# Gigabyte B550 AORUS Pro



## Black Haru (Jun 16, 2020)

At long last, B550 has arrived! The B550 AORUS Pro from Gigabyte features a 12+2 phase VRM, Gigabyte's famed finned VRM cooling solution, 2.5 Gb/s LAN from Realtek, and a full set of mainstream features. 

*Show full review*


----------



## TheLostSwede (Jun 16, 2020)

No mention of which interfaces as multiplexed? As this board has a lot more interfaces than what can be used at once. This might be something important to point out in reviews of boards based on such chipsets.


----------



## Blaazen (Jun 16, 2020)

Don't you know if the sibling board Aorus Pro B550 AC (i.e. with WiFi) has bundled external antenna or just those sticks?

@ TheLostSwede: From their web:

1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX4), integrated in the Chipset:

Supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 mode
* The M2B_SB connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2B_SB connectors.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX2), integrated in the Chipset:

Supporting PCIe 3.0 x2 mode
* The PCIEX2 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The PCIEX2 slot will become unavailable when a device is installed in the SATA3 4 or SATA3 5 connector.


----------



## TheLostSwede (Jun 16, 2020)

Blaazen said:


> Don't you know if the sibling board Aorus Pro B550 AC (i.e. with WiFi) has bundled external antenna or just those sticks?
> 
> @ TheLostSwede: From their web:
> 
> ...


My point was, it might make sense to point these limitations out in reviews, since not everyone is going to go to the product page to find this out.


----------



## cucker tarlson (Jun 16, 2020)

I so wanna get b550 and 3300x


----------



## r.h.p (Jun 16, 2020)

cucker tarlson said:


> I so wanna get b550 and 3300x


why you wanna get so it is so much young CT ...


----------



## cucker tarlson (Jun 16, 2020)

r.h.p said:


> why you wanna get so it is so much young CT ...


so that GeForce may be stronger with me

but srsly,cause it'd be fun to play with one.


----------



## Tsukiyomi91 (Jun 16, 2020)

this is definitely my pick when I go shopping for new parts. RGB on this isn't much of an issue since I prefer subtle glows over bright lighting that is over-the-top.


----------



## iuliug (Jun 16, 2020)

Gigabyte is very slow with Bios updates and leaves platforms behind in terms of updates. Also it has bad customer support.


----------



## john_ (Jun 16, 2020)

> 1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX16), *integrated in the CPU*:
> 1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX4), *integrated in the Chipset:*
> *The M2B_SB connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2B_SB connectors.*
> 1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX2), *integrated in the Chipset:
> ...



These are *HUGE RED FLAGS*. Sorry for the expression but PURE BS. Not paying a single dollar over $100 for this pathetic joke.
I have a GA-990XA-UD3 that makes much better usage of it's PCIe lanes.


Spoiler



1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode. )
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All PCI Express slots conform to the PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
2 x PCI slots


Granted a very old model, not for Ryzen, but I am using it here as a example. It's obvious that motherboard manufacturers are trying to push consumers to the more expensive models making stupid decisions for the models that sell under $200.


----------



## TheLostSwede (Jun 16, 2020)

iuliug said:


> Gigabyte is very slow with Bios updates and leaves platforms behind in terms of updates. Also it has bad customer support.


Sorry, but this couldn't be further from the truth with their recent boards. My X570 boards has had timely updates with every new AGESA release from AMD and then some. They've fixed all the issues that the platform had as quickly as they've been able to.
I thought I got a dud of a CPU to start with, but as the UEFI has matured for my board, it turned out I got some really good silicon.
So no, Gigabyte is NOT every slow with UEFI updates.

As for their customers support, well, it ain't great, that much I can agree on.



john_ said:


> These are *HUGE RED FLAGS*. Sorry for the expression but PURE BS. Not paying a single dollar over $100 for this pathetic joke.
> I have a GA-990XA-UD3 that makes much better usage of it's PCIe lanes.
> 
> 
> ...


This is going to be the same, or worse, on all B550 boards outside of mini-ITX and maybe a few mATX boards.
The chipset is limited to six PCIe lanes. One has to be used for Ethernet, as AMD doesn't have a custom bus for Ethernet, like Intel does.
That leaves five PCIe lanes, two of which are share with two SATA ports.
It's really hard to make an advanced board out of that and AMD really should've gone for 6+2, rather than 4+2 as it is now.
That said, I doubt most consumers use more than one NVMe drive and one or two SATA drives in addition to that, so for most people, this is unlikely to be an issue for most of the target market.
Also, you have the top of the range chipset for that generation, so maybe compare with the X570 chipset instead, which doesn't have any real limitations?


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jun 16, 2020)

Gigabyte is praised for its VRM cooling but all I can see is a plastic box completely surrounding the CPU VRM heatsink and preventing and real airflow through it whatsover.


----------



## TheLostSwede (Jun 17, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> Gigabyte is praised for its VRM cooling but all I can see is a plastic box completely surrounding the CPU VRM heatsink and preventing and real airflow through it whatsover.


