MSI B550 GAMING GEN3 Motherboard, ATX, AM4 – AMD Ryzen 5000
MSI B550 GAMING GEN3 Motherboard, ATX, AM4 – AMD Ryzen 5000 Ready – DDR4 Boost 4400+MHz/OC, PCIe 3.0 x16 Slots, 1 x M.2 Gen3 Slot, 1G LAN
Gen3 M.2 Connector
The B550 GAMING GEN3 motherboard features an MSI Turbo Gen3 M.2 slot:
- 1 x Gen3 x4 32Gb/s slot
4 x DDR4 Dual Channel (4400MHz Overclocked*)
DDR4 Boost: A fully-isolated DDR circuit delivers pure data signals for optimal gaming and overclocking performance.
A-XMP profiles in MSI BIOS are MSI OC LAB checked and can be easily enabled with auto power settings for optimized memory speed and stability.
*1DPC 1R Max. overclocking frequency 4400 MHz depending on memory module capability.
Connectivity
LAN: A Realtek Gigabit LAN controller delivers premium network gaming experience.
USB 3.2 Gen 2: Connect to devices and transfer files at high bandwidth rates: 10Gb/s.
HD Audio: 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio.
 |  |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSI Gaming Series | MAG | MAG | GAMING | MAG | MAG |
| Form Factor | Micro-ATX | Micro-ATX | ATX | ATX | ATX |
| VRM | 4+2+1 Duet Rail Power System | 8+2+1 Duet Rail Power System | 4+2+1 Duet Rail Power System | 10+2+1 Duet Rail Power System | 10+2+1 Duet Rail Power System |
| DIMM Slots | DDR4 x 4 (4400MHz/OC) | DDR4 x 4 (4400MHz/OC) | DDR4 x 4 (4400MHz/OC) | DDR4 x 4 (4866MHz/OC) | DDR4 x 4 (5100MHz/OC) |
| PCI-e x16 Slots | 4.0 x 1 | 4.0 x 1, 3.0 x 1 | 3.0 x 2 | 4.0 x 1, 3.0 x 1 | 4.0 x 1, 3.0 x 1 |
| M.2 Slots | 4.0 x 1, 3.0 x 1 | 4.0 x 1, 3.0 x 1 | 3.0 x 1 | 4.0 x 1, 3.0 x 1 | 4.0 x 1, 3.0 x 1 |
| M.2 Shield Frozr | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Audio | 8-Channel (7.1) HD Audio with Audio Boost | 8-Channel (7.1) HD Audio with Audio Boost | 8-Channel (7.1) HD Audio with Audio Boost | 8-Channel (7.1) HD Audio with Audio Boost | 8-Channel (7.1) HD Audio with Audio Boost |
| LAN | Realtek RTL8111HN Gigabit LAN | Realtek RTL8125B 2.5G LAN | Realtek RTL8111 1G LAN | Realtek RTL8125B 2.5G LAN, Realtek RTL8111H 1G LAN | Realtek RTL8125B 2.5G LAN |
| WiFi & Bluetooth | AMD Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | AMD Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Weight: | 1 kg |
| Dimensions: | 30.5 x 24.4 x 3.5 cm; 1 Kilograms |
| Brand: | MSI |
| Model: | 7B86-050R |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | MSI COMPUTER |
| Dimensions: | 30.5 x 24.4 x 3.5 cm; 1 Kilograms |
fantastic motherboard with a great amount of features. easy for build with. had to do a bios update before installing a 5th generation cpu but this was easy with the bios flashback tool. bios is easy to navigate. i have trusted MSI for years and will continue to do so.
Bought this board to update my son’s gaming machine, replacing an old MSI B450 Tomahawk board.
This product looks and feels quality, was easy to install and looks great.
Performance is a seamless transition from the previous set-up and I was so impressed that I replaced a faulty B550 Mortar board on his PC at his grandparents with one of these. Both systems run a Ryzen 5 5600 CPU and give great performance, even with both chips OC’d to 4800MHz.
Works well. Was a bit of an issue trying to enter the BIOS to change the boot device. Ended up creating a replica drive which it recognised and booted straight off.
he motherboard is really amazing with so many different features that many mobos don’t come with, sadly it didn’t work with my build but the motherboard it self is amazing
Placement of sata connections with large video cards bad but lot of features for price
A good board, and very accessible. A Micro ATX with bluetooth and wifi is just what I wanted – no thrills, just pop your parts in and you’re away. 2 gripes with this that others should be aware of: there is only 1 m2 guard – and secondly, when taking my Mobo out to fit a new CPU fan, the USB 3.0 connector on the bottom left was so stick in (I never force parts in and am quite a careful builder) that when taking it out, it completely took the plastic cover off and left exposed pins, that really cannot be used, so the front USB ports of my case do not function. Wondering whether that’s poor build quality, or the connection is just too tight. Nonetheless, it’s not a huge bother for me – but bear that in mind. A great motherboard overall.
i had lot mb.and what can i say,this is very easy to instal.msi did realy well.pins for coolers more than i need.thats verry good.all connectors for hdd.is on 1 place,that is good.then power sw etc those are on corner,that is very good .not like on others each card another place and always hard understand what is where.on anothers mb hdd conectors are on all card randomly dropped.next what is good,no need change bios,its ready to run ryzen 7 5800x.its first from msi,and i think now will be not last.
