B550 Mini-ITX VRM Thermal Test, Ryzen 9 5950X, 3950X, 3900X & 3700X

[@optimumtech]

Excellent video as always - the Aorus B550i Pro AX is my top B550 ITX recommendation also! And appreciate the shoutout :)

[@MrJohnnyImba]

Do you still experience the problems with asus b550i and x570i boost clocks on zen 3?

[@ichdiewurst6153]

Turns out I'm a long time follower of both channels.

[@AndrewMcDreamy]

My two favourite PC channels for sure. Maybe there'll be an Aussie mashup someday? Just like those Americans do it, you're so much better than them though. Quality over quantity!

[@Ricky-oz4ic]

The ITX king is here.

[@optimumtech]

@@MrJohnnyImba Yep, and looks like Steve experienced the same thing here.

[@michaelwu6171]

imagine Steve having to take apart basically the entire build to switch motherboards for testing, and repeating that over and over.. not many people realize how much work was put in for us to be informed and be able to make better purchasing decisions, highly respected

[@Sean-un7ok]

True but he's not trying to cram it into an itx case and perform the tedious task of cable management.

[@retro_boy_advance]

Didn't expect the MSI B550i board to do so well here. It's what I have so I'm glad with my purchase. A bit of a warning for those considering a purchase though, the MSI board has a custom backplate because of a non-standard layout on the back. This may cause problems when mounting certain AIOs or air coolers which require their own backplate.

[@ST-iv2ej]

If youre blacklisted for honest reviewing, you're doing something right. Pretty much why I followed this channel, after jayzstwocents vid on your feud. Good content.

[@Crunchifyable2]

I perceive that Asrock has products that sell for cheap and look expensive. Kind of like a cheap pair of shoes and you find out they will never fit right no matter how fancy they look.

[@Visual_Ghoul]

@@Crunchifyable2 Their x370 Taichi is an amazing board though. They released a bios to support the new Zen 3 processors despite AMD saying that the x370 board won't, and its still considered onee of the best boards for power regulation even againstg all of the new boards. Anything Asus branded tends to be overpriced crap.

[@SirChocula]

@@Visual_Ghoul Wow, the x370 Taichi supports Zen3? I have this board myself and indeed it's a fantastic one. I do dislike Asrock for them blacklisting Steve though. I'll reconsider them again in the future when they change their behaviors. Used to like them a lot too.

[@Visual_Ghoul]

@@SirChocula The bios release isn't on the official page because its an alpha bios, but theres no reported issues with it. Never choose based on a brand name, because every brand ends up with different performing products on every platform, especially with motherboards. Unless its Asus. Then just avoid.

[@andrewalexander9508]

@@Visual_Ghoul It's a good policy. When you are in the hobby this long, you have seen every single one of them stumble in one major way or another. I'd have no mobo company I would purchase from if I stopped buying from them every time they pulled a stunt like that.

[@ConorD1990]

Regarding the Gigabyte board, there is alot to be said for just slapping a big block of aluminium on as a heat sink and calling it a day. Also nice to eliminate a single point of failure like a tiny fan.

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

Fans are reliable.But getting decent airflow from a small fan produces a ton of noise.

[@shohabwafa1841]

Loved the shout out to Optimum Tech! He's definitely one of, if not, THE best ITX content channels out there. Thanks for recommending him 👌🏻👌🏻

[@FranciscoRodriguez-fr3uc]

I agree 100%

[@StefanEtienneTheVerrgeRep]

This editorial direction is so beautiful, it brings a tear to my eye. I think we all here should join hands in one unified Dutch Rudder in salute to this very moment.

[@vincemcsenile7318]

I'm in GAWDAMMIT, somebody hold my damn hand!

[@pepperidgefarmremembers1911]

I'll remember this moment.

[@StefanEtienneTheVerrgeRep]

@AGU I'm the one holding your rudder.

[@yogi.g]

@@StefanEtienneTheVerrgeRep you mean tweezers?

[@noleftturnunstoned]

I own the Aorus B550i. *There are no trouble shooting LEDs or clear CMOS button* Too expensive to be staring at a blank screen with a boot failure.

[@niter43]

There's clear CMOS header on the board, right above audio front panel header.

[@NoLuv4Hoz]

I was not even in the market for a motherboard, much less an ITX board. But after watching your review, I feel oddly compelled to buy an Aorus B550i Pro AX. In fact, I'm convinced my salvation depends upon it. You're a sly one, Steve!

