It's been more than two weeks since the first round of cheap AMD B550 motherboards hit retail store shelves, and so far it's been almost like a paper launch. This is bad news. The good news is that motherboards with AMD's B550 chipset are now available, including some models under $100.

The B550 chipset is a desirable addition to the Ryzen motherboard landscape; the B550 chipset has some of the same features as AMD's premium X570 chipset, including PCI Express 4.0 support. A fast PCIe 4.0 SSD is the main beneficiary of the upgraded bus specification, but even without an SSD, it is nice to have the latest technology available when building a new PC from the ground up (or upgrading the core infrastructure).

Overclocking is also possible with the B550 chipset, but depends on a variety of factors (specific motherboard model, luck of the draw regarding CPU, cooling, and experience with overclocking techniques).

I was curious to see what the situation was like, so I looked at what was available at a few online stores, but didn't find much. At least, I couldn't find much that was in stock and available for shipping. On Newegg, for example, we could only find three models:

Several others were listed, but with either an orange "Back Order" button or a blue "Auto Notify" button.

B&H Photo found more affordable options, but they do not appear to have them in stock. Many of them, however, are available for order. Some of them are expected to be available in 7-14 business days (this may be a general placeholder, not an exact estimate), while others are simply listed as "coming soon" pre-orders.

Inexpensive options include:

Of these, only the Asus Prime B550M-A/CSM lists July 8 as when it will actually be available.

My gut feeling is that more options will arrive in the next few weeks, so you should be able to build a budget Ryzen system with a B550 motherboard this summer. Until then, be careful not to buy too much from marketplace sellers who have inflated their prices (I've seen a few myself).