ASRock B650E Steel Legend Wi-Fi Review: More SATA, Please
ASRock’s B650E Metal Legend Wi-Fi is a mid-range providing within the B650E board area. Priced at $269.99, it comes with a black-on-steel aesthetic, PCIe 5.0 assist, succesful energy supply, three M.2 sockets (together with one 5.0 128 Gbps socket), eight USB ports on the rear IO, and extra. Regardless of being a succesful and performing motherboard, it solely has two SATA ports. Though costs for M.2 drives have dropped, many individuals nonetheless use greater than two SATA-based storage units. And the audio {hardware}, whereas in all probability tremendous for most individuals, is outdated in comparison with the competitors.
ASRock’s B650 sequence (on the time of this writing) consists of 10 totally different motherboards. Right here you may discover all the usual sizes and broad costs, together with acquainted names like Taichi, PG Riptide, PG LIghtning, Professional RS, Livemixer and our Metal Legend SKU. Costs $349.99 (opens in new tab) (Taichi Carrara) to ASRock B650M PG Riptide $169.99 (opens in new tab). There are various choices within the present lineup, together with MicroATX and Mini-ITX SKUs.
Concerning efficiency, our Metal Legend was common to above common throughout our check group. It carried out effectively in video games general and elsewhere in our benchmarks. Nothing was too quick, however nothing was too sluggish both. With correct cooling, it is possible for you to to get essentially the most out of your AMD processor on this motherboard.
Beneath, we’ll undergo the small print of the board and see if it deserves a spot on our checklist. Finest Motherboards checklist. However earlier than we get into our testing and dashboard particulars, we’ll begin by itemizing the options on ASRock’s web site.
Options: ASRock B650E Metal Legend Wi-Fi
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| Energy level | AM5 (LGA 1718) |
| chipset | B650 |
| kind issue | ATX |
| voltage regulator | 19 Part (16x 60A MOSFETs for Vcore) |
| Video Ports | (1) HDMI (v2.1) |
| (1) DisplayPort (v1.4) | |
| USB Ports | (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C (10 Gbps) |
| (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) | |
| (4) USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) | |
| (2) USB 2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| Community Jacks | (1) 2.5GbE |
| Audio Jacks | (2) Analog + SPDIF |
| Legacy Ports/Jacks | ✗ |
| Different Ports/Jack | ✗ |
| PCIe x16 | (1) v5.0 (x16) |
| (1) v3.0 (x4) | |
| PCIe x8 | ✗ |
| PCIe x4 | ✗ |
| PCIe x1 | ✗ |
| Crossfire/SLI | AMD Crossfire |
| DIMM Slots | (4) DDR5 6600+(OC), 128GB Capability |
| M.2 Slots | (1) PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) / PCIe (as much as 80 mm) |
| (2) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) / PCIe (as much as 80 mm) | |
| Helps RAID 0/1/5 | |
| SATA Ports | (2) SATA3 6 Gbps (helps RAID 0/1/5/10) |
| USB Headers | (2) USB v3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) |
| (2) USB v2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| Fan/Pump Heads | (6) 4-Pin (CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/water pump) |
| RGB Headers | (3) aRGB (3-pin) |
| (1) RGB (4-pin) | |
| Diagnostic Panel | (1) After Standing Examine (4 LEDs) |
| Inner Button/Swap | ✗ |
| SATA Controllers | ✗ |
| Ethernet Controller(s) | (1) Realtek Dragon RTL8125BG (2.5GbE) |
| Wi-Fi / Bluetooth | ✗ |
| USB Controllers | ✗ |
| HD Audio Codec | Realtek ALC897 |
| DDL/DTS | ✗ / ✗ |
| Assure | 3 years |
Inside ASRock B650E Metal Legend Wi-Fi Field
Contained in the retail bundle, below the motherboard, are a couple of equipment to get you began. You get two SATA cables, screws/splitters for M.2, Wi-Fi antenna and person guide. ASRock additionally features a graphics card holder that attaches to the motherboard to assist these heavy video playing cards. Like Z790 Reside Mixers pile of equipment, not a lot right here. Actually, we have now listed every thing within the field.
Design of ASRock B650E Metal Legend Wi-Fi
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ASRock describes the Metal Legend as “the philosophical case of rock-solid sturdiness and irresistible aesthetics”. Geared toward informal customers and mainstream lovers, you will not discover any LED shows or absolutely enclosed boards, however there are ‘metal’ coloration heatsinks on high of an 8-layer, black PCB. The motherboard additionally options camouflage-like black and white and grey patterns across the socket, soundstage, and chipset.
The VRM heatsinks and enclosure to the left of the socket home RGB LEDs that illuminate the “S” image for Metal Legend. Beneath the chipset heatsink you may discover further RGBs, whereas a big heatsink sits above the PCI 5.0 M.2 socket and one other covers the opposite two M.2 sockets on the underside of the cardboard. General, it is a good wanting mid-range B650E board.
