Bought this with a 5700X for a new work PC as my old one died, and it says it's 'Ryzen 5000 series ready'. It is not. Nor does it have a BIOS Flashback ability. Which means, you have to buy this board, somehow get your hands on an older Ryzen CPU just so you can flash the BIOS to a newer version that will allow you to run a 5000 series CPUs. However, having spent money on a 5000 series, I'm stuck after spending hard earned money, I'm unable to complete any work. So, I'm stuck with taking this into a shop to get someone to use an older CPU to flash it for me so I can use the product it says it's compatible with. Absolutely unacceptable.

Exited but with some things I wish were made clear

Always love going to Micro Center. Admittedly this is the first and second time I had been in well over a decade but I purchased two computer build projects a gaming computer for my 12-year-old and one for myself for work after my work computer went down. I do a lot of 3D printing and designing and really needed something that was going to allow me to move forward instead of keep struggling. Really enjoy the experience there the staff is helpful. Probably something I should have known already however the only issue I had with this build is that there are a couple of things that aren't working. The front fans and the exhaust fan still not sure why. The Wi-Fi on my motherboard had to reset up and driver downloaded. Would have liked to have known that. I definitely ... MoreAlways love going to Micro Center. Admittedly this is the first and second time I had been in well over a decade but I purchased two computer build projects a gaming computer for my 12-year-old and one for myself for work after my work computer went down. I do a lot of 3D printing and designing and really needed something that was going to allow me to move forward instead of keep struggling. Really enjoy the experience there the staff is helpful. Probably something I should have known already however the only issue I had with this build is that there are a couple of things that aren't working. The front fans and the exhaust fan still not sure why. The Wi-Fi on my motherboard had to reset up and driver downloaded. Would have liked to have known that. I definitely told the salesperson that I was not had any by any means an expert but the computer works incredible and I'm very happy thank you micro center

Good quality but check BIOS!

Pros: I like this board because it offer 3 video outputs. RAM support is 128GB. Built quality is very good. Cons: very very important!!! If you buy this board new, understand that the BIOS may be from 2 years ago. It could be sitting in seller's wearhouse for two years. This means all of the AMD Ryzen CPUs that came after that BIOS release (for me it was 0607) will not work. The system sits still and does not post with a newer model AM4 Ryzen CPU. Solution: instead of returning, I had an AMD Ryzen 3700X cpu from 2019 that I used. System posted, and I was able to upgrade the BIOS. Then my newer Ryzen 7 5700G worked. Remember B&H Photo is not required or maybe doesn't know that this can be major pain and cause a bunch of returns. So do your homework, check the list of ... MorePros: I like this board because it offer 3 video outputs. RAM support is 128GB. Built quality is very good. Cons: very very important!!! If you buy this board new, understand that the BIOS may be from 2 years ago. It could be sitting in seller's wearhouse for two years. This means all of the AMD Ryzen CPUs that came after that BIOS release (for me it was 0607) will not work. The system sits still and does not post with a newer model AM4 Ryzen CPU. Solution: instead of returning, I had an AMD Ryzen 3700X cpu from 2019 that I used. System posted, and I was able to upgrade the BIOS. Then my newer Ryzen 7 5700G worked. Remember B&H Photo is not required or maybe doesn't know that this can be major pain and cause a bunch of returns. So do your homework, check the list of supported CPUs on ASUS website BY BIOS RELEASE before you buy. Or use the solution I provided above if you kept an old CPU.

Great value B550 board

I got this board for my Ryzen 5900x build. It has everything I needed for the build - 4 RAM slots, PCIe 4, dual name slots(one PCIe4 , one PCIe3). Although it has only one Full size PCIe 4 slot, it is not a major flaw as I plan to have only one Graphics card. The plus point is the built in wifi/Bluetooth, making networking so easy. The prices are definitely more than what I paid for my previous gen 450 board, but this board is still value given the bundle pricing with the processor. Overall just a no frills, value board that just works and has all the major features supporting Ryzen 5000 series along with built in wifi. Also, it has dual CPU fan headers, a nice add which makes installing monster dual fan cpu coolers easy.

