Wednesday, August 31st 2022

ASUS and ASRock AMD B650/E Motherboard Models Revealed

Aug 31st, 2022 05:42 Discuss (46 Comments)

With AMD announcing an October 2022 debut of its mid-range Socket AM5 motherboard chipset, the AMD B650E and B650; manufacturers appear to be ready with a fairly broad selection of products targeting various price-points. The B650E and B650 are expected to have a lighter I/O feature-set than the X670E/X670, and will enable manufacturers to sell motherboards at prices starting at $125. Two of the leading manufacturers, ASUS and ASRock, are ready with their product lists.

The initial ASUS motherboard lineup for the AMD B650E and B650 chipsets include just one product in the mainline Prime series, as many as four from the TUF Gaming series, and two from the ROG Strix series. From these, only one is based on the B650E (meaning, it gets a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot besides the M.2 Gen 5 slot). The others are based on the vanilla B650 (PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slot besides M.2 Gen 5 slots). None of the boards has more than 4 SATA 6 Gbps ports. The board to watch out for will be the ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming WiFi, as it could bring several high-end features into the mid-range, and if previous generations of AMD chipset are anything to go by, the B650/E retains CPU overclocking support.

The ASRock lineup is a lot more comprehensive, with at least five models based on the B650E, and seven based on the B650. These cover popular ASRock brands such as PRO, Phantom Gaming, PG Riptide, PG Velocita, and includes some new names, such as LiveMixer and PG Lightning. ASRock is the OEM of NZXT's motherboards, and so the upcoming NZXT N7-B65XT also finds mention.

Sources: HardwareLuxx.de, VideoCardz

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46 Comments on ASUS and ASRock AMD B650/E Motherboard Models Revealed

Chaitanya

Its a shame all those Asus boards have 4xSata ports which means adding a Sata raid/Hba becomes a necessity.

Assimilator

ChaitanyaIts a shame all those Asus boards have 4xSata ports which means adding a Sata raid/Hba becomes a necessity.

Why do you need a stupidly expensive RAID/HBA card? You can already get PCIe x1 cards with 16 SATA ports.

tabascosauz

The ASRock lineup suggests what I was suspecting - dual PCH of X670 is hard to make into an ITX board. Phantom Gaming ITX is ASRock's top model in that form factor. Although, Asus where's your ITX??

But with B650E it now provides all the necessary connectivity and B550 ITX was already more popular/suitable on AM4, so no harm done. Save a little cost where possible too.

I guess we're all looking to see how adventurous Asus is feeling, whether they want to revisit the Impact for X670...

thegnome

Let me guess, that top Strix board is over 300 dollars?

Chaitanya

AssimilatorWhy do you need a stupidly expensive RAID/HBA card? You can already get PCIe x1 cards with 16 SATA ports.

For RAID 5 array, if I just want sata ports then there are cheap M.2 solutions as well to add Sata ports but none of these support RAID.

Ebay has good listings for cheap RAID/HBA cards.
www.ebay.com/p/27026538211

ARF

thegnomeLet me guess, that top Strix board is over 300 dollars?

It is a very weird strategy by AMD. Relies only on premium, high-end motherboards, while offering only 4 new SKUs, and the lower end 6-core will be in the range of a Core i3 which will run on much cheaper DDR4 boards...

Oberon

tabascosauzAsus where's your ITX??

ROG Strix X670E-I

edgeup.asus.com/2022/new-x670e-motherboards-arrive-from-rog-proart-and-asus-prime/

tabascosauz

OberonROG Strix X670E-I

edgeup.asus.com/2022/new-x670e-motherboards-arrive-from-rog-proart-and-asus-prime/

Screw the Strix - that Gene right there is the big news! Good to see a proper OC board come back in a form factor that isn't insanely constrained for size.

Gungar

tabascosauzScrew the Strix - that Gene right there is the big news! Good to see a proper OC board come back in a form factor that isn't insanely constrained for size.

Well if you can give us a trick to make it fit in a mITX case...

#10

shilka

AssimilatorWhy do you need a stupidly expensive RAID/HBA card? You can already get PCIe x1 cards with 16 SATA ports.

