The Intel B560 Motherboard Overview: 30+ Budget Models Starting from $75
by Gavin Bonshor on March 29, 2021 7:00 AM ESTASRock B560M Steel Legend
The ASRock B560M Steel Legend is essentially a cut-down version of its ATX B560 Steel Legend, with similar features with a smaller micro-ATX footprint. Going from ATX to micro-ATX, the reduction in size is generally achieved by lowering PCIe slot count, as the PCB lost is almost always from the bottom. Design-wise, it uses a grey, black and white urban camouflage patterning on the PCB, with silver and grey heatsinks. ASRock includes limited integrated RGB LEDs along the right-hand side of the board, which allows users to create an underglow effect.
ASRock includes a single full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, with two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Memory support consists of four memory slots that can accommodate up to DDR4-4800 with a maximum capacity of 128 GB. For storage, ASRock has included two M.2 slots with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x4, while the second operates at PCIe 3.0 x4 and includes support for SATA drives. There is a total of six SATA ports with two along the bottom with straight-angled connectors and four with right-angled connectors, and all feature support with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. For users looking to add Wi-Fi, there's also an M.2 Key E slot as this board doesn't come equipped with a wireless CNVi.
The rear panel includes four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports, with an HDMI and DisplayPort video output pairing for users planning on using Intel's UHD integrated graphics. ASRock is using a single Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 GbE controller, with five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF powered by a Realtek ALC807 HD audio codec. Last on the rear panel is a PS/2 combo port which is designed for use with legacy peripherals.
At the time of writing, ASRock hasn't unveiled any pricing information for the B560M Steel Legend.
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limitedaccess - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
Rocket Lake CPUs have 20 PCIe (4.0) lanes off the CPU. This a departure from previous generations in terms of lane count. Comet Lake (and older) for Intel have 16 lanes off the CPU.4 of those lanes are connected to the "first" m.2 slot of B560/Z590 motherboards. 10th gen CPUs don't have those lanes even as PCIe 3.0. Previous generation motherboards have all their m.2 slots using lanes connected to the chipset.
jrbales@outlook.com - Wednesday, March 31, 2021 - link
Thanks for the explanation. My AMD X570 has PCIE 4 lanes from both CPU and chipset, so this is my first build wheres I'm running up against this limitation. Now it all makes sense and fortunately, I did place my Samsung 970 EVO into the 2nd M.2 slot. Thanks again! And old dog CAN learn something new!ScottSoapbox - Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - link
There are three typos in the first paragraph that Word or a browser would catch if you took 10 seconds to check. Hint: words need spaces between them.Linustechtips12#6900xt - Thursday, April 8, 2021 - link
am I the only one who noticed the CMOS battery on the wifi thing in the asrock board?? lolutmode - Saturday, April 10, 2021 - link
has reaktek fixed speed dropping issue in their RTL8125B 2.5G NICmammuthus - Sunday, June 20, 2021 - link
Guys, witch one I should choose between ASUS ROG Strix B560-I Gaming WIFI and MSI MPG B560I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi?aigo - Thursday, July 29, 2021 - link
There is no sound through HDMI ports regardless of the OS; Linux, Windows. Definitely not a multimedia board, and neither it is for gaming.dwoodcock - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
After messing about with this board all day trying to get RAID working I find out it doesn't support RAID at all!!!BadConfiguration - Thursday, October 28, 2021 - link
Hi Gavin, will the M.2_2 (marked ultra m2) use the pcie lanes from chipset ? Or would it use the pcie lanes from cpu ?