ASRock B850 Steel Legend Wi-Fi

[Combatus]

If you want a capable Socket AM5 motherboard and have a $200 budget, some features inevitably get culled, so the question is whether what's left is enough for your average PC user. Thankfully, you won't find much better than the Steel Legend in terms of balancing price and features.

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[Baba]

Even if one has a higher budget, is there any benefit to getting a X870E board? I don't need another Gen5 PCIE nor USB4. Just going to slap in a 9800x3d for a few years.

BTW
Audio
- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC4082 Audio Codec)

LAN
- Dragon RTL8125BG

 

[Event Horizon]

Even if one has a higher budget, is there any benefit to getting a X870E board? I don't need another Gen5 PCIE nor USB4. Just going to slap in a 9800x3d for a few years.

BTW
Audio
- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC4082 Audio Codec)

LAN
- Dragon RTL8125BG

Possibly better VRMs and cooling. It really depends on pricing in your region. You might be better off going down a chipset tier but getting a higher end board within that tier. If you're going Asrock + 9800x3D keep an eye on the VSOC if you're enabling EXPO.

 

[RaceT3ch]

I'm impressed with this board, good job on Asrock.

I'm impressed with this board, good job on Asrock.

Actually, does b650 have the same PCIE lanes?
or was that b650E?

 

[_roman_]

X870E board

It's more an input/output and price of the board issue.

No dedicated ususal sized Displayport connector ruined the board for myself. I also prefer four single M2 2280 nvme coolers which are mounted with the usual screws without toolfree.

I like the thermistor thing. It's nice to see that wifi-7 still can use the old screw wifi antenna connectors

In my point of view this board could be a good 110€ candidate.

 

[NSR]

Bought one last week.

It was between this and an MSI Gaming Plus but the feature set on the SL made way more sense for me. Currently have x3 990 Pro M.2s in here, the one without a heatsink is surprisingly cool like the review shows.

 

[Sunny and 75]

If you want a capable Socket AM5 motherboard and have a $200 budget, some features inevitably get culled, so the question is whether what's left is enough for your average PC user. Thankfully, you won't find much better than the Steel Legend in terms of balancing price and features.

Thank you @Combatus, great content as always!

 

[_roman_]

Far overpriced board for 203€

https://geizhals.at/asrock-b850-steel-legend-wifi-90-mxbqs0-a0uayz-a3381533.html?hloc=at&hloc=de&hloc=eu&hloc=pl&hloc=uk

price history shows a paid price listening on geizhals for 230€ 5th january 2025. That's too costly.

With USB4 removed from the equation

More a 80€ board .... 2.5Gbit Ethernet / Lan was on cheaper AM4 mainboards also available.
Less connectors. I doubt AM5 justifies a 120€ surplus in price.

 

[Nhonho]

The onboard audio on this motherboard only has 2 capacitors.
Does a large number of capacitors (6 or more) improve the quality of the analog audio and allow a higher volume?