News First $125 AMD Ryzen 7000 Motherboard Hits Back at High Platform Prices

PCIe 4.0 for the GPU, and PCIe 5.0 for M.2 SSDs, and DDR5, all for just $125.
You just can't ask for more than that. This is the perfect 'Next-Gen' Upgrade at a very appealing price.
Good Value.
I'll agree there. While it's nowhere near the "cheap" boards on B550 and before, it's a start and the features aren't as paltry as one may think in fairness to AsRock.

Some higher priced motherboards don't even have WiFi/BT built in, so that's a win. Again, just to reiterate: B550 motherboards have the same-ish features at a slightly lower price range comparably, except DDR5 and PCIe5 (doh) for obvious reasons.

I wonder if they can just get A620 out with just PCIe4 everything and just make them dirt cheap while keeping EXPO/XMP and PBO+CurveOpt. Like the equivalent B550 in all, but socket and OC support for AM5. That shouldn't be too terrible, no?

Regards.
 
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PlaneInTheSky

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4 USB 2.0
2 USB 3.0

I wouldn't even want this for free. My $100 7th gen board from 2017 had better features.

Even scanner/printers and gaming mice with macros are slow on USB 2.0 nowadays. Let alone external HDD/SSD where the 40MB/s throughput of USB 2.0 is completely insufficient.
 
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zecoeco

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4 USB 2.0
2 USB 3.0

I wouldn't even want this for free. My $100 7th gen board from 2017 had better features.
As I said, you can't ask for more than that, and you can't expect more. We're in 2023 and as we all know everything's expensive.

You won't get plenty of lanes and ports, it is to be expected. But at least this board ticks all the boxes for a next-gen upgrade, and there's a USB-C, which is nice..
 

TechieTwo

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For those who didn't read the story this is a budget mobo. You can buy full featured Asrock AM5 mobos from $159. and up. The Asrock Steel Legend ($300) is the go-to mobo for high end consumers. It has all the bells and whisles and excessive SATA and USB ports. Why people need 200+ SATA and USB ports is beyond me but the X670 chipset and B650E chipset AM5 mobos offer plenty of ports. There is no need to pay the insane $500+ AM5 mobo prices. Those are a rip-off IMNHO.

DDR5 is always going to be more expensive because of the extra circuitry required. Prices will come down some but the DRAM makers like some mobo makers are going to get as much profit as the traffic will bear.
 
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dfgdgdgdg.jpg


4 USB 2.0
2 USB 3.0

I wouldn't even want this for free. My $100 7th gen board from 2017 had better features.

Even scanner/printers and gaming mice with macros are slow on USB 2.0 nowadays. Let alone external HDD/SSD where the 40MB/s throughput of USB 2.0 is completely insufficient.
Show me an article that says a mouse or keyboard uses more than 40mb/s throughput. Here's the quick answer, they dont. Even an 8000hz polling rate mouse uses less than 1mb/s of data. Macros are purely software and have nothing to do with the data transfer rate of the cable. No printers use these data rates either. besides its not like the motherboard doesnt have 3 faster USB ports on the back for data transfer.
 
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4 USB 2.0
2 USB 3.0

I wouldn't even want this for free. My $100 7th gen board from 2017 had better features.

Even scanner/printers and gaming mice with macros are slow on USB 2.0 nowadays. Let alone external HDD/SSD where the 40MB/s throughput of USB 2.0 is completely insufficient.

The spec sheet says:
  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (Front)
  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C (Rear)
  • 6 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (2 Rear, 4 Front)
  • 8 x USB 2.0 (4 Rear, 4 Front)
So this is all wrong, you don't need that many USB 3.0 ports on the back, perhaps just for your mouse and a joystick. You can add 4 front USB 3.0 ports for hard drives and USB sticks. So just make sure you have a case with a good number of expansion ports, or a 3.5" or 5.25" slot to add a USB panel.

This board seems to hit all the sweets spots for 95% of people that aren't overclockers.
  1. Easily add wifi with the built in M.2 wifi key.
  2. PCIe 5.0 M.2 for future speeds that are coming soon with directstorage API.
  3. PCIe 4.0 for the GPU is fine because this is aimed at mid-range video cards or lower demographics. They won't saturate it for several generations.
  4. 2.5gbe ethernet for futureproofing.
 