PCI-E gen 3 X1 gen only has 1 GB/s of bandwidth which means that with 16 ports the max speed you get with all of them in use is 62,5 MB/s which is just painfully slow

Nobody is going to be using all 16 ports at the same time i know that but x1 has too little bandwidth for anything more than 4 ports at most and thats for HDD´s with SSD´s i would not get a HBA card with more than two ports which is 500 MB/s per port with two SSD´s and thats not even the full SATA III speed

The PCI-E gen 3 x4 cards you can get are much better since you get 4 times as much bandwidth at 4 GB/s
There are also some x8 and x16 cards but those are harder to find and like you said cost more but if you need the bandwidth you have to pay for it

Asus has gone too far with removing SATA ports on all their boards almost every other brand has 6 on most of their boards and Asrock even has two boards with 8 SATA ports

There are still lots of people that need SATA ports so leave them at 6 thats fine just stop removing SATA ports and stop putting the PCI-E slots so close that you cant fit a HBA in a free PCI-E slot when your big ass 3-4 slot GPU is blocking all other PCI-E slots!

#11

dyonoctis

GungarWell if you can give us a trick to make it fit in a mITX case...

www.ssupd.co/products/meshroom-s
practically the same size as a meshilicious, but support ATX as well :D

#12

Flanker

Hmm how about a deskmini update

#13

gdp77

AssimilatorWhy do you need a stupidly expensive RAID/HBA card? You can already get PCIe x1 cards with 16 SATA ports.

1) Despite zen4 provides more lanes (24) AIBs choose to give less PCI-slots. Most of them will have configuration 16/0/4 or 8/8/4. So using a single PCI card for additional sata will not allow you to use other card i.e. sound card, capture card etc. without sacrificing gpu lanes.

2) It is a disgrace that AIBs choose to give fewer sata than previous gens.

Having said that, the best solution is a nvme --> sata adaptor that gives about 5-6 sata ports.

So the "evolution" of motherboards is for manufacturers to remove features, to increase cost, so the customer pays more for additional adapters/cards to have the same functionality that was standard a couple of years ago.

No "reviewer" will criticize AIBs about those practices, because all of them are paid sheeps.

#14

shilka

gdp771) Despite zen4 provides more lanes (24) AIBs choose to give less PCI-slots. Most of them will have configuration 16/0/4 or 8/8/4. So using a single PCI card for additional sata will not allow you to use other card i.e. sound card, capture card etc. without sacrificing gpu lanes.

2) It is a disgrace that AIBs choose to give fewer sata than previous gens.

Having said that, the best solution is a nvme --> sata adaptor that gives about 5-6 sata ports.

So the "evolution" of motherboards is for manufacturers to remove features, to increase cost, so the customer pays more for additional adapters/cards to have the same functionality that was standard a couple of years ago.

No "reviewer" will criticize AIBs about those practices, because all of them are paid sheeps.

Glad that i bought X570 boards with 8 SATA ports for both my machines and i plan to use them until they die since all newer motherboards are worse in regards to SATA ports
I dont care about being on the bleeding edge with the newest and greatest hardware anymore it all costs way too much draws more power and is worse is some ways

#15

DeathtoGnomes

Only 1 board with Gen5 Pcie slots. Sad. :ohwell::shadedshu:

#16

Assimilator

gdp771) Despite zen4 provides more lanes (24) AIBs choose to give less PCI-slots. Most of them will have configuration 16/0/4 or 8/8/4. So using a single PCI card for additional sata will not allow you to use other card i.e. sound card, capture card etc. without sacrificing gpu lanes.

Of those 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 16 are required by AMD to be used for GPU(s) and 4 for NVMe. So there really are only 4 "free" lanes available and apparently the manufacturers have all decided to use those as NVMe too, probably for cost and complexity reasons.

The X670 chipset is where AMD screwed the pooch, because they mixed 12 PCIe 4.0 and 8 3.0 lanes, where the latter are intended to be used for 2 blocks of 4 SATA ports (1 port per 3.0 lane). Theoretically then a board with only 4 SATA ports would have 4 free PCIe 3.0 lanes to use for an extra PCIe slot, but my guess is that those are being used for add-ins like audio codecs and WiFi/10GbE networking. And since the AIBs love putting ALL THE NVMes on their boards, of the 12 4.0 lanes 8 go to 2 more NVMes and the remaining 4 to a PCIe slot if you're lucky.

