The Intel B560 Motherboard Overview: 30+ Budget Models Starting from $75
by Gavin Bonshor on March 29, 2021 7:00 AM ESTASRock B560 Steel Legend
Starting our B560 overview in alphabetical order (by vendor), the first board we're taking a look at is ASRock's B560 Steel Legend. The Steel Legend is a common mainstay on its premium desktop chipsets as a mid-range model and currently sits atop its product range for B560. Visually, the ASRock B560 Steel Legend is using a black, grey, and white urban camouflage theme on the PCB, with silver and grey heatsinks. It includesRGB LEDs integrated into the chipset heatsink and along the right-hand side of the board which creates an underglow effect.
Located centrally on the board are two full-length PCIe slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x16 and the bottom slot electronically locked to PCIe 3.0 x4. ASRock also includes two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots for devices such as additional networking and audio controllers. For storage, the B560 Steel Legend includes three M.2 slots with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x4 and the other two including support for both PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives. The third M.2 slot does share bandwidth with one of the board's six SATA ports, which as with Intel chipsets, includes support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. ASRock also includes four memory slots with support for DDR4-4800 and a maximum capacity of 128 GB.
On the rear panel are one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports, with an HDMI and DisplayPort video output pairing. For networking, there is a single Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 GbE controller, while the board's five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output is driven by a Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec. Finishing off the rear panel is a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combination port.
ASRock has set an MSRP of $130 for the B560 Steel Legend, which is representative of its modest controller options,and the market position of B560. It is nice to see ASRock has included a 2.5 GbE port which is becoming normalized as we move past Gigabit networking.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
59 Comments
View All Comments
Alistair - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
AMD's motherboards are cheaper and include OC features at lower prices. Nothing has changed with Intel sadly. If you look at a bundle of motherboard+CPU AMD is still cheaper.evilpaul666 - Monday, March 29, 2021 - link
Most of the AMD boards at Microcenter were in the $200-250 range when I was looking. And they weren't the ROG/Aurous ones. Closer to entry level.ballsystemlord - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
I'm totally behind you there. AMD should stop pricing their products like they are Intel/Nvidia.Qasar - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
so even though AMD has the performance lead, they STILL need to price their cpus LESS then what intel charges for less performance ?ballsystemlord - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
You're a normal person (consumer) also, right? They were not always this high. Don't you want prices to be more reasonable?I actually created a set of tables (completely cited), illustrating this point during AMD's run of the 3000 series and sent it to one of the YT's that does reviews. Nothing ever came of it though.
Here you go: https://ufile.io/tkepsb72
Please note that pricing, at least on AMD parts, has continued to go up. We are now paying 491% per MM2 of silicon vs. the Phenom II x6 1090T.
Qasar - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
" They were not always this high. Don't you want prices to be more reasonable? " ask me that question when the things that are effecting the market right now, and raising the prices higher then they could be,have settled down. as it stands the 5900x is about 70 bucks more then i paid for the 3900x i am currently using, and even though i got the 3900x about this time last year, im STILL considering upgrading to the 5800X when it is available." Please note that pricing, at least on AMD parts, has continued to go up. We are now paying 491% per MM2 of silicon vs. the Phenom II x6 1090T." and look at the performance different between now and then ? the only way for intel's pricing to go was down. as when they were the top, look at what they charged for their cpus. my 5930k cost me 800 in 2015, thats approx $886 now, for that price i can get a 5900x and almost a NH-d15 to go with it.
again, it seems like when intel kept raising its prices for its cpus, no one batted an eye. amd does it, and some are getting upset. quite frankly,. amd has the right to raise their prices, as their cpus are, IMO, worth the price. just like intel did pre Zen, but the difference is, while amd increased performance quite a bit, at best, intel only increased something like 10% or less, depending on what was being run. seems some still consider amd to be the value. cheapo option, and they should still price their cpus as such, well, intel is no the cheapo option, and they should be priced less then amd's equivalent cpus.
ballsystemlord - Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - link
"Ask me that question when the things that are effecting the market right now, and raising the prices higher then they could be, have settled down." Ok."And look at the performance different between now and then?" If bring this line of reasoning to the PDP-7 vs. the 8086, the performance difference is in favor of the 8086 as is the price. Good performance does not have to come at a price premium.
"Again, it seems like when Intel kept raising its prices for its CPUs, no one batted an eye. AMD does it, and some are getting upset." Well, people like myself have been faithful customers for years. It was the core counts, not the fanboy in me that chose this route. We are a bit disappointed -- just as loyal Intel customers are about their current lineup's lack of performance. I feel for them. I just don't vocalize on their behalf because it's not my place as someone who doesn't buy from Intel if he has a choice.
"..AMD has the right to raise their prices..." Of course. I'm not disagreeing with that. I am saying that AMD can but *should not* be raising them so high. OFC: See your first comment above. Demand is insane.
Qasar - Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - link
" Good performance does not have to come at a price premium. " tell that to intel before Zen was released. :-) intel, for what they were offering, were charging quite a bit.you seem to be blaming AMD for its current CPU prices, which is not the case, its the current situation with what has been going on for the last year. as you said, demand is insane.
Linustechtips12#6900xt - Thursday, April 8, 2021 - link
its just how the market works if someones willing to pay for the better performance then its going to naturally cost more than the lesser productpablo906 - Sunday, April 4, 2021 - link
Well of course lower nm lithography is more expensive mer mm2 of wafer space. Like that's literally how it works.....I'm so confused by your comment. Are you saying that price per mm should come down with smaller nodes of lithography?