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The spec sheet says:
  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (Front)
  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C (Rear)
  • 6 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (2 Rear, 4 Front)
  • 8 x USB 2.0 (4 Rear, 4 Front)
So this is all wrong, you don't need that many USB 3.0 ports on the back, perhaps just for your mouse and a joystick. You can add 4 front USB 3.0 ports for hard drives and USB sticks.
Nothing he said is even true. No mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner, or audio device will use more throughput than a USB 2.0 port will provide. The only real need for faster USB ports is data transfer between drives.
 

LuxZg

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Why get all excited about troll trolling :)
I have wireless kbd/mouse, network printer/scanner, use audio ports for audio, and having 2 fast USB ports is all I need (as you've said, for USB sticks and HDDs).

Main issue I have with this product is - just two DIMMs. Sure, 80% people only ever use 2, but even if I start with 2, eventually I end up adding more RAM down the line.

Otherwise - nice MBO. No (unneeded) bling, and thus cheaper than competition. Now... waiting few MORE months for competition to steam up properly.
 
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PlaneInTheSky

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Nothing he said is even true. No mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner, or audio device will use more throughput than a USB 2.0 port will provide. The only real need for faster USB ports is data transfer between drives.

Can you shut up about things you know nothing about?

High resolution scanning is highly affected by USB speed.

Why the hell do you think they build in USB 3.0 connections in scanners?

Can you do basic math? If you don't think a USB2.0 connection slows down high resolution scanning, you need to go back to high school.

Here is Epson telling you so:

sfsfsfffff.jpg
 
Can you shut up about things you know nothing about?

High resolution scanning is highly affected by USB speed.

Why the hell do you think they build in USB 3.0 connections in scanners?

Can you do basic math? If you don't think a USB2.0 connection slows down high resolution scanning, you need to go back to high school.

Here is Epson telling you so:

sfsfsfffff.jpg

I feel like high resolutions scanning is extremely niche. That's the 5% of people I said this motherboard doesn't fit.

I only scan documents when needed for things like getting your mortgage and school paperwork etc.... Black and white, not high res.
 

PlaneInTheSky

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Regardless of the discussion if person A needs USB 3.0 and person B does not.

I don't know where everyone uses a PC. But if there is one thing I hate about computers, it is being on my knees, hunched under a table, to try to figure out which connection is USB 2.0 and which USB 3.0. Can we finally make every connection at least USB3.0.

We're not asking for a miracle here. USB 2.0 is over 20 years old.
 
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PlaneInTheSky

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Macros are purely software and have nothing to do with the data transfer rate of the cable.

Again, people talking about things they don't understand. Many mice have chips that support on-mouse macros. The macro is installed ON THE MOUSE CHIPS, they are not "purely software".

Many gaming mice have storage capacity and quite advanced chips, they're micro PC. The reason for storing data on the mouse instead of on the PC, is that you can switch to any other PC and don't need to set up anything.

Ever played an MMO? The macros can be a highly complex string of events. And you certainly benefit if that data arrives as fast as it can.

And you can debate how much data this is per microsecond, how is this data packaged when it is transferred. From my experience, that data arrives faster when those chips in a mouse can communicate through a USB 3.0 connection.

Many people argue their mouse feels better on USB3.0, is this a placebo effect or not, idk. A factor might be that USB 3.0 is also a very different protocol. Polling is asynchronous, the whole way by which data is transferred is different on USB3.0.
 
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MergleBergle

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I'd sacrifice the price of the wifi for better wired support (2.5) every day of the week. I don't really see the point of having wifi on a high end motherboard, or any desktop motherboard at all to be honest.
 
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I'd sacrifice the price of the wifi for better wired support (2.5) every day of the week. I don't really see the point of having wifi on a high end motherboard, or any desktop motherboard at all to be honest.

Not everyone can place a wired ethernet port in the room their desktop is in. Especially if you live in an apartment. I'm lucky I own my house and can do so, but if I didn't own the house, I'd have to use wifi. So it's nice this board has the option to add it. I also like that it's futureproof and you can easily upgrade to the latest wifi standard whenever you want.
 
Can you shut up about things you know nothing about?

High resolution scanning is highly affected by USB speed.