It works well

I bought this one after my old motherboard crapped out on me. Ever since I bought this one last month it's worked well so far. I can complain about the Ram slots only having one tab, but as long as you clear anything in the way and do only like 2 slots it's not that annoying. Other than that, the Wi-Fi works well, and it comes with an antenna that is surprisingly effective. Also includes 2 M.2 drive slots which is also nice.

It’s a good basic MB

Used this in a build for my office. User basically does accounting, some CAD work and video conferencing. I wanted something smaller so the mATX format fit the bill. I used this with a Ryzen 5600G, a 500 GB Samsung 980 M.2, 16 GB Crucial Ballistix Gaming 3600 DDR4 RAM and a 750 GB 2.5” hard drive. I am using the integrated graphics. It was all assembled in a Lian Li LANCOOL 205M case. It took me a while to get this combination working. Seeing as this MB was first manufactured over a year ago, I expected the one I got to be newer stock and have a BIOS that would work with the 5600G. I was wrong. The BIOS on the MB was from early July 2020, before a compatible BIOS was available. I should have checked this before I assembled the PC (it’s printed on a label on the MB) ... MoreUsed this in a build for my office. User basically does accounting, some CAD work and video conferencing. I wanted something smaller so the mATX format fit the bill. I used this with a Ryzen 5600G, a 500 GB Samsung 980 M.2, 16 GB Crucial Ballistix Gaming 3600 DDR4 RAM and a 750 GB 2.5” hard drive. I am using the integrated graphics. It was all assembled in a Lian Li LANCOOL 205M case. It took me a while to get this combination working. Seeing as this MB was first manufactured over a year ago, I expected the one I got to be newer stock and have a BIOS that would work with the 5600G. I was wrong. The BIOS on the MB was from early July 2020, before a compatible BIOS was available. I should have checked this before I assembled the PC (it’s printed on a label on the MB) but I didn’t. After assembly, I hit the power button, the lights came on and the fans spun but nothing else. I did a little research and found that one of my personal PCs had a compatible processor so I took it out of my PC and put it in the MB along with a spare GT 1030 I had laying around. I hit the power button again and the same thing happened... No boot. It was late so I slept on it. Next morning, I tried a different power supply. Didn’t help. Then I swapped memory sticks around. Didn’t help. Finally, I completely removed the MB from the case and sat it on top of the box it came in. I suspected there was a short while it was installed in the case and I was right. Out of the case, it started right up. I was finally able to update the BIOS so I reinstalled the 5600G and started installing windows. Once Windows was on there and updated, I put the MB back in the case with the original power supply. After that, I installed the rest of our software and did some stress testing. Using the standard fan profile on the MB, I was able to get processor temps up to the 95 degree C maximum very easily running Cinebench. I used some of the Asus utilities to change around the profiles and got it down to a max temp of 80 degrees C. This was with the stock Stealth cooler that came with the 5600G and the 2 LianLi fans that came with the case. The PC starts quickly. I like that the MB has some lighting to let me know the power supply is on. I used only one SATA port for the hard drive and the M.2 slot door the SSD. It was a very simple build and nothing to get too excited about. What I don’t like… The PCB is a bit thin. There was quite a lot of flexing during assembly/disassembly. There is no error checking on the MB. No lights, no numeric display, no speaker for beep codes. Nothing. If you have an issue, you are on your own. There is an internal speaker header so if you happen to have an internal speaker that fits, you might be able to get some beep codes. I also wish it had a flashback feature. I was lucky enough to have compatible parts around to update the BIOS (with a little work). Otherwise, I would have had to pay MicroCenter $30 to do the update or switch to a different motherboard. Finally, I hate IO shields. All modern MBs should just have them integrated. The first time I installed this MB, part of the IO shield ended up in the HDMI port. I had to remove the MB and reinstall it making sure this didn’t happen again. Now that it is assembled and working, I’m happy with the final product but part of me wishes I had gotten something a little bit nicer and easier to troubleshoot. If you are thinking about this MB, make sure it is compatible out of the box with the processor you are getting or be ready for some extra work.