Ah, but all the cool motherboards have those plastic boxes now...
You can thank Asus for that...

Still, this board does at least have a partial "proper" heatsink, rather than just a slab of aluminium on top of the VRMs.


----------



## john_ (Jun 17, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> This is going to be the same, or worse, on all B550 boards outside of mini-ITX and maybe a few mATX boards.
> The chipset is limited to six PCIe lanes. One has to be used for Ethernet, as AMD doesn't have a custom bus for Ethernet, like Intel does.
> That leaves five PCIe lanes, two of which are share with two SATA ports.
> It's really hard to make an advanced board out of that and AMD really should've gone for 6+2, rather than 4+2 as it is now.
> ...


 Have a look at the $300 Taichi from ASRock.


> - 3 x PCI Express x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3/PCIE5: single at Gen4x16 (PCIE1); dual at Gen4x8 (PCIE1) / Gen4x8 (PCIE3); triple at Gen4x8 (PCIE1) / Gen4x8 (PCIE3) / Gen3x4 (PCIE5))*
> *If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.
> 
> - 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slots
> ...



They are doing a great job IN THIS motherboard with the PCIe lanes. Because they connect the two PCIe x16 on the CPU. On the other hand in the case of Gigabyte, almost everything is connected on the chipset, a chipset that can't provide enough lanes. So it's more like a microATX board with a price and looks of an ATX board. This is ridiculous and Taichi proves that the PCIe lanes that 550 provides are more than enough to create something that will offer REAL possibilities and not an illution to justify a higher price tag.
To be fair, ASRock doesn't say what happens if you try to populate everything, all PCIe slots AND those two M.2s. Best case scenario it downgrades the slots to x4, x2, x1. But it doesn't clarify this either.

As for that old AM3+, it wasn't the top model. It was based on the 990X chipset, not the 990FX. 990X was offering only 22 PCIe lanes (plus 4 I think from the SB950), where 990FX was offering 42. And if I remember correctly(too many years), it's price was around 120 euros, with the FX model going for around 170. Now for $170 they try to sell you a microATX in an ATX form.


----------



## TheLostSwede (Jun 17, 2020)

john_ said:


> Have a look at the $300 Taichi from ASRock.


Sorry, what's your point?
That they split up the lanes from the CPU into a mess instead?
Still a lot of slots that can't be fully utilised. I guess you missed the fine print?


> *If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.


ASRock isn't very forthcoming about how the rest is supposed to work, as they have more PCIe devices than they have lanes on that board.
I guess PCIE5 is also shared with the second M.2 slot
ASRock also has to use some kind of PCIe splitter/bridge, as there simply aren't enough lanes from the chipset to support all the features they've put on the board.
If you tally up all the devices alone, you end up with more devices than PCIe lanes, since they only have a total of six to play with.
Ethernet 1x PCIe, Wi-Fi, 1x PCIe, ASMedia SATA controller 1x PCI, M.2 slot 4x PCIe, bottom x16 slot 4x PCIe, two PCIe x1 slots 2x PCIe, that's a total of 13 PCIe lanes, which is impossible, as none of these are using lanes from the CPU. So the bottom x16 slot is shared with the x1 PCIe slots, fair enough, but that still doesn't explain the second M.2 or how there can be three peripheral chips connected via PCIe, at least not without the use of a PCIe splitter/bridge. There also seems to be an additional USB 3.x host controller on this board, which eats up another PCIe lane, although they could be using a hub.
But as ASRock isn't being honest and provides a diagram of how things are connected, this is just speculation right now.


----------



## john_ (Jun 17, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> Sorry, what's your point?
> That they split up the lanes from the CPU into a mess instead?
> Still a lot of slots that can't be fully utilised. I guess you missed the fine print?
> 
> ...



You are kidding. You have to be kidding. What do you call a mess? The fact that they offer the option to use those slots at their full potential and if necessary to use all or most of them,  at a downgraded mode? That's not a mess, that's a STANDARD feature that EVERY board SHOULD offer. And no I didn't miss that "downgrade" note. I will take a downgraded PCIe 4.0 at x8 or x4 ANY time instead of that ridiculous PCie 3.0 x16 slot that is connected on the chipset and runs at x4 or the other x16 that runs as an x2. Not to mention that they will be rendered useless the moment I connect an M.2 drive in the second M.2 slot or a SATA drive. I mean someone is giving you the option to fully utilize the motherboard that you just bought and you call it a mess? And someone else is selling you a half functioning product and you find it better?

P.S. Hope this is not an ASRock vs Gigabyte thing. I took that ASRock as an example. I am not an ASRock fun.


----------



## TheLostSwede (Jun 17, 2020)

john_ said:


> You are kidding. You have to be kidding. What do you call a mess? The fact that they offer the option to use those slots at their full potential and if necessary to use all or most of them,  at a downgraded mode? That's not a mess, that's a STANDARD feature that EVERY board SHOULD offer. And no I didn't miss that "downgrade" note. I will take a downgraded PCIe 4.0 at x8 or x4 ANY time instead of that ridiculous PCie 3.0 x16 slot that is connected on the chipset and runs at x4 or the other x16 that runs as an x2. Not to mention that they will be rendered useless the moment I connect an M.2 drive in the second M.2 slot or a SATA drive. I mean someone is giving you the option to fully utilize the motherboard that you just bought and you call it a mess? And someone else is selling you a half functioning product and you find it better?
> 
> P.S. Hope this is not an ASRock vs Gigabyte thing. I took that ASRock as an example. I am not an ASRock fun.


