When AMD launched its Ryzen 7000-series processors and AM5 platform final September, it mentioned that over time motherboards for the brand new CPUs would get to mainstream value factors. But, practically six months after launch, AM5 motherboards have confirmed to be cussed of their excessive costs, which is likely one of the causes of the platform’s sluggish adoption by the plenty. Happily, this week ASRock began to promote a brand new price range microATX motherboard, the B650M-HDV/M.2, which has grow to be first one to land on retail cabinets for $125.
Most current AM5 motherboards, together with these primarily based on the mid-range B650 chipset, are typically aimed toward fanatics who’re in search of additional options and prepared to pay for them. Because of this, there’s been a dearth of actually low cost B650 boards in the marketplace. However, in the end, issues are beginning to flip round with ASRock’s B650M-HDV/M.2, which at $125 is ready to carry some great benefits of AMD’s newest platform right down to a lower cost level.
Provided that this can be a $125 motherboard, it is honest to say it is not packed to the gills with frills. However ASRock appears to have achieved job balancing options with prices. The ensuing board affords simply 2 DDR5 DIMM slots (1 DPC) and as a non-Excessive motherboard the PCIe x16 slot is simply PCIe 4.0. However ASRock has nonetheless been capable of construct in a robust sufficient VRM system to helps all AM5 processors (together with the top-of-the-range Ryzen 9 7950X3D). In the meantime, I/O connectivity contains two bodily PCIe 4.0 x16 slots (x16 and x4 electrical), a PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot and a PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot for SSDs, a USB 3.2 Gen2 Kind-C port, 4 SATA connectors, a 2.5GbE port, an M.2-2230 slot for a Wi-Fi adapter, and a Realtek ALC897 7.1-channel audio controller.
The tip result’s a comparatively low cost AM5 board that, on paper, appears prefer it ought to nonetheless be greater than sufficient for a constructing a high-performance Ryzen 7000 system.
“When AM5 launched I mentioned that we might see motherboards beginning at $125,” wrote David McAfee, CVP and GM of Ryzen channel enterprise at AMD, in a Tweet. “As HotHardware observed, my timing ‘may’ have been a bit off, however I am blissful to see that ASRock is first to market with a $125 B650 board for AMD Ryzen.”
The motherboard has a fundamental 8+2+1-phase CPU VRM that’s not meant for overclocking, however it’s ok for working processors at inventory clocks. Because it solely has 2 DIMM slots, it solely helps 64 GB of DDR5-6400 reminiscence; although in addition to the truth that 64 GB ought to be sufficient for many desktop workloads, Ryzen 7000 processors take a big reminiscence frequency hit with greater than 1 DIMM per channel anyhow, making 4 DIMMs non-ideal. The platform doesn’t have a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for graphics boards, however there are not any client graphics playing cards with such interface anyway. In any other case, it ought to be famous that the motherboard doesn’t have built-in Wi-Fi assist, although M.2-2230 adapters should not costly to return by if Wi-Fi is required on a desktop pc.
For now, ASRock’s B650M-HDV/M.2 is the one $125 motherboard for AM5 processors, however we hope to see different board makers to comply with go well with and supply cheaper boards to permit for extra cheap Ryzen 7000 system builds. Ultimately AMD is predicted to introduce its A620 chipset with cut-down options that can enable motherboard makers to supply even cheaper AM5 platforms. However for now the cheap B650M-HDV/M.2for $125 at Newegg looks like an affordable alternative.
