I am currently using the Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX motherboard, and I am considering switching to one of these 2 ⇾ ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax or ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I.
Which of the two do you think is the better choice for the following hardware?
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Ryzen 5 5600X
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PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Red Devil
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Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2
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Samsung 870 Evo 2.5"
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G.Skill Trident Z RGB for AMD DDR4-3600 DIMM CL18 Dual Kit
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Corsair SF750 Platinum
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be quiet! Silent Loop 2 280mm AIO
Why you switching motherboards? The motherboard you are using has served me well in my NR200 build.
But to answer your question:
Well the Asrock motherboard lacks BIOS flashback, so if you need to update it's BIOS, you a bit SOL. The Asus board has this feature.
The Asus motherboard has only 4 rear, standard Type-A ports, when most ITX motherboards have at least 5, like the Asrock board.
That's the real practical differences. We could dive deep and really nitpick, but from a day to day or building perspective, those are the big differences.
The STRIX is Asus' very high end.
The Phantom Gaming is AsRock's low, to lower mid-range product.
Videos
I bought the ASROCK B550 Phantom Gaming for my Meshlicious build (5600X, ROG Strix 3080), but I'm having second thoughts about whether I should exchange it for the Asus ROG Strix B550-I. The ASROCK is $50 cheaper right now and it didn't seem like the Asus had much to justify the price difference beyond brand reputation/recognition and aesthetics. My main hesitation is I've never owned an ASROCK motherboard and have read mixed things over the years. It sounds like most of the ASROCK sensor issues have been resolved, but I haven't found much about that lately. I use the PC for work from home a couple of days a week, so reliability and customer service are important for me.
The Gigabyte isn't a consideration because I will use the front USB-C frequently and it doesn't look like the MSI is compatible with my cooler.
Any thoughts from experience with either one? Thanks!
I'm planning to build a new PC using an ITX motherboard and a B550 chipset. Due to its niche, there thankfully are only a few boards to choose from... but I can't see many major differences between them.
So far I've found these unique attributes:
| Asus STRIX B550-I GAMING ($219, Amazon) | Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX ($179, B&H) | MSI MPG B550I GAMING EDGE WIFI ($199, Amazon) | ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax ($199, Amazon) |
|---|---|---|---|
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| - Uses a higher end audio processor compared to the others (no data though) | - Has a large selection of audio jacks | - Has basically nothing good worth mentioning?? |
| - Fan on chipset (not always on) | -All USBs in the back are 3.2. Also, more display connections. | -Fan and heatpipe on m.2 slot | -Cannot flash bios without CPU/RAM |
| -No PCB LEDs | -Has no internal USB-C Header | - Has severe compatibility issues with heatsinks without mentioning it it. Also a hidden CMOS Jumper behind the IO. | - (Kitguru) VRMs and CPUs tend to be hotter with this board. Perhaps due to higher clock speed? |
Overall, I'd probably pick the Gigabyte board since I do enjoy better audio, and likely wouldn't use the extra featues that the other boards offer. It is suspiciously cheap though... then again, it isn't sold on a major online store like Amazon.
Are there any other features in these boards that I'm not aware of?Any info is helpful!