[@Jinsh1911]

I'm using the Asus B550 ITX board right now. Kinda regrat not getting the MSI one, cause it's the only B550 ITX that has digital audio out atm.

[@TechAgama]

it is available in stock but at double the price LOL.

[@raawesome3851]

@@_qwe_fk_1700 minus power supplies, ironically

[@vrstate]

@@raawesome3851 actually psus 600w or more are the most inflated in my country

[@raawesome3851]

@@vrstate really? I can find 850w PSUs for under 110 in america.

[@raawesome3851]

@@redclaw72666 oof. Sorry

[@raawesome3851]

@@_qwe_fk_1700 same thing in america

[@mpeay3945]

Thank you for testing in the Razor toaster oven. Worst case scenario info is super informative for the next build!

[@idrinkbbq5927]

Let me just say how glad i am that you guys put your ad breaks at the beginning of your videos and at the end. Its not invasive and it lets me breeze through the content unbothered. Seriously its kinda rare these days, and its something I can really appreciate. You guys seriously are the one of the two best hardware channels on this site in my opinion.

[@PrishenReddy]

Finally! its like you read my mind, this is the video I needed.

[@andrewmcallister7781]

Such a thorough review, watched a few of your videos today, I have had a B550I for a few years now, and recently upgraded from a 5600X to a 5950X, glad to see it performs well in stress-testing

[@linuxtweeker]

Asrock blacklisted you. I blacklisted Asrock. Rolling with Gigabyte.

[@syncmonism]

Just remember, none of these major motherboard brands are entirely trustworthy. They've all done sketchy shit. They've all made bad or overpriced products (and they've all made good value as well as mediocre value products as well). Always check reviews on your exact model (if possible) before buying a given motherboard.

[@EcchiRevenge]

Asrock is pretty good on X370 taichi though. Especially when they're one of the first(if not the only) ones who have zen3-ready(ish. iirc it's missing curve optimizer) bios.

[@tomlemanh5506]

Please don't for the time being. Gigabyte have terrible BIOS . i'm the owner of B550i Pro AX and their BIOS is pushing so much RAM voltage + usb issues atm. they haven't sorted this issue for over 3 months already and on tweaktown forum you can check how they're releasing every here and then beta bios which does not fix the mentioned issues at all... I believe they're good product but the bios is just a mess.

[@tanmaypanadi1414]

u till a dual bios chip goes reeeee.

[@kwedl]

I also went with the Gigabyte motherboard, but i wish i didn't. Every review just focuses on the built quality and VRMs, but they clearly haven't tested it long time. The BIOS is horrible, often switches back to default XMP profile, constant USB and bluetooth issues and the realtek 2.5 ethernet port seems to be broken on basicly every motherboard with constant slow downs.

[@johnr4778]

Nice.. I'm going to build a itx build, this will help...

[@gokuafrica]

The funny thing is AsRock has less active customers compared to the no of subscribers you guys have. Their blacklisting only hurt them in the long run. Awesome video as always

[@Oneath]

I have been buying ASRock mainboards many times over the past 10 years, though in my newest ITX build I have switched to GIGABYTE for exactly those reasons you covered in this video. Glad I made the right choice.

[@nicholasvinen]

Haha, great timing, I ordered the Aorus board earlier today...

[@nicholasvinen]

Yeah I thought about getting a B450 board. They are so cheap. But I wanted something that I could upgrade to Zen 3 without being too limited... Plus the VRM configuration seems pretty nice so in the end that sold me on it.

[@chairs-dimension]

I looked at the Aorus and Strix boards for my recent build, one interesting caveat came around that ended up with me choosing the Strix despite the Aorus board being more price-competitive. The CPU socket on the Strix board is actually positioned slightly lower down, which allows you to fit a wider range of coolers to it without interfering with other components such as top-mounted fans. For my build in the NR200 I'm able to fit a Noctua U12A on the Strix board without needing to leave out one of the top case fans, but with the Aorus board I wouldn't be able to do that.

[@nicholasvinen]

@@chairs-dimension interesting. I'm going to use a 240mm AIO with mine so socket position should not be critical. That's one thing I like about the Fractal Design Era case, the rad fits in the top just above the motherboard and also provides most of the case airflow, so you don't need space for extra case fans.