But that simply not true.
This board has a ton of limitations and ASRock isn't even  honest enough to release the proper spec.
Did you not understand anything of what I wrote? 
The board has EXACTLY the same issues as the Gigabyte board you trashed.  
I don't even know what to say to your comment, but you need to learn to read.


----------



## john_ (Jun 17, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> But that simply not true.
> This board has a ton of limitations and ASRock isn't even  honest enough to release the proper spec.
> Did you not understand anything of what I wrote?
> The board has EXACTLY the same issues as the Gigabyte board you trashed.
> I don't even know what to say to your comment, but you need to learn to read.



I totally understand what you wrote, it just looks like you are trolling me when you prefer a gazillion of slots on a chipset that offers only 6 REAL lanes.
I don't need to trash the Gigabyte board. Gigabyte itself did a nice job to make this motherboard look bad. That's why I am having a real problem with your post and I don't thing you are doing a sincere dialog here. Maybe you love Gigabyte and hate ASRock. That's not the point here. You have a $170 motherboard that connects two x16, two x1 and one M.2 slot on a chipset with only 6 PCIe lanes. This is a joke. Period. They totally avoid fully utilizing those 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes on the CPU. This is a cheap and lazy design on a motherboard with great looks to fool the consumer who will buy it. That's my opinion.


----------



## Blaazen (Jun 17, 2020)

The other tested board, ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming (WiFi), behaves the same as this Gigabyte:

1 x M.2_2 socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)*
* Share bandwidth with PCIe3.0 x1_1, PCIe3.0 x1_2, PCIe3.0 x1_3
* When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is populated , SATA6G_5/6 ports will be disabled.

Taichi B550 has only this limitation:
*If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.

Taichi has extra ASMedia ASM1061 chip(s), therefore its 8 SATA ports can be utilized always.


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jun 17, 2020)

TheLostSwede said:


> Ah, but all the cool motherboards have those plastic boxes now...
> You can thank Asus for that...
> 
> Still, this board does at least have a partial "proper" heatsink, rather than just a slab of aluminium on top of the VRMs.


The cooling fins on that heatsink could be made of pure copper and twice the size but it still won't matter if they can't get any airflow.
I took mine off on the one board I've bought for myself that actualy had one. I had to remove the bulls**t RGBLED that was soldered to it, too.

It was good for a ~25C VRM temperature reduction with no other changes whatsoever; A severe case of "form-over-function" and I'd be okay with that if it didn't hurt the function quite so badly or if I actually liked the form. To me, though, it just looked cheap, ugly, and vomit-inducingly RGBLED by default. I cannot imagine a world where that is the preferred option but 2020 seems to be proving that we are living in the worst timeline.


----------



## john_ (Jun 17, 2020)

Blaazen said:


> The other tested board, ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F Gaming (WiFi), behaves the same as this Gigabyte:
> 
> 1 x M.2_2 socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)*
> * Share bandwidth with PCIe3.0 x1_1, PCIe3.0 x1_2, PCIe3.0 x1_3
> ...


I had a look at most boards with the 550 and only two seems to try to take advantage of the PCIe lanes of the CPU, other than just driving them to the first PCIe x16 and throwing all other slots on the chipset. The ASRock Taichi and the Aorus Master from Gigabyte.
I wrote about the Taichi. It splits the lanes in the two first PCIe x16 slots. The Aorus Master on the other hand, it gives the option to split the 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes of the CPU between the first PCIe x16 slot and the 2nd and 3rd M.2 slots that it integrates. That's a nice option for anyone who needs more than one M.2 slot with the best possible bandwidth.


----------



## TheLostSwede (Jun 17, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> The cooling fins on that heatsink could be made of pure copper and twice the size but it still won't matter if they can't get any airflow.
> I took mine off on the one board I've bought for myself that actualy had one. I had to remove the bulls**t RGBLED that was soldered to it, too.
> 
> It was good for a ~25C VRM temperature reduction with no other changes whatsoever; A severe case of "form-over-function" and I'd be okay with that if it didn't hurt the function quite so badly or if I actually liked the form. To me, though, it just looked cheap, ugly, and vomit-inducingly RGBLED by default. I cannot imagine a world where that is the preferred option but 2020 seems to be proving that we are living in the worst timeline.


Yeah, too much "design" crap going into a lot of boards these days. They save 2 cents on something useful and spends $2 on some useless shroud with blinking lights on, because it looks cool...

Now that's an interesting way of attaching the Thunderbolt chip by Gigabyte.


