ASRock X670E Steel Legend review
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cucaulay malkin
$299 for the most basic x670e, still seems a lot to me when decent z690 sell for $160.
AlmondMan
Very expensive - and then there's what, 3 PCI-E expansions?! wtf?
schmidtbag
Yeah, well, when apparently people are totally fine with 3-slot+ GPUs, I guess you're not going to need those expansion slots anyway...
xrodney
Thats not excuse, if you need to use other slot you could as well put GPU to raiser or put it in 2nd slot and have 1st free to use with what ever you need.
I am not going to buy motherboard that does not have two 16x/0 | 8x/8x slots from CPU and post code.... ever, period. I used 2nd slot and post code for troubleshooting too many times, it save my nerves and time.
tunejunky
Asrock makes the least expensive X670E boards by far. this board is less expensive than Asus' B650E boards and and less than $40 more than Asus' B650 vanilla.
MSI is the only major player with realistic prices (B650 w/ wifi 6e) at or near $200
the biggest bite isn't the board - simply because now more are on the market we see more than the halos. the biggest bite is still DDR5 if you want optimal speeds and timings. if you go for (already obsolete) DDR5 4800, 5200 w/o rgb the prices are the same as a moderately fast DDR4 (4000)
chainy
The 200$ pricetag was already high but we accepted it, now they are just making up prices, has nothing to do with parts shortage or anything other then greed...
tunejunky
not true
every single next gen board for either AMD or Intel has been significantly beefed up. a lot of which is unnecessary imho.
greed would be lower quality or marking up w/o changes
but if you aren't going to OC (which the AIBs seem to assume most will) you can look carefully for a board with an eight phase vrm
plus, shortly (after xmas most likely) the cheapest chipset will come out for both (what used to be a B series but now is less)
bobnewels
Thanks for the review.
I actually owned this Motherboard,I prefer the low/mid tier boards just because they work fine for my PC Gaming needs.
As conclusion says there are no power/reset/clear CMOS buttons. I personally use a cherry switch on a long cable plugged into the JBAT1 to reset COMOS.Very easy to do.
Best highest boosting BIOS on this Motherboard was the release BIOS 1.00 shipped with Motherboard at that time. Every new Agesa from AMD limited boost clocks.
Motherboard worked perfect with RTX3090.
Motherboard did not work well with RTX 4090 until
BIOS update 1.09 made RTX 4090 compatible
1. Update AMD AGESA 1.0.0.3 A.
2. Optimize for AMD Ryzen™ Master Utility.
3. Improve GPU compatibility for GeForce RTX 40 series
RTX 4090 from Nvidia got new firmware on 11/17/2022 for problems with motherboards with blank screen issues like on this motherboard.
BIOS 1.11.AS01
[Beta]
Has Enhance graphics card performance.EG:RTX 4090
Overall my experience with support tickets to Asrock getting canned answer for legit problems I had with Motherboard has soured my experience.
Valken
This MB is supposed to compete with Z790, new production, not old as fab generations are recent.
However, I love my old Asrock Formula OC, buttons and all with no RGB tax.
@bobnewels After you had upgraded the bios on the 4090 RTX, can you just flash back the older MB bios? Just curious...
Prince Valiant
A bunch of wasted space (and PCIe lanes) on the m2 slots, I guess? Only 4 SATA ports as well.
bobnewels
Actual truth is I am a werido,took me two days to get the RTX 4090 to work with the Asrock Motherboard before release BIOS were sent out.When I got the RTX 4090 to work the performance was not there in some games.So I sold the AMD system and bought Intel system at that time.
12600K/13700KF and sold off my RTX 4090 video cards.
So I am waiting for 7900XTX release and will build another AMD PC Gaming rig.Currently PC Gaming on a RTX 3070Ti for another two weeks with a 13700KF with boost clocks running 6000Mhz in PC Games for now.
waltc3
Good review HH.
Yep, it is definitely the best buy I've seen on the 670E list! Even the 670E Aorus Master costs $500, and GB Aorus took several great features on the AM4 Master and removed them on the AM5 Master--like the Clear CMOS button removed from the back panel, dual mechanically switched bioses--no more! That's nuts. Aorus removed the hardware DAC and headphone amp on the AM4 Master while sticking with the same 1220-VB codec of the AM4 Master, there are two or three other things that GB removed from the AM4 model even though they jacked up the price by $170! Paying more for less doesn't get it with me! Get this--if I want the same hardware features I have on my GB Aorus Master AM4--and I want to stay with GB, then I have to buy the Aorus Xtreme for $800...! So I'll be going to something new when I decide which AM5 x3D CPU I want, early next year, supposedly.
