Conclusion
GIGABYTE’s B550 Aorus Master is nothing short of phenomenal. It is a motherboard that does precisely what you’d expect it to in all situations. It was the pinnacle of stability and from the time I unboxed it to the end of our testing, I found the board to be virtually perfect. I would have changed the CMOS battery location if it were up to me, but that’s really nitpicking on my part as this probably won’t ever become a factor in the motherboard’s expected service life.
The feature set is innovative for sure. If you don’t mind a slight reduction in PCIe lanes from your GPU, you get the same storage capabilities of a much more expensive and higher end X570 motherboard. Lets face it, using PCIe Gen 4.0, dropping to 8x lanes should be fine. GIGABYTE has made all the right decisions concerning the motherboards design as it has everything you need and nothing you wouldn’t want.
It is also an aesthetically pleasing board and looks like a more expensive board when you first lay eyes on it. That being said, it’s still a $300 B550 motherboard and that’s expensive for something that carries a budget chipset with it. Even so, GIGABYTE has found a way to avoid some of those limitations in a practical way. There are a handful of X570 motherboards that I think are just as good at around the same money. That’s really the only problem with the B550 Aorus Master. It’s expensive enough to encroach on X570 territory. I feel its a better option than some of the really cheap X570’s out there, but compared to something like the MSI MEG X570 Unify, I’m not so sure I’d opt for the B550 Aorus Master.
However, in these days of limited availability, it might be an option if you aren’t willing to wait for stock to return on something like the X570 Unify. Chipset aside, I don’t think you are getting less of a motherboard in the B550 Aorus Master, just less at a chipset level which is unavoidable. Of course, compared to other B550 motherboards, the B550 Aorus Master is probably the best of them. But again, you are paying X570 money for a B550 chipset.
Final Points
The GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master is nothing short of fantastic. It’s easily the best B550 motherboard we’ve seen to date. It feels and behaves more like it’s X570 counterparts and that’s a good thing. The feature set is solid and reliable, and the motherboard really does have a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it does come with a hefty price tag and a more budget conscious chipset. That’s rally the only thing working against it.
Even so, for $300, it would be hard to find a better AM4 motherboard, B550 or otherwise. Therefore, if you are in the market for an AM4 motherboard then the B550 Aorus Master is worth a serious look. I’d give it the gold award were it cheaper, but as it stands, it’s quite pricey for a B550 chipset based board and gets the silver in light of this.
