ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-PLUS (Wi-Fi) Motherboard Review
Peter Donnell / 4 years ago
How Much Does it Cost?
Of course, I’m writing this review before the stock is available on Amazon. However, I will update the prices as the stock goes live after we publish the review. For now, though, you can check the up to date stock of the ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-PLUS (Wi-Fi) Motherboard on Amazon UK here, and on Amazon US here.
Overview
ASUS seem to be on a winning streak with their motherboards for quite some time now, and I don’t see that trend changing any time soon. They have easily the biggest range of motherboards for every launch, giving consumers a very broad range of features and prices to choose from. The TUF gaming certainly represents great value for money though, as the performance was competitive, it looks great and of course, it’s mATX.
Build Quality & Design
mATX motherboards automatically get a big thumbs up from me, they’re rarer than hen’s teeth these days. However, despite the smaller size, ASUS has still given the TUF some pretty respectable hardware. You still get an 8+2 DrMOS Power Stage, and you get all their Military-grade TUF components and Digi+ VRM for added stability and reliability. It’s a bit busy looking, but I quite like the TUF Gaming aesthetic. It’s fairly unique and it matches up with all the other TUF hardware, which is great for keeping a system looking cool, obviously.
Performance
It doesn’t have the biggest VRM setup of all the boards launching today, but it’s still very competitive. It’ll have no issues overclocking the latest Intel CPUs either way. Plus, you still get the benefits of PCIe Gen 4 from the top PCIe lane and one of the M.2 mounts, so you’re not exactly missing out on the good stuff here. Plus, the addition of great connectivity, WiFi 6 and 2.5 GbE make this board a pretty fast in many areas.
Added Value
The form factor is worth a lot I think, as I say a lot recently, good mATX boards are few and far between. The overall build quality of this board is where the true value is, TUF is tough. However, they’ve got some cool stuff like Turbo LAN, a custom DTS audio chipset, AURA RGB, etc. Plus the clever AI Noise-cancelling microphone tech that gives them a unique selling point.
Should I Buy One?
It’s certainly one of my favourite motherboards of the B550 launch, offering up the fantastic mATX form factor, but still cramming it full of features. The design may not be for everyone, but I do like the TUF Alliance stuff myself. It’s perfect for your next compact gaming beast!