Why the hell do you think they build in USB 3.0 connections in scanners?

Can you do basic math? If you don't think a USB2.0 connection slows down high resolution scanning, you need to go back to high school.

Here is Epson telling you so:

sfsfsfffff.jpg
Ahh, yes, the mighty Epson telling me that they use USB 3.0 because if they don't there will be "slow down." Nowhere does it say how much faster, or slower it will be with USB 3.0. Go plug in that USB 3.0 scanner into a 2.0 slot and there is no difference in function, and that ignores the fact that these types of products are added onto the network anyway. A scanner or printer should be on a network and will use this motherboards 2.5gb LAN port as a means to send and receive data to the scanner or printer.
 
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Regardless of the discussion if person A needs USB 3.0 and person B does not.

I don't know where everyone uses a PC. But if there is one thing I hate about computers, it is being on my knees, hunched under a table, to try to figure out which connection is USB 2.0 and which USB 3.0. Can we finally make every connection at least USB3.0.

We're not asking for a miracle here. USB 2.0 is over 20 years old.
So use any of the motherboard's available 4 USB 3.0 and 1 USB-C front connectors then.
 
Again, people talking about things they don't understand. Many mice have chips that support on-mouse macros. The macro is installed ON THE MOUSE CHIPS, they are not "purely software".

Many gaming mice have storage capacity and quite advanced chips, they're micro PC. The reason for storing data on the mouse instead of on the PC, is that you can switch to any other PC and don't need to set up anything.

Ever played an MMO? The macros can be a highly complex string of events. And you certainly benefit if that data arrives as fast as it can.

And you can debate how much data this is per microsecond, how is this data packaged when it is transferred. From my experience, that data arrives faster when those chips in a mouse can communicate through a USB 3.0 connection.

Many people argue their mouse feels better on USB3.0, is this a placebo effect or not, idk. A factor might be that USB 3.0 is also a very different protocol. Polling is asynchronous, the whole way by which data is transferred is different on USB3.0.
And I challenge you to making a macro that uses 40+ mb/s data throughput. Data that goes through a USB 2.0 connector arrives at the same or similar latency as USB 3.0. There is no meaningful "data arrives faster." As I said before, substantiate any of this with some sort of reference.
 

PlaneInTheSky

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And I challenge you to making a macro that uses 40+ mb/s data throughput.

We're talking macros that happen in milliseconds, with millisecond delays between events, not seconds.

Divide that 40MB per SECOND by thousand for a MILLISECOND, and that 40MB data rate suddenly has a data transfer rate of just a few kilobytes. Is a few kilobytes enough to send through a chain of events, I don't know, but USB2.0 likely causes a delay.

sdfsfffff.jpg
 
We're talking macros that happen in milliseconds, with millisecond delays between events, not seconds.

Divide that 40MB per SECOND by thousand for a MILLISECOND, and that 40MB data rate suddenly has a data transfer rate of just a few kilobytes. Is a few kilobytes enough to send through a chain of events, I don't know, but USB2.0 likely causes a delay.

sdfsfffff.jpg
40 MB/s is 41,943,040 bytes per second. So in any given millisecond of time there is 40.96kb of available throughput. Do you realize how many characters or individual actions that can be represented by 1kb?
 
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PlaneInTheSky

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Do you realize how many characters or individual actions that can represent be represented by 1kb?

Yes...if mouse software and Windows were written in machine language...you would have a point.

But input events are a lot more bloated than machine code.
 
40 MB/s is 1,000,000 bytes per second. So in any given millisecond of time there is 1kb of available throughput. Do you realize how many characters or individual actions that can be represented by 1kb?

B = Byte
b = bit
1Byte = 8 bits

Just saying. Not trying to interject. Your point is still valid, 40MB/s is a lot. A mouse packet is only 3-bytes each and if representing a keyboard, it can be an 8 byte packet. Either way, 40MB/s is 40KB/ms. 40,000/3 = 13,300 mouse packets or 40,000/8 = 5,000 keyboard packets to saturate over to the next polling of the mouse(2ms) for a 1,000 hz mouse. You would need a macro with 5,000 steps. Certainly possible, but dang what are you doing on your MMO??? Going full Leroy and pwning fools?
 
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