More than I even bargained for!

What a great motherboard at a great price! I just really needed the cheapest board I could find, to house my "new" Ryzen 5800x CPU that I bought from a friend after he upgraded to a 5950x. I was more or less going to find the cheapest board that would serve that purpose and buy it. When I found THIS Asus Prime B550M board, it was an open box item, which, I have previously used this option before at microcenter to "tier up" to a higher tier component for the price of the lower tier item if I had instead purchased it new. Considering the level to which Microcenter warranties/guarantees their products I can't imagine a scenario in which I would EVER regret buying an open-box item and quite frankly it's one of my main reasons for shopping at Microcenter. At the same ... MoreWhat a great motherboard at a great price! I just really needed the cheapest board I could find, to house my "new" Ryzen 5800x CPU that I bought from a friend after he upgraded to a 5950x. I was more or less going to find the cheapest board that would serve that purpose and buy it. When I found THIS Asus Prime B550M board, it was an open box item, which, I have previously used this option before at microcenter to "tier up" to a higher tier component for the price of the lower tier item if I had instead purchased it new. Considering the level to which Microcenter warranties/guarantees their products I can't imagine a scenario in which I would EVER regret buying an open-box item and quite frankly it's one of my main reasons for shopping at Microcenter. At the same time I also purchased a Red Devil 6700xt that was also open-box and am equally happy with that purchase. BUT quite frankly, I think when you buy a GPU you have a lot better idea of exactly what you're getting, before ever actually using it. With a motherboard there's so many things that could go right or wrong that I guess it's a slightly bigger risk. Well, of all the open box items I've EVER purchased from Microcenter this was by far the best one yet. If I were to go back and do it again and there were none available in the open-box section, knowing what I know now about it, I may even STILL choose TO buy it new over a different brand/model that WAS available as open-box. I know this isn't a very "technical" review of the motherboard itself but anyone familiar with Asus's BIOS will know one reason why I like this board so much, as I will likely run Asus motherboards in all my builds exclusively from now on. I had also purchased one other Asus board for one of the many PCs I've built but it was a ROG Strix and I thought that the BIOS which I very much liked in that board, was specific to the ROG Strix line. Now I see it's seemingly more specific to Asus motherboards in general. What I really wanted to highlight in this review was my love of Microcenter's option to purchase open-box items at about a 10% or better discount.

No NVMe Gen4 Support

Typically, B550 motherboards are capable of supporting PCI-e 4.0 (Gen4) NVMe SSDs. It appears that this board does not support it and it is not listed in the description. Usually this would not be an issue seeing as motherboards using PCI-e 3.0 are compatible with Gen4 SSDs by limiting them to the slower speed. However, I experienced random blue screens several minutes after installing Windows, which led me to swap out multiple parts. A firmware update did not resolve the issue and I needed two builds done the same day so I resorted to using SATA SSDs. The board seems okay overall, it's nothing fantastic, but make sure not to use a newer NVMe SSD with it... it might seem to work at first, then cause nothing but trouble after you boot into Windows.

Overall good board

I found the board to be pretty sturdy and easy to set up. I will point out some of the labels on the board are not labels I’m used to seeing, mostly just the labels for the USB hook ups. The provided IO shield also doesn’t work the way most do. There was no way to press it in to mount it on its own. I needed to hold the plate and press the motherboard into it the keep it in place while I put in screws. Both issues are very minor and not a true hinderance would complete recommend this board.

Probably the worst B550 Board out

Any alteration to RAM resulting in instability causes the MOBO to brick itself. Power cycling and removing the CMOS will not fix it. If you're lucky like me and have extra ram then you can swap it out to change the BIOS settings and then swap back to your other RAM. THE BIOS DOESN'T EVEN RESET TO SAFE-MODE WHEN YOU REMOVE THE CMOS BATTERY?!?! Never buying another Asus board after this experience. Terrible product.