[@thealterlion7163]

Watching this video from my b450i based pc, because I totally need this info one week after building my first pc

[@julian.morgan]

For engagement's sake I'll just mention that I found this very interesting despite having no plans whatsoever to buy an ITX board. Every ITX board I've ever bought, sooner or later I wish I had just one more PCIe slot and the latest craze of burying the primary M.2 slots underneath GPU's is a total turn off across all sizes of boards. Great content as always - cheers :)

[@hudbaoir3610]

Back at it again ^^ looking for a ITX b550 to move my 5900x to for the Lian Li Dan A4-H20 case. Thank you for the reviews. This channel is my go-to for assessing reliability of products

[@EverythingisFire]

That's a sweet case.

[@TheNubaHS]

Awesome quality testing

[@lordcommandernox9197]

Your editorial direction is amazing!

[@evklinken]

Ma boi B550-A Pro making a surprise cameo. Bought it in part because of your review a few months ago!

[@BinggomanLive]

Thank you for this video Steve! I'm quite disappointed that my board Phantom Gaming ITX/ax isn't here because I wanna see its performance, but with ASRock blacklisting you then maybe some other time.

[@akosteleki5828]

Definitely the best channel for me. Lot of work, reality and nice objectivity. This work deserves few million subscribers.

[@Slyfoxes05]

Ooooooo is there Hardware Unboxed /Optimum Tech collab in there future?

[@tincanable]

Thanks for getting back to this topic, glad you're not letting it get buried under all th stuff going on now.

[@TommyThousandFaces]

The video is very detailed and interesting as always. But I have something to say: the case used is a best case scenario when it comes to ITX cases and I'm not surprised that they performed that well in thermal testing. The AIO fans surely make quick work of the heat generated by the VRM since they're so close to the top of the board. This doesen't invalid the tests by any means, but, having an SFF build myself, I think that most enthusiasts might build in much smaller cases and report higher VRM temperatures. Maybe a downdraft cooler with the top panel blocked off might've made for a more realistic scenario.

[@nathanpurss4582]

Hell yeah can always get behind more Mini-ITX content.

[@Tekagi502]

Timing is perfect, been looking at an awesome ITX system and after researching most of what i needed, motherboards were next on the list. Thanks for saving me the time mate.

[@GianPaolo]

I don't why the intro music makes me so happy and giddy! :D

[@nicholasfisher2729]

Every time I am building a new PC, I love that your videos always have the topics that I am looking for. You are literally the best channel on KZbin!

[@macd7743]

Great review! I ultimately made the same conclusion before even watching this video and went with the B550I Aorus Pro AX.

[@EverythingisFire]

How are you liking it? The X570 version is the same price right now so I'll likely get that. Still curious how the B550 works for you.

[@jonhughes4079]

I love how often you bring up the fact that asrock blacklisted you and state the specific reason why. It really drives home that you have integrity and that companies trying to censor will just draw more negative attention to them.

[@beefgarnacha]

This was exactly the video I was looking for!

[@slateeboi884]

After watching this video i had to go with the asrock b550m as it only cost $110 bundled with my $300 5800x at microcenter. Considering that the cooler im using on the 5800x is also the noctua nh-d9i which does a good job at providing the vrm with air, i figured it would be a great fit, and i will say i am very impressed with the board. considering the cheapest alternative in stock was $200 it is pretty unbeatable.

[@victor55s]

Hi, How has your experience been with this board? I recently bought it but I don't know if it can handle a Ryzen 9.

[@Gpcas9]

10:20 Me: Ahhh, HU is chilling the new Razor Tomahawk Case HU: "We switched to the Razor Tomahawk as it seems to be the worst CASE scenario" ;-)

[@bellshooter]

For me the MSI just gets it for the SPDIF output for my audio system.

[@someguy9466]

SPDIF is a 1983 technology that only natively supports 2 channel audio..

[@Konuvis]

The heart wants what the heart wants amarite?

[@ferdinandbardamu3945]

Optical SPDIF is such a convenient output. And the PS/2 keyboard port is still better than USB.

[@MarcinTrybus]

@@someguy9466 Name a digital-only audio connection that supports more than two uncompressed channels. 😉

[@capitaldd3693]

Hey, this is great. I'm doing a mini build this year. Good timing .