----------



## RealNeil (Jun 17, 2020)

I just bought an AORUS B450 ELITE and a Ryzen 3600 CPU for my wife's office machine.
I had planned to upgrade her ASUS STRIX B350-F Gaming and Ryzen 1600X CPU setup, giving her a nice jump in power.
When I went to get her PC for the upgrade, she warned me off, saying that she's happy with what she has.
So it looks like I have another system to play with.

The B550 prices are a little too much for me.


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jun 18, 2020)

RealNeil said:


> I just bought an AORUS B450 ELITE and a Ryzen 3600 CPU for my wife's office machine.
> I had planned to upgrade her ASUS STRIX B350-F Gaming and Ryzen 1600X CPU setup, giving her a nice jump in power.
> When I went to get her PC for the upgrade, she warned me off, saying that she's happy with what she has.
> So it looks like I have another system to play with.
> ...


Curious why you bought a new board for the 3600 when the B350-F already supports the 3600?


----------



## RealNeil (Jun 18, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> Curious why you bought a new board for the 3600 when the B350-F already supports the 3600?


I have (had) plans for the 1600X and B350 setup.
Now I'm not sure what I'm gonna do.


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jun 18, 2020)

RealNeil said:


> I have (had) plans for the 1600X and B350 setup.
> Now I'm not sure what I'm gonna do.


Simple. 

Whatever you were going to do with a 1600X and B350 you now get to do with a 3600 and B450


----------



## RealNeil (Jun 18, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> Simple.
> 
> Whatever you were going to do with a 1600X and B350 you now get to do with a 3600 and B450




I was going to give it away to someone who needs a hand with a PC, but I'm not sure that I want to do that.
I have a quad-core Xeon on the shelf that would do for him.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 5, 2020)

On GIgabyte's specs page the M.2 slot connected to the chipset is listed as supporting only PCIe SSDs, not SATA. From this review, however, it isn't entirely clear what that slot supports. Anybody can shed some light here? It seems somewhat counterintuitive that I would need to connect my M.2 NVMe SSD to the chipset, and my M.2 SATA SSD to the CPU.


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jul 7, 2020)

NRANM said:


> On GIgabyte's specs page the M.2 slot connected to the chipset is listed as supporting only PCIe SSDs, not SATA. From this review, however, it isn't entirely clear what that slot supports. Anybody can shed some light here? It seems somewhat counterintuitive that I would need to connect my M.2 NVMe SSD to the chipset, and my M.2 SATA SSD to the CPU.


I would imagine both slots support SATA, but they only mention the PCIe because it's reduced to PCIe 3.0 instead of 4.0 on the chipset's M.2 slot.
If in doubt, download the user manual and see if there's any specific note about where you cannot insert a SATA M.2 drive.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 7, 2020)

The user manual lists the same information -- that the chipset M.2 slot (M2B_SB) supports only PCIe 3.0. Granted, it doesn't mention explicitly that a SATA SSD cannot be plugged into that slot, but I doubt it would support if it doesn't mention it.

We'll see, I've already ordered it.


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jul 7, 2020)

I would imagine they don't mention SATA support off the chipset specifically because that's just _assumed_ to always be there.
Even if your fears are justified, you won't have a problem since Zen2 CPUs have two SATA ports directly on the IO die of the CPU. Counter-intuitive or not, it'll work just the same.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 7, 2020)

I have no doubt it will work. It just seems a bit illogical to have to connect the slower SSD to the faster port, which would leave the faster SSD for the slower port. I doubt I would notice any difference in real-world scenarios, and I suspect this would only matter for some serious benchmarks, but it is still a bit weird.

I will report back with more information once I've replaced the my current B450 board with the new B550 one.


----------



## jesdals (Jul 9, 2020)

Seems that the bios slide with sata settings shows new chipsets the lastest bios for the x570 tell of new x590 as well.


----------



## Caring1 (Jul 9, 2020)

jesdals said:


> Seems that the bios slide with sata settings shows new chipsets the lastest bios for the x570 tell of new x590 as well.
> View attachment 161662


Yep, been reported before, weeks ago


----------



## NRANM (Jul 16, 2020)

As promised, I'm here to report on my findings. Yes, the technical specifications on Gigabyte's page are indeed correct. The chipset M.2 slot does NOT support SATA SSDs, only NVMe.

I also encountered a weird problem, where my mouse would stop working every few seconds for about another few seconds, and my keyboard's backlight kept blinking. That happened when both were connected to the top-most row of USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel, alongside a USB DAC and the USB cable for the monitor's USB ports. Moved the mouse and keyboard down to the second row of USB 2.0 ports (the one next to the video outputs), and thus far they are behaving fine.


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jul 17, 2020)

NRANM said:


> As promised, I'm here to report on my findings. Yes, the technical specifications on Gigabyte's page are indeed correct. The chipset M.2 slot does NOT support SATA SSDs, only NVMe.
> 
> I also encountered a weird problem, where my mouse would stop working every few seconds for about another few seconds, and my keyboard's backlight kept blinking. That happened when both were connected to the top-most row of USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel, alongside a USB DAC and the USB cable for the monitor's USB ports. Moved the mouse and keyboard down to the second row of USB 2.0 ports (the one next to the video outputs), and thus far they are behaving fine.


