for when deciding between motherboards and I can't thank you enough for making it so concise. Fantastic work!
The reason for the vision-d and asus -e board being so expensive is they have the extra pcb complexity and chips in them for routing pcie4 so you can have two x8 cards, and the asus board also has sli certification. the vision-d also has a titan ridge controller for the usb type c ports on the back and supports sending a displayport signal from the gpu through one of them.
few months back i ended up buying the asus b550-e wifi for 190 us, and im glad that it sort of got glowing reviews from you guys. im really happy to know that i didnt waste money. you guys are seriously awesome, please keep feeding me pc knowledge, i love it. i also just kinda like listening to your voices, youre both very interesting to listen to.
I don't know what I'd do without you guys. Thanks a million for your honest and unbiased reviews. Between you and the guys over at Gamers Nexus, I have just about all I need to make informed decisions on my next purchases. Keep up the brilliant work.
I have the Mortar, and it's a beast in terms of VRM's solution, being one of the best out there for the price (at least as of a year ago; I don't know if it's still being produced and maintains a fair price). However, the PCIe slot position on this board is worse than many others, if the second M.2 slot is occupied, it generally disables some PCIe lanes - this is known due to the chipset, but on this board the last PCIe slot at the bottom, which is x16, is totally disabled by the second M.2 complicating (or killing the idea) for some additional card, as you're then confined to the PCIe x1 right under the GPU, and you have to be lucky to get even a little space even with a not-so-thick GPU - it's simply a ridiculous layout.
same here, even though the I/O leaves a lot to be desired but the performance and looks of the board are just great IMO. kinda wish i wouldve gone with the gaming edge but i just dont like the cheesy dragon design trying to sell it as some kind of ultimate board. the tomahawk just has a nice military type subtle look to it.
@@atf56 You can't out of the box, board doesn't have it. You can use wifi and bluetooth via third party PCIe cards or USB dongles and stuff though. I don't have the board anymore though, moved to SFF with the B550I Gaming Edge
Hey Steve, I just wanted to thank you for your work with all these boards. Based on the info you have provided, I've ordered an MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI and a Ryzen 3 3100 for our HTPC. It looks to be a perfect fit for our use and budget, but I'm not sure I would have reached that conclusion without the VRM testing here...many thanks!
I have a tremendous amount of respect for this channel. Lots of tech tubers (like Linus) are so scared of their sponsors withdrawing funds that they obscure their criticism even when the sponsor have proven to release sub par products. It’s clear from watching your videos that Msi is a major sponsor of yours and yet you are truthful in letting them know when they have missed the mark. I like Msi quite a bit, but it’s important to realize that they can be quite shaky on the low end. Thanks for being a honest tech tuber and striking a really elegant balance
One thing I think that's worth mentioning. You say you like the B550 Tomahawk / B550 Gaming Edge, especially the edge since it removes the 1 gigabit lan and adds wifi 6, but you wish it had more usb ports. Later you mention that the Carbon should be better, and you're presumably paying more for the better VRM, which isn't there. I'm not saying the VRM isn't more valuable (especially in cost of production of the board), but you DO get 2 more USB ports on that Carbon over the Tomahawk / Gaming Edge, which is certainly worth considering if the VRM is still good (just not better), and your con on the Gaming Edge was the lack of said ports. You have to ask yourself if you value better VRM on paper, or the actual con of 2 ports you wish were there, that are indeed there on the Carbon. Where it really matters, is if you plan to overclock at all, and if you'd rather spend $30 on 2 more USB ports and an arguably slicker design, rather than the decently high chance of spending $30 on an external USB hub, because there just aren't enough on the Tomahawk / Gaming Edge.
@@iceberg20mr what else but an R5 3600 of course. I plan on upgrading in stages over the years. This was an almost completely new PC, just reusing an EVGA 500w PSU, and a gigabyte 1060 GPU, both from my son's upgrades on his PC. Just look on Amazon UK for my reviews lol.
Just for the fact that AsRock has blacklisted you guys, I will not buy any of their boards. It tells a lot about the company in how they interact with the public and reviewers and I hate it. Besides, their boards are overpriced and not exciting anyway. Also they are the only company which offers only 2 years of warranty instead of 3 like the others. Anyhow, thank you so much for putting in the effort of testing all these boards
Their boards are priced accordingly. I mean, Aorus Pro is priced the same as Extreme4, but lacks features. Gaming Edge Wifi has wifi and better VRM cooling, but again doesn't have certain features and rear IO sucks balls. All companies suck - Gigabyte is notorious for terrible software and it looks like they pulled off massive bait&switch, Anus lies about their competitors, MSI tries to bribe reviewers, ASRock blacklists reviewers for negative reviews.
Due to the industry shortage of phase doublers, it looks like Gigabyte is releasing new versions of some of their boards. The B550M Pro is becoming the Pro-P, which has 2.5 GbE opposed to 1 GbE and a hypothetically better VRM. Maybe you could test these new boards with altered VRMs when they come, Steve :D
Getting rid of the phase doublers worked for MSI on the Edge compared to the Carbon. ASUS has also historically been able to make very good VRMs without using doublers. It makes me wonder why the manufacturers bothered with them in the first place - possibly because adding more phases sounds good for marketing.
@@nathangamble125 On the other hand, Gigabyte Z390 boards with doublers absolutely destroyed Asus Z390 "big" 4 phase VRMs. So doublers do have their uses.
Steve: Hey, Buildzoid, how would you like to give us the VRM details on ALL the B550 boards? Buildzoid: ... Steve: [flashes Pateron money] Buildzoid: ... Steve: [slides over some ancient video card nobody in their right mind would care about] Buildzoid: "hey guys, Buildzoid here..."
11:56 Thanks for confirming my Asus B550 F Gaming/3900X combo is a good buy. I put it in my first build and couldn't test out a bunch of boards. Would you recommend overclocking on the board? Thanks
After buying a high end board like that, it would arguably be a waste if you _didn't_ overclock. As long as you've got a good cooler for it, try overclocking and tell us how you get on.
