ASRock B850 Motherboards Review – RIPTIDE, LIGHTNING, STEEL LEGEND & LiveMixer Aiming The $200 US AM5 Segment

Conclusion - Solid $200 US Motherboards For X3D & Gaming Builds

Last year, we tested loads of ASRock X870E & X870 options which offered great features, aesthetics and overclocking capabilities. This year, the company is rolling out more budget-oriented options in the B850 series. So with our roundup complete, let's talk about what these new offerings have got to offer to consumers building AM5 PCs.

Starting with the ATX B850 offerings, the RIPTIDE, Steel Legend and LiveMixer all come with the same VRM arrangement which includes a 14+2+1 phase design and DDR5-8000 MT/s memory support. This is all superb and based on our tests, we had no trouble in hitting the baseline CPU performance with a PBO tuned AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU. The B850I Lightning comes with the higher 8200 MT/s support but has a 10 phase CPU power design which leads to slightly lower OC performance but the VRMs don't get too warm even on this ITX offering thanks to an active fan solution embedded within the heatsinks.

In terms of design, gamers can go for the Phantom Gaming route while the Steel Legend series offers the nice white aesthetics. The Mini-ITX B850I Lightning also looks great on its own. In terms of IO, all motherboards have a huge array of USB ports. The LiveMixer leads with 23 USB ports as it is a content creator motherboard, the RIPTIDE and Steel Legend come with 20 USB ports and the PG Lightning comes with 13 ports in total, a respectable number for a Mini-ITX design. Each board has at least two USB 3.2 Gen2 ports but these B850 designs don't come with USB4 or TB4 options.

ASRock B850 LiveMixer WIFI USB Options (23 Total):

• CPU:
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (Rear)
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear)
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (Rear (USB32_1))
• Chipset:
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Front)
  - 7 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (3 Rear (USB32_234), 4 Front)
  - 12 x USB 2.0 (8 Rear, 4 Front)

ASRock B850 Steel Legend WIFI USB Options (20 Total):

• CPU:
  - 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (Rear)
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_3))
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (Rear (USB32_1))
• Chipset:
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Front)
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_4))
  - 6 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (2 Rear (USB32_2 and USB32_5), 4 Front)
  - 8 x USB 2.0 (4 Rear, 4 Front)

ASRock B850 PG RIPTIDE WIFI USB Options (20 Total):

• CPU:
  - 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (Rear)
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_3))
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (Rear (USB32_1))
• Chipset:
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Front)
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_4))
  - 6 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (2 Rear (USB32_2 and USB32_5), 4 Front)
  - 8 x USB 2.0 (4 Rear, 4 Front)

ASRock B850 PG LIGHTNING WIFI USB Options (13 Total):

• CPU:
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (Rear)
  - 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear)
• Chipset:
  - 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C (Front)
  - 3 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (1 Rear, 2 Front)
  - 6 x USB 2.0 (4 Rear, 2 Front)

The ASRock ATX B850 motherboards also come with WIFI7 and BT5.4 support while the Mini-ITX option gets WIFI6E and BT5.2. Interestingly, the Steel Legend and RIPTIDE get ALC4082 CODECs while the LiveMixer and Lightning options get the ALC1220 codec. All motherboards come with 2.5GbE LAN ports.

Other features include Toolless M.2 Gen5 slots while the Mini-ITX gets a screwed design. The Mini-ITX also gets a Gen4 slot on the back though there's no heatsink and the smaller Gen5 heatsink can get a bit warm. The LiveMixer and Lightning also have just two SATA III ports while the rest get four SATA III ports.

In terms of pricing, the ASRock B850 lineup starts at $109.99 with options such as the B850M-X which has the baseline set of features. We didn't have that motherboard with us for testing, but other designs mostly sit around $150-$200 US. The options we had today are closer to the $200 segment,t and here we have the RIPTIDE at $212.99, Steel Legend at $209, the Lightning at $209 and LiveMixer at $189. These are very decent price points for the ATX offerings that offer a great round of features and good power delivery designs. The Lightning WIFI sits in a more competitive segment where other options have certain features that are better on them, while Lightning has an edge in some departments. Overall, we fully recommend the four B850 motherboards that we have tested today with the Steel Legend and LiveMixer standing out as well-rounded designs for AMD Ryzen X3D PC builders.