Within the higher left nook, the VRM heatsink reveals the ASRock emblem in white and the Metal Legend Sequence and B650E stenciled on the heatsink/shroud. The RGBs right here (and on the chipset cooler) are vivid and saturated, so that they’ll do a superb job of brightening up your case inside. The VRM heatsink is not as large because the others, however it does its job effectively. On high of the VRM heatsinks are two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to energy the processor.
To the best of the camouflage-like sample across the socket space we encounter 4 bolstered DRAM slots with a locking mechanism on the high. Supporting DDR5 as much as 128GB, Metal Legend helps speeds as much as DDR5-6600+(OC), however your mileage might fluctuate. Our DDR5-5600 and DDR5-6000 kits labored flawlessly throughout testing.
Above the DRAM slots are the primary two (six) four-pin fan headers. CPU_FAN1 helps fan energy as much as 1A/12W, whereas different headers (CPU_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN1~4/WP) assist fan energy as much as 2A/24W. There’s sufficient of this header to energy most, if not all, of your motherboard-to-board followers. The BIOS or ASRock’s A-Tune applet controls these headers.
Taking place the best edge, we discover the primary two (of the 4) RGB headers. There are two 3-pin ARGB headers on this space, whereas the underside of the board has further 3-pin ARGB and 4-pin RGB headers. Just under these is the Cargo Standing Checker. If there’s a downside with the DRAM, CPU, Boot system, or VGA, 4 LEDs will illuminate through the POST course of. Subsequent up are the 24-pin EPS connector for powering the board, a front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector, and a front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) header. The rear I/O solely has eight USB ports, so some customers might actually need the extra headers/ports it gives.
The VRMs on the B650E Legend include a complete of 19 phases, 16 of that are devoted to Vcore. Energy is fed by way of the 8-pin EPS connectors to the Renesas RAA229628 20-phase PWM controller, then switched to 16x 60A Intersil ISL99360 SPS MOSFETs. The present 960A definitely is not essentially the most highly effective we have seen, however it dealt with our flagship Ryzen 9 7950X carefree flagship.
The audio part is considerably hidden between the templates on the left aspect of the PCB. With the dated Realtek ALC897 codec, the ever-present audio dividing line is seen, working from the underside of the board to the higher M.2 socket. You will not discover any third-party DACs or Amps at this value, so if you happen to’re a vital listener or have a superb field/speaker set, you may need an exterior answer for greatest outcomes. Many of the others in all probability will not discover the dated codec used right here.
The cardboard has two full-length PCIe slots and three M.2 sockets within the center. The higher PCIe socket below the big heatsink is related by way of the CPU and runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds. The underside socket will get its lanes from the chipset working at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. If you happen to’re nonetheless on this form of factor, the motherboard lists AMD Crossfire assist.
The highest M.2 socket sits above the first PCIe slot and takes its lanes from the CPU and helps modules as much as 80mm when working at PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps). The underside two slots are below a smaller (by mass) warmth sink beneath the underside PCIe slot. Every socket helps PCIe 4.0 x4 drives as much as 80mm. On this configuration, there aren’t any ports or bandwidth sharing, so what you see is what you get!
Transferring previous the illuminated chipset warmth sink in the direction of the best edge, we discover two SATA ports. Actually, these are the one two SATA ports on the board, which generally is a downside for a lot of customers who need to migrate older drives. Worst case: You possibly can add extra with an add-on card for round $40, however I might nonetheless wish to see not less than 4 ports right here, particularly on extra budget-oriented fashions the place M.2 drives will not be frequent SATA-. primarily based SSDs or HDDs.
There are a number of open headers on the backside of the board. You may discover further USB ports as ordinary, together with RGB headers and energy/reset buttons. Beneath is a whole checklist from left to proper.
- Entrance panel audio
- 4-pin ARGB header
- 3-pin ARGB header
- 5-pin Thunderbolt AIC connector
- (2) System Fan headers
- Clear CMOS jumper
- (2) USB 2.0 headers
- System fan header
- USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector
- speaker header
- System panel header
The B650E Metal Legend’s rear IO plate comes pre-installed on the motherboard like some other. It has the identical black, white and grey background on the black labels with the Metal Sequence ‘S’ branding. The rear IO has a complete of eight USB slots. You get two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Kind-C and Kind-A ports, 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Kind-A ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. Video outputs include an HDMI and DisplayPort. You may additionally discover Wi-Fi antenna connections for built-in Wi-Fi 6E, a BIOS flashback button, a Realtek Dragon-based 2.5GbE port, and eventually the twin analog plus SPDIF audio stack.
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