NZXT finally debuts its first AMD motherboard with N7 B550

By Eric Abent/March 26, 2021 11:14 am EST

NZXT has been in the business of making motherboards for a few years now, but up to this point, it has only made motherboards for Intel CPUs. That all changed today with the introduction of the NZXT N7 B550 motherboard which – as the name reveals – supports AMD's B550 chipset. That means it's compatible with 3000, 4000, and 5000 series AMD Ryzen processors, so if you've managed to get your hands on one of the new Ryzen CPUs, NZXT finally has a motherboard for you.

In announcing this motherboard, NZXT revealed that fans have been asking for an AMD motherboard since the first board in the N7 series was launched back in 2018, so while it does indeed seem like the company took its time in rolling out an AMD mobo, the adage "better late than never" is definitely in effect here.

Some of the highlights of the NZXT N7 B550 include support for RGB lighting and fan control for accessories from multiple manufacturers through NZXT's CAM software and WiFi 6E functionality. WiFi support is a somewhat rare sight in gaming motherboards since the expectation is that most gamers will want a wired connection, but it's nice to have the option for WiFi nonetheless. Users can also expect an integrated IO shield, so if you go with N7 B550, at least you don't have to worry about finishing your build only to discover you forgot the IO shield.

Speaking of IO, it also seems like this motherboard comes with a boatload of connectivity options. Looking at the image of the rear inputs NZXT shared, we can see 9 USB ports of varying speeds (one labeled as a BIOS port for use with BIOS Flashback, which this motherboard also supports), along with a USB-C port, the standard array of 3.5mm jacks, an S/PDIF out port, ethernet, and HDMI.

Then, of course, we've also got support for PCIe Gen 4 and up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM. The N7 B550 is available today from NZXT's website (where you can as view more detailed specs) for $229.99, and we'll see if the company's long-awaited AMD debut impresses or disappoints soon enough.