I was looking for a motherboard with the B550 Chipset and this model was the cheapest one The only thing that I don’t really like about this motherboard it’s the MSi Bios ! I had a B450 from Gigabyte before and Gigabyte has a better Bios interface in my opinio
Through this tomahawk costs three times as much as a traditional one, I knew instantly that I needed to buy this product and try it for myself.
Upon receiving the Tomahawk I took it down onto the local range for some throwing practice. Before I threw the Tomahawk I paid careful attention to all the fancy sci-fi techno gadgets on the giant throwing square, I noticed that there was some batteries and resistors on there that could definitely allow the Tomahawk to be a corrosive weapon, this I thought was an absolute technological innovation for the Tomahawk community.
My mates were dead impressed by the tomahawk, they thought it were well cool.
After throwing the Tomahawk at my portrait of Margaret Thatcher (on the range) it completely shattered into something like eight pieces. I wasn’t expecting this Tomahawk to be singular use, I was a bit disappointed at first, but after analysing the damage I soon realised that this was the Tomahawk equivalent of a shotgun pellet, if I threw this at a wild deer up in Nottingham, the odds on are that the deer would be taken down much easier than a traditional Tomahawk, this would get its legs & arms & ‘ead (Not even mentioning the corrosive properties and the potential electrical damage that could be caused to neutralise the wild deer threat)
I bought like five of them after that, did a bit of a dent in my financial pocket but I’d go out there and say it was worth it. Took me pop with me on a hunt, using these Tomahawks like bludde sci-fi Frisbees, we managed to get one, took a real nice photo of me dad after the hunt.
I highly recommend this product to everyone, it has amazing compatibility with 5rd Gen Ryzen processors and it has great RGB controls for the computer system.
I’m going to give this 8/10 for the sole reason that it is a costly component, if it were cheaper it would be a 10/10
I installed Windows 11, and used the integrated Wifi from the beginning with the provided antennas making sure they were properly screwed in place.
After a few days of use, and all drivers up to date, the WiFi module seems quite unstable and is really annoying as it loses the signal very frequently. I get a lot of hanging pages, or ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT errors, etc. Using the internet really gives me headaches because the WiFi is so unusable, it just disconnects every couple minutes or so.
In comparison, my laptop which was standing in the same spot has never suffered such WiFi issues, but with this mobo I don’t know how to keep a stable signal.
I even used the “WifiInfoView” software to check the signal strength, and the “Signal Quality” row ranges between 60 to 80 and the “Average Signal Quality” is around 75 . Theoretically, the strength should be good enough.
So I got this motherboard to save the hassle of adding an extra WiFi card, but right now I am forced to use it with ethernet (which of course is better), but in my setup, using the ethernet is not really practical and wanted to have the freedom of moving the case away from any ethernet cable.
In conclusion, the wifi works, but very poorly. My 6 year old laptop’s wifi works flawlessly in comparison in the same spot. Maybe it would be better if the router would be nearby but I don’t have this option, so for a mobo advertised as “built it wifi”, it is a disappoitment.
Apart from the headline all works as expected. Good support from MSI if you need it . BIOS not the most intuitive but it does the job. Does not come with a printer manual which irritates me. Returned to AMD after years of Intel and not disappointed. All the IOs you might want and then some although I would have liked an esata on the backplate. I liked the heat sink for the M2 1 nvme SSD and I appreciate the 6 sata ports as I tend to add stuff over time. No interest in gaming so can’t comment about the inbuilt graphics although the Ryzen 5600G gives me the same display, or better, as an old NVIDEA 1030 I used to use on an Intel board. All in all, apart from the bad bits above, for price its well worth it.
This motherboard is very good value for money. For starters, its a delight to build in, and secondly looks really sleek. I love the amount of connections on the board so you aren’t really restricted with what you connect to it. Cables satisfyingly snap in so you know when a good connection has been made. The one issue I had which wasn’t the motherboards fault, is that the ‘All RGB’ button was switched to ‘Off’ by default and it took me a while trying to figure out why my aRGB fan wouldn’t light up. Overall an amazing product which I will likely use again.
