Unleashing Power: ASRock B550M PG Riptide Micro-ATX Motherboard Review

Dive into the Riptide Philosophy

The ASRock B550M PG Riptide Micro-ATX Motherboard takes its name from the powerful ocean current, reflecting the duality of calmness and unstoppable strength. Designed with a focus on gaming-related features, this motherboard delivers a robust performance that immerses users in a world of stability.

Engineered for Gaming Prowess

Optimized VRM Design with Dr. MOS

Featuring Dr. MOS, an integrated power stage solution optimized for synchronous buck-set down voltage applications, the Riptide outshines traditional discrete MOSFETs. It intelligently delivers higher current for each phase, ensuring improved thermal results and superior performance by ASRock B550M PG Riptide.

8 Power Phase Design

Built with sturdy components, the Riptide ensures smooth power delivery to the CPU. This design not only provides unmatched overclocking capabilities but also enhances performance with the lowest temperature for advanced gamers by ASRock B550M PG Riptide.

POLYCHROME RGB Illumination

In addition to the built-in RGB illumination, the motherboard features onboard RGB headers and an addressable RGB header. This allows users to connect compatible LED devices, synchronizing RGB LED effects across Polychrome RGB Sync-certified accessories for a unique lighting experience by ASRock B550M PG Riptide.

Lightning Gaming Ports

Catering to die-hard gamers and enthusiasts, Lightning Gaming Ports utilize two different controller interfaces to connect high-speed mice and keyboards with lower jitter and latency by ASRock B550M PG Riptide.

Phantom Gaming 2.5 Gb/s LAN

The intelligent Phantom Gaming 2.5Gb/s LAN platform maximizes networking performance for home networking, content creators, online gamers, and high-quality streaming media. Enjoy up to 2.5X the bandwidth compared to standard gigabit Ethernet, ensuring a faster and uncompromised connectivity experience for gaming, file transfers, and backups by ASRock B550M PG Riptide.

High-Speed M.2 Solution

Capable of accommodating multiple M.2 storage devices, including a PCI Express 4.0 M.2 SSD, this motherboard delivers twice the speed compared to the previous generation, providing a lightning-fast data transfer experience.

Specifications of ASRock B550M PG Riptide:

ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2
– ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s)
– ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s)
ASRock Super Alloy
– Premium 60A Power Choke
– 50A Dr.MOS
– Matte Black PCB
– High Density Glass Fabric PCB
ASRock Phantom Gaming 2.5G LAN
ASRock Steel Slot Gen4
ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
ASRock Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4)
ASRock POST Status Checker (PSC)
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
ASRock Live Update & APP Shop

CPU

– Supports AMD AM4 Socket Ryzen™ 3000, 3000 G-Series, 4000 G-Series, 5000 and 5000 G-Series Desktop Processors*
Digi Power design
– 8 Power Phase design
*Not compatible with AMD Athlon™ Processors.

Chipset

AMD B550

Memory

– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Vermeer) support DDR4 4600+(OC) / 4533(OC) / 4466(OC) / 4400(OC) / 4333(OC) / 4266(OC) / 4200(OC) / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3466(OC) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Matisse) support DDR4 4600+(OC) / 4533(OC) / 4466(OC) / 4400(OC) / 4333(OC) / 4266(OC) / 4200(OC) / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3466(OC) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD Ryzen series APUs (Cezanne) support DDR4 4733+(OC) / 4666(OC) / 4600(OC) / 4533(OC) / 4466(OC) / 4400(OC) / 4333(OC) / 4266(OC) / 4200(OC) / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3466(OC) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD Ryzen series APUs (Renoir) support DDR4 4733+(OC) / 4666(OC) / 4600(OC) / 4533(OC) / 4466(OC) / 4400(OC) / 4333(OC) / 4266(OC) / 4200(OC) / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3466(OC) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD Ryzen series APUs (Picasso) support DDR4 3333+(OC) / 3200(OC) / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– Max. capacity of system memory: 128GB
– Supports Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
*For Ryzen Series APUs (Picasso, Cezanne and Renoir), ECC is only supported with PRO CPUs.

BIOS

128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support
– Supports “Plug and Play”
– ACPI 5.1 compliance wake up events
– Supports jumperfree
– SMBIOS 2.3 support
– CPU, CPU VDDCR_SOC, DRAM, +1.8VSB, VPPM Voltage Multi-adjustment

Graphics of ASRock B550M PG Riptide

– Integrated AMD Radeon™ Vega Series Graphics in Ryzen Series APU*
– DirectX 12, Pixel Shader 5.0
– Shared memory default 2GB. Max Shared memory supports up to 16GB.**
– Dual graphics output: support HDMI and DisplayPort 1.4 ports by independent display controllers
– Supports HDMI 2.1 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 60Hz
– Supports DisplayPort 1.4 with max. resolution up to 5K (5120×2880)@120Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI 2.1 Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) with HDMI 2.1
– Supports HDCP 2.3 with HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 Ports***
– Supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) playback with HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 Ports
– Supports Microsoft® PlayReady
*Actual support may vary by CPU
**The Max shared memory 16GB requires 32GB system memory installed.
***Picasso supports HDCP 2.2 with HDMI 2.0 Port

Audio

7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC897 Audio Codec)
– Supports Surge Protection
– Nahimic Audio

LAN

– 2.5 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000/2500 Mb/s
– Supports Phantom Gaming LAN Software
– Smart Auto Adjust Bandwidth Control
– Visual User Friendly UI
– Visual Network Usage Statistics
– Optimized Default Setting for Game, Browser, and Streaming Modes
– User Customized Priority Control
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE

Slots

AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Vermeer and Matisse)
– 2 x PCIe x16 Slots (PCIE1: Gen4x16 mode; PCIE3: Gen3x4 mode)*
AMD Ryzen series APUs (Cezanne and Renoir)
– 2 x PCIe x16 Slots (PCIE1: Gen3x16 mode; PCIE3: Gen3x4 mode)*
AMD Ryzen series APUs (Picasso)
– 2 x PCIe x16 Slots (PCIE1: Gen3x8 mode; PCIE3: Gen3x4 mode)*
-1 x PCIe Gen3x1 Slot
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– 1 x M.2 Socket (Key E), supports type 2230 WiFi/BT PCIe WiFi module
– 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE1)
*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks

Storage of ASRock B550M PG Riptide

4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors
– 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1, Key M), supports type 2260/2280 PCIe Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) mode (with Vermeer, Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) mode (with Cezanne, Renoir and Picasso)*
– 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_2, Key M), supports type 2260/2280 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s & PCIe Gen3x2 (16 Gb/s) modes*
*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit

RAID

Supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10 for SATA storage devices
– Supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 for M.2 NVMe storage devices

Connector

– 1 x SPI TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 2 x RGB LED Headers*
– 2 x Addressable LED Headers**
– 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)***
– 1 x CPU/Water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)****
– 4 x Chassis/Water Pump Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)*****
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x Front Panel Type C USB 3.2 Gen1 Header (Supports ESD Protection)
*Support in total up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip
**Support in total up to 5V/3A, 15W LED Strip
***The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.
****The CPU/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
*****The Chassis/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
CPU_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN1/WP, CHA_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN3/WP and CHA_FAN4/WP can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.

Rear Panel I/O

– 2 x Antenna Mounting Points
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 4 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)*
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
*USB12 are the Lightning Gaming Ports.