The Intel B560 Motherboard Overview: 30+ Budget Models Starting from $75
by Gavin Bonshor on March 29, 2021 7:00 AM ESTASUS TUF Gaming B560M-Plus WIFI & B560M-Plus
Rounding off the ASUS B560 models is a pair of micro-ATX motherboards which are targetted at gamers on a budget. Both theASUS TUF GamingB560M-PlusWIFI and B560M-Plusfollow the quintessential TUF Gaming design with black, grey, and yellow accented PCB and heatsinks. Nearly identical to its larger ATX sibling, both the B560M-Plus and Wi-Fi model is advertised as including an 8+1 phase power delivery, with a single 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input delivering power to the processor.
Both boards include one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, one full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. For storage, there's a pair of M.2 slots, including one PCIe 4.0 x4 and one with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives. In the bottom right-hand corner is six SATA ports, three with straight angled and three with right-angled connectors, with all available ports allowing for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. In the top right-hand corner is four memory slots, with support for DDR4-5000 and 128 GB of capacity.
Although we don't have a clear image of the rear panel, we know both models include a Realtek RTL8125 2.5 GbE port, while the Wi-Fi version comes with an Intel-based Wi-Fi 6 CNVi.There arefive 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output powered by an unspecified Realtek HD audio codec. In regards to USB, there's one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port and eight unspecified Type-A ports. ASUS has also included a pair of video outputs including one HDMI and one DisplayPort.
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limitedaccess - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
Rocket Lake CPUs have 20 PCIe (4.0) lanes off the CPU. This a departure from previous generations in terms of lane count. Comet Lake (and older) for Intel have 16 lanes off the CPU.4 of those lanes are connected to the "first" m.2 slot of B560/Z590 motherboards. 10th gen CPUs don't have those lanes even as PCIe 3.0. Previous generation motherboards have all their m.2 slots using lanes connected to the chipset.
jrbales@outlook.com - Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - link
Thanks for the explanation. My AMD X570 has PCIE 4 lanes from both CPU and chipset, so this is my first build wheres I'm running up against this limitation. Now it all makes sense and fortunately, I did place my Samsung 970 EVO into the 2nd M.2 slot. Thanks again! And old dog CAN learn something new!ScottSoapbox - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
There are three typos in the first paragraph that Word or a browser would catch if you took 10 seconds to check. Hint: words need spaces between them.Linustechtips12#6900xt - Thursday, April 8, 2021 - link
am I the only one who noticed the CMOS battery on the wifi thing in the asrock board?? lolutmode - Saturday, April 10, 2021 - link
has reaktek fixed speed dropping issue in their RTL8125B 2.5G NICmammuthus - Sunday, June 20, 2021 - link
Guys, witch one I should choose between ASUS ROG Strix B560-I Gaming WIFI and MSI MPG B560I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi?aigo - Thursday, July 29, 2021 - link
There is no sound through HDMI ports regardless of the OS; Linux, Windows. Definitely not a multimedia board, and neither it is for gaming.dwoodcock - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
After messing about with this board all day trying to get RAID working I find out it doesn't support RAID at all!!!BadConfiguration - Thursday, October 28, 2021 - link
Hi Gavin, will the M.2_2 (marked ultra m2) use the pcie lanes from chipset ? Or would it use the pcie lanes from cpu ?