[@mngx]

I just built a PC using the Asus B550-I Strix. The board has silicone level issues with the Intel Ethernet network adapter, basically it doesn't raise the link over GigabitEthernet, only over FastEthernet and there is no driver/software that can fix it, I've had tickets opened with both Intel and Asus. If you search on reddit you will find lots of threads with people having the same issue with Asus B550 boards and Intel I225v chip. Allegedly, the issue was fixed in the latest motherboard revision, which has a different I225v chip revision. No reviewer has tested that or mentioned it, so yeah, I was disappointed. I fixed the issue by buying an USB Ethernet adapter from TP-Link.

[@abeezy]

I was able to grab an Aorus B550i Pro AX for $140 USD because someone had returned it. It felt great at the time but it feels even better after watching this video.

[@danielpickett4692]

Love the content as usual. Been waiting for this video for some time but took a punt on the Aorus Pro AX a few weeks ago and im glad i did. Keep up with the good content

[@soma_eizo]

I have ASRock B550 Phantom ITX/ax paired with 4750G in my silent build. The VRM fares quite well (

[@biobreaker5009]

And those are under extreme wattages. Great work from these 3 manufacturers

[@borealeone]

I wonder what Asrock board designers thought when they put the 8pin inside the rear IO section and put the puny 2-pin VBAT connector in the place it should be. Extra fun for people who own Seasonic PSUs with extra hard cables that won't be easy to extract if you decide to switch board or PSU.

[@andersj2963]

Great video! I'm running the Asus B550-I with my Cooler Master NR200P myself and like it a lot. But if I were to buy now, I might''ve gone with Gigabyte. I/O ports in the back leaves me wanting a lot. I'm using my displays built in USB hubs as well as a powered USB hub so I can attach what I need.

[@vernacular3289]

11:43 Didn't align the audio/USB ports during that transition. Thought I was getting double vision for moment. HUB covered something I was actually looking into. Although the Gigabyte board is passive cooled I think I'll still go for the Asus board since it would make a portable build weigh a little less and the fan wouldn't be audible anyways.

[@ItsRainingLemons]

Perfect timing. Planning on building a ITX pc soon and wasn’t sure which one to get. This helps narrow things down!

[@The_Noticer.]

Planning a build... now? Please don't...

[@ItsRainingLemons]

@@The_Noticer. don’t need a gpu so it’s fine

[@flashxcate]

Asrock B550 itx/ac user here :) The VRM temps are not low, and neither is the ssd temperature, because the ssd heatsink doubles as chipset cooling. I mitigate this by having a fan blowing directly over the board at very low rpms. It's inaudible and keeps the temps around 50°C

[@bryanfzn5629]

is the vrm safe for ryzen 7?

[@flashxcate]

@@bryanfzn5629 I've seen people running ryzen 9 on this board. It can handle pretty much anything, just maybe you won't get the best oc but we are talking 5% difference

[@victor55s]

Hi, Which CPU did you pair with this motherboard?

[@flashxcate]

@@victor55s I have a ryzen 5 3500x which I paid around 100€ from AliExpress. I was on a really tight budget and that cpu held up very well for what it is. Now I would pair it with a 5700x or a 5800x3d if you find a good deal

[@scatterforce]

Something to be aware of for ITX enthusiasts; the MSI board has a non-standard backplate and is not compatible out of the box with Noctua's mounting hardware.

[@mnap1595]

Big fan of the ITX content!

[@_trzn_]

Great review. I'm really liking the Aorus B550i Pro AX.

[@OTechnology]

Awesome comparison video as always!

[@SgtRock4445]

Why did I expect the intro to be "Hey guys. Buildzoid here"😅

[@Hardwareunboxed]

Not sure, it's only a 22min video ;)

[@SgtRock4445]

@@Hardwareunboxed 😄

[@TheTumbleweedHunter]

Ive got the MSI board with a 5900X running at about 5ghz and behaves like a champ! No complaints at all

[@xoym]

Thank you very much for this compare!

[@myleisure3543]

This is the best series of ❤️ Hardware Unboxed. Continue doing these mobo testing ❤️ Real useful

[@poot111111]

6:42 what happened to the CPU fan pins? Was that you guys or did it arrive like that?

[@zloycock]

Steve tortured it.

