ASRock B650E Steel Legend WiFi

[Mussels]

I personally hate the easy bios menus, but do agree that for a beginner user having some simple options for XMP and boot device on the first page loaded is obviously super helpful to less experienced system builders

 

[the.lucius]

I understand some people may not use the mode, but it's nice to be able to set XMP, boot drive order, adjust fans, check computer info on one easy to read screen. Besides that, ASRock advanced menu isn't that user friendly either compared to MSI, Gigabyte or ASUS.

I agree with you. There are different kinds of users after all, and your examples make sense.

 

[Luke357]

I've bought exactly that MB one month ago. So far I am very happy with it. It has everything I need (like 60A, PCI-E 5.0, WiFi+BT works good with my EXPO DDR5), and what it does not have, like many PCI-E slots or SATA slots - I have 1 GPU + 1 SATA SSD. Solid build, very good cooling for the M.2 SSDs, very stable so far. I use it with 7900X and Kingston Fury Beast 6000 Mhz EXPO. It is also one of the cheapest 650E boards I can find, needed WiFI + BT too. Overall, solid build, looks awesome and works the same so far. About the easy BIOS menu - I always hated it on Gigabyte Aorus MB, quite happy ASRock does not have it ))

I've always used ASRock boards and I ALWAYS turn off EZ mode when I set up a new machine. That being said this board shouldn't only have 2 SATA ports at should have 4 at minimum but I guess most people don't have 3 SATA drives like I do.

 

[Octavean]

I've bought exactly that MB one month ago. So far I am very happy with it. It has everything I need (like 60A, PCI-E 5.0, WiFi+BT works good with my EXPO DDR5), and what it does not have, like many PCI-E slots or SATA slots - I have 1 GPU + 1 SATA SSD. Solid build, very good cooling for the M.2 SSDs, very stable so far. I use it with 7900X and Kingston Fury Beast 6000 Mhz EXPO. It is also one of the cheapest 650E boards I can find, needed WiFI + BT too. Overall, solid build, looks awesome and works the same so far. About the easy BIOS menu - I always hated it on Gigabyte Aorus MB, quite happy ASRock does not have it ))

I have a similar motherboard, the ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi, although, the Steal Legend is likely the better board. The Riptide has one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and one PCIe 4.0 x1 slot. The Riptide also has four SATA ports but the board layout is very similar otherwise. The Riptide has a 14+2+1 Phase Power Design. The Riptide also has, M.2 (PCIe Gen5x4), M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4) and M.2 (PCIe Gen3x2).

I bought it as part of a package deal which consisted of a RyZen 7950X + ASRock PG 650E PG Riptide WiFi and a free 32GB (2x16GB) Kit of G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5 6000 RAM (F5-6000J3238F16GX2-FX5). This was just after a price reduction and the free RAM made it seem worthwhile.

 

[Theswweet]

I'm shocked that nobody has reviewed the B650e PG Riptide Wifi yet. It seems to be the best option AM5 board atm from where I'm sitting.

 

[Octavean]

The ASRock PG Riptide WiFi cost me about ~$239 USD (before taxes) and I almost forgot that Microcenter had something like ~$20 or $30 off the motherboard included in the combo deal with the CPU and free DDR5 RAM.

I think part of the problem is that ASRock has a number of motherboards that are very similar. Sure there are differences but one has to imagine that it would be a bit tedious for the reviewer reviewing such similar motherboards.

BTW, I had a great experience with my ASRock X570 Taichi but the B650E PG Riptide was a bit more finicky. For example, the initial video card that I used worked fine for the first boot into BIOS and configuration but after that it refused to display anything. I figured it was the card but I came across similar reports in the ASRock forums with other ASRock B650E and X670E motherboards. I tried the video card in a different system and it just worked (and no, it wasn’t a BIOS settings issue).

So there very well may be some growing pains for early adopters. BTW, most of the issues I came across in threads were mostly applicable to RyZen 7950X uses not 7900X and below. In other words most people citing issues had a 7950X. There were some that seemed to have a specific RTX 4090 issue but that seemed to be sorted with a new beta BIOS IIRC (X670E).

 

[ir_cow]

I think part of the problem is that ASRock has a number of motherboards that are very similar. Sure there are differences but one has to imagine that it would be a bit tedious for the reviewer reviewing such similar motherboards.

Someone asked me about the PG Riptide already. I did a little digging it is uses the same MOSFETs. Just in a 14+2+1 configuration. Without it in hand, that's about all I can tell you.

It is tedious to review something so close. Sometimes it feels like I could just replace the product name and copy the rest over from another review. This is common for low-end / budget stuff because there isn't much to write about.

 

[Mussels]

Someone asked me about the PG Riptide already. I did a little digging it is uses the same MOSFETs. Just in a 14+2+1 configuration. Without it in hand, that's about all I can tell you.

It is tedious to review something so close. Sometimes it feels like I could just replace the product name and copy the rest over from another review. This is common for low-end / budget stuff because there isn't much to write about.

Seriously tho, having someone write up the series and comparing whats different between them would be invaluable
It's also unrealistic to expect when sneaky revisions change the little things all the time tho

 

[Theswweet]

Someone asked me about the PG Riptide already. I did a little digging it is uses the same MOSFETs. Just in a 14+2+1 configuration. Without it in hand, that's about all I can tell you.

It is tedious to review something so close. Sometimes it feels like I could just replace the product name and copy the rest over from another review. This is common for low-end / budget stuff because there isn't much to write about.

I can tell you that the PCIe socket spacing is better for my use case, letting me have a capture card in the bottom slot without having to worry about clearance with a quad slot GPU. That, and there's 4 SATA ports instead of just 2

 

[hkpolice2]

Thanks for the review, I have a question about the VRM setup. Tomshardware review of this board doesn't mention anything about it being "teamed" but yours does.

ASRock B650E Steel Legend Wi-Fi Review: More SATA, Please

Steel appearance meets solid performance, but some features are lacking for the price

www.tomshardware.com

Is it possible to get some clarification from ASRock?

 

[ir_cow]

Thanks for the review, I have a question about the VRM setup. Tomshardware review of this board doesn't mention anything about it being "teamed" but yours does.

ASRock B650E Steel Legend Wi-Fi Review: More SATA, Please

Steel appearance meets solid performance, but some features are lacking for the price

www.tomshardware.com

Is it possible to get some clarification from ASRock?

Maybe @EarthDog can assist in this. He knows this motherboard too. While the ASRock doesn't says it is teamed (aka in parallel) on the website, I vaguely remember probing the bucks to find out.

The way you do this is by manually checking the reistence and find out if they are setup in pairs.

 

[Space Lynx]

@ir_cow one thing I will say about asrock BIOS is that is really awesome that you don't need software for the rgb stuff. there is a rgb section in BIOS with 0-255 ranges, and brightness settings, and different kinds of RGB themes.

I have might set to a static teal color and low brightness, and it syncs all the ARGB headers when you click apply all in BIOS too.

it's just really cool to have this for a motherboard, no software messiness.

and setting fans to performance mode has worked wonders for me, easy to change and its calibrated perfectly to my liking which saves me a lot of time.