@Mifthahul Fikri in 3rd world countries people are still buying b450 mobos. Especially the b450m mortar and the b450 tomahawk. Unless you want pcie 4.0 it's a waste to jam a r5 3600 on b550 mobos.
Another very good review. Eagerly waiting for the ITX roundup too. Please consider evaluating the ITX boards as how they compete if you would put them in a NAS configuration. (so not VRM, but feature set and other aspects become important). Thanks! ;)
Thank you so much for going through this video in the way you have its helped me make a few decisions on what motherboard I want to get for my set up. You've helped a lot consider a lot of the other TH-camrs and tech advisers have been leading me in circles on this topic haha.
Just bought a MSI B550-A Pro to future proof my pc. Costed me 106 € including shipping and I'll sell my B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC for almost the same hopefully. :) Thanks for the professional testing, that led me to this conclusion.
I got the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro at almost MSRP (185$) over a month ago, taking a risk because there were no reviews at that time, only the presentations and unboxings on your channel and a few others'. It seems I got lucky with my "blind" choice because I'm pretty happy with the config I have on it as everything runs nice and cool. A month ago was also when I subscribed to your channel. Interesting content you have here. :)
Finally! a review from Australia!!! thank you so much for doing this! Love this review! very good guide on what to really buy! i can only say THANK YOU!!!
Excellent work Steve. I already pulled the trigger on an Aorus Pro back in July (and it was the last one in stock province-wide so I know what you mean by availability). It's nice to see where it stacks up and I can rest easy knowing I made a good choice. Now if Ryzen 3 would just launch ...
i wouldn't take that board even knowing it's overkill for anything on the planet. its pcie config is very weird and no one seem talking about it: if you use more than one M.2 slot, it will steal the bandwidth from the x16 slot and drop to just x8, even with pcie 3.0 ssd
@@hoangd4132 I haven't checked for sure but MSI seem to have done the same with the lane allocation, at least for the tomahawk/edge. Is it such a big deal though? The fastest GPUs now don't fully use the 16 lanes in the primary slot, maybe ampere or rDNA2 will? Unless I'm mistaken, and this is probably true, isn't this one of the sacrifices of B550 compared to B570, where B550 has less lanes anyway?
@@DavidLee-df888 Does not work that way on Gaming Edge Wifi - you can populate 1 GPU at 16x, and two M.2 at 4x. It just disables second GPU slot and one of the x1's. else M2 second slot go's to x2 mode.
The reason I like the B550 Taichi is because it's the only B550 board that comes close to X570. It allows you to plug in 8 SATA connections (4 through chipset, and four through two controller chips), both m.2's and all PCIE without disabling anything. The only thing it does do is downclock PCIE5 slot to 2x instead of 4x. Compared to the others.. that either disable SATA (only 4 slots instead of 6) or disables PCIE5 slot. I have a nice big case, use my PC as a jack of all trades and prefer as many upgrade options as possible. By the way, the Gigabyte boards don't even have an internal USB Type C header for the front of the case.
Thank you so much for this entire series. You really showed that B550 boards perform much better than any B450 models, and most entry level X570 models. I think that as a whole, the B550 models are logically priced, based on VRM performance.
You guys show those VRM configs in details, PWM controllers and stuff. I don't understand those. Can you make a video where you teach us which is which and what they do?
Great job, congratulations! Seeing your last video I have convinced myself to choose the best motherboard according to my budget (stretching it), the MSI B550 Gaming Edge WiFi. Very grateful! Greetings from Chile
@@Hardwareunboxed That's still 9 boards including the ITX boards according to my (probably inaccurate) count. All others are either some variant with the same VRM and heatsink or they don't have a heatsink. - ASRock B550 PG Velocita - ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac - ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax - ASRock B550 Steel Legend - ASRock B550M-ITX/ac - Asus ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING Mini ITX - Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX Mini ITX - Gigabyte B550M GAMING Micro ATX - Gigabyte B550M S2H Micro ATX
WTF. and i was so excited for you guys to review the asrock ones since the steel legend and extreme4 has post code for their price point. sucks that they're not willing to hear any feedback. so my b450m pro4 from asrock gfonna be my last asrock product then. anyway, thanks for testing the asrock boards. too bad that they blacklisted you.
Some stupid decisions by certain members of Asrock's marketing team doesn't stop a lot of their products still being decent. Don't take umbrance at what is probably one idiots over-reaction - they are still a decent company making decent products (apart from z390s......) and have long time been one of the more "fun" brands. As yet they haven't acheived MSI's level of aggression towards reviewers which has been far more pervasive and long term. Obvs Steve will have his own view/experiences with MSI and how their working relationship is over the years. I would bet it has been up and down, and most manufacturers as some point will do something silly like this, but usually it is an individual rather than a man at the top decision and that's why you often see "black listing" disappear when somebody more enlightened gets employed in the applicable role and sees sense.
Excellent information and allows for an informed decision when selecting your motherboard. Recommended it to anyone interested in buying a B550 board. Very impressive work!
I wonder if Gigabyte would send you the B550 Aorus Elite V2 version for testing. Seems like there's a change in the VRM design and they've added an internal Type C header as well.
I was wondering how long it would be before someone made this stupid comment without engaging their brain and taking into consideration that it is a 360 rad so the cables are not long enough, and that rather rubbish (sorry Corsair) case wont take the 360 at the top.
I like these videos, and they definitely are a great value to the community. I did miss the discussion about the SATA ports and m.2 slots, as all these boards can handle the 3950x overclocked, so there can be a lot of value for some users to have three m.2 slots and/or six or eight SATA ports (the Taichi looked like it had 8). Overall though, I think once once gets over ~$200 some x570 boards might be a better buy. Sorry, I probably mention this on every motherboard roundup, but if there's one thing I hate it's swapping hard drives when I can just add a new one along side the full one.
