ASRock B450 Gaming-ITX/ac

[GhostRyder]

If you have suggestions for another fault this board might have, I'm listening.

No RGB is a fault since nearly everything is RGB these days, making the lack of onboard RGB a lack of a feature, especially given that the board supports addressing 5050 LED strips (and memory sticks) right within its BIOS. The RGB control is great too.. there's no conflict between BIOS settings and software settings.. change it in one, and the other retains the changes for you. That means you don't need the RGB software running all the time to get the lights to light up the way you like, unlike many other board products. With RGB things so good, it sure is a shame that they didn't include a bank or two on the board itself!

I think the only complaint I see with this in my opinion (At least major) is the VRM cooling. I personally prefer MITX boards to have better cooling on them because of the small size. But I also prefer to heavily clock most chips so it depends on the situation. Seems like a good board other than that to me.

 

[Absolution]

AM4 motherboards and VRM + SOC power phases are all the hype nowadays, can you guys include those details in your reviews?

Supposedly Asrock's CPU phase isnt a true 8 phase.

An overclock on the iGPU+CPU (using a 2400G) to test the SOC phase wouldve been nice.

Looking foward to mATX and the ROG B450-I strix reviews

 

[cadaveca]

Supposedly Asrock's CPU phase isnt a true 8 phase.

There aren't many eight-phase controllers in the first place. Nor is this really an issue. It feels to me like a stretch to expect a $125 board to feature a VRM that should be on a $350 board, such as LINK


More 8-phase controllers:


TI's 4-output, 8-phase controller:

http://www.ti.com/product/UCD9248

ONSEMI's 8-phase GPU controller (specifically designed for NVidia's GPUs):

http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/NCP81274-D.PDF

CHL 8-phase, dual output:

http://www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/pb-chl8326.pdf

ISL's controller can be found here:

https://www.intersil.com/en/product.../digital-multiphase-controllers/ISL69138.html

These parts are not cheap.


People don't seem to understand that a VRM controller needs to be specifically designed for a platform. Meanwhile they are sure going nuts over this VRM thing, and all I can say is "welcome to my reviews from 8 years ago, nice to see you catch up finally, but there's more to this story than you are being told". I guess everyone complaining about this wants to pay $500 for a motherboard these days then, and that's fine, but misdirected, IMHO.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

A good VRM doesn't cost the difference between a $130 and a $350 board...

There should be boards with good VRMs but more cut back expansion options.

 

[cadaveca]

A good VRM doesn't cost the difference between a $130 and a $350 board...

There should be boards with good VRMs but more cut back expansion options.

You're right, it's just one part of what makes a board worth a decent amount, however, there are many components and complexity in VRM design, and it's not just what you see... the board needs to be designed between its layers to work that way as well, and this board complexity drives up the cost a fair bit too, plus the added parts you see around the socket for this. Moving from a 4-layer board to an 8-layer board is twice the motherboard.

 

[Eneen]

Question here about idle power consumption: so if you measure power @ 8 pin plug then 7W is actually idle CPU power reported or I get something wrong?
If I'm correct, is it possible that you provide whole platform idle power? I'm considering 2700 build with this board and looking for 25W< idle power from wall with my 1050Ti (about 4W idle) and seasonic fanless platinum PSU.

 

[Fabiano]

Be aware that AsRock has really, I mean really bad software support and by software support I am talking about drivers and specially their bioses. As we all know a great hardware is just as good as it's bios/drivers allow it to be. With being said AsRock has earned the GARBAGE award when it comes to it's bios for their flagship motherboards, right now it is really a disgrace. Their actual support is pretty much non-existent as they may take months or maybe never answer your support tickets. All around it is a shame since their hardware has shown to have potential to be great.

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=9371&PN=14&title=psa-stay-away-from-480-bios-x370-taichi

I would like reviewers to do a more in deep job when talking and evaluating overclocking/functionality features of motherboards as there is rarely a mention the obvious problems that come with these things

 

[bmacsys]

thumbs down: "NO RGB", "It's small", "Only 2 DIMM"... WTF?!

I know this is an old thread but I B450 boards are still for sale. I have to admit the review was ridiculous. Giving it a thumbs down for "being small"? 'two dimm slots"? "no rgb"? It is a mini itx boards duh!