Thanks for being the early adopter so that by the time I start buying B550 boards in bulk you and other paying beta testers will have discovered most of the worst problems!
/salute.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 17, 2020)

Well, me being an early adopter was somewhat not entirely my choice, as I was having problems with my ASRock B450 Pro4, and wanted to replace it. The exhibited problems did not prevent the board from working but since they arose a few months after purchased and since I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I was both concerned about the future of the board and annoyed, which is why I decided to replace it this early.
X570 boards were expensive and quite of an overkill, few B450 boards fit my needs (two M.2 slots), so I decided to just get a B550 board as a good middle ground between B450 and X570 in terms of features and price. The B550 Aorus Pro is probably a bit of an overkill as well (stock R7 3700X) and it was a bit more than what I was planning to spend initially, but it gives me peace of mind, its fan control is light-years ahead of what ASRock offered (at least on the B450), and I can always try to pretend the falcon is actually a raven. One can dream...


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 18, 2020)

Could you please check the available dram termination voltage range for me?
I want this board but need low dram termination voltage for micron rev E overclocking.
I can't find this info anywhere, so your first hand info. would be much appreciated


----------



## RealNeil (Jul 18, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> Simple.
> 
> Whatever you were going to do with a 1600X and B350 you now get to do with a 3600 and B450


She ended up letting me upgrade her system. She really likes how much faster it is now.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 18, 2020)

Win_Wiz said:


> Could you please check the available dram termination voltage range for me?


If you can give me some basic pointers where to look (I am not familiar with AM4's overclocking options, as I cannot be bothered to overclock anything), I wouldn't mind checking.


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 18, 2020)

Its a bios setting. Gigabyte label it Dram termination (ch a/b). The setting is located under tweaker.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 19, 2020)

Win_Wiz said:


> Its a bios setting. Gigabyte label it Dram termination (ch a/b). The setting is located under tweaker.


Range is 0.450 V to 1.000 V. There are also "Auto" and "Normal" options.


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 19, 2020)

NRANM said:


> Range is 0.450 V to 1.000 V. There are also "Auto" and "Normal" options.


Perfect. That's what I hoped for. Thank you so much.


----------



## vladp6 (Jul 20, 2020)

After using this board (B550 Aorus Pro AC) for two weeks, I'd say better go with the cheap X570 board. The BIOS is still in the development (only F2 has now been released, whilst my previous B450 has F50 version). It does not support well new video cards (I'm having troubles with Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT). There are no lanes to install my second SSD (Samsung Evo 860), so I'm stuck with only 500 GB of Gigabyte Aorus SSD. Heating up issues, it seems there is a problem with voltages on the board, CPU is overheating all the time (compared to my previous B450). So, my sincere advice to all: just wait, don't buy the half-developed product from Gigabyte. If you need a new motherboard for new Ryzen and video card, buy a cheap X570 board, which has been on the market for quite some time.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 20, 2020)

For the record: no overheating issues here with my R7 3700X.


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 20, 2020)

vladp6 said:


> After using this board (B550 Aorus Pro AC) for two weeks, I'd say better go with the cheap X570 board. The BIOS is still in the development (only F2 has now been released, whilst my previous B450 has F50 version). It does not support well new video cards (I'm having troubles with Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT). There are no lanes to install my second SSD (Samsung Evo 860), so I'm stuck with only 500 GB of Gigabyte Aorus SSD. Heating up issues, it seems there is a problem with voltages on the board, CPU is overheating all the time (compared to my previous B450). So, my sincere advice to all: just wait, don't buy the half-developed product from Gigabyte. If you need a new motherboard for new Ryzen and video card, buy a cheap X570 board, which has been on the market for quite some time.


Samsung 860 Evo, that's a sata ssd right? Do you have many sata devices or how come there is no lanes for it?


----------



## vladp6 (Jul 20, 2020)

Win_Wiz said:


> Samsung 860 Evo, that's a sata ssd right?



It is M.2 SATA: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-SATA-Internal-MZ-N6E500BW/dp/B078218TWQ

I can insert it into only into one available M.2 slot under the graphic card. There are actually two M.2 slots: one for PCIe, which is now occupied by Aorus NVMe, and another one is for anther M.2 SSD. However, the board does not detect any SSD, even being SATA, in this second slot. I've tried both Samsung 860 Evo and my older M.2 SATA SSD, but to no avail. Any SSD can be detected only in the first slot.



Win_Wiz said:


> Do you have many sata devices or how come there is no lanes for it?



This is the only SATA device I have.


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 20, 2020)

vladp6 said:


> It is M.2 SATA: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-SATA-Internal-MZ-N6E500BW/dp/B078218TWQ
> 
> I can insert it into only into one available M.2 slot under the graphic card. There are actually two M.2 slots: one for PCIe, which is now occupied by Aorus NVMe, and another one is for anther M.2 SSD. However, the board does not detect any SSD, even being SATA, in this second slot. I've tried both Samsung 860 Evo and my older M.2 SATA SSD, but to no avail. Any SSD can be detected only in the first slot.
> 
> ...