[@rschaumann512]

Hi, Ralph from the YT channel 0x1e rs&ab here... Glad someone noticed that as well, there is a weird issue (?) with AM4 Gigabyte boards I've noticed during testing and I'm happy to see it happening to you too... These boards keep boosting the Ryzen 5000 CPUs until they reach an operating temperature of 90,4°C, regardless of your cooling solution, I had a R9 5950X cooled by a 360 rad and 3 high static pressure fans running at 4.125 GHz all-core on a 32 thread, small FFT load, 1 hour Prime 95 stress test, adding a second 360 rad didn't change anything but the clock speeds, which rose to 4.377GHz under the same conditions. Could you maybe look into this further? As a small YT channel and quick system turnaround we only have a very limited amount of Gigabyte boards available for testing at a given time. If desired, I could assist with like providing you with BIOS settings... Thanks and keep those videos coming!

[@symonsicuan6148]

That shelves on the back makes me feel that there is still hope for restocking

[@adamlaskey7265]

Sad to not see the PG Asrock ITX offering.

[@7rich79]

I would have loved to see either AMD release a beefy CPU with integrated graphics, or see one of these ITX boards with 10Gb networking. Having to choose between either having no graphics or no high speed networking means it is harder to make compact high performance server.

[@austinklein206]

The gigabyte is a good looking board, but the lack of a usb type C front header is a deal breaker for me... I’m looking at the SSUPD Meshilicious case coming out this week and want to take advantage of the front port.

[@shshankking]

I upgraded from 3950X to 5950X last week and loaded it on my board, X570 Xtreme. Only 4 5950X was available locally in the entire market and I was able to grab one as I pre booked one to my known shop owner who I've been frinds with for over 14 years now 😊 But 5600X to 5900X are bit better in quantity but does get sold out in 2-3 days. But supply is pretty good to keep up.

[@HuntaKiller91]

Good to know the upcoming ryzen 4600G should have no issue with the b550i from Asrock Considering the temps with 3700X is even better than my ds3h

[@RinoAP]

funfact about these ITXs board, they tend to have RAM OC better than any high-end m/ATX board when paired with APU. At least that was what I saw from LuckyN00b

[@nicholasvinen]

Probably because they only take two DIMMs and they are close to the socket.

[@Hardwareunboxed]

Exactly right.

[@mikematthews8796]

It’s a shame that you guys weren’t able to get your hands on the Phantom Gaming model from ASRock, as that’s probably the more comparable model to the premium offerings from Gigabyte, MSI, and ASUS. But great analysis here nonetheless. Keep up the good work!

[@p.e.r.c.y]

If the Gigabyte board had a USB-C header I would go that for sure.

[@stuartandrews4344]

Using a B550I AORUS PRO AX,(superb board) which has a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C on backplate, no other header on board.

[@p.e.r.c.y]

@@stuartandrews4344 Yeah on the back is good but my case only has two front USB and one is a type C so I really want to be able to use it. Bit of a toss up now between the MSI and Strix now.

[@stuartandrews4344]

@@p.e.r.c.y What I'm going to do on this case is get a short USB C extension cable to run from header on back panel through case to connect to USB C on front of case,think it will work.But, on my other pc, I'm fitting a Akasa InterConnect (GX AK-HC-11BK) front panel which has a USB C connection.

[@p.e.r.c.y]

@@stuartandrews4344 That might be a option. I really have to be cautious of space, Doing a duel rad loop in an Ncase M1 and really want to to look as clean as possible.

[@stuartandrews4344]

@@p.e.r.c.y Cable should be easy to hide, just need to find a short cable 600mm & ticks all the boxes.Been having a rumage here & found a Anker USB C Cable to USB 3.0 cable (3ft/0.9m),so could use a USB3 header on board to front panel USB C connection,might work, finding various USB C cables confusing.

[@I_am_Allan]

I had the more expensive ASRock Phamton Gaming B550i board... but it's been RMA'd to them due to power issues. Now, I'm rocking the MSI board.

[@HuyV]

The only drawback for the Gigabyte is the missing USB3.2Gen2 header for frontpanel TypeC. If your ITX Case has that, you need to jump up to one of the more expensive boards, or mod the cable and plug it into the backside TypeC port.

[@nicholasvinen]

You're right, but personally I didn't find the much higher cost of the Asus board worth it for that one feature. I guess it depends on how much you need it. The rear panel gen2 socket is adequate for me.

[@chrisbertolino2116]

No captions available 😭. I was looking forward to Hababa Unboxed 😂😂

[@davidpinheiro5295]

Weight info is interesting since itx systems are often moved around!

[@rossmpostpro]

Went for the MSI and glad I did. The optical out and all the usb ports made it the best board for me... Just disable the chipset fan in the bios!

