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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sh009vf5ik1a - Saturday, January 18, 2020 - link
Heads up on the Gigabyte B450 DS3H...This article pretty clearly states ECC memory is supported on this board, and so does Gigabyte's product page, however it fails to mention that 'supported' means just boot support. The actual Error Checking and Correction features are missing and unable to be leveraged.
I purchased this board purely based on this article for the sole reason of having a cheap ECC setup. Combined it with a Ryzen 2600 and Unbuffered Kingston ECC memory, and found that its impossible to get ECC working.
The system boots and works, but you do not get ECC functionality.
chrcoluk - Monday, August 30, 2021 - link
I read on reddit someone wrongfully stated the 2nd 16x slot is only pci gen 2. I wondered how they got this info, I then came across this review, which also states the 2nd 16x slow is gen 2.According to the manual both slots are gen 3 and both are hooked to the cpu.
I have confirmed this as I now use an asmedia 1604 sata card, on post it reports what pci-e mode its in, if I use any of the x1 slots it reports gen 2 x1, if I use either of the x16 slots it reports gen 3 x1 (its limited to one lane). I actually have even moved the gpu to the second x16 slot as its easier to plug in cables to the sata card when its in a higher slot and even gpuz reports the gpu is on pcie gen 3.
Whats the lesson? read the manual, test and dont take what a media rep tells you for gospel ;)