It is kind of stupid that only the pcie 4 m.2 slot supports sata. But for my usage it's better than competing ASRock boards that only support pcie 3x2/sata on the second m.2 slot.

The first m.2 slot (pcie4 from cpu) should support sata. 
Would the second (pcie3 x4 from chipset) slot bottleneck your Aorus ssd if you plug it in the 2nd m.2 slot?


----------



## NRANM (Jul 20, 2020)

vladp6 said:


> I can insert it into only into one available M.2 slot under the graphic card. There are actually two M.2 slots: one for PCIe, which is now occupied by Aorus NVMe, and another one is for anther M.2 SSD. However, the board does not detect any SSD, even being SATA, in this second slot. I've tried both Samsung 860 Evo and my older M.2 SATA SSD, but to no avail. Any SSD can be detected only in the first slot.


The lower M.2 slot does not support SATA SSDs, only NVMe. If you have a SATA SSD, it needs to be inserted into the upper M.2 slot. I explicitly tested this, and mentioned it above, as I wasn't sure if it was an error in the technical specifications for the motherboard.


----------



## vladp6 (Jul 20, 2020)

Win_Wiz said:


> Would the second (pcie3 x4 from chipset) slot bottleneck your Aorus ssd if you plug it in the 2nd m.2 slot?



Not sure, but nothing works in that second slot if the video card is connected to PCIe x16. I've tried to move the video card to the lower PCIe slot, but to no avail. I've tried different combinations and came to conclusion that the only system that can boot is the SSD (any) in the first M.2 slot together with the video card below.

This info is from Gigabyte manual:
1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX4), integrated in the Chipset:

Supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 mode
* The M2B_SB connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2B_SB connectors.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX2), integrated in the Chipset:

Supporting PCIe 3.0 x2 mode
* The PCIEX2 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3 4, 5 connectors. The PCIEX2 slot will become unavailable when a device is installed in the SATA3 4 or SATA3 5 connector.



NRANM said:


> The lower M.2 slot does not support SATA SSDs, only NVMe. If you have a SATA SSD, it needs to be inserted into the upper M.2 slot. I explicitly tested this, and mentioned it above, as I wasn't sure if it was an error in the technical specifications for the motherboard.



Exactly. However, I prefer that my Gen4 NVMe would benefit from the Gen4 slot. If I change their slots then I'd loose the advantage of using fast Gen4 SSD.


----------



## NRANM (Jul 20, 2020)

Well, in that case there is no perfect solution. You have to lose the Gen4 advantage, change the motherboard, or replace the M.2 SATA SSD with another NVMe.

My primary/NVMe drive is Gen3 so I don't care. Actually, I probably wouldn't have noticed a difference even if it were SATA (like the secondary), but I suppose you really need the Gen4 speeds.


----------



## vladp6 (Jul 20, 2020)

NRANM said:


> Well, in that case there is no perfect solution. You have to lose the Gen4 advantage, change the motherboard, or replace the M.2 SATA SSD with another NVMe.
> 
> My primary/NVMe drive is Gen3 so I don't care. Actually, I probably wouldn't have noticed a difference even if it were SATA (like the secondary), but I suppose you really need the Gen4 speeds.



Yes, I need this speed. Nevertheless, Gigabyte shouldn't decide for me what I need and what I don't. This mobo is in the price range of X570. In the future, I may purchase a Gen3 NVMe drive, but to replace the mobo, which costs much more, is problematic. That's why, in my opinion, X570 should be purchased instead of this fancy motherboard. There is simply no sense to pay that much for an incomplete X570 mobo.


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 20, 2020)

I don't know what you paid for the b550 Aorus pro, but in Denmark it's significantly cheaper than any x570 boards...
I skipped x570 because of power draw, chipset fan and price.
Strong vrm, support for fast ram and zen3, 2xM.2, pcie 4 for graphics+1 ssd is all I need.
But the somewhat limited pcie lanes mean you have to consider what you need and check the specs before purchasing any b550 board.

Regarding pcie4 vs pcie3 speeds I highly doubt you would notice any difference (except for benchmarks)


----------



## Chaino (Jul 23, 2020)

My z97 board has given up the ghost, can't find another one I like at a good price, going to miss my 4790k.  Very capable cpu even now.

Anyway, bought one of these boards, ddr4 ram, and a ryzen 3100.

Thought this time around I'd buy a better quality board, and update my cpu further down the track.  I did want a 3300x but just cant find them, and I'll still be running a gtx760 for a while yet, so I'm gpu bound anyway.

Thats the appeal of the b550 for me, the upgrade pathway.  Honestly this particular board is well built and has everything 90% of people will use.  The other 10% can buy an x570 I guess.

We are spoilt these days, and imo only the low cost of ssd drives has improved performance greatly overall for the masses, it's all been incremental otherwise.

Well done to gigabyte for not skimping on the production of this board.


