Analyzing B450 for AMD Ryzen: A Quick Look at 25+ Motherboards
by Gavin Bonshor on July 31, 2018 8:00 AM ESTASRock B450 Gaming ITX/ac
The B450 Gaming K4 uses similar gunmetal grey heatsinks designs as the B450 Gaming K4, which feature fins to help direct airflow through the channels. The board features support for ASRock’s Polychrome RGB technology, however the B450 Gaming-ITX/ac has no onboard LEDs with the RGB capabilities coming through the same pairing of available headers.
Buy ASRock B450 Gaming ITX/ac on Newegg
The B450 Gaming ITX/ac has a single full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot featuring ASRock Steel Slot protection, and has a total of four SATA 6 Gbps ports with all of them featuring straight angled connectors. For M.2, the Gaming ITX/ac model features a single PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA slot located on the rear of the PCB.
As is usually the case with Mini-ITX form factor motherboards, the ASRock B450 Gaming ITX/ac has a total of two RAM slots giving a maximum supported capacity of up to 32 GB of DDR4. One of the advantages to Mini-ITX is the length of the tracks between the RAM slots and the CPU socket meaning better memory capabilities is possible, which in this case is shown through DDR4-3466 support, compared to DDR4-3200 for the Gaming K4.
On the smaller form factor Fatal1ty B450 Gaming ITX/ac rear panel is two USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports (Type-A and Type-C), two USB 3.1 5 Gbps ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a HDMI output, a DisplayPort 1.2 output, two antenna ports for the integrated Intel 802.11ac Wi-Fi module and a PS/2 combo port. The five 3.5mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are governed by a high-quality Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, while the LAN port is driven by an Intel I211AT Gigabit networking controller.
Overall, the smaller B450 Gaming ITX/ac compared to the K4 has higher quality integrated controllers and omits any form of built-in RGB. The new ASRock Fatal1ty B450 models directly replace the currently available B350 offerings and as it stands currently, with the B450 Gaming ITX/ac is set to cost $129.99.
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bi0logic - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
It looks like the price link to the "TUF B450-Plus Gaming" is going to an amazon search for "ASRock B450M Pro4"eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Thanks Gavin, I know this is a lot of information to go through and present. I would love to see a follow-up on these questions:1. Especially for these compact boards, any problems with stock processor heat sinks blocking DIMM slots, i.e. do DIMMs with heat spreaders still fit with a Wraith or Spire cooler, respectively?
2. I have my eye on the Aorus Pro WiFi or something similar, but am wary of the placement of the WiFi antenna connectors right next to two of the USB 3 connectors. I frequently use 3-4 USB 3 devices at the same time frequently, and am wary of the USB 3 - WiFi interference with that placement. Any chance Gigabyte could state if/that they got that taken care of?
Thanks!
Also, still looking forward to your Ryzen 2200/2400 GPU overclock chapter on that duo. Any chance we'll see it soon?
sonofgodfrey - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
Second to last table is labeled X470 Motherboards.PingSpike - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
It looks like the ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING inherits some of the layout features of the (much more expensive) x470 Crosshair 7 in that it steals some of the CPU lanes to get a second full PCI-e 3.0 M.2 slot. Then 8x goes to PCI-e 16 1, the remaining 4x to PCI-e 16 2 and finally a chipset PCI-e 2.0On the surface, this seems like it has totally ignored the bifrucation limitations that supposedly are inherent to the B450 chipset.
In other words, I thought you couldn't get that on this chipset.
Dragonstongue - Tuesday, July 31, 2018 - link
well at least the pricing is "more inline" with the pricing they should be, newer boards, better componentes that actually save the maker a bit of coin per board made, so they keep the same "launch price" is acceptable in my books coming from gen 1 (I so hate the naming AMD used for Ryzen 1xxx and 2xxx needless confusion for nothing)x3xx to x4xx same concept, reduced price to produce so they save some money, but the vast majority of vendors used these "savings" to cram more disco light show RGB on the boards to jack the price up some instead.
seems at least with the B4xx boards the vendors took a "better" approach beyond a few more "premium" boards which rightfully have an increased price (justifiable, maybe, but I myself have zero need of RGB and would only buy a more expensive board that offered them at the increased price if they were WORTH it as far as just overall better then lower cost boards, sadly, there seems to be little difference in more "premium" beyond a butt load of extra RGB little better in VRM etc which are much more useful and required IMO)
they could almost have a market for the premium boards RGB free, so pay a bit less for people like me who do not want all the RGB crud but still get the increased premium sound/VRM/BIOS etc ^.^
WasHopingForAnHonestReview - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
Nice review. Good work.Im amazed that almost every comment is a nitpick. Rough life, Ian.
Flappergast - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
Nice overview on the last page. I’m looking for mITX WiFi - nice to see some good boardsSakkura - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
As documented by Buildzoid, the Asrock B450 Pro4 does not have the claimed 6+3-phase VRM. It is a pure 3+3-phase. Same probably applies for the B450M Pro4.https://youtu.be/yWAwOH-egFs?t=2104
JohanPirlouit - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
Hi everyone,Am I the only one to see that on the AMD picture:
- CPU: 2x SATA 3Gbps
- Chipset: 6x SATA 3Gbps
What do AMD talks about: SATA "3" (known as "6Gbps") or SATA 3Gbps (aka SATA II)?
Sakkura - Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - link
They mean SATA3 = SATA 6Gbps. Annoying that we keep running into these easily confused naming schemes (see also: USB 3.1 Gen1 and Gen2). At least SATA is getting old enough that we should soon be able to just drop the version number (unlike USB 2.0 there's really no reason to make modern hardware with SATA2).