Biostar Launches B550M-Silver: Micro-ATX with 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6
by Gavin Bonshor on December 14, 2020 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- Biostar
- MicroATX
- AM4
- B550
- Ryzen 5000
- B550M-Silver
Biostar has launched its latest AMD B550-based board, the B550M-Silver. Aimed at gamers looking to use AMD's latest Ryzen 5000 processors, it brings a host of premium features to the micro-ATX form factor with USB 3.2 G2 connectivity, a Realtek 2.5 Gb Ethernet controller, Wi-Fi 6, and PCIe 4.0 support.
Over the last couple of years, premium AMD micro-ATX boards have been few and far between, with the majority of vendors opting to release their micro-ATX models on the more budget-friendly chipsets such as AMD's A520. The micro-ATX form factor typically offers a convenient compromise, with more expansion slot support than the smaller mini-ITX form factor, but without the overall footprint of ATX. Based on the AMD B550 chipset, the Biostar B550M-Silver offers out of the box support for Ryzen 5000 processors, with support for Ryzen 3000 chips too.
Focusing on the design, the Biostar B550M-Silver uses a wave of silver heatsinks, including a large rear panel cover, which doubles up as one section of the power delivery heatsink. It includes no integrated RGB LED lighting nor any RGB headers, which is either quite strange or a welcome relief given how common RGB is these days in boards aimed at gamers.
The Biostar B550M-Silver includes dual PCIe M.2 slots, with the top slot capable of supporting up to PCIe 4.0 x4 2280 M.2 drives, while the second slot includes support for PCIe 3.0 x4; both of these slots can accommodate SATA based SSDs. For SATA, Biostar includes six SATA ports, with two straight-angled and four right-angled ports, with support for RAID 0, 1, 10 arrays. There are four memory slots with support for DDR4-4933, with a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB.
There are two full-length slots at PCIe support, including a PCIe 4.0 x16 and a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, with a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot sandwiched in between. Located under the full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot is a Key-E 2230 slot, although the board already includes an integrated wireless module.
On the rear panel is a variety of connections, including a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. There is a trio of video outputs including an HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI-D for use with AMD's 3rd gen APUs, while the board's three 3.5 mm audio jacks are powered by an older Realtek ALC1150 HD audio codec. A PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port sits above the USB 2.0 ports, while a single RJ45 port is powered by a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE controller, while Biostar is using an unspecified wireless interface with support for Wi-Fi 6.
At present, we don't know when the Biostar B550M-Silver will hit retail shelves, nor do we have information in regards to the pricing.
Update - Biostar has informed us that the B550M-Silver has an MSRP of $119, which represents fantastic value with 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6 networking.
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Source: Biostar
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Gigaplex - Monday, December 14, 2020 - link
What's with the "Racing" print on the chipset heatsink?Brane2 - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
It's a special spoiler that utilizes ground effect and keeps CPU stable even in tight loops.Pure gaming magic.
at_clucks - Wednesday, December 16, 2020 - link
The branding for every "gamer" oriented product out there is cancer. But it seems manufacturers love to call everything "gaming": the price conscious gamer, the enthusiast gamer, the casual gamer, seems like almost every segment out there is made up of gamers... Hence this could have come with a soldered Atom CPU and a PCIe over USB adapter and still get the "gamer" treatment because of the same reason you have the R on the car. Must go faster.Kevin G - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
The same reason you put a stripe on a car: to make it go faster.Deicidium369 - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
Only certain stickers increase speed...Samus - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
+10HPrynomuncher - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
Anyone know why there has been a severe lack of high end mATX boards in the last few cpu generations on both the Intel and amd side? My case only fits mATX and I don't want to give up the features I already have! Having said that, this looks like a nice enough board. I like the inclusion of 2.5gb Ethernet. The world is finally moving up!DanNeely - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
because sales of them have collapsed. You've still got the largest group of enthusiasts buying full ATX because they're happy with a big case and an "I might need one of those" mentality buying the big boards with the largest possible number of features.On the other hand you've got the "I know I'll never use any expansion cards beyond a single GPU and want it small" crowd; a decade ago most of those people were mATX because mITX was too severely compromised. Now it's good enough for the vast majority of them and they've downsized; taking most of what was the mATX market with them.
Operandi - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
Most people just follow trends and do whatever they see on YouTube; big towers with a glass side panel and ton of RGB. It was cool when it was a novel concept to show of custom work with RGB used for accent lighting but has since degraded into radioactive unicorn vomit. A few cases make it look good (Lian Li Dynamic) but its a pretty specific "look" that dosn't really go anything else and usually looks gaudy AF but if you are all about the 'gamer brah' lifestyle then you probably don't care.But yeah all that aside, mATX is where its at lol.
Makaveli - Tuesday, December 15, 2020 - link
Excellent explanation.