The ASRock X570S PG Riptide Motherboard Review: A Wave of PCIe 4.0 Support on A Budget
by Gavin Bonshor on October 22, 2021 9:00 AM ESTBoard Features
The ASRock X570S PG Riptide is an ATX motherboard designed for everyday users and gamers looking to use AMD's Ryzen 5000 and 3000 series on a budget. Designed around a new passively cooled chipset heatsink, the X570S series typically allows vendors to update controller sets to the latest chips, although the PG Riptide is more about squeezing in as much value as possible.
Some of the board's main features include three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that are operating at x16/+4/+2, with three smaller PCIe 4.0 x1 slots. For storage, ASRock includes one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, one PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA M.2 slot, and six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. In the top right-hand corner of the board, there are four memory slots with support for DDR4-5000 and a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB.
Touching on cooling support, ASRock includes seven 4-pin fan headers, with one for a CPU fan, one for a water pump or second CPU fan, and five headers designed for chassis fans.
| ASRock X570S PG Riptide ATX Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price | $185 | ||
| Size | ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | AM4 | ||
| Chipset | AMD X570 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual Channel Up to DDR4-5000 |
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| Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.1 | ||
| Network Connectivity | Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE | ||
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC897 | ||
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 1 x PCIe 4.0 x2 3 x PCIe 4.0 x1 |
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| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/10 (X570) | ||
| Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA |
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| USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) | 1 x Type-A Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Rear Panel 1 x Type-C Header (1 x port) |
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| USB 3.2 (5 Gbps) | 4 x Type-A Rear Panel 2 x Type-A Header (4 x ports) |
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| USB 2.0 | 2 x Type-A Rear Panel 2 x Type-A Header (4 x ports) |
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| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8pin CPU 1 x 4pin CPU |
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| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x CPU/Water Pump (4-pin) 5 x Chassis (4-pin) |
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| IO Panel | 1 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 1 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-C 4 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A 1 x Network RJ45 2.5 G (Killer) 5 x 3.5mm Audio Jacks (Realtek) 1 x Optical Output (Realtek) 1 x BIOS Flashback Button 1 x HDMI 2.1 Output 1 x PS/2 Combo port |
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In terms of connectivity, the X570S PG Riptide has one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. Networking capability consists of a single Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE controller, while the board's five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are controlled by a Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec. ASRock does include a BIOS Flashback button on the rear panel, as well as a single HDMI 2.1 video output for users looking to leverage the integrated graphics on Ryzen APUs.
Test Bed
As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS. Most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users and industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 3700X, 65W, $329 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3.6 GHz (4.4 GHz Turbo) |
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| Motherboard | ASRock X570 PG Riptide (BIOS P1.30) | ||
| Cooling | Cooler Master Masterliquid ML240 240 mm AIO | ||
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU | ||
| Memory | 2x8GB G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 16-16-16-36 2T | ||
| Video Card | ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
| Case | Open Benchtable BC1.1 (Silver) | ||
| Operating System | Windows 10 1909 | ||
Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
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Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
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Threska - Sunday, October 24, 2021 - link
Nothing says "canary" as a precursor to the fall of society as the decline of social skills. Soon we all will be communicating in the language of "road-rage".Spunjji - Monday, October 25, 2021 - link
I certainly think education on critical thinking would be of use, but I'm not so sure about fallacies specifically - your example is instructive here, as when lawyers use fallacies, they tend to do so in full knowledge of what they're doing. The target audience are likely to assess the information according to their priors - knowing that they've been presented with a fallacy is unlikely to sway them if they happen to agree with the conclusion.We saw this recently in the UK with a court decision (now overturned) that barred prescribing puberty blockers to trans children on the basis of an assumption that correlation entails causality; whenever this was pointed out people tended to respond by insisting that it was still the right decision for some other (usually unproven or false) reason.
Education on critical thinking is sorely lacking. I didn't get a grounding in subjects like formal logic and epistemology until I studied Philosophy as an undergraduate (I'm in the UK and was educated in a state school, for context).
Oxford Guy - Friday, October 29, 2021 - link
Enough education on fallacies would, hopefully, get them removed from serious discourse. The audience of lawyers is not only the highly-educated. Also, even those with advanced degrees are often only given cursory training in fallacies. The cram-then-forget style of so much of higher education is part of the problem. There is also pressure on all people in a society dominated by fallacies to cave.‘Critical thinking’ should also be reframed as ‘true thinking’ or similar — to remove the false implication that ‘critical’ thinking is special (therefore optional/compartmentalized) rather than the only kind of thinking that yields accurate understanding.
Another massive problem is bad terminology, terminology that so often enables people to avoid the rigor of rationality. When people hear of ‘critical thinking’ they are inclined to believe it’s an academic exercise rather than the way thinking should be approach generally. The embedded word critic also implies combativeness, an excessively-judgmental mentality. Given the strong appeal of conformity (i.e. being ‘chill’), such connotations are counterproductive.
opinali - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
The problem with this idea is the economics. If we make the Cartesian product of all CPU models even within a class, all motherboard models, RAM and SSD capacities, plus other variants that exist already (high-end Ethernet or not etc.), that's a truckload of possible SKUs. Unless you pick a one size fits all choice.TheinsanegamerN - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
I've got a better idea, what if we made a stqandard that would allow people to put in what they want/need at a price they are comfortable with? Oh hey, we already have that!If you want non upgradeable e-waste, and putting a CPU in a mobo is that hard for you, apple is already available for you. What would soldering everything even gain for you, outside of making everything permanent?
Oxford Guy - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
What has been needed for many many years is a change from the ATX form factor to one that cools GPUs efficiently.It has long been utterly ridiculous that the highest-power item in a machine spews its heat back into the case and has tiny fans to cool it.
Threska - Sunday, October 24, 2021 - link
There's change out there. Just not in the market most play in.https://youtu.be/chNM_nntwKU
Spunjji - Monday, October 25, 2021 - link
Yeah, this situation is bizarre. We're long overdue for a substantial change to system form-factor.Calin - Monday, October 25, 2021 - link
Intel introduced BTX 20 or so years ago.There is the ITX, miniITX, MicroATX, all the "small form factors", Intel's "Next Unit of Computing" (NUC), and so on and so forth.
I remember BTX being intended to support better cooling - but for that you have the cases with rotated mainboard, ports on top, multiple chambers (PSU separated from the rest), ...
Not to mention the fact that laptops are taking over desktops (with multiple form factors, from 13" and under laptops to 17.3" gaming rigs or engineering workhorses)...
A system form factor change is taking place...
Oxford Guy - Friday, October 29, 2021 - link
I was aware of BTX but don’t recall that it was mainly about getting GPU waste heat under better control. Perhaps it was. It has been a long time. AMD, Silverstone, Apple have also introduced other form factors. Regardless, the ATX form factor has remained dominant for far far too long.