Introduction

Some headline features of AMD's current platform are usually only found on its X870 and higher chipsets apart from some pricier B850 options, so it's no surprise that those in need of guaranteed added bandwidth, USB4, Wi-Fi 7, alongside PCIe Gen 5 SSD and GPU support under one roof, turn to its more premium chipsets. That comes with added costs, but ASRock's X870 Challenger Wi-Fi aims to buck that trend in a big way, costing just $170.

This is one of the cheapest motherboards we've reviewed for AMD's 800-series chipsets period, never mind it also offering the benefits of X870. Yet ASRock has also made a good-looking product given the price and one that has plenty of M.2 heatsinks, decent-looking VRM cooling and enough features to keep your typical enthusiast happy.



Of course there will always be cutbacks when it comes to aiming for ultra-low price points, so it's these as well as the general performance of the motherboard that we'll be focusing on here to see if the X870 Challenger Wi-Fi is a bargain or if the cuts have gone a little too far.

Specifications

Packaging and Contents

Accessories are understandably thin given the price, comprising two SATA cables, Wi-Fi aerials, quick start guide and a selection of stickers.


The full list of accessories includes:

• 2× Wi-Fi antenna
• 2× SATA cables
• 1× Sticker set
• 1× Quick installation guide