Completely agree, you are describing my use case perfectly. I had to go with the Taichi, as all of the other options have big compromises. The Taichi is the only one that has 8 SATA ports (my CH VI and X470 Taichi have 8), an option to run BOTH m.2's (those other boards can't, without disabling a PCIE slot). And that can put PCIE cards in slot 3 and 5 without disabling anything. The only thing that happens is that PCIE5 gets downclocked to 2x but for my uses, that's fine. Also.. for SATA.. 4 ports are chipset (full speed) and 4 ports are on two Asmedia controllers that can bottleneck (in pairs of two) but you've basically got 4 for SSD and 4 for HDD or BR drive.. which is fine for my uses. All of the other flagship boards either disable 2 SATA slots (and they only have 6 to start with), or disable PCIE5 slot (really bad) or downgrade the m.2 speed (sort of negating the advantage of m.2 in the first place). I have a text file somewhere which specifies which does which but yeah. The MSI disables a PCIE and also downgrades m.2 speed (yuck). The Gigabyte doesn't even have a USB Type C internal header for the front panel. My current phone doesn't use a Type C connection but I can guarantee within the next 5 years, my new one will. My main reason for buying this board? Future proofing PCIE4.0 for a GPU upgrade in a few years time. Or for PCIE4.0 m.2 for when Samsung finally gets around to releasing one.. and after the price drops a bit. I really don't like chipset fans. Maybe I would, if they included a spare fan in the motherboard box, but they don't. The things you talk about are the most valuable to me.. assuming the VRM and everything else is 'decent'. Plenty of USB ports on the back, USB flashback is nice if you want to upgrade CPU in the future, but yeah.. the ability to use expansion cards or add extra SSD or HDD drives. Like you said.. having spare ports, a spare spot in the cage and an easy HDD upgrade. It doesn't mean you want to have everything full at all times.. but it's better to have the options open just incase. For example with PCIE, a DVB-T2 card + capture card.. or audio card + midi card for advanced audio editing.. etc. My 24/7 setup will be DVB-T2 card + audio card, and then removing the audio card and using a DAC.. if the other slot is needed for something else. It also annoys me that the slot is missing between the GPU and CPU.. because it was a great place to hide a little wifi or lan card in there. And wouldn't affect thermals too much.. my CH VI has it.. but all of the more recent boards of the past few years no longer have it. Wifi or lan cards are sort of redundant on boards these days, but there's still SATA expansion or USB extension boards. The whole beauty of PC's is that they are so expandable.. but only if the motherboards provided give you the chance to do so. In terms of USB on the back, a spare port for a remote IR, or a joystick or steering wheel is always a handy thing to have. I recently just tried out FLIRC, and it's awesome.
Thank you Steve for this VRM testing video. I bought the MSI B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI last month. And must say this is truly fabulous motherboard. It has everything. I am using it with R7 3700X. Really very cool and stable. No issues at all. I am watching your every video Steve. Love from India.
I'm really appreciating all this motherboard testing. Choosing a motherboard is one of the trickier aspects of a build. Even though I'm not planning on overclocking, it's nice to see what performs well, and what is overpriced. Thanks Steve, great work. :)
Phew! No buyer's remorse here, I bought an MSI B550 gaming edge WiFi and love it. It was the same price on Amazon UK as the tomahawk so it really was no contest. The only main difference between the two that I can see apart from what you mentioned is the lack of one m.2 heatsink, but that's only really cosmetic as far as I'm concerned, and the WiFi/Bluetooth is much better than a 1Gb Lan port! So glad I didn't even look at the carbon...
@@unknownperson3691 Me too if I'm honest. The big finned heatsinks actually look slightly smaller than the one(s) on the tomahawk, or maybe just the one at the top, not the back. But I AM pleased by the results shown here, and the WiFi/Bluetooth is much better than having 2 Lan ports, I don't really understand why you would connect to 2 (different?) networks.
![Best Gaming CPUs: Update Late 2024 [28 CPUs, 14 Games]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2mE4YEm2L-g/mqdefault.jpg)
Part 1: th-cam.com/video/wuPH9pCCK-E/w-d-xo.html
Part 2: th-cam.com/video/HSY9rDsQgd4/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the great reviews, they are not something people ask for, but they are very important thank you guys🎉 keep doing well
Great Review, Really happy with my Asus TUF Gaming B550M-Plus, the second best m-atx board for vrms!
Almost sorry to ask this after all the work you did for this roundup, but would it be possible to ad some ITX Boards as well? Like the Gigabyte and MSI ones, those seem to be the most interesting :)
Thank you Steve for this VRM testing video. I bought the MSI B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI last month. And must say this is truly fabulous motherboard. It has everything. I am using it with R7 3700X. Really very cool and stable. No issues at all. I am watching your every video Steve. Love from India.
After seeing all this I am confused even more. Looking for a board with dual GPU(rtx 2060s or rtx 2070) support (need not to support SLI) Should I consider one of these or consider entry level x570 such as Prime x570_P or X570 gaming plus both supporting extra pcie 4.0 x16 with x4 speed (equivalent to pcie 3.0 x8 speed)??
Still room for a few more boards, we can still see you in the thumbnail 😂
Ofc, i was so dissapointed 😡
Saigonas yeah me too he only did like 40 boards he could have done more
Yeah.. we still need to see the lower tier b550.
I saw literally all of Buildzoid's B550 videos and your videos on the same. Absolutely love to spend my time on your extremely informative videos. Thanks Steve and Mustache Tim for the amazing updates.
Buildzoid is very good
Suggestion for future roundups: Maybe you could color-code by cost tier in the big graph? That way it'd be easy to spot outliers - budget offerings with better than expected results, or poor-performing expensive ones.
E.g. main stack could be split into 3 tiers (shades of blue; light to dark), plus you could have 1 for "cheap" (grey) and 1 for "exorbitant cost" (gold yellow).
In my opinion, all colors of the rainbow wouldn't be very intuitive, but the mnemonics of light to dark blue, as well as "expensive gold" and "boring grey" would work better.