The heat sinks on the VRMs are very well designed – The highest mainboard temperature I managed to achieve under various loads was 58 C. And that in a roomy, but simple air cooled (2 fans) Tower case.
Also in this respect you buy top end performance for a mid range price.
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Push button BIOS upgrade worked fine – as this particular exemplar was not prepared for Zen 3 CPUs, initially my Ryzen 5600x was not recognized (“No CPU” LED on), but AFTER the BIOS upgrade everything was OK.
XMP – once switched on in the BIOS – also gives me the 3600 MHz of the RAM I bought.
Only snag so far: A bug in the BIOS: If I set the USB-DVD as 1st boot option, the NVMe as 2nd and the HD as 3rd, then booting with an empty DVD-drive in a USB-port results in a boot from the (3rd boot option) Hard Drive instead of the (2nd boot option) NVMe.
A pretty harmless bug – the simple work-around is of course to boot with the USB-DVD unplugged, or alternatively demote it in the boot order.
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The MSI product registration procedure is too bureaucratic – it requires opening the case and finding a 3-digit code on the MB, and uploading a copy of the invoice.
I gave it a miss.
The serial number on the box really should do.
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With its excellent heat management this board should also offer good overclocking potential – a lot of parameters can be manipulated in the BIOS and from the (Windows 10) custom software coming on the DVD. I am however perfectly happy with the performance I’ve got and forgo the overclocking for the sake of our environment and my electricity bill.
I got it from an amazon Warehouse Deal – ONE OF THE BEST PURCHASES I EVER MADE.
After a easy flash bios update. It works pretty well with my Ryzen 5600x.
Wi-Fi is a bit slow however easy to upgrade it by the replacement os the wifi m2. good price motherboard overall.
Tinkering with the BIOS settings is very easy. There are one-click buttons to overlock the CPU and to enable XMP (XMP enables RAM to run at maximum speed; factory defaults for 3200Mhz RAM is only about 2200Mhz without XMP enabled, for example). Excel-style graphs you can click also make it very easy to use the mouse to configure and set fan speeds. I’ve also used the “M-Flash” button to flash (update) the BIOS twice with no problems.
The MSI website provides all the latest BIOS updates and board drivers needed. MSI were also responsive and helpful when I contacted them about problems getting one of the system fans to work. Turns out one of my cable connections was loose (i.e. nothing wrong with the board or BIOS settings). Very happy with this board.
After a month of building my PC this B550 motherboard is very good especially because of the price.
If you have a 1000-1200 PC budget i highly recommend this
Pros: Lots of fan headers and RGB ones
Bios is very easy to navigate
Looks very good in my case
Cons: The only worry I had when building this is I had to troubleshoot my ram which was the corsair 16GB rgb vengeance ones where both stick of ram worked but the motherboard didn’t boot when I wanted to do dual channel. However if you have the same situation don’t panic i have a solution:
First boot with any of the one stick of ram into A2
Then go into the bios
If XMP is disabled enable it but if it already is, disable and enable.
Once enabled turn off the PC and put the 2nd 8GB in and BOOM it should work 🙂
Hope it helps with any inconveniences
This board has been incredibly stable and easy to use, with easily updateable settings and bios, while also allowing for overclocking and having an easy to use mode in the bios. It has great IO and the WiFi functionality is really useful as it uses 5GHz and also includes bluetooth with the WiFi. Overall great board and I would recommend it, as it has also been good to use for gaming.
The board itself is good for the price paid with everything you’d normally expect. The board’s BIOS can be flashed without anything installed on the board. I did this and it went flawlessly. Once built (5600x, 32GB RAM, 1TB nvme) and installed in the case everything worked as expected. Don’t forget to set the BIOS XMP profile for your memory though – otherwise it’ll be slower than you expected.
The one quality issue was with the RJ45 LAN connector on the I/O back panel. I had problems inserting the LAN cable – it felt stiff and resisting and the cable did not click into place. Visually I could see nothing wrong. I managed to get the cable in and surprisingly the LAN worked fine – so it must be electrically correct. Still not sure exactly what’s wrong, but it’s the sort of thing I’d return the motherboard for if I’d noticed it before I’d completed the physical build. I’ll live with this now as I can’t be bothered to dismantle everything and it all works (and it wont need to be unplugged on a regular basis) – worst case I may have to buy a cheap LAN card if the RJ45 socket ever becomes unusable. Lesson of the day – check EVERYTHING *BEFORE* you do a build.
The BIOS is easy to use. One minor surprise was that I couldn’t find the AMD-V setting (to enable running virtual machines). In the BIOS it’s called ‘Secure Virtual Machine (SVM)’ and is located (of all places) under the overclocking section (OC->Advanced->CPU Config->SVM).