----------



## vladp6 (Jul 23, 2020)

Just not Gigabyte. Buy Asus. By the way B450 works with Ryzen 3x as well. You just need to update the BIOS of the B450 to the latest version supporting Ryzen 3x. In my another build, I have Gigabyte B450 Aorus M board and Ryzen 3600. What I did, I've updated BIOS of the board with my previous Ryzen 2400G to the latest one F50 and then replaced the processor with Ryzen 3600. Everything works well. The only problem are faulty drivers and software of Gigabyte. Asus seems does not have these problems.


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 23, 2020)

vladp6 said:


> Just not Gigabyte. Buy Asus. By the way B450 works with Ryzen 3x as well. You just need to update the BIOS of the B450 to the latest version supporting Ryzen 3x. In my another build, I have Gigabyte B450 Aorus M board and Ryzen 3600. What I did, I've updated BIOS of the board with my previous Ryzen 2400G to the latest one F50 and then replaced the processor with Ryzen 3600. Everything works well. The only problem are faulty drivers and software of Gigabyte. Asus seems does not have these problems.


So maybe that's why Asus seems expensive compared to other boards with similar specs...
I know gigabytes rgb software isn't top notch, but apparently asrocks is even worse.
What gigabyte drivers are faulty?


----------



## vladp6 (Jul 23, 2020)

Win_Wiz said:


> What gigabyte drivers are faulty?



Those that you download from the Gigabyte site. I have actually solved the problem with constant crashing my new PC build by completely removing Adrenaline software and all the Gigabyte utilities including the EasyTune engine. I have extracted only drivers from the latest AMD package and installed them manually one by one (processor, chipset, graphics). Now, for a few days, not a single BSOD anymore. I have even been able to update Windows 10 to 1909 and no BSOD either.



Win_Wiz said:


> So maybe that's why Asus seems expensive compared to other boards with similar specs



Well, it is actually the same price as Gigabyte.


----------



## Win_Wiz (Jul 23, 2020)

vladp6 said:


> Those that you download from the Gigabyte site. I have actually solved the problem with constant crashing my new PC build by completely removing Adrenaline software and all the Gigabyte utilities including the EasyTune engine. I have extracted only drivers from the latest AMD package and installed them manually one by one (processor, chipset, graphics). Now, for a few days, not a single BSOD anymore. I have even been able to update Windows 10 to 1909 and no BSOD either.
> 
> 
> 
> Well, it is actually the same price as Gigabyte.


In Denmark Rog strix b550-f cost a little more than Aorus Pro. But the strix have 6+1 phase without doublers, so the vrm is better on the Aorus Pro. I'm also pretty sure the vrm cooling is better.
So I would argue gigabyte offers better value.


----------



## vx15 (Aug 12, 2020)

"_For the Gigabyte B550 AORUS Pro, one probe is centered along each bank of power stages. A probe is left out to log the ambient temperature. All temperatures are presented as Delta-T normalized to 20 °C, which is the measured temperature minus the ambient temperature plus 20 °C. The end result accounts for variation in ambient temperature, including changes over the course of a test, while presenting the data as if the ambient were a steady 20 °C for easy presentation. Additionally, there is no longer any direct airflow over the VRM with this new setup, placing extra strain on the VRM cooling._"
edit: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/gigabyte-b550-aorus-pro/15.html

ASUS strix b550f stock 38C
Gigabyte b550 aorus pro stock 50C
Gigabyte b550 aorus pro oc 57C
ASUS strix b550f oc 62C (*?*)
1.35V (*?*) @4.2 Prime95

i don`t understand here the text and result. Can anyone help me? Should I add the ambient temperature to these values? for example, ASUS strix b550f stock 62C + "20C" = 82C ? this is not clear for me. der8auer says something different, see -> 








-> b550 f 84C (vrm) 1,4V @4.2 Prime95

thanks for the answer!


----------



## Win_Wiz (Aug 13, 2020)

These are the temps you will get in room that's 20°c. If you room is 22°c temps will be 2°c warmer.


----------



## vx15 (Aug 13, 2020)

Win_Wiz said:


> These are the temps you will get in room that's 20°c. If you room is 22°c temps will be 2°c warmer.



(?)techpowerup vrm test-> b550f 1,35V @4,2ghz prime95 > 62C
der8auer vrm test -> b550f 1,4V @4,2ghz prime95 > 84C
hardwareunboxed vrm test > x570 tuf 1,4V @4,3ghz blender(?) > 78C

how is it posibble? 62C?

anyone idea?


----------



## Win_Wiz (Aug 13, 2020)

1.35V generates a fair amount less heat compared to 1.40V
I think der8auer use a probe -so where the probe is placed also influence the result.
But don't very. If you are not using sub zero cooling the vrms on any decent x570/b550 board will handle more watts than your cpu cooling can handle.


