ASUS ProArt B550-CREATOR

[Black Haru]

Featuring Thunderbolt 4, dual 2.5 Gbps LAN, and a formidable VRM design, the ASUS ProArt B550-CREATOR targets productivity and power users. With a sleek and modern black and gold theme and no built in RGB, the B550-CREATOR focuses on superior performance and connectivity in a no-nonsense package.

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[mechtech]

Thanks for the review. I'd have to agree with amount of M.2 and sata slots/ports.

One thing that would be nice to see for this tier of motherboard would be ECC ram capability/compatibility.

 

[efikkan]

I'd have to agree with amount of M.2 and sata slots/ports.

Can the B550 the support more without multiplexing?
I do agree that three or four M.2 slots would be better, but it would drive up cost of the mainstream platform. There is of course the option of using a PCIe to M.2 adapter for the 4x slot.
These days I feel there is a gap between mainstream and HEDT. I see many power users like myself wanting 3-4 M.2 slots, plus a GPU and a slot for a 10G NIC, but with no need for more than 6-8 fast cores.

One thing that would be nice to see for this tier of motherboard would be ECC ram capability/compatibility.

That would be nice, but only providing that the motherboard and new CPU models were validated and did in fact use extra parity. Just having a BIOS which "enables" ECC without the hardware doing the validation is pointless. I wouldn't mind paying $50 extra for a workstation counterpart of 5600X/5800X with hardware ECC and stability on par with entry-level Xeon.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Is anyone else seriously disappointed with the fact that one of the main features on this board is Thunderbolt and it wasn't test at all?

 

[Caring1]

An Australian artist that went by the name of Pro Hart might have taken exception to the naming scheme if he was still alive, it sounds too similar.

 

[Operandi]

Found a type o in the conclusions. Lack of RBG is obviously in the wrong column.

 

[duynguyenle]

I am slightly confused about the VRM layout. On the first page, summary section, the table reads: CPU Power: 14-phase (which I think is wrong but more discussion on that below) but on page 4 (VRM overview), there's this sentence: "Three Vishay SIC639 power stages run in parallel for each phase, which gives ASUS triple the power-handling capability without using any doublers." I'm assuming there's an error here, it should say *TWO* power stages in parallel for each phase instead of three. If you follow the actual specs table, then this board would have 14 phase * 3 power stage per phase = 42 power stages total for CPU power delivery, which is clearly not the case here.

Additionally, since the power stages are parallel, I think it's incorrect to state on the front page that the CPU power is 14 phase, since there is no scenario where the two 'teamed' power stages run out of phase with each other (they're in parallel), so I think it is more accurate to state that it's a 7-phase CPU power (6 Vcore + 1 SOC) with 2 parallel power stages per phase. Does anyone agree? Either that or change the wording to say that it's a 14-stages CPU power instead of 14-phase.

 

[efikkan]

I just want to share my opinions of this board, now that I've built one system using it. Here are a few of my impressions:

Linux support:
It seemingly works fine with Linux (Ubuntu 20.04), it has been running without issues for three weeks. I also ran it for a day with Prime95 and Unigine Valley as well, with no stability issues.
If someone has something in particular they want tested, let me know.

IO support:
While I haven't tested Thunderbolt, I want to emphasize the limitations since this isn't well described in the review; Thunderbolt shares bandwidth with the bottom PCIe x4 slot, so read the fine print in the manual before purchasing if you plan to use Thunderbolt. This is relevant for content creators attracted to this board due to Thunderbolt, thinking this will be great for an affordable "workstation", but if you want to be able to add a 10G Ethernet card, then you probably should look for a HEDT board instead. This is one of those edge cases where mainstream platforms may come up short for some (semi-)pro users.

The two x1 slots also share bandwidth with the second M.2 slot, but this is pretty normal.

Overall impressions:
Building with this motherboard is pretty normal and hassle free.
I especially appreciate the BIOS FlashBack feature, which was one of the selling points for me. While Ryzen 5000 worked out of the box, this is still valuable for future CPU refreshes or failed BIOS flashes.
This is no cheap board, but probably will be my go-to board if I set up more AM4 systems.

One extra x4 PCIe slot or M.2 slot would have been appreciated, but that's a limitation of the platform.