The thumbnail is a tech-related living embodiment of the "this is fine" meme.
Your quality & hard work is over 9 Trillion.
Now that the tests are done, a video on B550 and X570 comparison with pricing details is a must.
Right now, prices are skewed due to low availability and the current pandemic...
@@earthtaurus5515 how about now?
@@adrianafamilymember6427 Now? as of 31.07.22? If you see a GPU that you *want* near i.e 10 to 15% above msrp for AIB models then buy it. If you come across any GPU around performance you need that is below MSRP buy it there and then. Prices aren't going to get any cheaper.
B550 or x570 which is better?
B550 or x570 which is better?
And now we need to have a graph with B550 + X570 combined. Great Work!
I'm rocking a x570 asuros Pro. Are the b550 that much better with temps and performance?
@DutchMercenary gaming the x570 tomahawk entered chat....
here you go th-cam.com/video/m8d4C80Ub_o/w-d-xo.html
@DutchMercenary gaming VRM, not VRAM. (VRM = voltage regulator module, VRAM = video random access memory)
@@wakaflockaproject The X570 Aorus Pro only has 40A stages, so kind of, yeah (especially if you look at the B550 Aorus Master - though this is a bit more expensive than the X570 Aorus Pro).
As much as I love his reviews and vids, I'd like him to take a break. Even a blind as a bat man can see the amount of a work put here.
Also, you can take a break from internet.
also, if he stops buying boards, they can finally have some in stock lol
Steve could use the break, because after nVidia/AMD release new graphics cards, plus the release of Zen3... Christmas is going to be a nice time to relax. lol
@Mortaljorma , couldn't you and the rest of us take a break then?
Steve is clearly earning his pay with stuff like this.
What else to say: He is a man of focus, commitment, sheer fu***** will !
Did I ever tell you about that time he fixed a laptop with a dremel... With a Dremel!! Who f*****g does that?
But it was just a laptop. [starts visibly sweating]
The Vision D is such a gorgeous board, I wish non-RGB/gamer aesthetic boards become more common.
it has two thunderbolt
I'm building with the Vision D-P now. Sweet board.
Just sheer amount of effort.
Nice to see the support for this effort with the 900+ comments and view numbers.
This video is so underrated, I just can't imagine someone else doing such job, not even companies do such a thing. amazing work as usual.
The vision D seems to have been designed for people who do white and gold water cooling builds. It’s very elegant
How many board you want to test?
*Yes*
How many times you want to test them??
*YEESS*
How m-
*YEEEESSSS*
Damn, I love the look of the Gigabyte B550 Vision D
Amazing how hard manufacturers and marketers find it to bring an honest product to market. Thank you ever so much for such thorough interest. You're obviously a greater service to the idea than you get credit for.
If your looking for a cheap easy video idea, a seasonal roundup of fallouts like asrock and tracking their change or not. I know I appreciate your standup integrity I want to reward it with buying brands willing to be responsible for what they do, say and, make.
Maybe even bonus points for making it a collaboration. Since you may deal with different reps than most non Australian reps.
I'm a conscious budget buyer sick of being burned by inaccurate marketing. Seems the worst always gets funneled down the bracket. So to speak.
18:02 In 2020 "We can't afford to go and spend thousands of dollars on motherboards to test them" vs 2022 "we can't afford to go and spend tens of thousands of dollars on motherboards to test them"
Haha yeah we spend a lot on motherboards now.
I just got a Vision D for a nice monochrome build I just finished. Running and looking great. Very happy with it at the moment. Running R5 3600X currently on it. Great testing guys thanks for sharing!
Great video, keep up the good work!
Please make a roundup for B550 Mini-ITX boards as well
Thanks Steve for all the testing of these B550 boards. It will come in super handy for everyone in the next few years.
Thanks Steve. Great coverage as always. I joined your Patreon group this past week and I am looking forward to all the extras now available to me.
Thank you so much for the detailed review! Helped me decide on the perfect motherboard for my build. Keep up the amazing work!
Thanks Steve, really appreciate the effort going into this, helped me pick my choice!
What you've picked up?
@@iceberg20mr I'll be getting the b550m steel legend, here in Australia I can get it for the same price as the pro-vdh/bazooka, around $215
And the cpu?
@@iceberg20mr 3600, could've went for a cheaper b450 option, but I plan on upgrading in the future, and the added features on the steel legend is good value
I'm wondering about buying that cpu too, but still waiting on 4th generation ryzen or buy ryzen 3600 at black friday with much lower price. Maybe better value will be with new desktop apu's from AMD. But first they will be selling oem's
You guys are nuts. Thank you for all these VRM testing, it's great to be able to know how they perform instead of just trying to look at VRM specs.
Love your work bro.You really work so hard to make these tests possible.
You're the best channel... I mean best of the best... There is no youtuber reviewing like you... Thank you so much... This channel help me a lot for choosing what the best for me.. Continue the great job.. You deserve 50M subscriber
Steve, this is just such a detailed and nice comparison of the boards,
And that Aorus Master though, what a great design indeed!
I got that Aorus Pro though, working good I guess...
Hey mahn! There's a lot of threads on the internet stating some random USB disconnects on the B550 Aorus Pro..Is that true?...I have mine in transit to be delivered 2moro... Maybe your findings could help me decide if i should keep it or cancel the order.
@@alimbhanwadiya So I got the Auros Pro, I am using some of the USB ports never seen any disconnection issues with it, I updated the bios from the gigabyte site.
Currently, I think they have another update available for this board including other boards obviously.
Board VRM as Steve pointed is very accurate and good. there are other choices currently available in the market compared to when I bought it.
I think it depends on what you are planning to do with the computer of this build and the processor of your choice. you could easily pare a 3900x with it with ease. You could overclock a bit without any problem provided you use a good aio cooler. I use a mid-level 240mm Deepcool AIO with it.