----------



## Laura55 (Nov 17, 2020)

Good morning all,

I am a newbie and bought a nice premounted PC from a company.
It was delivered failing immediately... NO POST
Here is my hardware
*AMD Ryzen 9 3900x (3.8/4.6GHz 12-core)
CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 2X16Go 3600Mhz
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10GDDR6X
GIGABYTE B550 AORUS PRO AC
SSD WD BLUE 1To NVME
BeQuiet DARK ROCK PRO 4
XIGMATEK GALAXY II PRO
GIGABYTE WIFI 6 AX Bluetooth 5.0
CORSAIR ICUE 465X WHITE
Corsair TX750M 80PLUS Gold
WINDOWS 10 HOME 64Bit*

I recieved it faulty, the DRAM red led was on ont the MB.
after hours searching and alternating ram bars into diffrent slots, the only combination that worked was slot 1&2 ( it was received on slot 2 & 4). yep finally it started I had post and could access bios and OS.

I started discovering the BIOS finally and tested the Fastboot setting.


			https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_b550-aorus-pro-ac_1001_e.pdf
		


BOUM, after restart VGA led on the MB was on and no post again...

started to research the net again to find what was wrong.. without finding any real reason on why this happened, i tested all proposed solutions (sometimes for other models..

I switched my GPU to another IDE and it worked.

Back in the business, working again.. BUT

My GPU on the lower IDE is touching the cables fixed on the lower part of the MB.. and one of the GPU fan is not turning because of this..

I upgraded the Bios to f11, tried CMOS reset, removing MB battery, no luck

the original IDE slot (the right one IDE16x, silver plated) is not working anymore, who can that be? I tried putting it back after BIOS upgrade, but no luck..(VGA led on)

Is there a way to reset this port so i Wouldn't have VGA red allarm light on MB and get POST working again from this slot?

Should i open a new post elsewhere?

Thanks for guiding me, I am so useless...

Laura


----------



## vladp6 (Nov 17, 2020)

Laura, this is one of the most problematic MBs I have ever had. There is only one PCIe 4 line available for the SSD. If you put the SSD into PCIe 4, and you video card should supposedly go to the same line, you won't have any luck here. It is even written in this MB manual.


----------



## Laura55 (Nov 17, 2020)

vladp6 said:


> Laura, this is one of the most problematic MBs I have ever had. There is only one PCIe 4 line available for the SSD. If you put the SSD into PCIe 4, and you video card should supposedly go to the same line, you won't have any luck here. It is even written in this MB manual.


lucky me


----------



## vladp6 (Nov 17, 2020)

Laura55 said:


> lucky me



I feel you. You have a very strong build, consider changing this MB, because it is really a bottleneck in your system.


----------



## Caring1 (Nov 17, 2020)

Laura55 said:


> Should i open a new post elsewhere?


First option should be, return to the place you bought it to get it fixed under warranty.
But if you can't.
Post here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/forums/system-builders-advice.61/
or ask a mod to move your post.


----------



## Laura55 (Nov 17, 2020)

vladp6 said:


> I feel you. You have a very strong build, consider changing this MB, because it is really a bottleneck in your system.


thanks for your kind words, anyway I can fix this without returning it?



Caring1 said:


> First option should be, return to the place you bought it to get it fixed under warranty.
> But if you can't.
> Post here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/forums/system-builders-advice.61/
> or ask a mod to move your post.


thanks for guiding me, just did it


----------



## vladp6 (Nov 17, 2020)

Laura55 said:


> thanks for your kind words, anyway I can fix this without returning it?



You are welcome. Unfortunately, the only fix possible here is replacing this weak and troubling MB for better one. For such a build, I'd definitely go for ASUS X570 based MB.


----------



## Laura55 (Nov 17, 2020)

Caring1 said:


> First option should be, return to the place you bought it to get it fixed under warranty.
> But if you can't.
> Post here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/forums/system-builders-advice.61/
> or ask a mod to move your post.


thanks for guiding me, just did it


----------



## Win_Wiz (Nov 17, 2020)

Laura55 said:


> thanks for guiding me, just did it


I think ram slot 1&2 means your ram is running single channel. If so that is bad for performance.
You paid for a working prebuild system so I would advise you to make the system look like it was when you got it. And return. Let the shop solve their problem.
PS: Don't let the asus fanboys get to you, the Aorus pro is not a bad motherboard.


----------



## Chrispy_ (Nov 17, 2020)

If the board is only working in single channel mode it could be many things that cause that including (but definitely not my first choice of diagnosis) a faulty motherboard.

The first suspect when some RAM slots don't work is actually an improperly-installed processor with a bent pin.

@Win_Wiz is right, you paid for a working system and if the CPU pins are damaged and bent, or if the board, or if the RAM is faulty, send the whole thing back to the place you bought it as a prebuilt and get them to fix their mistake.

As for Asus vs Gigabyte/Aorus - they are both tier-one vendors who carefully validate their hardware against hundreds of different configurations. There may still be quirks and oddities but if there were any serious issues with the board they'd release a new revision at the very least and that hasn't happened with the B550 Aorus Pro.

I build hundreds of machines a year and if anything, Aorus and Gigabyte are better quality than Asus for any given price range. So my advice is to buy Asus if you have unlimited budget as their flagship products are more 'flagship' than other vendors, but if you are buying any other price bracket stick to one of the other three big vendors.


----------