If AMD had offered an extra 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes from each chipset, giving a total of 20; or even 4 extra PCIe 3.0 lanes, making 16; or simply made the whole shebang PCIe 4.0, then we would likely see more PCIe slots on these boards. So I'm blaming both them and the AIBs.

That said, on lower-end boards you aren't going to have super-fast networking, so maybe one of the more left-field manufacturers like ASRock will drop an X670 board with only the 2 CPUs NVMes and use the chipset 4.0 lanes for an x8 and x4 PCIe slot.

gdp772) It is a disgrace that AIBs choose to give fewer sata than previous gens.

No, it's called "progress", and it's for the same reason we don't have IDE connectors on boards: SATA is dying as hard drives are.

#17

shilka

AssimilatorNo, it's called "progress", and it's for the same reason we don't have IDE connectors on boards: SATA is dying as hard drives are.

Hard drives are not dying they are still the only way you can get large amount of storage without having to fork out 10 to 40 grand for a Nimbus Data 50 or 100 TB SSD and even those still use SATA
Most people these days are using NAS servers rather than PC´s so yes less PC users are using hard drives in their PC´s but most of the hard drives are going into NAS servers instead so they are by no means dying

The bigest NVME SSD i have seen or heard about is an 8 TB and thats 12 TB less than the bigest hard drives you can buy today
You are half right SATA and hard drives might be going out of style for PC´s but that does make them obsolete all of sudden

#18

gdp77

AssimilatorOf those 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 16 are required by AMD to be used for GPU(s) and 4 for NVMe. So there really are only 4 "free" lanes available and apparently the manufacturers have all decided to use those as NVMe too, probably for cost and complexity reasons.

The X670 chipset is where AMD screwed the pooch, because they mixed 12 PCIe 4.0 and 8 3.0 lanes, where the latter are intended to be used for 2 blocks of 4 SATA ports (1 port per 3.0 lane). Theoretically then a board with only 4 SATA ports would have 4 free PCIe 3.0 lanes to use for an extra PCIe slot, but my guess is that those are being used for add-ins like audio codecs and WiFi/10GbE networking. And since the AIBs love putting ALL THE NVMes on their boards, of the 12 4.0 lanes 8 go to 2 more NVMes and the remaining 4 to a PCIe slot if you're lucky.

If AMD had offered an extra 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes from each chipset, giving a total of 20; or even 4 extra PCIe 3.0 lanes, making 16; or simply made the whole shebang PCIe 4.0, then we would likely see more PCIe slots on these boards. So I'm blaming both them and the AIBs.

That said, on lower-end boards you aren't going to have super-fast networking, so maybe one of the more left-field manufacturers like ASRock will drop an X670 board with only the 2 CPUs NVMes and use the chipset 4.0 lanes for an x8 and x4 PCIe slot.

No, it's called "progress", and it's for the same reason we don't have IDE connectors on boards: SATA is dying as hard drives are.

lol you got your facts wrong. You think that a PCI gen5 lane can only be used for one thing and nothing more. You are wrong.

My 5 year old B350 has 6 sata ports and that's with a CPU that supported gen 3/4 NOT 5 (20 lanes from CPU)

A PCI lane gen5 has twice the bandwidth compared to a gen4 lane which has twice the bandwidth of a gen3 lane.

AIB's instead of taking the STUPID decision to give 3 or 4 nvme slots could easily convert 1 nvme to 5-6 additional sata slots.

Who needs 4 or 5 nvme slots???????

Nvme is only useful for OS+apps. You need one nvme, TOP 2 nvmes

The rest storage is SATA game library/storage/backup

I can get a 10-12TB HDD for my data storage needs for the same price of a 2 TB nvme. Even sata SSDs are much cheaper than nvme and have plenty of bandwidth (and low latency) for a big game library.

3-4 nvme slots are only good for marketing sheeps.

We have a big economical/energy crisis in front of us in the coming years. We, as consumers, should be thinking smart and not fall victims of marketing.

#19

Oberon

If you are in position to need 50 or 100 TB, then you should be using a dedicated storage appliance anyhow, not plugging them all into a desktop mobo. That's a terrible experience.

#20

shilka

OberonIf you are in position to need 50 or 100 TB, then you should be using a dedicated storage appliance anyhow, not plugging them all into a desktop mobo. That's a terrible experience.

