Help me to spot the motherboard differences?

Hi,

Q1. What is the difference between these 2 motherboards?

A. TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WI-FI)｜Motherboards｜ASUS Singapore
B. TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS WIFI II｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Q2. Is it worth the extra money to select A/B over this cheaper model PRIME B550M-A WIFI II｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Thanks

The differences will be minor between the two. The documentation is lousy between the two models you can see they short hand the text on either side in some cases but from what i can tell you are not missing anything on either model.

The wifi II uses Bluetooth 5.2 where as the first model uses 5.1
They both have premium caps and all the same features outside of that from what i can tell.

Just get what ever is best price point imo.

it will be very minor changes like an extra port of something or a minute design feature. Overall its not going to be drastically different between them.

Prime will have all the features but is less strong, TUF versions have more rugged parts.

Prime is like the value version has all the features but the quality is less. They are still good but some people would customize them further to improve them.

Example the Prime version does not have a shielded pci slot and no heatsink for the m.2 slot, overall the heat sinks for the Prime versions are lesser quality these things don't really matter you can add or improve some of these features yourself if you wanted to.

The actual performance won't change it will use the same sort of features in that regard. Except might have less provisions. Like less PCIE slots or something but overall the parts will be the same.

Think of prime like the entry level motherboard for price value, it has most or all of the features but some features might be removed or the quality of stuff that does not matter as much might be less. Overall though the things that matter are present.

No unless you are getting really nerdy like if you want to over clock then the TUF version is basically designed for that. You can still overclock on the Prime version but it will mean that you might not get as better results.

Overall is minute and the prime version will overclock just as well.

Yes TUF versions are marketed for that reason they are more robust and expected to last longer. Again its minute though. Really its just marketing jargon. The discrepancy between the quality is generally a selling point more than anything.

its like buying the standard version vs the sports version of a car they both perform basically the same except the sports version is a bit more cooler.

Not really that is subjective you are saving money on the motherboard at that point it is subjective you save money on other areas anyway if you know what to look for. That becomes convoluted because there is many ways to save money on parts.

One trap ppl fall into is PSU rating many people will think Titanium automatically means better. It is better because it uses good quality parts but they are expensive. The actual metric that matters is the rating.

80+ Gold is just as good but way cheaper Titanium is less warranted imo unless you have money to burn. Gold should last at least 10 years.
Bronze don't even bother they have issues after 6 months a lot of the time. Sliver is ok not as good as gold.

As long as its 80+ and not bronze then its fine, bronze is harder to get these days anyway coz no one buys them.

its all subjective just think like this the cooler looking parts are more expensive but that does not always mean anything. Well usually its because the cooler looking parts have better heatsinks but in many cases they are not crucial unless you care about heat dissipation.

Therefore it boils down to one thing and that is if you are going to overclock or not. If i was building a computer for someone and they didn't require that then i would use all value parts where possible because it means cheaper computer for the customer.
Even on the value parts you can still overclock it just means less headroom but usually its not a big deal and minute gains.

if you are not overclocking then basically you are paying for parts because they look cooler at that point. if you want the cooler looking parts then do that but if you want to save money you can do that too.

DVI-D, D-Sub, HDMI and DisplayPort on the motherboard are they only usable if I am using integrated graphics (e.g. 5600G), no use for these ports if I am using dedicated graphics cards?

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Malneb said:

Not really that is subjective you are saving money on the motherboard at that point it is subjective you save money on other areas anyway if you know what to look for. That becomes convoluted because there is many ways to save money on parts.

One trap ppl fall into is PSU rating many people will think Titanium automatically means better. It is better because it uses good quality parts but they are expensive. The actual metric that matters is the rating.

80+ Gold is just as good but way cheaper Titanium is less warranted imo unless you have money to burn. Gold should last at least 10 years.
Bronze don't even bother they have issues after 6 months a lot of the time. Sliver is ok not as good as gold.

As long as its 80+ and not bronze then its fine, bronze is harder to get these days anyway coz no one buys them.

its all subjective just think like this the cooler looking parts are more expensive but that does not always mean anything. Well usually its because the cooler looking parts have better heatsinks but in many cases they are not crucial unless you care about heat dissipation.

Therefore it boils down to one thing and that is if you are going to overclock or not. If i was building a computer for someone and they didn't require that then i would use all value parts where possible because it means cheaper computer for the customer.
Even on the value parts you can still overclock it just means less headroom but usually its not a big deal and minute gains.

if you are not overclocking then basically you are paying for parts because they look cooler at that point. if you want the cooler looking parts then do that but if you want to save money you can do that too.

Thanks for the advice.

Does it mean if I do not overclock, all Asus cheapest motherboard are good enough to use?

Do you have any brand or model that you prefer for 80+ Gold?

I understand good PSU is important but sometimes I feel they are overpriced. I have selected Corsair rm650 and it just slightly cheaper the price of PRIME B550M-A WIFI II｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

What components do you buy cheaper brands/models to save money? I guess pc case, pc fans and backup disk can buy the cheapest available. I am thinking of getting used disk (because cheap) to store backup, not sure if my thinking is correct, I guess it is rare that the backup storage disk and the pc will become faulty at the same time.

I have been using Asus P7P55D-E PRO without overclock in my old pc, not sure is it a cheapest/value version or not, it lasted for 14 years.

Read this for example
Why heat spreaders on RAM don't matter—for now | PCWorld

Ram with heat sinks are basically novelty. You are paying for looks at that point because they look cooler than regular ram. it is marketed loosely though that you need the cooler looking ram in some cases because they have better speeds or better features.

its a pitfall overall that we have fallen into looking cooler must be better but this is often not the case. its done in a way so that less experienced people don't know and humans make judgment based from looks so its a Psychology in marketing design to up the price for cooler looking parts.

Just compare two ram sticks one that has no heat spreader to one that does with lights on it but both are the same speed of ram. You will see clearly which one is more expensive. This is not always something easy to compare if you don't know how to and some companies do a disservices here too by selling regular ram closer to ones with heatsinks in price.

All the other stuff you are asking is kind of been answered.

P7P55D-E PRO is a good board its entry level it would be kind of like entry level enthusiast so like similar to Prime but not as good as say a TUF or Rampage version.

TUF is between Prime and Rampage with Rampage being the best but again the most expensive because they look cooler. They have the most features but usually its stuff that does not matter.