Board Layout

At first glance at the spacious PCB, your eyes have probably been drawn to the same thing ours have, which is the flat-mounted Wi-Fi module. We're guessing it's cheaper to do this if there's the space, and there isn't often on motherboards these days, then why not. The issue here is that black cap is obviously not in keeping with the rest of the PCB. We'd be tempted to paint it white, which would be easy enough as it's detachable from the module.

ASRock also hasn't gone to the lengths Gigabyte has with its recent boards and added white ports and connectors too, but then they do cost a lot more. The size of the VRM heatsinks is pretty evident, though, so hopefully we'll see some decent temperatures. There's very little RGB lighting on the board, with just a touch below the bottom M.2 heatsink, which is a shame as white boards do look great when illuminated.


The components on the PCB are well spaced so layout isn't really an issue in any areas. It's a shame the Wi-Fi module aerials have to trail over the PCB and there isn't much you can do other than removing the module. We love that ASRock has a decent number of fan headers on the top half of the PCB and this trio here above is perfect for controlling AIO liquid coolers that sometimes need more than just two headers. Having these and two of the 3-pin ARGB headers here also means easier cable tidying as you can route them straight over the top of the motherboard tray, out of sight. You don't get an LED POST code display here - that's probably a little redundant seeing as overclocking isn't possible - but there are simple LEDs indicating where there's an issue with specific components such as RAM or CPU.


If you need more than two SATA ports then thankfully the board has the usual four, and cost savings here would maybe count against it seeing as those with lower budgets typically transplant a larger amount of older hardware such as SATA SSDs and hard disks. ASRock hasn't skimped on the Type-C front panel header either, which offers full fat 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 2x2 support. A lot of boards at this price will typically drop to USB 3.0 here, which is maybe not a huge issue but external storage devices that make use of speeds faster than 625 MB/sec are pretty common and will become more so in the future.

Above we can also see the base of the PCB and there's some great layout choices here too with four 4-pin headers and other bits all located on the edge of the PCB for easier cable tidying. If you're wondering about fan power, then the main CPU header tops out at 1 A/12 W, which the rest have 3 A/36 W split between them. ASRock has managed to include a thermistor head here too and with the probe for this included in the box, you're able to sync fan speed with its temperature to tie in with a specific spot in your case. This is maybe a niche feature and a lower price point might have been preferable, but it still managed to hit $200 and some extras to play with are always nice.


It's rare to see a motherboard with a Wi-Fi module mounted like this. It doesn't seem to be of huge benefit to the I/O panel either, other than being able to stack a bunch of twin USB ports next to each other instead of having to opt for quad ports in order to squeeze in a Wi-Fi module. This also makes it far easier to service it yourself should you want to swap it out for something else, but if it saved cash then we can't really argue apart from the cables being a tad unsightly and the cap needing to be white like the rest of the PCB.

The upper M.2 port is the one that's PCIe Gen 5-capable and includes a reasonably large heatsink, although it's far from the largest we've seen. Of more concern was its tricky mounting mechanism, which needed a fair amount of force and fiddling to get it lock into place onto the SSD. It is tool-free at least, and the PCIe slot also features Graphics Card Lite Release. This is simply an enlarged lever allowing you to get at it and release the graphics card a little easier. It definitely makes a difference and as the PCB isn't as packed as more expensive boards, there's not as much of a need for a tool-free feature here. The latter would also add cost, which is what you want to avoid at this price by sticking to essential features only.


Only the upper M.2 slot is cooled on both sides, but as we mentioned earlier, it can be a little tricky to use. Also, installing your SSD can be a little tricky too as the swiveling locks here aren't the easiest to use. Still, it's likely something you'll only deal with once or twice in the entire time you own the board. The lower heatsink is very wide, but not very thick and only cools the top side of the SSDs, while the middle port lacks a heatsink entirely. You can populate all M.2 ports without them stealing lanes from the PCIe slots.


The I/O panel features nine Type-A ports, so should be ample for most enthusiasts as only three of these are USB 2.0 with everything else being either USB 3.0 or USB 3.2 Gen 2. The star of the show here is of course the 40 Gbps Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port. It seems Thunderbolt has finally become affordable, but while it's easy to add accessories such as 10 Gbit Ethernet adaptors, external displays and even charge laptops from the port, these are maybe the domain of more advanced users.

Still, it's a chicken and egg scenario as one of the issues with Thunderbolt on motherboards has been its high cost. Here we finally have a reasonably-priced motherboard that hasn't been stripped of all other features just to include it. Hopefully this will mean a greater number of manufacturers jumping on the Thunderbolt bandwagon and lower costs of devices too. Also worth mentioning is the inclusion of a BIOS Flashback port here too so if you buy the board in future with an old BIOS that doesn't support a future processor, it's a simple task to update the BIOS without a compatible CPU.