MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Motherboard mATX - Supports AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processors, AM4, DDR4 Boost (4400MHz/OC), 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 x M.2 Gen4, 1 x M.2 Gen3, HDMI, 2.5G LAN

Product Information

We’d like to have a 5G option at this price. Additionally, the non-S Aorus Master had dual LAN. A second may be desirable for some but now that Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are becoming widespread, dual LAN and Gigabit, are not as important as they once were. The Asus BIOS is a little more difficult to navigate for a novice user compared to those of some other manufacturers, but once in the PBO modes are particularly worth looking at if you're planning to drop a non X Ryzen 9 7900 or Ryzen 7 7700 in. Gigabyte's audio implementations usually impress, and the X570S does again. Purists will swear by discrete DACs, or 3rd party solutions, but with a decent ALC1220-VB audio codec and ESS Sabre Hi-Fi 9118 DAC for headphones, along with Chemicon and WIMA audio capacitors, gamers listening to bullets and bombs rather than Bach will be happy.

Other highlights include a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 type-C header, power, reset, and CMOS clear buttons, and a Thunderbolt 4 header.

MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI

Audio Boost: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive gaming experience. Supports AMD Ryzen™ 5000 & 3000 Series desktop processors (not compatible with AMD Ryzen™ 5 3400G & Ryzen™ 3 3200G) and AMD Ryzen™ 4000 G-Series desktop processors Supports AMD Ryzen™ 5000 & 3000 Series desktop processors (not compatible with AMD Ryzen™ 5 3400G & Ryzen™ 3 3200G) and AMD Ryzen™ 4000 G-Series desktop processorse

There’s a single M.2 slot and four SATA ports. Standard fare, though perfectly adequate for most users. How about memory support? Unlike the ridiculous memory limitations present on Intel B460 motherboards, The Gigabyte A520 supports up to 128GB at DDR4-4733. Realistically no one will run a setup like that but at least you’re given the choice.

Why is MSI MAG B550M Mortar better than MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk?

Supports DDR4 2667/ 2800/ 2933/ 3000/ 3066/ 3200/ 3466/ 3600/ 3733/ 3866/ 4000/ 4133/ 4266/ 4400/ 4466/ The Dark Hero features a rather subtle design. Some might even say it’s a little bland. Perhaps we have reached ‘Peak RGB’ with recent motherboards being a little more discrete with their RGB implementations. It’s also unusual that there’s not a Crosshair VIII Apex or Extreme, especially when Gigabyte and MSI have boards priced well above the Dark Hero. One obvious thing missing from the feature list is the support for PCIe 5.0 graphics cards, although seeing as no such cards currently exist, that's not the miss that you might think. Everything else is present and correct though, including a reinforced x16 PCIe 4.0 slot for the GPU, another full-length slot running at x4, and then a final, short x1 PCIe 3.0 slot. The fact you get a pair of PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots for your drives will be plenty for most users too. The MSI MPG X570 represents an amalgamation of bleeding-edge motherboard tech built to get the most out of AMD's 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs. It has four DIMM slots that can handle speeds up to 4,400Mhz and two M.2 slots sporting PCIe 4.0 connections.

You also get 2.5Gbps networking, courtesy of Realtek, and Wi-Fi 6 support from Intel. Your top Z690 boards offer 10Gbps LAN and Wi-Fi 6E, but for our purposes that is another one of those luxuries we can afford to ignore. With the primary objective of the B550 chipset keeping manufacturing costs to a minimum with a few design changes, the many additional USB ports found on the X570 are absent on most B550 motherboards. It is a bit unfortunate, to say the least, but the idea is you only need a mouse, keyboard, and possibly one extra USB port for any peripherals such as a game controller or headset. But you would be surprised how easy it is to use all 5 (Type-A) connectors even just for gaming. LAN with LAN Manager: Upgraded network solution for professional and multimedia use. Delivers a secure, stable and fast network connection.Peripheral Component Interconnect Express slots on the motherboard are designed to accommodate add-in cards like graphics cards, SSD cards, dedicated sound cards, etc. PCIe slots are measured in both length (x16, x8, x4, x1) as well as by the number of data transmission lanes they provide (x16, x8, x4, x1). It's possible for an x16 slot to only provide 8 lanes of data, for instance, which means the maximum possible data transfer rate is halved (though in many cases, because PCIe provides such a high ceiling for transfer speeds, a lower number of lanes doesn't make a tremendous difference). The rear I/O panel features seven USB Type-A ports for peripherals and a single USB Type-C port for connectivity and high-speed data transfer. There are headers for the included Wi-Fi antenna to help with wireless connectivity, as well as a gigabit ethernet port. The look of the board is definitely unique, and though looks are in the eye of the beholder, for me the cyberpunk theme, with its copper accents and cogs, looks great. You get a good splash of RGB and those cogs above the I/O actually move. It looks expensive. Plus, if you're a fan of Razer products, then there’s a Razer-themed Z690 Taichi for easy integration into the Chroma ecosystem, too. We’ve already been impressed by the capabilities of the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk, and the Mortar appears at first glance to be the mATX version of that. Whilst we didn’t quite know what to expect from the Tomahawk our time with it means that we go into our review of the MSI MAG B550M Mortar with heightened expectations. Beyond the form factor difference the main change is a drop from 10+2+1 power phases on the Tomahawk to 8+2+1 on the Mortar, although still 60A power stage. Hopes are high. Gigabyte deserves credit for continuing to use finned VRM heatsinks which add a lot of surface area. They're proof that it's possible to blend function with form. A 14-phase VRM with 70a MOSFETS is enough to power a 5950X cooled by LN2 with headroom to spare, which means users of ambient cooling won't face any issues.