I mostly run it 24x7 for rendering. My work with this machine is 3d rendering and plan to lightly overclock my 3700x with it. Even without overclocking, I hit 4+ - GHZ nearly all the time throughout all core. Temp max is about 70 - 76 degrees centigrade. Stays at 70+- average. I guess I could go up to 4.2 or so with ease. I don't really want to overclock high and put pressure on components as that can reduce the life of the parts, P:)
In all my experience is good but not the best, hardcore overclock is not what it is meant for though.
Cheers!
@@baban606 Thanks mahn! Those details will be of great help to me!
This was the last little bit of info I was looking for when deciding between motherboards and I can't thank you enough for making it so concise. Fantastic work!
The reason for the vision-d and asus -e board being so expensive is they have the extra pcb complexity and chips in them for routing pcie4 so you can have two x8 cards, and the asus board also has sli certification. the vision-d also has a titan ridge controller for the usb type c ports on the back and supports sending a displayport signal from the gpu through one of them.
few months back i ended up buying the asus b550-e wifi for 190 us, and im glad that it sort of got glowing reviews from you guys. im really happy to know that i didnt waste money. you guys are seriously awesome, please keep feeding me pc knowledge, i love it. i also just kinda like listening to your voices, youre both very interesting to listen to.
I don't know what I'd do without you guys. Thanks a million for your honest and unbiased reviews. Between you and the guys over at Gamers Nexus, I have just about all I need to make informed decisions on my next purchases. Keep up the brilliant work.
I have the Mortar, and it's a beast in terms of VRM's solution, being one of the best out there for the price (at least as of a year ago; I don't know if it's still being produced and maintains a fair price). However, the PCIe slot position on this board is worse than many others, if the second M.2 slot is occupied, it generally disables some PCIe lanes - this is known due to the chipset, but on this board the last PCIe slot at the bottom, which is x16, is totally disabled by the second M.2 complicating (or killing the idea) for some additional card, as you're then confined to the PCIe x1 right under the GPU, and you have to be lucky to get even a little space even with a not-so-thick GPU - it's simply a ridiculous layout.
The Mortar just hanging around with the big bois
Thank God for a good matx board
Looks like I made the right choice.
I'm going to buy mortar😁
@@srivenkateswaraswamy3403 You won't regret it!
@@lahcenebelbachir7929 yeah,
I was first not going with mortar because of the less USBs
But it's enough actually
I'm buying this over b550m tuf
Thanks for the hard work, Steve!! Very well done and super helpful content as usual!! Looking forward for the ITX boards!!
1 or 2 years ago, something was changing....
I/O shields are going to dust!
Finally.
What a roundup. Super useful when comparing used boards. Got an MSI B550 A-pro super cheap and I'm very satisfied with its performance
I’ve got a B550 Tomahawk and it’s pretty great! Very satisfied with it so far!
same here, even though the I/O leaves a lot to be desired but the performance and looks of the board are just great IMO. kinda wish i wouldve gone with the gaming edge but i just dont like the cheesy dragon design trying to sell it as some kind of ultimate board. the tomahawk just has a nice military type subtle look to it.
How to add wifi and blutooth to it?
@@atf56 You can't out of the box, board doesn't have it. You can use wifi and bluetooth via third party PCIe cards or USB dongles and stuff though.
I don't have the board anymore though, moved to SFF with the B550I Gaming Edge
@@luca1s isn't it a good board
@@atf56 it is, just doesn't have Wifi and bluetooth
Hey Steve, I just wanted to thank you for your work with all these boards. Based on the info you have provided, I've ordered an MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI and a Ryzen 3 3100 for our HTPC. It looks to be a perfect fit for our use and budget, but I'm not sure I would have reached that conclusion without the VRM testing here...many thanks!
Thank you for this! Will wait for the ITX boards round-up.
Waiting for this as well. I'm hoping for a detailed comparison of them all.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for this channel. Lots of tech tubers (like Linus) are so scared of their sponsors withdrawing funds that they obscure their criticism even when the sponsor have proven to release sub par products. It’s clear from watching your videos that Msi is a major sponsor of yours and yet you are truthful in letting them know when they have missed the mark. I like Msi quite a bit, but it’s important to realize that they can be quite shaky on the low end. Thanks for being a honest tech tuber and striking a really elegant balance
"Welcome back to harbor unboxed"
XD
I've been waiting for this video. Great timing.
Thank you Steve and other guys for a lot of work. That is very useful for the new PC planning on B550 board.
Now THAT’s a happy Steve in the thumbnail!
One thing I think that's worth mentioning.
You say you like the B550 Tomahawk / B550 Gaming Edge, especially the edge since it removes the 1 gigabit lan and adds wifi 6, but you wish it had more usb ports. Later you mention that the Carbon should be better, and you're presumably paying more for the better VRM, which isn't there. I'm not saying the VRM isn't more valuable (especially in cost of production of the board), but you DO get 2 more USB ports on that Carbon over the Tomahawk / Gaming Edge, which is certainly worth considering if the VRM is still good (just not better), and your con on the Gaming Edge was the lack of said ports. You have to ask yourself if you value better VRM on paper, or the actual con of 2 ports you wish were there, that are indeed there on the Carbon.
Where it really matters, is if you plan to overclock at all, and if you'd rather spend $30 on 2 more USB ports and an arguably slicker design, rather than the decently high chance of spending $30 on an external USB hub, because there just aren't enough on the Tomahawk / Gaming Edge.
4:50 Hi bullzoid!.
haha USB ports and post codes :D
@@Hardwareunboxed Not to mention the most insanely overbuilt VRM we've ever seen.
Been keeping an eye on this B550 series of yours as I have a hard time choosing which motherboard to go with. This series made life so much easier!
I bought the gaming edge wifi before this review. Glad to see it rank so high
Me too. Same price as the tomahawk on Amazon UK so no contest as far as I'm concerned.
@@DavidLee-df888 What CPU is paired with it?
