Gigabyte B550 AORUS Pro

[NRANM]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

"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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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?

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]

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]

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]

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_]

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.