AMD took the wraps of their B550 chipset in April and in early May divulged more detailed information regarding its capabilities and limitations. Partner motherboard designs were also revealed at that time but, given this time of market uncertainty, it's unsurprising that pricing was not among the information presented to consumers. This weekend however pre-orders have started for a solitary B550 board ahead of a fleshed-out release on June 16th.

A pre-order listing has been posted on Amazon.com for the ASUS Prime B550M-A WiFi, a broadly mainstream consumer mATX design for Zen 2 CPUs that's equipped with wireless networking conforming to the new Wifi6 standard. It has been priced at $149 shipped & sold by Amazon, and so is likely to be in the right ballpark for this particular model at launch in a fortnight.

Judging by listings at OverclockersUK ASUS motherboards equipped with a WiFi option typically command a premium of between £15 (TUF Gaming Z490-Plus) and £40 (TUF Gaming X570-Plus) inc. V.A.T. Tracking that back to the Amazon.com listing, it would mean that the mATX Prime B550M-A motherboard without WiFi module would come in at between $110 and $135, which is not cheap by any means.

It's possible, even likely, that some B550 designs will arrive more expensive than entry-level motherboards from the X570 lineup. It may also be that B550 in general ends up being considerably more expensive than anticipated, despite the reduced functionality compared to X570. Canny consumers will be well advised to watch pricing closely and not disregard the ostensibly enthusiast line out of hand.

We expect more comprehensive B550 motherboard pre-order listings to begin in the very near future. The series as a whole is available officially from June 16th.

SOURCE: Amazon.com