@@iceberg20mr what else but an R5 3600 of course. I plan on upgrading in stages over the years. This was an almost completely new PC, just reusing an EVGA 500w PSU, and a gigabyte 1060 GPU, both from my son's upgrades on his PC. Just look on Amazon UK for my reviews lol.
@@DavidLee-df888 you have the same name as my neighbor. But you're from the UK. I paired a 3600 with it.
@@shanemon13 Apparently, it's also the name of at least 2 TH-camrs😏
The mobo/CPU combo works great, doesn't it?
Invaluable data. Thank you!
And I noticed the small difference on language when referencing phases and doublers. Thank you as well.
Just for the fact that AsRock has blacklisted you guys, I will not buy any of their boards. It tells a lot about the company in how they interact with the public and reviewers and I hate it. Besides, their boards are overpriced and not exciting anyway. Also they are the only company which offers only 2 years of warranty instead of 3 like the others. Anyhow, thank you so much for putting in the effort of testing all these boards
Their boards are priced accordingly. I mean, Aorus Pro is priced the same as Extreme4, but lacks features. Gaming Edge Wifi has wifi and better VRM cooling, but again doesn't have certain features and rear IO sucks balls. All companies suck - Gigabyte is notorious for terrible software and it looks like they pulled off massive bait&switch, Anus lies about their competitors, MSI tries to bribe reviewers, ASRock blacklists reviewers for negative reviews.
I recently bought a b550 gaming edge wifi. Glad to see it's up there against other b550 mobo's
Due to the industry shortage of phase doublers, it looks like Gigabyte is releasing new versions of some of their boards. The B550M Pro is becoming the Pro-P, which has 2.5 GbE opposed to 1 GbE and a hypothetically better VRM.
Maybe you could test these new boards with altered VRMs when they come, Steve :D
Getting rid of the phase doublers worked for MSI on the Edge compared to the Carbon. ASUS has also historically been able to make very good VRMs without using doublers. It makes me wonder why the manufacturers bothered with them in the first place - possibly because adding more phases sounds good for marketing.
@@nathangamble125 On the other hand, Gigabyte Z390 boards with doublers absolutely destroyed Asus Z390 "big" 4 phase VRMs. So doublers do have their uses.
I bought the Gaming Edge some days ago, glad to see these results.
Steve: Hey, Buildzoid, how would you like to give us the VRM details on ALL the B550 boards?
Buildzoid: ...
Steve: [flashes Pateron money]
Buildzoid: ...
Steve: [slides over some ancient video card nobody in their right mind would care about]
Buildzoid: "hey guys, Buildzoid here..."
11:56 Thanks for confirming my Asus B550 F Gaming/3900X combo is a good buy. I put it in my first build and couldn't test out a bunch of boards. Would you recommend overclocking on the board? Thanks
Just look at the temps with the 3950x OCd in the video.
After buying a high end board like that, it would arguably be a waste if you _didn't_ overclock. As long as you've got a good cooler for it, try overclocking and tell us how you get on.
@@nathangamble125 I'm working with a stock cooler right now. But it's on my list of things to do. I'm researching how to do it effectively.
B550 A-Pro so underrated.
@Mifthahul Fikri in 3rd world countries people are still buying b450 mobos. Especially the b450m mortar and the b450 tomahawk. Unless you want pcie 4.0 it's a waste to jam a r5 3600 on b550 mobos.
Yeah, but it's like 140€. If you're getting 3600 or 3700x, just get B550M Pro4.
3900x and above "A-Pro" is a good choice
@@NyangisKhan PCI-e 4.0 it's not waste.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_5.0
You see x8 4.0 PCI-e Lane throughput is same like x16 3.0
@@claritoresdiano1021 I never said pcie 4.0 was a waste. I said *unless* you want pcie 4.0 the b550 was a waste. Next time actually *read* mate.
@@NyangisKhan ok
Great roundup Steve, appreciate the effort!
Thank you for all your hard work. Not many TH-cam Channels would do this. Gamers Nexus comes to mind. Thank you for posting this video..
Another very good review. Eagerly waiting for the ITX roundup too. Please consider evaluating the ITX boards as how they compete if you would put them in a NAS configuration. (so not VRM, but feature set and other aspects become important). Thanks! ;)
Steve: "time to get some sleep"
Motherboard company: "take a look at our new board"
Steve: "sleep is for chumps anyway"
more like "i don't need sleep i need answers"
Thank you so much for going through this video in the way you have its helped me make a few decisions on what motherboard I want to get for my set up. You've helped a lot consider a lot of the other TH-camrs and tech advisers have been leading me in circles on this topic haha.
Just bought a MSI B550-A Pro to future proof my pc. Costed me 106 € including shipping and I'll sell my B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC for almost the same hopefully. :)
Thanks for the professional testing, that led me to this conclusion.
Have Rog Strix B550-F cheaper than tomahawk
And I'm happy with this results lol
will be slapping zen3 to it when it released
I got the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro at almost MSRP (185$) over a month ago, taking a risk because there were no reviews at that time, only the presentations and unboxings on your channel and a few others'. It seems I got lucky with my "blind" choice because I'm pretty happy with the config I have on it as everything runs nice and cool.
A month ago was also when I subscribed to your channel. Interesting content you have here. :)
Gaming Plus is a good alternative for the Tomahawk with 2 extra USB ports, and I doubt anyone uses the 2.5G port anyway
Finally! a review from Australia!!! thank you so much for doing this! Love this review! very good guide on what to really buy! i can only say THANK YOU!!!
and the msi b550 meg unify will release in 4 weeks time - thats the king we are waiting for
Excellent work Steve. I already pulled the trigger on an Aorus Pro back in July (and it was the last one in stock province-wide so I know what you mean by availability). It's nice to see where it stacks up and I can rest easy knowing I made a good choice. Now if Ryzen 3 would just launch ...
Wow, the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master destroyed everyone. Nice job, Gigabyte!
