ASUS are no stranger to producing motherboards for all price points and use-cases but the TUF Gaming B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) is a difficult one to fathom.
Starting off with the overall aesthetic of the board, the black and yellow colour scheme is subtle enough that it’ll blend into most systems, but also plenty prominent if you want to match things up with the multitude of TUF Gaming Alliance products available on the market.
Performance is something we briefly test, but mainly focus on power consumption and temperatures, where the largest differences are found between manufacturers and motherboards. Temperatures were of absolutely no concern thanks to the large metal heatsinks on the VRM and even the small chipset heatsink coped with the stress just fine.
Equipped with 2.5G LAN, WiFi 6, sporting a high-spec power phase with plentiful heatsinks and support for the latest Ryzen processors, a decent audio solution and a good selection of rear USB ports, the B550M-Plus offers plenty of performance and features but there’s also a great deal we consider to be missing.
At this price point, which quite frankly edges its way right into X570 territory, we expect certain features like a pre-mounted rear I/O shield, a pair of M.2 heatsinks, 90° SATA ports and front USB Type-C; none of which is present.
The B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) is a good effort from ASUS but it feels way overpriced considering the features presented. A decent price cut would see us offer an award but as it stands we feel there are much better options available.
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
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Starting off with the overall aesthetic of the board, the black and yellow colour scheme is subtle enough that it’ll blend into most systems, but also plenty prominent if you want to match things up with the multitude of TUF Gaming Alliance products available on the market.
Performance is something we briefly test, but mainly focus on power consumption and temperatures, where the largest differences are found between manufacturers and motherboards. Temperatures were of absolutely no concern thanks to the large metal heatsinks on the VRM and even the small chipset heatsink coped with the stress just fine.
Equipped with 2.5G LAN, WiFi 6, sporting a high-spec power phase with plentiful heatsinks and support for the latest Ryzen processors, a decent audio solution and a good selection of rear USB ports, the B550M-Plus offers plenty of performance and features but there’s also a great deal we consider to be missing.
At this price point, which quite frankly edges its way right into X570 territory, we expect certain features like a pre-mounted rear I/O shield, a pair of M.2 heatsinks, 90° SATA ports and front USB Type-C; none of which is present.
The B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi) is a good effort from ASUS but it feels way overpriced considering the features presented. A decent price cut would see us offer an award but as it stands we feel there are much better options available.
Pros
+ Decent performance
+ Good cooling capacity
+ Two M.2 NVMe slots
+ Subtle yet effective colour scheme
Cons
- Price
- Separate rear I/O shield
- Only one M.2 heatsink
- Straight up SATA connections
- No front USB Type-C
+ Decent performance
+ Good cooling capacity
+ Two M.2 NVMe slots
+ Subtle yet effective colour scheme
Cons
- Price
- Separate rear I/O shield
- Only one M.2 heatsink
- Straight up SATA connections
- No front USB Type-C
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Join in with the discussions on Discord