[@drhito]

I have the MSI B550I, and I love this mobo. I was torn between MSI the Gigabyte one, but I have been very happy with it. I use it with the 3900X, RTX 2070, and 64 Gigs of Ram.

[@dnmr]

does the ASRock board's fan header come pre-bent?

[@KentoCommenT]

Dawww of course the B550 Asrock Phantom, the one I got £30 off, is the one that got missed. Man I wish there was more ITX boards than the 10 or so b550/x570 boards. Gigabyte, that z590i would really have a ryzen version of it with that dual, display capable, usb c ports!

[@salehamini2036]

When will you post Biostar racing review Steve? I have a Biostar x570gt8 and I wanna see how b550 compare with my x570. But I bought it for 130usd on sell so I'm very happy with it.

[@akmarksman]

👍 Loving how well the Gigabyte boards are doing. My builds lately have been using Gigabyte boards (Z390 UD which I gave to my friend when I upgraded to the Z390 Aorus Ultra, and then a B550M Aorus Pro with a 5600x for my backup PC) I plan on doing a ITX build later this year, and it looks like I'll stick with Aorus.

[@MartinRonky]

Well, bought mine on friday, optimum tech done it quite a while ago.

[@Duckferd]

The Aorus looks really compelling at $180. The only thing it seems to be missing is an internal Type-C connector- not a big deal for everyone but if you need it, you are probably going to step up to the MSI board because the cost will be a wash once you factor in the Type-C internal adapter

[@carlos2004]

it seems that mini itx boards are always so expensive. i guess really lucked out when i bought my biostar mini itx for $65. not the best board, but it has worked well for me

[@arvinsim]

Biostar is a "bottom of the barrel" brand when it comes to mobos so no surprise there.

[@owl8930]

I've ordered a Gigabyte RTX 3060 TI Gaming OC Pro. If I'll actually get one is another story, but I would personally love these reviews in the case of stock getting better. I think I especially speak for those actually keeping their eyes out whenever a store is getting new stock

[@MrJohnnyImba]

Great video! Right what I needed.

[@wcg66]

I went with the MSI board reviewed here. At the time in Canada it was the better price/availability. So far so good and I’m glad it can handle the highest end CPUs. I’m using a 3800x and the thermals are fine but, of course, overall case airflow affects everything.

[@danielhoffmann7138]

I just built a mini-itx b550 zen 3 last week. Would have been helpful to have this review beforehand haha my build: coolermaster NR200 case (2 fans exhaust on top) noctua nh-u12a (shoving air to the back) asus b550-i rog strix ryzen 5900x (took almost 2 months to arrive) rtx 3080 asus tuf gaming (took almost 3 months to arrive) corsair sf750 PSU corsair mp600 nvme SSD still waiting on the ram to arrive so I just got a cheap 8gb stick on it if you are looking to do a mini-itx build I recommend you copy my setup. The thermals are pretty good and I can attest that monster cooler fits well in that case and the socket position in that mobo allows enough space for all the parts (does NOT fit high-profile ram). Funnily enough the CPU was detected without a firmware upgrade (it came with 1401 firmware version from factory) so I didn't need to use biosflashback and updated the bios through EZFlash instead One small tip though, I used the nvme SSD built-in heatsink, so I removed the asus nvme heatsink and I was having problems with the nvme not being detected on that slot. Turns out there is a little mechanism on that board that only activates the m2 slot 1 if the "daughterboard" is pressed down on the main board. If you use the built-in heatsink you have 2 screws (one on each side of the ssd), since I wasn't using the built-in heatsink the one close to the slot was not screwed which made the slot not work at all. I didn't have a screw that fit that slot (the built-in one is too tall because it expects the motherboard heatsink), but simply pressing the board down made a "click" sound and everything started working Took me a few hours to figure that out since to mess around on the m2_1 slot I had to remove the video card due to lack of space I hope this helps, this day and age there is very little reason to not go for mini-itx for most people. Lots of people get scared away from PC gaming because of the monster cases full of RGB. My mini-itx case is connected only to the TV and basically acts as a console + chromecast that works with a mouse and doesn't take much more space than a ps5. I never had to install any extra pcie boards, 2 slots of ram is more than enough, I never used more than 4 usb slots at the same time. All the extra fluff in these normal ATX boards is wasted for 90% of people

[@robotsix6268]

This was helpful. Thanks! The MSI board is $190, much less than the $220 Aorus and $240 Asus. Asrock isn't even in the conversation.