As well it should considering the price, but yes good job.
i wouldn't take that board even knowing it's overkill for anything on the planet. its pcie config is very weird and no one seem talking about it: if you use more than one M.2 slot, it will steal the bandwidth from the x16 slot and drop to just x8, even with pcie 3.0 ssd
@@hoangd4132 yeah and I mean at that price just get an x570
@@hoangd4132 I haven't checked for sure but MSI seem to have done the same with the lane allocation, at least for the tomahawk/edge.
Is it such a big deal though? The fastest GPUs now don't fully use the 16 lanes in the primary slot, maybe ampere or rDNA2 will? Unless I'm mistaken, and this is probably true, isn't this one of the sacrifices of B550 compared to B570, where B550 has less lanes anyway?
@@DavidLee-df888 Does not work that way on Gaming Edge Wifi - you can populate 1 GPU at 16x, and two M.2 at 4x. It just disables second GPU slot and one of the x1's. else M2 second slot go's to x2 mode.
Been following you for about a year now always loved it from the start and still loving your content ! 👍👍
The b550 aurus pro is such a good board for the price. Thank you gigabyte!
Too bad Extreme4 makes it look like a bad deal :D
@Tim Clark nice build
The reason I like the B550 Taichi is because it's the only B550 board that comes close to X570. It allows you to plug in 8 SATA connections (4 through chipset, and four through two controller chips), both m.2's and all PCIE without disabling anything. The only thing it does do is downclock PCIE5 slot to 2x instead of 4x. Compared to the others.. that either disable SATA (only 4 slots instead of 6) or disables PCIE5 slot. I have a nice big case, use my PC as a jack of all trades and prefer as many upgrade options as possible. By the way, the Gigabyte boards don't even have an internal USB Type C header for the front of the case.
Does the Asus ROG Strix B550-A board VRM layout the same as the B500-F?
Thank you so much for this entire series. You really showed that B550 boards perform much better than any B450 models, and most entry level X570 models. I think that as a whole, the B550 models are logically priced, based on VRM performance.
HWU is best when compare things, thank you from indonesia
the only reviewer on youtube that does detailed mobo testing , thanks for all your do
You guys show those VRM configs in details, PWM controllers and stuff. I don't understand those. Can you make a video where you teach us which is which and what they do?
If you want to learn more I suggest watching Buildzoids content: th-cam.com/channels/rwObTfqv8u1KO7Fgk-FXHQ.html
I've been waiting for this for so long. Thank you so much for all the time and money you've spent 💕
20% club shoutout (probably 25% by now)
Welcome back to motherboard Unboxed.
Just kidding, nice content and I like it
Wow haven't see that pfp in while, from the PS3 right?
Amazing review once again!!! great job, please keep the good content coming!!!!!
B550 Tomahawk seems like the sweet spot for me
Great job, congratulations! Seeing your last video I have convinced myself to choose the best motherboard according to my budget (stretching it), the MSI B550 Gaming Edge WiFi. Very grateful! Greetings from Chile
9:39 If Steve from Gamers Nexus sees that AIO placement he'd have a stroke.
No, you should watch his video another time since you did not get it. the pump is lower than the top of the rad, so it's ok.
I nearly get a stroke every time I see a goldfish post comment like this. Why do people try to act like smart asses?
@@dainiusvysniauskas2049 Good question. I have another one for you: why do people get so butthurt over a meme youtube comment?
@@hashshashin000 Don't know, ask someone who gets butthurt.
You're only halfway Steve, there's a ton of budget/bottom of the barrel B550 motherboards to test. Keep it up!
If they don't have a heatsink, we're not testing it.
@@Hardwareunboxed That's still 9 boards including the ITX boards according to my (probably inaccurate) count. All others are either some variant with the same VRM and heatsink or they don't have a heatsink.
- ASRock B550 PG Velocita
- ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac
- ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax
- ASRock B550 Steel Legend
- ASRock B550M-ITX/ac
- Asus ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING Mini ITX
- Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX Mini ITX
- Gigabyte B550M GAMING Micro ATX
- Gigabyte B550M S2H Micro ATX
@@Hardwareunboxed Surely you have an extinguisher handy for the cheap MSI and Asrock boards....... :)
WTF. and i was so excited for you guys to review the asrock ones since the steel legend and extreme4 has post code for their price point. sucks that they're not willing to hear any feedback. so my b450m pro4 from asrock gfonna be my last asrock product then.
anyway, thanks for testing the asrock boards. too bad that they blacklisted you.
They blacklisted Gamers Nexus as well. Fools!
I understand your sentiment, just know that the people that blacklist reviewers aren't the same that design and build the boards.
@@Hardwareunboxed wow. Fools indeed.
Some stupid decisions by certain members of Asrock's marketing team doesn't stop a lot of their products still being decent. Don't take umbrance at what is probably one idiots over-reaction - they are still a decent company making decent products (apart from z390s......) and have long time been one of the more "fun" brands. As yet they haven't acheived MSI's level of aggression towards reviewers which has been far more pervasive and long term. Obvs Steve will have his own view/experiences with MSI and how their working relationship is over the years. I would bet it has been up and down, and most manufacturers as some point will do something silly like this, but usually it is an individual rather than a man at the top decision and that's why you often see "black listing" disappear when somebody more enlightened gets employed in the applicable role and sees sense.
Just ordered an MSI B550 Gaming Edge for a screaming good deal... currently $160 on sale at Newegg - thank you so much for these comparisons!
I have Asus B550-F motherboard and it works fine.
what CPU
@@PostmanPatAU R7 3700x
have u got any issues with ur intel lan or all ok?
@@bloodrayneforever we don't hv lan connection.. so can't say.. we used the wifi 6 module.. and its working fine
Excellent information and allows for an informed decision when selecting your motherboard. Recommended it to anyone interested in buying a B550 board. Very impressive work!
Why would anyone buy an expensive b550 instead of a good x570?
Me for example I don't like the fan on the chipset. I have an allergy for small diameter fans....
Most b550 are better than most of the x570 boards
@@SoriPop How so?
