Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTASRock B450 Gaming K4
Both the B450 Gaming K4 and B450 Gaming ITX/ac feature similar designs with gunmetal grey heatsinks which feature fins to help direct airflow through the channels, which in turn should help dissipate any excess heat. The boards both feature support for ASRock’s Polychrome RGB technology, with the B450 Gaming K4 having customizable LEDs under the chipset heatsink and additional expansion through a single addressable LED header and standard RGB LED header.
From a quick glance, it looks as though the B450 Gaming K4 has a 9-phase power delivery which appears to be operating in a 6+3 configuration - the Gaming K4 has a heatsink covering the entirety of the MOSFETs, compared to the smaller Gaming-ITX model which only covers the CPU section of the power delivery.
The rear panel of the Fatal1ty B450 Gaming K4 consists of a two USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports (Type-A and Type-C), four USB 3.1 5 Gbps ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI output, a DisplayPort 1.2 output, a D-sub output and a combo keyboard/mouse PS/2 port. The single LAN port is controlled by a Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit networking chip with the three 3.5mm audio jacks being powered by a Realtek ALC892 audio codec.
The ATX sized B450 Gaming K4 has a host of gaming-themed features, AMD 2-way CrossFire multi-graphics card support (x16 + x4) and integrated RGB. The new ASRock B450 models directly replace the currently available B350 offerings and as it stands currently, the B450 Gaming K4 sits at $99.99.
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Ian Cutress - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
10GbE has nothing to do with StoreMI. I was using it as an example of something that the system supports if you buy it. Like StoreMI.jtd871 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
It might have been more clear what point you were making if you had replied "The systems also support ...".The way it's presented in the table, though, it appears as if you are saying the older chipsets themselves do not support StoreMI, which is not true.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Seemed perfectly understandable to me. And if you know one thing about StoreMi, you know what the chart refers to. It's just software after all.jtd871 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Less-savvy readers might get an incorrect impression and come away with the sense that they need to "buy up" to use StoreMI at all.dante01 - Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - link
Hey guys, whats the best option between the asrock b450 itx and the msi b450i ? The msi seems to be missing one fan header and usb 3.1 gen 2 compared to the asrock but the msi may have better VRMs...It also supports 3000mhz ram. I don't know what to choose, some have said that asrock b450 itx is not good (VRMs wise), i intend to OC my ryzen 2600 so VRMs are importantThanks !
asmian - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
compliment (be nice to) != complement (be a good partner to)"Not much hasn't changed" - strange double negative
If there's no in-house editor, then more careful proofreading before posting, please.
Ian Cutress - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
15000 words with a couple of hours to edit. Always going to be the odd one or two typos.jordanclock - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
then be more careful**FTFY.
msroadkill612 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Its still there. Pity. Others may think it is correct.jtd871 - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Your summary table based on features does not currently list the ASUS mITX board under those with 2 M.2 slots.