The AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2019 8:00 AM ESTASRock X570 Steel Legend
Another mid-range board from ASRock is the X570 Steel Legend which blends a good range of features in with solid aesthetics with addressable RGB within its the power delivery and chipset heatsinks. The board sits on a black and urban camouflage themed PCB, with steel silver heatsinks, with elements of black to add contrast. This model is also very similar to the ASRock X570 Extreme4 in terms of components used, feature set, and overall design with the main difference coming via the color scheme.
In addition to the straight-lined heatsinks which makes the board look attractive, is a solid feature set including two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which run at x16, and x16/x4 due to chipset constraints. This means up to two way AMD CrossFire multi-graphics card setups can be used. In the top right corner is four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4666 which is very impressive, and these slots support up to a maximum of 64 GB. The storage capabilities of the ASRock X570 Steel Legend include two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots each with its own individual heatsink, and blends into the actively cooled X570 chipset heatsink quite nicely. Also featured is eight SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays, and ASRock's U.2 kit which is available separately is also supported.
The rear panel on the ASRock X570 Steel Legend is more comprehensive for a mid-range model than the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4, with a single USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, and six USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports. A single Ethernet port is powered by an Intel I211-AT Gigabit NIC, and while there is no wireless interface included, an M.2 Key E 2230 slot with inserts included on the IO shield allow for users to install their own. There are five 3.5 mm color coded audio jacks with a single S/PDIF optical output which are driven by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec, a DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI video output for Ryzen 2nd and 3rd gen APUs, and finishing off the rear panel is a PS/2 combo port.
The ASRock X570 Steel Legend offers users a similar feature set to its X570 Phantom Gaming 4, but with better onboard audio (Realtek ALC1220 vs ALC1200) and utilizes addressable RGB effectively within the heatsinks. This model also uses a straight forward 10-phase power delivery and includes an 8-pin and 4-pin set of 12 V ATX CPU power inputs to provide power to the processor. Price wise, the ASRock X570 Steel Legend has an MSRP of $200, while users in the USA can also get a version with Wi-Fi 6 at a cost of $210.
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Death666Angel - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
There is a "print this article" function. And the easiest way to browse for specifically what you need are price comparison websites. In Europe, that would be "geizhals.eu" (English skinflint.co.uk) . I'm sure other regions have one as well. I don't think having a table with over 35 motherboards would give you the insight you are looking for. Browser for the 2 or 3 motherboards that suite your need and then compare those.konakcc - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
What I find disturbing is that they still put the x4 slots directly next ot the x16 slots. Most modern graphics cards are double wide meaning you can't use those slots so why include them? Think about how the slots will be used and lay them out appropriately.Dark42 - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Thanks for the overview, there seem to be a number of typos / errors though:Asrock Pro4: has only 3 3.5 mm audio jacks(picture), where the text says 5.
Asrock Steel Legend: only 1 USB 3.1 G2 Type-A (picture), text says 2.
Asrock Creator: picture looks like 2 USB 3.1 G2 Type-A + 4 G1, text says 6 G1.
APS: May I suggest a table (or several ones) with the connectivity information? Its not nice having to click through ~40 pages, parse the text and remember to find out how many M.2 slots, Sata ports, etc. the motherboards have.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
There is a "print this article" function. And the easiest way to browse for specifically what you need are price comparison websites. In Europe, that would be "geizhals.eu" (English skinflint.co.uk) . I'm sure other regions have one as well.supremeMilo - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Where are you seeing that the ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Gaming has a S/PDIF output? I might get this board over the AsRock if this is true.eva02langley - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Hey Gavin, could you make a special table for Displayport 2.0, HDMI 2.0 and SPDIF?Also, which of these board offer the best audio technology.
Thanks
gavbon - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
I will try and find some time to quickly knock one up. Just going through the comments now (just finished the Ryzen 3000 CPU re-testing)Kurosaki - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Sad that only the 700usd version from gigabyte was passively cooled. Let's just wait and see if any cheaper models with heatpipes comes by...PeachNCream - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Wait a generation if you aren't starved badly for performance with your current hardware. Given the outcry over chipset fans, this is probably a significant point of improvement on the next-gen chipset agenda.zzing123 - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Given that Ryzen is a brilliant replacement for edge server computing, I'd like to see workstation boards have an option card using the PCIe x1 slot to accommodate an IPMI solution for proper headless server duty. Donany vendors have plans for this?