Anyone have experience with the B550 Vision D/D-P?

TheRandomGuy7 · 16 Aug 2021 at 14:29

I'm close to pulling the trigger on this board as it looks gorgeous and ticks every single box. Also supposedly has top notch VRMs.

The one single thing stopping me is the WiFi/Bluetooth. I currently use a TPLink PCI WiFi 6 card which is 100% flawless and never causes any issues whatsoever. The B550 Vision annoyingly has no PCI slot so I'd have to completely rely on the on-board chip for both Wifi and bluetooth. If it turns out to be poor, I'd have no alternative.

There are numerous worrying posts online about the bluetooth or wifi on this board being intermittent, but it's impossible to tell whether these issues have been fixed with BIOS updates etc (I see another BIOS and AGESA update just 1 month ago).

Can anyone comment on this motherboard and more specifically on its WiFi capabilities?

EsaT · 16 Aug 2021 at 19:41

Somehow doubt there's any Wifi 6 card in Hadrian Wall era PCI, which would cap speed.

And there's no sense to pay that much for B550 board, which doesn't even have anything to justify the price:
VRM's flat slab "heatsinks" are BS without much surface area.
Also expandability is substandard with only one PCIe slot, which doesn't affect graphics card's slot.
(+number of SATA ports is basic)

Lot cheaper MSI B550 Gaming Edge Wifi is better design.
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge WiFi (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £139.99

Even superior feature set all PCIe v4 X570 board would be cheaper:
MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard= £179.99

And all these have likely same Intel Wifi/BT module.

GoRedwings19 · 16 Aug 2021 at 20:05

I am using one right now. Yes it looks lovely but I have a nightmare build using this motherboard this is just my personal experience so your YMMV. I am to return it and order an Asus offering. I went with a gigabyte as I fancied a change. I have used plenty of gigabyte boards although a few fair while back so I am fairly familiar with them. Turns out the gigabyte I knew and the gigabyte I got are totally poles apart.

What happened to dual bios. From flashing bios multiple times to completly stripping my build over and over again to at first seeing 32 gb now it only sees 16gb and even better it no longer runs it at 3600mhz and runs it at 2133mhz. Sure I may have gotten a board which was tempermental. I am not ruling out user stupidity as well. But it has been so frustrating and as much as it matches my build I cannot take it any more. The final straw was when I managed in teh end to get everything up and running only to learn that now A1 and A2 don;t work when they use to before. I can see the temps of my memory modules I can even light them however I want. Now I am down to 2x8GB for 16 gb when I populated it with 4x8gb for 32gb and now I don;t even get dual channel as only B1 and B2 work now. You need A2 and B2.

This was the only board i wanted for my build. Having spent the best part of 3-4 days fighting with it. it is the last board I want.

oh and the wifi is bad not like bad bad but more like chucking it in the rubbish bin and setting it on fire bad. I am sat next right to my router, it still drops signal and cannot reconnect for a bit. Take that how you will.

TheRandomGuy7 · 16 Aug 2021 at 21:27

EsaT said:
Somehow doubt there's any Wifi 6 card in Hadrian Wall era PCI, which would cap speed.

My mistake, I meant smaller (x1) PCIe lanes and I never realised until right now that you can plug PCIe x1 devices into PCIe x16 lanes without any adapter. About time I discovered that!

I'm well aware of competitor boards, have done extensive research, the Vision is well worth £190 for the Thunderbolt ports alone. It ticks all other boxes as I said, and the VRM design should perfectly fine due to the efficiency of Gigabyte's VRM setup (from every single review I can find plus countless forum posts).

GoRedwings19 said:
I am using one right now. Yes it looks lovely but I have a nightmare build using this motherboard this is just my personal experience so your YMMV. I am to return it and order an Asus offering. I went with a gigabyte as I fancied a change. I have used plenty of gigabyte boards although a few fair while back so I am fairly familiar with them. Turns out the gigabyte I knew and the gigabyte I got are totally poles apart.

That's very disappointing to hear as one of my previous boards was an old Gigabyte which was solid for 10 years and still going strong in its new home.