I have been doing that for years with no problems so i dont agree with it being a terrible experience
I am up to 96 TB in hard drive space with 6 hard drives on my X570 board which is one of the few X570 boards with 8 SATA ports

Never had a problem

Jacking up the price and then killing off the high end platforms such as X299 and X399 was one of the most idiotic decisions ever it gave people that needed a powerful platform no other option that to either move downwards to mainstream platforms such as the Z and X chipsets or to move upwards to stuff like the TRX40 Threadripper or Epyc platforms which cost and arm and a leg

There are people that do other stuff on their computers than just play games and those people are the ones getting screwed over the worst every time first it was killing off high end platforms and now its making mainstream platforms worse for prosumers

I keep thinking that maybe i should have keept my X99 motherboard and CPU i had 40 PCI-E gen 3 lanes 10 SATA ports and 4 PCI-E gen 3 X16 slots so it was far better than all these new rubbish motherboards that must have NVME and USB out the butt everywhere

If Asrock can have an X670E board with 8 SATA ports so can MSI, Asus and Gigabyte just have one model i dont even care if its the top of the line model
Adding a HBA card is extra cost and a total pain in the butt and it might take PCI-E lanes from the GPU which is just a plain idiotic design choice if that happens

#21

usiname

DeathtoGnomesOnly 1 board with Gen5 Pcie slots. Sad. :ohwell::shadedshu:

PCIe4 won't be bottleneck in the next 5 years so what is the problem, 3090 is losing between 0 and 1% performance on PCIe3

#22

Assimilator

gdp77You think that a PCI gen5 lane can only be used for one thing and nothing more. You are wrong.

No, I am correct. While it would be technically possible to "multiplex" a PCIe lane, in practice nobody does it because it's unnecessarily complex.

gdp77Who needs 4 or 5 nvme slots???????

Customers who have purchased a motherboard and expect it to be somewhat future-proof.

shilkaJacking up the price and then killing off the high end platforms such as X299 and X399 was one of the most idiotic decisions ever it gave people that needed a powerful platform no other option that to either move downwards to mainstream platforms such as the Z and X chipsets or to move upwards to stuff like the TRX40 Threadripper or Epyc platforms which cost and arm and a leg

Costing an arm and a leg is the whole point, sadly, and it's also why HEDT is kinda dead: it doesn't make enough money to justify its existence.

shilkaI keep thinking that maybe i should have keept my X99 motherboard and CPU i had 40 PCI-E gen 3 lanes 10 SATA ports and 4 PCI-E gen 3 X16 slots so it was far better than all these new rubbish motherboards that must have NVME and USB out the butt everywhere

Not really fair to compare X99 (prosumer) to X670/E (consumer).

#23

DeathtoGnomes

usinamePCIe4 won't be bottleneck in the next 5 years so what is the problem, 3090 is losing between 0 and 1% performance on PCIe3

Pcie drive adapters, should it prove worth it.

gdp77Who needs 4 or 5 nvme slots???????

AssimilatorCustomers who have purchased a motherboard and expect it to be somewhat future-proof.

People who wants lots of storage options.

#24

TheLostSwede

News Editor

gdp771) Despite zen4 provides more lanes (24) AIBs choose to give less PCI-slots. Most of them will have configuration 16/0/4 or 8/8/4. So using a single PCI card for additional sata will not allow you to use other card i.e. sound card, capture card etc. without sacrificing gpu lanes.

That's not how most boards are wired up.

gdp772) It is a disgrace that AIBs choose to give fewer sata than previous gens.

I use zero, couldn't care less about SATA at this point in time.

gdp77Having said that, the best solution is a nvme --> sata adaptor that gives about 5-6 sata ports.

So the "evolution" of motherboards is for manufacturers to remove features, to increase cost, so the customer pays more for additional adapters/cards to have the same functionality that was standard a couple of years ago.

Examples? I don't agree here.

gdp77No "reviewer" will criticize AIBs about those practices, because all of them are paid sheeps.

You might want to keep that opinion to yourself when you comment on a tech site that actually posts largely unbiased reviews.

#25

DeathtoGnomes

TheLostSwedeThat's not how most boards are wired up.

Correct, they use copper roads.

sorry... :D couldnt hold back...

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ASUS and ASRock AMD B650/E Motherboard Models Revealed

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