New build - undecided between B450 & B550

[/\ndy]

Probably been asked a dozen times, but here goes.

Putting together an Mini ITX build, so I'm torn between the Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX and the Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI.

Difference of £70~ between them which is important to note.

I can see the B450 board will support the 3000 series chips + the 5000 series pending BIOS update, so where is the selling point of B550?

Sure you get PCIe 4.0, Wifi 6 support and 2.5gb LAN but I won't be using any of these features. (purely gimmicks IMO with no real world use)

I would get B550 if down the line there's support for 'Zen 4' but chances are they're moving away from the AM4 socket on the next run, so where's the incentive to buy?

Probably answered my own question, but I think for a saving of £70~ surely it makes sense to go B450?

 

[Quartz]

Probably answered my own question, but I think for a saving of £70~ surely it makes sense to go B450?

If the CPU you are purchasing is a 5000 series get the B550; if the 3000 series get the B450. The selling point of the B550 is that it supports the 5000 series CPUs now.

 

[chrcoluk]

PCIE4 is it really. If you dont need it, save some £ and get the B450.

 

[/\ndy]

If the CPU you are purchasing is a 5000 series get the B550; if the 3000 series get the B450. The selling point of the B550 is that it supports the 5000 series CPUs now.

Gotcha, I always thought B450 supported thew new 5000 series too!

 

[Shaolin Chicken]

The b550 also comes with much better vrms so will support higher core processors with no problems.

 

[Darujhistan]

Gotcha, I always thought B450 supported thew new 5000 series too!

B450 does support Ryzen 5000. AMD backtracked on it.

https://hexus.net/tech/news/mainboard/146167-asus-confirms-amd-ryzen-5000-support-x470-b450-b450-ii/

 

[Quartz]

B450 does support Ryzen 5000. AMD backtracked on it.

Nitpick: B450 is going to support Ryzen 5000 - it does not yet do so.

 

[Darujhistan]

Nitpick: B450 is going to support Ryzen 5000 - it does not yet do so.

Yes. Due in January. Beta Bios's appearing on Reddit right now, not that I would risk them, but it does show that if they're genuine, then official releases are not far behind, they may even have been leaked purposely.

 

[BluesFanUK]

Not sure if you made your decision, but i'll chime in.

• Better VRM's (Most important if going 8< cores)
• Better wireless support
• Built in I/O shield
• 2x HDMI 2.1
• Support for higher RAM frequencies
• 2.5GbE
• 2x m.2 slots
• PCIe 4.0

The B550i is Ryzen 3000 ready, you'll need a BIOS update for the B450i, plus according to Gigabytes website Ryzen 5000 isn't supported (at least yet?)

Personally, if you don't care about overclocking and have no real care for PCIe 4.0 you'd actually be better off with the A520i. The VRM's on that stomp on the B450i's too!

 

[Miganto]

Not sure if you made your decision, but i'll chime in.

• Better VRM's (Most important if going 8< cores)
• Better wireless support
• Built in I/O shield
• 2x HDMI 2.1
• Support for higher RAM frequencies
• 2.5GbE
• 2x m.2 slots
• PCIe 4.0

The B550i is Ryzen 3000 ready, you'll need a BIOS update for the B450i, plus according to Gigabytes website Ryzen 5000 isn't supported (at least yet?)

Personally, if you don't care about overclocking and have no real care for PCIe 4.0 you'd actually be better off with the A520i. The VRM's on that stomp on the B450i's too!

Nice run down, thanks. I would be looking for something like a 5600x but without a desire to OC until near the end of life, I would want pcie 4.0, so would B550i stlil best for myself?

 

[BluesFanUK]

Nice run down, thanks. I would be looking for something like a 5600x but without a desire to OC until near the end of life, I would want pcie 4.0, so would B550i stlil best for myself?

Yep, if you want PCIE 4.0 if narrows you down to x570 and B550. The Gigabyte B550i is the pick of the bunch, plus if you're going to OC it handles temps much better.

 

[Miganto]

Yep, if you want PCIE 4.0 if narrows you down to x570 and B550. The Gigabyte B550i is the pick of the bunch, plus if you're going to OC it handles temps much better.

Awesome thank you - is there any new board type heading our way for the 5000's, or is that the b550 over the b450?

I still have a 4690k and am very much wanting to upgrade with this generation, but am quite out of the loop!

 

[BluesFanUK]

Awesome thank you - is there any new board type heading our way for the 5000's, or is that the b550 over the b450?

I still have a 4690k and am very much wanting to upgrade with this generation, but am quite out of the loop!

Nothing's been announced as yet, there are certain refreshes of the B550 boards, but they'll likely be BIOS upgrades and ironing out some of the issues from the previous revisions. In anycase you've got a justifiable (BIG) upgrade path here over the 4690K. It's probably an easy decision for any potential buyer to be making at the moment tbh, price gouging aside, the AM4 platform has now run its life cycle with the release of Zen 3.

The next advancements involve USB 4.0, DDR5, PCIe 5.0 and 5nm likely within the next 18 months... by the time you're due a future upgrade all that would have matured and be much cheaper. I expect prices are going to skyrocket on computer components this time next year, even with COVID (hopefully) gone.