Conclusion
Today we evaluated one of BIOSTAR’s B550 motherboard lineups. The BIOSTAR RACING B550GTA Ver 5.0 is one of the RACING branded motherboards offered by BIOSTAR. Priced at a lower point than a lot of other B550 motherboards, it comes in at $159.99. We did see some exclusive features, such as 6 SATA III ports, where many of the other motherboard options only have four. It also has a nice lighting control in the BIOS and has a great fan controller as well.
Of course, this board has all the features that are included with the AMD B550 chipset including support for the new Ryzen 5000 series processors. Being a sub-$200 motherboard, it is a price-friendly enthusiast gaming motherboard with a fantastic feature-rich BIOS along with support for Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors. Packed with the new PCI-Express 4.0, USB 3.2 Gen2 speeds, and 2.5GBE LAN, it can make for a good option in the B550 range of motherboards. Although, as I found, it didn’t overclock as well as the previous two motherboards I reviewed, it still held up great at the 4.3GHZ overclock. Which isn’t too shabby for general usage.
Motherboard Goals Continued
As we unboxed and started testing this motherboard, we were pleased with the looks and style BIOSTAR put into making an enthusiast gaming motherboard. Being sleek in style and an ATX size it will look great in any tempered glass enclosure.
This motherboard provides you with the AMD B550 chipset features and runs the AMD Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors and also comes complete with PCI-Express 4.0. With the new PCIe 4.0 it also supports the lightning-fast PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs and PCIe 4.0 GPUs. If you have a need to transfer large data across drives, then the PCI-Express 4.0 will be right up your alley. With the PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD games should load a lot faster and allow for a much better gaming experience for under $200.
This board would be a good decision for a business application. With the new PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD drive capability, a business could implement a 2 TB drive and this board for a speedy small business server or workstation. Supporting the Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors, the selection is large for any small business budget. One can even implement one of AMD’s many APU allowing the business to use the processor for their video output.
Overclocking
Even though we didn’t see as well of an overclock as the previous two motherboards I reviewed, at 4.3GHz it was still an admirable range of overclocking. We would have liked to see a higher stable overclock, but at 4.3GHz on all cores, it isn’t too shabby gain for enthusiasts and gamer alike. Serious overclockers may want to look at other, and more expensive, alternatives for their overclocking desire.
I also was pleased with the fact that BIOSTAR included 6 SATA ports along with the dual M.2 NVME heatsinks. That was a nice addition to this B550 motherboard that is usually not seen other than on much more expensive boards.
I/O Performance
If you are an enthusiast or gamer that uses a lot of external peripherals then this board would be a good fit. It includes one standard USB 3.2 port as well as one new Type-C USB 3.2 port. It also includes 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, allowing the user to add a ton of external peripherals to his or her system.
The board also has 1 HDMI, 1 display port, and 1 DVI-D port if the user is wanting to keep a budget system and using one of AMD’s many APU processors.
Components
Discussing the fan headers again, we found that BIOSTAR didn’t include very many fan headers and we would have liked to see more for the gamer and enthusiasts that run a lot of fans. This motherboard does include the RGB headers for people that would like to add some bling to their systems.
This ATX motherboard does include 6 SATA III connectors which are 2 more than we have seen from my previous two B550 motherboard reviews. That was an added plus on BIOSTAR. The 2 M.2 NVME heatsinks was also a big plus on their part as well.
Final Points
With the BIOSTAR RACING B550GTA Ver 5.0 being an under $200 enthusiast and gaming board and being a feature-rich AMD B550 chipset motherboard, many will find it a good choice for a fairly reasonable budget system. It supports the Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors, supports the new PCI-Express 4.0 that allows for PCIe 4 NVME SSD’s. It also supports up to 128 Gigs of RAM which will be plenty for even the hard-core gamers.
With a price tag of $159.99 it isn’t the cheapest motherboard on the market but it’s far from the most expensive as well. We feel for the price range, it includes a great number of features far and above what AMD offers on the B550 chipset allowing the user to customize their system in many different ways. We found it to have a few shortcomings, but all in all, it’s a pretty decent motherboard that most enthusiasts and gamers will enjoy for years to come.