Did you have any issues aside from the RAM and Wifi? I feel like I shouldn't have any issues as I have a simple 2x16GB 3600MHz setup. Plus as I mentioned above I can indeed use my existing Wifi card on this board if I have issues.

GoRedwings19 · 18 Aug 2021 at 03:15

RandomGuy>Like I said it could be all down to a singular bad board. I love gigabyte boards even though my post might not necessarily reflect this.

I cannot rule out my ram could be defective until I have a chance to swap the ram out and I have a BT hub anyways which everyone knows the wifi on it is super trash. But I cannot spend any more time regardless. I could RMA it and get the board I expected. I am bored of Asus boards but they just work for me. and I want to enjoy the setup rather than stripping it down and rebuilding it everytime I can't get it to work.

TheRandomGuy7 · 18 Aug 2021 at 13:31

Yeah fair enough. I've heard lots of complaints with issues on newer Gigabyte boards so it's possible their QA has slipped more recently.

I'd go with an Asus board in a heartbeat but all their boards puzzlingly lack USB-C front panel and many have only 3 fan headers despite being £200+ boards (??). I'll probably buy another MSI even though I don't like the company as their products have always been so reliable.

GoRedwings19 · 18 Aug 2021 at 13:53

I have only used MSI MB once. it was perfectly fine even though the VRM setting by default was extremely high. NGL I love this Vision board for features. I need USB C and I need the fan headers. I mean it is working now just not 100%. And I know a lot of peeps don't care for the looks but it matches my build perfectly.

I don't think their QA has slipped but what you got to take into account is this is 'just' a £200 mb. You pays for what you get for. If this was some high end board I would totally expect it to be on point at every single level.
Funny you should mention the fan headers of Asus as I noticed this last night as I was looking at a replacement

TheRandomGuy7 · 18 Aug 2021 at 22:53

I mean I know prices have inflated but £200 is nowhere near a budget board. Budget B550s and X570s sell for below £100 now as they should, with B450s at the £50 mark. I've never spent more than £80 or so on a board before so for £200 I'd expect close to perfection, at the very least no glaring issues.

GoRedwings19 · 19 Aug 2021 at 11:58

yeah true I have spent £600 on a MB before funnily enough it was a gigabyte and it was flawless. But nowadays my limit is about £250 ish. I have managed to pick up an Asus Dark Hero. But before it arrives I need to satisfy my curiosity. I am gonna remove the Corsair Ram and try out the Gskill ram. That way I know if the memory slots are temperamental or it the Ram

Haz123 · 19 Aug 2021 at 12:06

I found this board just after I had purchased my Asus X570 Prime. I was initially annoyed because it does look beautiful but now I am thinking maybe I dodged a bullet. I always connect my main PC via ethernet so wifi not a problem but the other issues would be.

Not sure if this helps but I get USB C for the front panel from the USB 3.2 connector that the case connects with. Yes it could do with more fan headers in easier to reach positions but other than the bios being set up by cavemen it is working great...so far.

GoRedwings19 · 19 Aug 2021 at 15:35

It’s working!!!! I now have dual channel 4x8GB ram now. Gonna need to test it more. Turns out either it doesn’t like my ram I got for it or the ram is faulty.

TheRandomGuy7 · 22 Aug 2021 at 20:14

GoRedwings19 said:
It’s working!!!! I now have dual channel 4x8GB ram now. Gonna need to test it more. Turns out either it doesn’t like my ram I got for it or the ram is faulty.

Glad to hear it! Are you sticking with the Vision then?

Haz123 said:
I found this board just after I had purchased my Asus X570 Prime. I was initially annoyed because it does look beautiful but now I am thinking maybe I dodged a bullet.

I've actually ended up with an Asus board too. Extremely happy with it minus the BIOS fan control which seems clumsy and a huge step down from MSI.

GoRedwings19 · 23 Aug 2021 at 00:15

No while it give me dual channel it seems it not stable with 4 sticks of ram both the corsair dominator platinum and the gskill trident z will both crash randomly. Take out 2 sticks and it works like a dream.