ASRock B550M PRO4 with AMD Ryzen 5 5600X – is it really compatible?

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Hi guys 🙂 .. and thanks in advance to anyone who reads this and replies 🙂

So I’d like to buy the ASRock B550M Pro 4 motherboard and pair it with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X … but here’s the thing…

I tried to paste the amazon link to the motherboard here didn’t work I guess my privileges are not high enough on the forum (not a complaint 🙂  ) .. but if you look at the amazon reviews results are varied.. you have some reviewers saying their AMD Ryzen 5 or even more powerful (say AMD Ryzen 7) worked with the motherboard with no problems whatsoever.. others are leaving bitter angry reviews on amazon stating it simply did not work, the bios did not support it right out of the box.. and to make matters worse the only solution apparently was to have an older one (say AMD Ryzen 3 series like 3300X and good luck finding one of those to buy at the suggested manufacturer retail price 😛 ) plugged in, upgrade the BIOS using that older CPU and then plop the newer CPU in ..which really isn’t an option for me.

One reviewer did state that the bios has a problem with CPU’s with integrated graphics and the CPU I would like to get does not have integrated graphics so.. maybe there’s hope?

So.. kind of an odd question I know.. by any chance , to anyone out there reading this … did you happen to use this motherboard with a AMD Ryzen 5 or even more powerful CPU (say Ryzen 7 for example)… and if so did it work right out of the box in terms of compatibility?

Very strange question I know I’m just afraid of buying the motherboard, plopping the CPU, and then finding out it doesn’t work.

Again, thanks in advance to anyone who reads this and replies 🙂

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You should “always” go to the manufacture’s site to determine what CPU’s a specific motherboard supports!

According to the B550M Pro 4 CPU support list on the ASRock website, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X should work just fine (it’s the 3rd CPU on the list.)

Just FYI…

I’ve consistently noticed that the reviews listed on Amazon for a particular product are not always “limited” to that specific item, but also include reviews for “similar” products from the same manufacturer (becomes very obvious when the reviewer mentions some feature the item doesn’t have or the pix they attached isn’t that product!)

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wavy

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I’ve consistently noticed that the reviews listed on Amazon for a particular product are not always “limited” to that specific item, but also include reviews for “similar” products from the same manufacturer (becomes very obvious when the reviewer mentions some feature the item doesn’t have or the pix they attached isn’t that product!)

That is why I try to remember to put the specifics in the review. That behavior in Amazon is frequently misleading and VERY annoying!

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I haven’t had my hands on one of those, but some research shows there might be a grain of truth to those reviews. ASRock say that this board is compatible with the 5600X from BIOS version 1.20 (released almost exactly 2 years ago).

So if you get a board that has an earlier BIOS version, you may not be able to boot at all until you can get your hands on an older generation processor and use it to update the BIOS. Supposedly AMD Support would ship you an older one just for that purpose, which you would ship back to them afterwards. I don’t know if they still do that.

If you want to avoid that hassle, you might look for a B550 board with the ability to update BIOS without a CPU installed. With a quick search, the cheapest one I found that can do so is the GIGABYTE B550M DS3H.

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both of you thank you so much that is a ton of very useful and very helpful information that makes me a lot more reassured about  making this purchase 🙂 …

I hear you on the motherboard with the ability to flash the bios without a cpu installed and I have to admit that’s reassuring as all heck 🙂 .. the problem is when I search for these kind of boards they have 4 sata slots..

I know I know you’re thinking ” Why does this guy need more than 4 sata slots?”   But believe it or not our desktop PC’s do have use for them, I’m currently have six sata drives of various sorts (some ssd some not) connected to my desktop PC  🙂 .. and in the other desktop PC’s case it’s nice to have the option to say attach additional ssd drives you’ve “outgrown” in favor of larger capacity ssd drives as the prices on them continue to fall so you have additional drives to say install games on or do quick windows backups on.

So I think I’m just going to roll the dice, cross my fingers and grab the MB I was thinking of originally and hope it works !  But your advice is very, very much appreciated, all of it !  🙂

I did some research and found something (albeit two years old 😛 ) on reddit of all places that says amd kindly sent out a amd 3100 processor as a loaner

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/jrxb2w/loaner_cpu_for_zen_3_bios_update/

and look at that I just figured out how to post a link .. I’m slow but I learn eventually 😛

Thanks again to both you guys 🙂

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Be careful about the number of SATA ports. Often a board that offers more than other models with the same chipset comes with a compromise. In the case of ASRock’s PRO4, you have to choose between having the use of the 2 extra SATAs or the second M.2 slot – you cannot use both at the same time. There are only so many PCIe lanes to work with.

