The Intel B560 Motherboard Overview: 30+ Budget Models Starting from $75
by Gavin Bonshor on March 29, 2021 7:00 AM ESTASRock B560 Pro4/ac & B560 Pro4
A lot of Intel B560 models are micro-ATX sized, which is a stark contrast compared with Z590, where there are barely any. ASRock does have a couple of ATX sized B560 models including the B560 Pro4/ac and B560 Pro4, with the only difference between both models is the ac version includes an Intel Wi-Fi 5 CNVi. Focusing on the design, the B560M Pro4 pairing includes a grey and black patterned PCB, with silver heatsinks and a small section of integrated RGB LED's located in the bottom right-hand corner.
The ASRock B560M Pro4 ATX motherboard
Located towards the center of the board are two full-length PCIe slots and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. The top full-length slot operates at PCIe 4.0 x16, while the second slot is electronically locked to PCIe 3.0 x4. ASRock includes four memory slots with support for up to DDR4-4800, with a maximum combined capacity of 128 GB. For storage, both the B560M Pro4/ac and B560M Pro4 include threeM.2 slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x4, one with support for PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA, and the third including support for PCIe 3.0 x2/SATA. The third M.2 slot shares bandwidth with one of the board's six SATA ports, which includes support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays.
ASRock B560M Pro4 rear panel (only difference is Wi-Fi 5 on B560M Pro4/ac)
On the rear panel is four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports, with three 3.5 mm audio jacks powered by a Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec. Both models include an Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet controller, while the B560M Pro4/ac includes an unspecified Intel Wi-Fi 5 CNVi. Finishing off the rear panel is a pair of video outputs including one HDMI and one DisplayPort, as well as a PS/2 combo port for legacy peripherals.
At the time of writing, ASRock hasn't provided pricing information for the B560M Pro4/ac, although we do know the non-Wi-Fi variant, the B560M Pro4 has an MSRP of $110.
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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 ?