Closer Look
ASRock B550 PG Velocita motherboard arrived in a retail package which well described as all ASRock motherboards. The box design and its size is the same as that of the Z490 PG Velocita, but of course, on the box, there is info that inside we will find a motherboard based on the B550 chipset.
Inside the box, we will find a well-protected motherboard, user’s manual, drivers and software DVD, SATA data cables, and M.2 screws. Inside is also a gamer’s pack with stickers, cable ties, and some more. Pretty much all we need for installation.
As in all new higher series motherboards, the I/O shield is pre-installed. It makes installation easier and has no disadvantages.
The motherboard looks typical but has its gaming style. All components are placed where we are used to seeing them. I like the fact there is additional space between the CPU socket and the first PCIe, which also works in a 4.0 mode. It makes the installation of large graphics cards much easier, and we are able to use huge CPU coolers.
The motherboard has no additional fans, but because of large heatsinks, there are no problems with cooling, and even 12 or 16 core processors will work without issues. The B550 chipset is something on what many gamers were waiting for because of lower temps and mentioned lack of additional fans, which could cause extra noise. Additional moving parts may also fail much earlier, and some users are planning a PC build for many years.
The motherboard has a 14-power phase design. It’s more than enough for even the most power-hungry AM4 processors. We aren’t sure what the future may bring, but this design should be enough for the next generations of processors, as long as AMD will stick with the AM4 socket.
I’m glad to see Realtek Dragon 2.5Gbit LAN on this motherboard. It’s the same chip that we can find on higher ASRock series, and it’s one of the best gaming options right now. I’m not really convinced to the i225-v LAN from Intel as even Intel confirmed some possible issues while Realtek works stable and fast as we could find out in our previous ASRock motherboard reviews but also during the B550 PG Velocita tests.
The B550 PG Velocita supports up to 128GB RAM in four 32GB memory modules. Probably most gamers won’t need so much for the next couple of years. It doesn’t change the fact that the motherboard supports both high capacity and high-frequency memory kits. As long as we decide to have it, then there is no problem on the motherboard side. In our tests, we could run 128GB of Patriot Viper Steel DDR4-3600 memory or overclock 16GB Micron or Hynix based memory kits up to DDR4-5000. Even though X570 supposed to be the best chipset for AMD processors right now, then B550 motherboards feel like they have even better memory support and overclock easier than the series based on the more expensive chipset. This is also useful info for gamers who search for every MHz.
The motherboard presents amazing with additional RGB illumination. ASRock equipped the B550 PG Velocita with RGB LEDs under the chipset and IO covers. There are also RGB and ARGB headers so we can synchronize various newer and older devices, lighting bars, and other lighting sources. There is also a handy software to manage everything.
Below are some photos of the working setup. The motherboard supports various cooler and RAM products, so there shouldn’t be any problems with all popular brands.
One more great feature is ASRock’s BIOS/UEFI, which I will describe on the next page of this review.