But the tricked out MSI and Asus boards for 670E are going for ~$1,000....No sale! Absurd. I can buy a 10G Ethernet adaptor should I want one--but that will be awhile. On the Asrock, I do not particularly care for 1220-VB/Nahimic software--it doesn't hold a candle to the AM4 Master's 1220-VB & hardware DAC and hardware headphone AMP! I had the Nahimic on an MSI board and found it grossly inferior to the sound hardware on the AM4 Aorus master (which was so much better it surprised me.) And the 4 SATA 3 ports don't bother me because next year I am going to purchase 10GB or 20 GB Hard drive with nice warranty on it to take the place of all these HDDs I've dragged around through system to system over the years...;)
Edit: The AM4 Aorus Master is a 6-layer, 2x copper-layer motherboard. It's interesting to note that the AM5 Master is an 8-layer, 2x copper-layer motherboard. With all these features removed, it is difficult to understand why GB is asking $500 for the AM5 version of the mboard--hard to see the $170 increase in price--especially when Asroc is asking less than $300 for their 670E Steel mboard, which is less than the AM4 Master cost on release day in 2019. I will look at this one seriously.
Darksword
^ Why not go for something like the ASUS ROG STRIX B650-E, and just add a 10G Ethernet adapter down the road? It seems to have more of what you're looking for, and at $150.00 less than the Gigabyte X670E
Clear CMOS on rear panel
ALC4080 Codec
5x Audio Jacks
And, it still has some "nice-to-haves" like 2x PCIE-5.0 slots, Q-CODE LED reader, 16+2 phase VRM, etc.
Valken
Get a USB amp or optical out to your preferred audio gear. It will be a better option than paying extra 100 USD to B series MB with slightly better audio chip that costs only 5-10 USD more in the first place.
tunejunky
that's more expensive than the Asrock X670E
H83
It's funny, I thought this board was 500 euros or something like that...
It's more than enough for me, I only use a GPU anyway...
I'm looking at AM5 boards because I'm thinking about an AMD build but the MBs are expensive and I don't know what to choose.
This one seems nice but I need a good audio solution.
cucaulay malkin
get a b550 and 5800x3d, forget about those overpriced new generation mobos, ddr5 and cpus.
schmidtbag
That's why I've been focusing on ITX, because I don't really need the extra slots anymore, so I'd rather just have something smaller. Granted, I have one of the largest ITX cases available (since I wanted room for better+quieter cooling) but my PC still fits nicely where a larger case likely wouldn't.
I also am looking for something with a good audio solution. In particular, something with analog 5.1 surround support. People like to poke fun at Realtek but I'm not an audiophile, I don't use headphones, and I don't crank up the volume to levels where hissing, buzzing, and crackling can't be heard. It's getting a little concerning seeing there are fewer options out there. I'd rather not replace my surround system just so I can use HDMI. I got a cheap adapter that was supposed to convert HDMI to SPDIF but I could never get it to work properly. But, maybe it'll work out for me in the end. AM5 is currently too expensive, I don't want any of the chips available now (I'd rather get the 7700 non-X, and I want to see reviews of that against the i5 13500), there are very few ITX boards, and I'd rather replace my GPU before the mobo+CPU. So, by the time the planets align, I might have something that suits my needs.
H83
You make a good point regarding the 5800X3D, because that thing is a beast for gaming, but i already decided that if i`m going the AMD route, then i`ll buy an AM5 platform for longer longevity. And AMD is also going to release 3D versions for it, so i think it`s makes more sense, even if the platform is more expensive.
If i decide to save some money byr "cornering" myself into another dead end platform, then i`ll buy a 13600KF and a decent Z690 board...
My MBs are always ATX size, not too big and not too small, just the right size for my needs, even if right now i`m using a compact case (Lancool 205 mesh) that i love.
As for the audio part, i had a dedicated sound card on my Q9550 build, but then i bought a Z270 board for my 7600K rig and found out that the onboard was very decent, as good or even better than my old sound card, something that was really surprising to me.
Later on, i also found out that good speakers, are as important or even more than the actual audio hardware, thanks to some great advice here in the forum. That made me buy my current Audioengine 2+ that are great!
So for my future build, i`m looking for a board that has better onboard audio solution as my current build. Or at least as good.
The problem is that there`s very little info about onboard audio and their quality, so it`s not easy to know what to look for...
But i already found out these two Asus boards, the ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WIFI and the ROG Strix B650-E Gaming WIFI, that have the audio Codec ALC4080, that seems very decent and better than my corrent Codec.
The boards can already be found below the 300€ mark, still pricey but they seem solid boards.
But i have time to choose, so no problem...
schmidtbag
I think I'd do the same in your shoes. Though, I personally might opt for the 13500 since I don't care about the extra few Hz and care more about efficiency.
I think many would be surprised how good modern onboard audio is these days. We've come a long way. Wherever it isn't enough, you can get a decent external DAC for cheap.
Why not use HDMI for audio and spend a little extra on a good receiver? That way, whatever you do in the future, you'll have something reliably good.
If you can identify the audio chipset and see the capacitors used on the motherboard, you can get a rough idea of how good it'll be.
