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New to RGB - Which B550 mATX do I get?

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noname2020x

noname2020x

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Joined
Jul 21, 2011
After tens of hours of research, I've cluttered my brain with too much and now I can't decide what to do.

I want a mobo with the following that has software that is compatible with the following RGB products:

Traits = USB C, Good Overclocking, 2 m.2s (at least one with PCIe 4.0), wifi+blutooth (not required but desired), bios update through flash (not required but desired)

Products = Crucial Ballistix RGB DDR4-3600, Corsair CXF 750 W, Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB (or DEEPCOOL Castle 240EX)

I've considered the TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS, GIGABYTE B550 AORUS, MSI MAG B550M MORTAR

Before the RGB issue, I was thinking about the AORUS.

Please help before I pull my hair out.
 
I wouldn’t go with gigabyte for motherboards, they have a reputation for not great bios’s recently. That’s including my own experiences. They also have probably the most unreliable rgb software, loads of people have problems with it.

I think Asus would be a decent choice for any board, performance and rgb support. That TUf board has both 3 and 4 pin rgb headers so you should be covered for most things.


 
MSI has really bad RGB software. It has problems with restarting LEDs on RAM and other devices without blinking for like 0.5 sec every couple of secs and has problems with LED synchronization on RAM in dynamic modes (that's why it restarts LEDs every couple of seconds). It also can't recognize Ballistix modules properly on my X570 motherboard what causes that after restart it tries to force a default mode. This is less visible on MSI Intel motherboards but on AMD somehow works worse.
I don't know what about Gigabyte but ASUS and ASRock handle it well. On the other hand, AMD TUF motherboards recently have mixed reviews from actual users. Many complain about memory compatibility or faulty motherboards in general. Maybe it was related to early BIOS and was already fixed, I'm not sure.
The only small B550 motherboard which I can recommend from ASUS is Strix B550I-Gaming - https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b550-i-gaming-model/
It has everything listed in the #1 post but one M.2 is on the back of the PCB and it's ITX form factor so count that everything is more packed. On the other hand, it beats higher Strix motherboards in overclocking, compatibility, and other things.
 
Woomack said:
MSI has really bad RGB software. It has problems with restarting LEDs on RAM and other devices without blinking for like 0.5 sec every couple of secs and has problems with LED synchronization on RAM in dynamic modes (that's why it restarts LEDs every couple of seconds). It also can't recognize Ballistix modules properly on my X570 motherboard what causes that after restart it tries to force a default mode. This is less visible on MSI Intel motherboards but on AMD somehow works worse.
I don't know what about Gigabyte but ASUS and ASRock handle it well. On the other hand, AMD TUF motherboards recently have mixed reviews from actual users. Many complain about memory compatibility or faulty motherboards in general. Maybe it was related to early BIOS and was already fixed, I'm not sure.
The only small B550 motherboard which I can recommend from ASUS is Strix B550I-Gaming - https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b550-i-gaming-model/
It has everything listed in the #1 post but one M.2 is on the back of the PCB and it's ITX form factor so count that everything is more packed. On the other hand, it beats higher Strix motherboards in overclocking, compatibility, and other things.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info!
I didn't know about the TUF issues. The mobo you recommend is pretty pricey, unfortunately. The Gigabyte board seems to get pretty good reviews (other than rgb). Should I just not worry about mobo rgb software and get an rgb controller? How well do they work? Are they easy?
 
Personally, I don't like RGB controllers. Most have limited options and are annoying to use. Also, many are pretty much the same and low quality. Just my limited experience about it as I'm not checking RGB controllers often.
What I heard about TUF motherboards can be just a matter of luck to reviews that I've seen. It's not a rule. These motherboards are inexpensive so sell well. A high amount of sales also generates more reviews and on the web, mostly unhappy users share their experience. I can still see the difference in quality between TUF and Strix and next with higher ROG motherboards.
Gigabyte B550 motherboards have good reviews and are inexpensive. If you see it has all the features you need then maybe it's a good option.

If you want everything well-synchronized, then stick with one brand for motherboard and graphics card (if it has RGB lighting). My test rig looks like this - MSI motherboard doesn't like some RAM, ASRock graphics card works only with ASRock RGB software. To use MSI+Ballistix+ASRock and Enermax AIO without issues, I have to use 3 different software and the best if I keep only static lighting.

Typically there is no problem with motherboards and any fans/coolers which are using RGB/ARGB headers. You may only have problems with some RAM or graphics cards ... or some SSD but it's not so popular.
 
Also helpful.

Someone in my area is selling 64gb of compatible 3600 CL18 RGB ram for 225, so I think I'm gonna do the Gigabyte board.

------

Scratch that, it doesn't make sense to get 64... I'll never use it.

Is the ASUS going to automatically work with 5600x?

Will it support processors after this gen?
 
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It depends on which bios it shipped with. It might, but Asus has a lot of beta bios up for my board, not sure I would want to run a beta bios.. Heck the bios I have loaded on my board they pulled it 2 days later.. and after you reboot or wake the pc from sleep it takes 38s for the intel lan to initialize, every single time. Super huge pain in the you know. Its a good board though :D

Sigh.
 
B550 should work with 5000 CPUs. X570 usually have older BIOS. In both cases, it's good to have a motherboard that can flash BIOS via a dedicated USB port, without the CPU. Sometimes it's worth paying a bit more for these features that you will use maybe one time but can save you a lot of time or money later (or can be a waste of money ;) ).
 
My Auros Mobo RGB and software is fine...The case software controls everything .

I also get tired of it after a while so if the case stops matching the heartbeat of the AIO, I ignore it. I set it up for solid green but no I am sick of it. So it works fine but I have to babysit it. No RAM RGB in my case.
 
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