The Intel B560 Motherboard Overview: 30+ Budget Models Starting from $75
by Gavin Bonshor on March 29, 2021 7:00 AM ESTASRock B560M-ITX/ac
ASRock's only mini-ITX model announced so far for the Intel B560 chipset is the B560M-ITX/ac. It's a typical budget-focused small form factor offering from ASRock, with a simplistic black and grey patterned PCB, with a decent-sized silverrear panel cover and combined power delivery heatsink, with a small silver chipset heatsink. ASRock is also advertising a 6-phase power delivery, with one 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input.
Due to its small mini-ITX PCB, there are obvious limitations on expansion slot support, which is most noticeable in both memory and PCIe slots. The ASRock B560M-ITX/ac includes one full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, with two memory slots capable of handing up to DDR4-4600 memory with a maximum capacity of 64 GB across two memory slots. ASRock includes just one M.2 slot which operates at PCIe 4.0 x4 and includes support for SATA drives, as well as four straight-angled SATA ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 array compatibilities.
On the rear panel of the B560M-ITX/ac, ASRock includes two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports, but it does include a front panel USB 3.2 G1 Type-C header. There are also two video outputs including one HDMI and one DisplayPort, with a PS/2 combo port for legacy peripherals, and three 3.5 mm audio jacks powered by a Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec. Last but not least, the B560M-ITX/ac is using an Intel-based Wi-Fi 5 CNVi for both wireless and BT 4.2 connectivity, with a single Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet controller.
ASRock looks to have found a very attractive price for the B560M-ITX/ac with an MSRP of $95. Thismakes it a very attractive option for users to use as the foundation for a cost-effective small form factor option combined with Intel's 11th gen Rocket Lake processors.
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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 ?