The Intel B560 Motherboard Overview: 30+ Budget Models Starting from $75
by Gavin Bonshor on March 29, 2021 7:00 AM ESTBiostarB560GTQ
At the time of writing, Biostar has announced one B560 model designed for use with both Intel's 11th and 10th generation processors. The Biostar B560GTQ is a micro-ATX model with a very different aesthetic to everything else currently available on B560. It is using a primarily black PCB, with light blue and grey accented patterning. This stretches across the rear panel cover too and with the images we have available, it is hard to tell if the board includes integrated RGB LEDs or whether the chipset LEDs are blue only. Biostar is also advertising the B560GTQ as being equipped with a 12-phase power delivery, although the technical specifications of this are unknown.
Dominating the majority of the lower half of the board is the PCIe slots, with two full-length PCIe slots operating at PCIe 4.0 x16 and PCIe 3.0 x4, with a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot sandwiched between them. For storage, the board includes one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, with six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Biostar also includes a Key-E M.2 slot for users to install its own Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface. In the top-right corner is four memory slots, which include support for up to DDR4-4000 and with a maximum capacity of 128 GB.
The rear panel includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Despite the rear panel image showing an antenna with Wi-Fi capability, the B560GTQ does not come with any wireless networking and will require users to use its own. Other connectivity includes one DisplayPort, one HDMI, and one DVI-D video output, with a PS/2 combo port for legacy peripherals. The B560GTQ has three 3.5 mm audio jacks which are powered by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec and includea single Ethernet port driven by a Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 GbE controller.
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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 ?