Get the MSI MAG B550M Bazooka for £70 (RRP £130)
B550 is AMD’s latest budget motherboard series, but it doesn’t really sacrifice much to hit a much lower price point than premium X570 alternatives. You still get the three most important features: compatibility with the latest Ryzen 5000 processors, support for PCIe 4.0 graphics cards and SSDs, and the ability to overclock your RAM. This means you get a very future-proof package, with the ability to start with entry-level components (like a Ryzen 3000-series processor, 3200MHz RAM and a SATA or PCIe 3.0 SSD) and still have the ability to make serious upgrades down the line, including up to 16 core Ryzen 5000 processors, 4400MHz RAM, PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs and the latest Nvidia or AMD graphics cards. The VRM - the part of the board that deals with power, essentially - is really good for a motherboard at this price point, which allows you to have options for overclocking if you want them. In terms of features, this is a Micro ATX board so you can use this in small, mid-sized or large cases without issue, without committing to a very small form factor like Mini ITX which is a bit more limited in terms of what can physically fit on the board. You get two M.2 slots, gigabit ethernet, four USB 3.2 ports, two USB 2.0 ports and room to connect more. There’s also an HDMI and a DisplayPort port, so if you get a Ryzen APU (like the recently announced 5600G) then you’ll be able to run the system without a graphics card. There’s only one-size PCIe slot, but you still get two PCIe x1 slots if you wanted to install a PCIe to M.2 adapter or a WiFi card. There are also five fan headsets, four RGB headers and a BIOS flash button (always handy!). All in all, this is quite a well equipped board for its size, only really falling short in terms of its full-size PCIe slots which are rarely used these days anyway. So, it’s easy to recommend the B550M Bazooka at this rare low price, so do consider it if you’re in the market! I’d definitely recommend reading some reviews as well, which should give you some confidence that this is an absolute cracker of a deal.
