Colorful Announces Two sub-$130 micro-ATX B550 Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2020 2:00 PM EST
With AMD's B550 models now on the shelves, a lot of focus around its launch was based on pricing - or rather the lack of very low-cost entry-level models.
The motherboard manufacturer Colorful has today unveiled two new micro-ATX sized B550 motherboards: the CVN B550M Gaming Frozen V14 and B550M Gaming Pro V14 models. Some of the primary features include a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec, two PCIe M.2 slots with one Gen4 and one Gen3 slot, as well as a Realtek Gigabit Ethernet controller.
The most striking of the new pair from Colorful is the CVN B550M Gaming Frozen V14 model. It features a very aesthetically pleasing white and silver color scheme, with Naval inspired CVN aircraft carrier class branding and an actively cooled chipset heatsink with a red ring around the fan for contrast.
Although the Colorful CVN B550M Gaming Pro 14V follows a black and silver aesthetic, both models share the same feature set, with a full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, a full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and a small PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. For storage, both models include a single PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, and a secondary PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, with four SATA ports that includes support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. Each model also includes four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4000, with a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB. Colorful is also advertising a 10-phase power delivery on both boards but doesn't go into detail in regards to the componentry or design.
The Colorful CVN B550M Gaming Pro V14 micro-ATX motherboard
Neither model includes any USB 3.2 G2 connectivity, but there are three USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, one USB 3.2 G1 Type-C, and two USB 2.0 ports. Also present is a pair of video outputs including HDMI and DisplayPort, with six 3.5 mm audio jacks powered by a Realtek ALC892 HD audio codec. For networking is a single Ethernet port which is powered by a Realtek 8111H Gigabit controller, with a PS/2 combo port which finishes off the pairings rear panels.
The cool-looking Colorful CVN B550M Gaming Frozen V14 has an MSRP of $126, while the black and grey B550M Gaming Pro V14 comes with a slightly cheaper MSRP of $121. Although Colorful hasn't divulged when or where these models will be available, they are likely to hit stockists of Colorful motherboards in the coming month.
Related Reading
- The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
- AMD to Support Zen 3 and Ryzen 4000 CPUs on B450 and X470 Motherboards
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Review: Why Is This Amazon's Best Selling CPU?
- The AMD Ryzen 3 3300X and 3100 CPU Review: A Budget Gaming Bonanza
- Best CPUs for Gaming: April/May 2020
Source: Colorful
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Ryan Smith - Thursday, July 9, 2020 - link
Thanks!thejaredhuang - Thursday, July 9, 2020 - link
Also putting a X570 labeled heastink on a B550 chipset is lunacy too? There's clearly a mistake in the article/press images.Brett Howse - Thursday, July 9, 2020 - link
I removed the X570 image. I didn't get this PR so will check with Gavin to see if he has a better image of the Frozen version.Samus - Thursday, July 9, 2020 - link
Yeah, just another component to burn out in 3 years. Most definitely going to be some cheap proprietary sleeve bearing fan.But the x570 chipset does use 8-watts at load without any overclocking. This is actually pretty high and likely due to PCIe 4.0 since the chipsets are otherwise pretty similar (feature wise) to the 4xx series chipsets. But again, nothing a decent heatsink shouldn't handle in a ventilated case.
dotjaz - Friday, July 10, 2020 - link
X570 absolutely need one. You are an idiot if you think X570 will always be running in ideal environment. Without adequate airflow or even just hot room, X570 without a fan will fail.Oxford Guy - Friday, July 10, 2020 - link
Tell that to Gigabyte.Samus - Sunday, July 12, 2020 - link
Dotjaz, the chipset TDP is 8 watts. Considering the surface area of the chipset package, it might not even require a heat sink - although AMD partner guidelines specify a heat sink to guarantee environmental variables (such as poorly ventilated cases) don’t reduce reliability.Historically there is plenty of precedent that sub-10w chips do not need active cooling, and many sub-8w chips have been implemented for decades without even passive (heatsink/heat spreader) cooling going back to the 386 CPU.
misel228 - Thursday, July 9, 2020 - link
I love how the company name is "Colorful" and the boards are mainly black and white. :Dartifex - Thursday, July 9, 2020 - link
Maybe this board's in stealth mode, just like the fighter jets silk screened on the board.Speaking of stealth, I've never heard of this company, though I see there's several press releases from them when I search Anandtech.
Slash3 - Friday, July 10, 2020 - link
They're a large, previously OEM-only manufacturer in China that has branched out with their own products in recent years. They make all sorts of stuff, from GPUs to Motherboards and even stereo systems. Mostly budget stuff, but some interesting parts here and there.