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B550M%20Pro4/index.asp#Specification

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SB9K wrote:

Be careful about the number of SATA ports. Often a board that offers more than other models with the same chipset comes with a compromise. In the case of ASRock’s PRO4, you have to choose between having the use of the 2 extra SATAs or the second M.2 slot – you cannot use both at the same time. There are only so many PCIe lanes to work with.

https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B550M%20Pro4/index.asp#Specification

Thanks for that 🙂 .. call me old school but I go with the non m.2 drives just because they’re cheaper.. not as fast I know but more storage space and I’m happy with their ssd drive speed say compared to your traditional non ssd sata drives 🙂 … I install Windows and programs on the ssd drives and files on non ssd sata drives (like say a western digital black cavier drive)

I have to admit I’m very nervous about the ASrock MB purchase I plan on making … hopefully it’s okay for me to post a thread from another forum here

https://hardwarecanucks.com/forum/threads/asrock-b550m-pro4-with-amd-ryzen-5-5600x-should-i-believe-the-angry-doesnt-support-ryzen-5-cpu-reviews.85104/#post-955707

The news that the ASrock MB’s suck according to the hardware canucks is not encouraging (and my apologies for posting the same ? on multiple forums , I posted the exact same ? on both forums at the same time  because I’m an overly nervous wreck 😛  ) … I did some internet research after that and results were really varied (amazon, newegg reviews, comments on reddit – it’s the strangest thing reddit has a LOT of user reviews for various things that reddit users post so I’ve found the website to be useful that way ) … I see people who swear ASrock MB’s are great , that’s all they use, never a problem and I see other users who say it’s terrible,  a lot of them die soon after you start using them or they’re dead right out of the box…

I wish I could afford a better MB with the 6 sata port connectivity but .. putting two kids through university and all the costs that entails limits me 😛 .. normally I would go for the ASrock Steel Legend b450 and B550 ATX boards (m microatx board versions  are the ones I’m trying to avoid since still trying to stick with the boards with 6 sata ports) during black friday sales when the prices drop especially after rebates (heck I think the steel legend B450 right now is actually cheaper than my initial asrock MB choice )  but… the PC cases I’m working with are ancient but still reliable ultra defender 2 cases and the two heatsinks on the steel legends on the one hand are great – but looking at them I’m worried that the one closest to the top of the PC case is situated in such a way that it would ram right into the two fans I have installed on the top of my PC case.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MV7LR1B/?coliid=IDWKM5RL0GSB7&colid=LRYM2128IT1F&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089W8B8VY/?coliid=I1N1IZCCOZML0W&colid=LRYM2128IT1F&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9vKhP6/ultra-case-u1242487

 

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Andrepartthree wrote:

I’m worried that the one closest to the top of the PC case is situated in such a way that it would ram right into the two fans I have installed on the top of my PC case.

Ran into that exact problem helping my cousin put together his new gaming PC and we used two Noctua NF-A12V15 slim case fans to resolve it.

They’re 120x120x15 mm instead of the 120x120x25 mm of full-size case fans but are still 4-pin PWM and can run at up to 1850 RPM.

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Well I learned something new today 🙂 (don’t know if this will help anyone or not who sees this thread later on).. a while back there WAS an article online that said AMD had at one point officially declared they were pivoting towards higher end more expensive CPU’s. I whined about this in post number 8 above.

However it looks like AMD has changed their policy.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/amd-is-returning-to-budget-cpus-with-99-and-up-ryzen-4000-and-5000-chips/

I looked it up and sure enough I’m seeing the Ryzen 3 4100 for close to the $100 MSRP … admittedly from a third party seller, to be honest I’d prefer to buy directly from amazon but on the other hand it shows as “fulfilled by amazon” at the time I post this meaning that it should be a more or less hassle free return if anything goes wrong ( poor harassed and overworked amazon warehouse worker damages the CPU while packaging it or sends the wrong one or what not) ..

I was also a bit disturbed in that the AMD 4100 is not showing up on the Windows 11 list of supported CPU’s .. on the other hand if my online research is correct the 4100 is only a tiny bit better than the 3300x currently installed in my daughter’s desktop PC and the Microsoft PC Health Check tool that MS has you run to see if your hardware supports Win 11 gave the 3300x a thumbs up when I ran it after the big news hit about Win 11 a while back.. so presumably the 4100 is okay too?

Although painfully enough my online research shows at a bare minimum – though there’s a lot of arguing online about this :p .. that in the case of my son’s desktop build and his intended major in computer science that I’ll need at least the amd version of an intel 5 CPU , basically the AMD Ryzen 5600X I originally figured was my only cheapest option to begin with (sigh 🙂 ) … on the plus side it helps future-proof his PC a bit as opposed to getting the Ryzen 3 4100. I’ll have to get my son to contact his intended university’s comp. sci. dept. and get their recommendations on suggested desktop PC requirements, if a laptop is necessary and so forth.

 

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