Friday, March 14th 2025
Colorful Unveils Battle-AX B850M-E WIFI V14: Entry-Level AMD B850 Motherboard
Without making any official announcement, Colorful silently listed a new AMD B850 microATX (244 mm x 235 mm) motherboard on their Chinese website: the Battle-AX B850M-E Wi-Fi V14. The model is clearly oriented toward entry-level builds and users on a tight budget, a sharp contrast to the CVN B850I Gaming Frozen that Colorful introduced this week. Built around AMD's B850 chipset, it supports the latest AMD AM5 Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series processors. The two DDR5 dual-channel memory slots can accommodate up to 96 GB (max. 48 GB per slot), with a maximum speed of 7600 MHz (OC) and support for both XMP and EXPO. For storage and expansion, the motherboard offers 2x M.2 slots (1x PCIe 5.0 x4 and 1x PCIe 4.0 x4), one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, and one PCIe 4.0 x4 slot. It also features a Realtek RTL8111K for 1GbE wired connectivity and Intel's AX200 Wi-Fi 6 with Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connections.
The build is "very spartan," so to speak, with a black PCB, a single 8-pin EPS power connector for the CPU, no integrated I/O rear shield panel or VRM cooling—the only heatsink present is the one covering the AMD B850 chipset. Regarding power delivery, it seems that Colorful used a simple (budget-friendly) 7+2 phase approach. The rear I/O panel offers a surprise: an ancient PS/2 port (just wondering who's going to use it aside from some retro-nostalgic users). Then we have the usual array of connectors, including six USB ports (4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1), DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0, Gigabit RJ45, two Wi-Fi antenna ports, audio jacks, and one BIOS reset/update button (placed just next to the PS/2 port).
Currently, there's no information regarding pricing or whether the Colorful Battle-AX B850M-E Wi-Fi V14 motherboard will be available through Western distributors.
Sources:
Colorul Battle-AX B850M-E Wi-Fi V14, IT Home
The build is "very spartan," so to speak, with a black PCB, a single 8-pin EPS power connector for the CPU, no integrated I/O rear shield panel or VRM cooling—the only heatsink present is the one covering the AMD B850 chipset. Regarding power delivery, it seems that Colorful used a simple (budget-friendly) 7+2 phase approach. The rear I/O panel offers a surprise: an ancient PS/2 port (just wondering who's going to use it aside from some retro-nostalgic users). Then we have the usual array of connectors, including six USB ports (4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1), DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0, Gigabit RJ45, two Wi-Fi antenna ports, audio jacks, and one BIOS reset/update button (placed just next to the PS/2 port).
17 Comments on Colorful Unveils Battle-AX B850M-E WIFI V14: Entry-Level AMD B850 Motherboard
So why does this port still exist anywhere?
Older KVM switches would still be useful. I still have one somewhere and unlike USB switches they never glitched out on me leaving me without a working keyboard and mouse after switching.
A lot of the computers here also use ps/2, industrial computers tend to also have ps/2 ports only, the port is far more rugged and has much more bite in the contacts to resist accidental disconnections than usb
This discussion may seem silly to many of you but there is some serious poor manufacturer judgement if PS/2 ports are just being added without thinking about it after 40 YEARS since PS/2 was introduced. I guess this is just one of my obsessions that such a port with no significant present-day functionality at all gets reflexively added to motherboards without justification.
though, I'm not sure how many consumers still use that port, I suppose some diehards use it to lower latency than USB because that uses interrupts instead of polling, but, that must be a super small minority
In my home computer i used a 1994 Compaq PS2 keyboard nonstop until 2 years ago when i switched to AM5 on release and i could not find a MB with PS/2 port and i still miss that keyboard, every new one has been trash with bad plastic that polishes and erases in very little time.
You could say there are modern double-shot ABS keyboards that don't have that issue.. but at what price?, i did not pay 100+$ for that compaq keyboard(in fact it was the bog standard one included on the compaq pc), i should not need to pay for a super rare ultra premium "enthusiast" keyboard to have the same quality as a consumer standard keyboard from 30 years ago.
that's why i still prefer ps/2, you have far far better quality keyboards even at entry level at the same price
Honestly expected more waifus.