Good question, but there aren't that many expensive (200$+) B550 boards. However, why would anyone buy sub-200$ X570 board over B550?
most x570 around 200 are garbage the b550 are much better in the vrm department as you can see in steves testing
I wonder if Gigabyte would send you the B550 Aorus Elite V2 version for testing. Seems like there's a change in the VRM design and they've added an internal Type C header as well.
no love for itx
I'm hoping they'll do a separate video for all of the itx boards and that's why they're excluding itx boards from these videos.
If you watch until the end, he mentions that he'll do a separate video for ITX boards.
God, the amount of effort. I hope you had a good break after this. I'm just impressed.
Amazing review! Obviously MSI did a nice job on it's budget boards.
These types of videos are really the most valuable to me - thank you! EXCELLENT job!
This makes me happy about buying the B550 Gaming Edge Wifi last month. Thank you for this review.
Seems like the AIO is installed upside down at 10:05 (according to GN)... unless there's not enough space for the tubes.
You ain't installing a 360mm rad any other way mate ;)
from the mirrored picture on the glass panel it's obvious it's installed correctly
>You ain't installing a 360mm rad any other way
... in that case.
@@alexusman Yeah I mean that goes without saying. Normally I top mount them when that's an option.
I was wondering how long it would be before someone made this stupid comment without engaging their brain and taking into consideration that it is a 360 rad so the cables are not long enough, and that rather rubbish (sorry Corsair) case wont take the 360 at the top.
I like these videos, and they definitely are a great value to the community. I did miss the discussion about the SATA ports and m.2 slots, as all these boards can handle the 3950x overclocked, so there can be a lot of value for some users to have three m.2 slots and/or six or eight SATA ports (the Taichi looked like it had 8). Overall though, I think once once gets over ~$200 some x570 boards might be a better buy.
Sorry, I probably mention this on every motherboard roundup, but if there's one thing I hate it's swapping hard drives when I can just add a new one along side the full one.
Completely agree, you are describing my use case perfectly. I had to go with the Taichi, as all of the other options have big compromises. The Taichi is the only one that has 8 SATA ports (my CH VI and X470 Taichi have 8), an option to run BOTH m.2's (those other boards can't, without disabling a PCIE slot). And that can put PCIE cards in slot 3 and 5 without disabling anything. The only thing that happens is that PCIE5 gets downclocked to 2x but for my uses, that's fine. Also.. for SATA.. 4 ports are chipset (full speed) and 4 ports are on two Asmedia controllers that can bottleneck (in pairs of two) but you've basically got 4 for SSD and 4 for HDD or BR drive.. which is fine for my uses.
All of the other flagship boards either disable 2 SATA slots (and they only have 6 to start with), or disable PCIE5 slot (really bad) or downgrade the m.2 speed (sort of negating the advantage of m.2 in the first place). I have a text file somewhere which specifies which does which but yeah. The MSI disables a PCIE and also downgrades m.2 speed (yuck). The Gigabyte doesn't even have a USB Type C internal header for the front panel. My current phone doesn't use a Type C connection but I can guarantee within the next 5 years, my new one will. My main reason for buying this board? Future proofing PCIE4.0 for a GPU upgrade in a few years time. Or for PCIE4.0 m.2 for when Samsung finally gets around to releasing one.. and after the price drops a bit. I really don't like chipset fans. Maybe I would, if they included a spare fan in the motherboard box, but they don't.
The things you talk about are the most valuable to me.. assuming the VRM and everything else is 'decent'. Plenty of USB ports on the back, USB flashback is nice if you want to upgrade CPU in the future, but yeah.. the ability to use expansion cards or add extra SSD or HDD drives. Like you said.. having spare ports, a spare spot in the cage and an easy HDD upgrade. It doesn't mean you want to have everything full at all times.. but it's better to have the options open just incase.
For example with PCIE, a DVB-T2 card + capture card.. or audio card + midi card for advanced audio editing.. etc. My 24/7 setup will be DVB-T2 card + audio card, and then removing the audio card and using a DAC.. if the other slot is needed for something else. It also annoys me that the slot is missing between the GPU and CPU.. because it was a great place to hide a little wifi or lan card in there. And wouldn't affect thermals too much.. my CH VI has it.. but all of the more recent boards of the past few years no longer have it. Wifi or lan cards are sort of redundant on boards these days, but there's still SATA expansion or USB extension boards. The whole beauty of PC's is that they are so expandable.. but only if the motherboards provided give you the chance to do so. In terms of USB on the back, a spare port for a remote IR, or a joystick or steering wheel is always a handy thing to have. I recently just tried out FLIRC, and it's awesome.
Thank you Steve for this VRM testing video. I bought the MSI B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI last month. And must say this is truly fabulous motherboard. It has everything. I am using it with R7 3700X. Really very cool and stable. No issues at all. I am watching your every video Steve. Love from India.
Doesn't have post code or power/reset buttons :D
@@dainiusvysniauskas2049 Yes correct.
I'm really appreciating all this motherboard testing. Choosing a motherboard is one of the trickier aspects of a build.
Even though I'm not planning on overclocking, it's nice to see what performs well, and what is overpriced. Thanks Steve, great work. :)
Phew! No buyer's remorse here, I bought an MSI B550 gaming edge WiFi and love it. It was the same price on Amazon UK as the tomahawk so it really was no contest.
The only main difference between the two that I can see apart from what you mentioned is the lack of one m.2 heatsink, but that's only really cosmetic as far as I'm concerned, and the WiFi/Bluetooth is much better than a 1Gb Lan port!
So glad I didn't even look at the carbon...
David Lee I was positively surprised at the results because I expected it to be the same or worse than the tomahawk.
@@unknownperson3691 Me too if I'm honest. The big finned heatsinks actually look slightly smaller than the one(s) on the tomahawk, or maybe just the one at the top, not the back. But I AM pleased by the results shown here, and the WiFi/Bluetooth is much better than having 2 Lan ports, I don't really understand why you would connect to 2 (different?) networks.