[@misterthegeoff9767]

It seems strange that the other motherboard manufacturers have still not brought out anything to compete with the AsRock B550m-itx/ac at the budget end of the range. I can't be the only person who bought the AsRock board to add a future upgrade path to a Ryzen 5 3600 based system and just wants something which can handle mid range CPUs without breaking the bank.

[@nicholasvinen]

Yeah I bought that board for a secondary system with a Ryzen 3600. Just got it up and running today. It seems fine for the price. I really just want to play 4K videos and music so don't need anything amazing.

[@dtemp132]

I got the Gigabyte a few months ago, I lucked out because the only reason I bought it was that it was the cheapest of the 3 :)

[@Samisipi]

I wont touch Gigabyte boards as my z370 and x570 boards had faults. z370 mic port stopped working after 6months and the x570 board just died completely after 1½months. Maybe I was just super unlucky idk.

[@tomstech4390]

Its pays not to be brand myopic. Have used all of them over 2 decades (still do) they all have flaws which change year over year and at every price point. Gigabyte bios usually sucks but thier engineering goes from "eh" to monster over engineered. Asus software and bios is great but they price it more than it is better and with the "power stage" bullshit and "arez" and so on they have faults too. Msi is great, software isn't as fancy as asus but its still good and priced to match gigabyte. Asrock, suck dont use Biostar, dont even acknowledge. For every problem you have someone is having a different problem with something else.

[@Samisipi]

@@tomstech4390 Never had problems with other boards. I even had a gigabyte z68 fail on me now that i think of it. Ive had 3-4 asus ones, never had any issues, bit overpriced compared to others sure. Might have just been really bad luck but still really off-putting.

[@bobbrowne3027]

I used to use Gigabyte boards all the time years back but no more. Reliability and customer service is now crap. I've no complaints with Asus or MSI , use both but seem to favour MSI of late. Have not used an Asrock board in years but don't recall anything bad but the brand doesn't come into contention when doing a build now. Yeah , the blacklisting against HWUB would make me kinda anti for sure , not the way to promote customer faith.

[@torentmonkey]

If they blacklist/ban/don't sent samples them you must be doing smth right. Integrity. The rarest virtue and the most important for a review and media channel.

[@AndreKirsanov]

Excelent video. I built 2 itx systems with aorus b550i pro ax with r9 3900x 64gb ram in lian li tu150. Works very well. Only problem was case suported usb type c front but that board dosen't have it.

[@syncmonism]

So, even the cheapest one can easily handle a 6 or 8 core CPU. I would assume that most people building an ITX PC would be using only 6 or 8 cores, but it's obviously nice to be able to upgrade to more cores in the future I guess. I don't think I'd ever upgrade beyond 8 cores on the AM4 platform. If I find myself suddenly doing work which benefits from more than 8 cores, I will be getting a new motherboard at that point anyway I think (I'm currently running a mATX Asrock B450M Pro 4 with 3600). I would definitely never get one of those ones with active cooling. It would be a pain in the ass to try to repair if the fan ever gets noisy or stops working.

[@ninjaneven4274]

Close to my new build! Good show i got a NR200, 4 120mm Noctua Industrials, Noctua nh-l9a-am4, & Corsair sf600. Just got to order my Asus B550I, 1tb Samsung 980... on the fence with the Ram 32gb of 3600 or 4400 16gb (???), R5 3600 or 5600x (if the new one drops in price), 3060ti or 3070 which ever i can find. Hopefully done by Feb.

[@clanpsi]

I have the Aorus B500i, and boy oh boy is it a love-hate relationship. It's a great board, but the CMOS battery is hidden under the IO shield and is pretty much accessible and the shorting pins simply don't work, so if you try to overclock anything you risk essentially bricking your mobo.

[@89__tirtharajpati69]

I will definitely build an itx pc in future as my main pc

[@nicholasvinen]

I did that and am very happy. You can build a very powerful PC into a small case these days. M.2 SSDs are great. Just make sure to choose a case that will fit your desired GPU very carefully. High end nVidia cards will fit and stay cool but only if you do your research first.

[@Konuvis]

Looking to build an ITX PC in the near future for my arcade cabinet so good timing 🙂

[@Swindy]

6:38 No one: The Asrock B550M-ITX/ac CPU fan header: 🖖