Just catching up on this thread. Building on the earlier suggestion about ASRock, I actually went with a ASRock B450M PRO4 R2.0 to save some cash and I have been really satisfied with the results. It has been running my home lab for over a year without a single reboot that wasnt for an update. If you are trying to keep costs low like I was, here are some things that helped me:

• Use pcpartpicker.com to monitor price trends. You can often snag B550 boards for the price of B450 if you time it right.
• Look into the NAS Killer guides on serverbuilds.net. They give amazing data on older enterprise hardware that still kicks butt.
• I added a used LSI 9207-8i Storage Controller for my drive array. It cost me $40 and is way more reliable than using cheap SATA expansion cards. I am so happy with the power draw on this build too. It idles at around 25W which is perfect for 24/7 use. Honestly, you dont need to overspend on high-end boards if you pick parts with good VRM data and solid BIOS support... it just works well for me.

tbh I was sooo nervous when I started my first server build last year. I really didnt want to spend a ton of money only for it to fail or something. I ended up picking the ASRock B550M Pro4 because it felt like a safe middle ground for the price. It has enough SATA ports for my drives and even some extra M.2 slots if I ever want to speed things up. I was basically worried about it running 24/7, so I kept things simple. It's been solid for months now. If ur looking at costs, maybe check out the GIGABYTE B550M DS3H AC too? It’s usually pretty cheap and seems to do the job for basic stuff. Honestly, I’m still a bit of a beginner with this, but I think focusing on a board that doesnt use way too much power is a good idea. Is it worth getting those super expensive server boards or is that just for pros? I just wanted something that wouldnt break the bank.

Depends entirely on what you're planning to run! If it's just a basic Plex server or NAS, honestly a good B550 board like the MSI B550 Tomahawk will do you just fine with a Ryzen 5600. But if you're thinking virtualization with multiple VMs, you'll want something with more PCIe slots and better VRM cooling. The ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE is overkill for most people but gives you tons of expansion options.