The sound chip in this motherboard is fairly old and when running Virtualbox (running a Linux VM under the Linux host) using default sound settings for the VM (i.e. PulseAudio), the sound on both the host and VM was distorted. Setting the VM to use the ‘ALSA Audio Driver’ fixed this.
Overall this is an excellent AMD B550 Motherboard with loads of features. Only cost me 130!!!
Great piece of kit, I used for NZXT H510I case because it has USB 3.0 so if you are wondering yes this is a great motherboard for the case. I had no problems installing as a noobie. Something I dreaded became something I wish I could do again. Was very satisfying to go into bios and see everything work perfectly. I love the “pro series” logo. Everything works fine after testing. Easy to install. Recommend.
I was hesitant about this product considering the reviews, but i needed a wifi working motherboard so I bit the bullet and purchased.
Built this out of the box with a Ryzen 5 3600, 32GB DDR4 RAM and GTX 1660 Super graphics card. installed windows within the one hour. Been running benchmarks and stress testing the product for the last three days and all has been fine!
…except…don’t turn on XMP profile for your RAM, then it becomes quite buggy. I experienced failed boots every now and then, and when you action a restart, it would switch off…attempt to reboot…and doesnt. Switched off the XMP profile and now absolutely fine again. This might be what’s been effecting the other users on these reviews.
Not a priority for me anyway. Apart from that. All really good.
Nice and east too. Just grab the latest NON-BETA release, pop it on a formatted (Fat32) flash drive and make sure you set the extension to .ROM on the downloaded bios file (See YouTube for a guide) Then plug the stick in the highlighted USB port on the rear IO and press the button above it (It’s recessed, so us a pencil or something)
It took about 5 mins, but you might want to wait another 5 mins after it stops flashing, just to be sure it’s complete. I then powered down, added my hardware and that was that. It took about 15 mins from getting the file to being ready, and that’s factoring in extra waiting times to be sure.
The board is built well and weighs a fair bit, thanks to it’s chunky heatsinks. I’ve overclocked a 5800 to 5Ghz with no issues apart from temps, which are a little higher on the 5800X anyway, due to how they are made. I’m not running it at that though, I’ve decided to keep it at 4.8 and get the voltages down as much as possible.
I’m really pleased with everything! Motherboards have come a long way over the years and this one is very capable. If you get it on offer then go for it. You’re likely looking at x570s too, so keep those in mind when comparing prices. The MSI x570 is another good choice if it fits your budget too and you want the extra bells and whistles.
This board has 1x Gen 4 NMVe slot and a single PCI-E 4.0 slot for the GPU. So you’re still getting good specs. Check out the specs in full vs some of the others out there as they do differ… some by a fair way too.
I’d buy MSI again for sure (Coming from a long time Gigabyte customer) It just fits perfect and has been trouble free. The bios is awesome to work with too.
Once the new Ryzen CPUs are out, I will do a bios update and upgrade to one of those CPUs.
I have temporarily installed a Ryzen 3 3100 until the new CPUs arrive. Along with 2x 8GB sticks of Corsair DDR4 3200mhz ram. (Edit Feb2021: Have put Ryzen 5 5600X in it now after updating bios to latest)
Definitely liking the build quality and look of the board.
It has 6 SATAIII ports which I need as I have a lot of storage drives, and still use my PCs Blu-ray drive. Also 2x M.2 slots, my boot drive is on a PCIe 4.0 nvme SSD in the top slot.
6x 4-pin system fan connectors, which is a good amount for my 5 case fans.
Has a Flash BIOS Button, always good to have.
EDIT Feb 2021:
I put the Ryzen 5 5600X in the motherboard last week, I needed to update the bios to the latest version first as I still had the first version that the board came with when I got it in September 2020. Updated fine and CPU is working as intended. The motherboard itself is still going great, had no problems at all with it.
The only negatives with this board are the I/O panel which is flimsy and does not fit correctly around the USB2 ports, and it’s a shame that MSI support has no online chat or ability to answer calls for motherboard issues, it’s a 3 day wait if you need them…hence 4 stars.
There are plenty of headers and rear IO is decent. However, ethernet is 1G lan, not the 2.5G pictured. The only other small gripes are with the cheap IO shield – but minor considering it’s out of sight, and the MSI bios mouse being a pain.
Overall, this is a well priced motherboard with a good lifespan ahead of it. I suspect it’ll hold up well when paired with a future zen3 release. Thus, it comes down to whether you think the 20 or so extra over the b450 tomahawk or mortar – for added vrm capability (better support for next am4 release) and b550 chipset updates (pcie gen4 m.2 and gpu) – are worth it.