The concept of creating a custom gaming PC with eye-catching aesthetics is nothing new, but has grown a lot more popular in recent years thanks to the renewed enthusiasm in PC gaming. Consumer options are expanding in practically every space, and motherboards are no exception. If you’re into the latest trend of motherboard fascia, manufacturer NZXT’s latest offering will certainly please. The N7 B550 is not only NZXT’s first foray into the AMD side of computer hardware, it’s also a solid entry in the B550 family.
There are already plenty of B550s on the market, but the late launch seems to have worked in NZXT’s favor for the N7. For starters, it was created in collaboration with ASRock, which has a solid reputation for quality and value. The N7 comes in black and white and features some updated specifications that reflect consumer feedback for previous B550 models. All in all, it has most of the features gamers will need and then some. At $229 USD though, it’s priced on the higher end of the B550 family. Still, it generally holds its own against competitors. You might still want to opt for the X570 if you want to do a high-end build, but here’s what you get with this board.
NZXT N7 B550 specs
The N7 is an ATX board that works with the AMD AM4 chipset and features overclocking support if desired. It has limited PCIe 4.0 support for your GPU and NVME SSDs. That’s still good enough for average gamers, but you can always add 2.5″ SATA storage devices for more space.
The IO features just a single HDMI 2.1 port, which means multiple displays are out of the question. You’ll also want to make sure your monitor isn’t limited to DisplayPort. Moving on, there are tons of USB ports including three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 Gen 1, and two USB 2.0. There’s a similar combination of internal USB ports for RGB and other internal components. Speaking of lighting, there’s no RGB to speak of on this one, but it does have plenty of plugins and an integrated fan controller and seven addressable fan channels via NZXT’s CAM software.
If you need to operate wirelessly on your network, there’s also WiFi 6E connectivity plus Bluetooth 5.2. You’ll blaze along with all of the best networking features, provided your internet can keep up. NZXT also includes a WiFi antenna with the N7.
All in all this is a solid offering from NZXT that will look great in a matching case. The company also claims the boards are slightly easier to build in NZXT cases, so that’s worth considering as well. The specs listed in this article are of course just the highlights, so we recommend you check out the full specs on the NZXT website before purchasing.
We see what you did there with the purple letters.
