I work at a PC hardware retailer in Canada. Our company bought so many B650M gaming wifi's that we ended up bundling them with the 7800x3d and a 32gb ram kit for 700 CAD (500 USD). It sold really well considering if you weren't bundling you would have to pay for around 900 for an alternative.
Great, clear and concise information. I especially loved the way you point out the bad boards in each table so nobody gets confused. Really well done. Probably your best video yet since I started following the channel
Lan works fine for me. What I hate is the duplicated BIOS options. You can find some settings right on the start screen and deep in the cpu/memory OC. They do not change both when you change it in one spot. So I go again and again back to the BIOS because I am never sure if the system is unstable due to the changes I made or my changes are overriten by the second spot value.
@@jankrawczyk1789 yea i had a issue on mine where I enabled expo, and it said it was but in windows it was not.. I had to enable expo and manually set the frequency to get it to work. thats been my only issue
I was literally just googling this and of course Hardware Unboxed got me covered! Can't wait for this next AM5 update cycle. Finally time to upgrade the rig :)
Most crazy is Pcie 5.0 on a B650 Non E class motherboard.With a good sound solution as well. I really hate Gigabyte, due low cost onboard sound ALC 987, they really need to step up for a newer class solution. Its so bad, that they dont even mentioned it on their website.
@@jsullivan2112 basically, they were just not putting in the quality to be worth it and got a bit salty about people giving them some really bad reviews (then again, when you insist on putting out a poor quality product, I don't think you really have any grounds to expect good reviews).
@@andrewgutt276 In the UK they "exist" but are insanely priced so pretty much don't. There is the B650E for £260 (pounds not Dollars) and the non-e is literally £400 which is just a scalp price.
It does depend on where you live though. ASRock has very poor availability and pricing where I am in Europe. The Asus B650E-F is ~$30 cheaper than the Steel Legend for example, and the Taichi Lite is priced around the same as a mid-range X670E board.
@@CaptainKenway I have an ASRock X670E PG Lightning that is great, and a B650M Pro RS that has crippling issues (and not just my board, after some searching). So yeah I guess they make some good boards and not so good ones (as do all manufacturers).
Great video Steve, I appreciate these big Mobo rundowns. These are my go to videos when I buy Mobos and the other video with expanded VRM testing. Keep up the good work
What's always missing on these mobo comparisons is the sound chipset. Some of these boards have far higher sound chipsets than others. Knowing the pcb layer counts would also be useful, as this can affect memory overclocking.
layer count alone isn't telling the whole story, weight of copper matters and some boards like tomahawk are 6 layers but have much better shielding on traces compared to some 8 layers
Sound chipsets can vary wildly. Most wouldn't need a dac but would like a higher grade onboard chipset. It only needs the chipset type to be added to the reviews, so no testing required. Some higher cost mobo's use cheap sound chipsets. Steve regularly says he doesn't know why a board warrants a higher price, but ignores the sound chipset and pcb layers/copper track quality. Likely the extra costs are there.
I've got the Asrock B650M HDV for my current HTPC and gaming builds. It's simple, reliable and does everything i need with Ryzen 7700's. I've used ASRock HDV boards in previous builds without hiccups, both Intel and AMD. But i would not use them for high end systems and workstations. The Ryzen 7700 is all i need for my home computing needs to be honest. I don't play AAA and competitive games anymore. Most is Indie, AA and older games in 4K144Hz. Currently a lot of Insurgency Sandstorm and No Man's Sky. For my CAD/3D workstation, i use Full ATX boards and HEDT sockets in 19" Rackmount with split trays for fast SSD RAID storage. I'm on a Intel Xeon build currently, but i may consider Threadripper for a future build. I chose Intel in 2021, because of reliability and stability only. Threadripper 3000 had some small issues. It would be cool, if you guys could do workstation tests.
I've bought 2 Asus 650E-F boards this year; there's usually a small pile of open box specials at my Micro Center, and yet so far they've both worked out with no complaints.
Yeah, got mine with the 7900x bundle there. Latest bios update seemed to really make it stable as ever. Certainly happy with it so far. I would definitely buy Asrock if bundle options were not available.
Same here, got the 7800x3d bundle and swapped out the board it came with for the 650E-F that was open box, been working flawlessly, also swapped out the Gskill ram for Corsair Vengeance 6000 Cl30.
@awalay-wz3nh True but which boards have official outside of beta drivers support. One has to do their homework in current status. Hopefully more bios drivers drop before Zen5 drops outside of beta.
Need update for holidays... i'm being forced to build a new AM5 for my son for xmas. Mobos are killing me with pricing and availability in U.S. Want something he won't ever replace on AM5 lifecycle, starting him on R5 7600 but imagine he'll be R9 in a few years.
even at a recent computex the best offerings included very simple solutions in terms of sound, any external DAC within 100$ will solve all problems with any hardware and you will never need to think about sound in your motherboard again, so I don't see the point of this.
@@АндрейЕлисеев-ы6й You're right. On board audio is decent enough output for casual users, while severely lacking on input capabilities. Also, having those physical knobs on EQ is very handy.
Like the person above mentioned, just get something like a Schitt Fulla and you will never have to think about PC audio again. It literally does not even have/need drivers - never mind software. Motherboards are notorious for being noisy, and trying to get around this will inevitably just steer into audiophile trash very quickly. Just remove all of that mess from the picture and ignore onboard audio.
I have a Topping MX3S on my desktop. It is a fine little 2.1 DAC/AMP with a pretty good headphone amp for around $200. There are plenty of other great inexpensive options out there. It just depends on the features you want. Spending a bit on a nice desktop setup greatly outweighs the enjoyment of motherboard sound.. I
Love the Asrock B650e Taichi Lite MB. Hands down the best as you mentioned. Only downside is that at least here in the US the only place to purchase it from is Newegg.
Man, really appreciate thew amount of useful info in your B650 videos, tons of effort I see.I always viewed your board videos as unique and useful. I chose a MSI Pro board for my girl a couple years ago thanks to your recomendations.
I love my Asrock B650 live mixer, it's been solid since the day it was installed, I have had no thermal issues or compatibility issues and my R7 7700 typically runs at 5.3ghz. The only downside is some may think it's a little ugly.
I have been running an AsRock Riptide 650e wifi for about a year now. It indeed is a great board. Haven't had an issue and the temps stay relatively cool. Since the new 650 Steel Legend looks like the same architecture I'd definitely go with that one if doing a future 9xxx Ryzen build. Maybe they'll bring out a strong B850 version in the near future.
@@ritchie2137 Fedora Linux 40 (Workstation Edition). Linux 6.9.8-200 GNOME 46.3.1 (Wayland) Ryzen 7 7700X 32GB DDR5 RX 6600 ( RDNA2 ) Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6E(802.11ax) PCI card. Everything is plug and play, just works after first install, update and reboot. No issues, best computing experience I've had in years. ( Fedora will also support RDNA3 plug and play )
Almost went with the Asus TUF b650-e!!! Happy I saw your Mid-Range ATX segment. I had started following claims on multiple forums and even review sites of it being superior to the ASROCK steel Legend. PCIe5 + 2.5G Lan = Instant sell on the Steel Legend. Thanks Bruv You are GREATLY appreciated :)
23% VAT that alone will take you from $180 to $224. But also Steel Legend seems to be higher priced here by retailers because of popularly. Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX V2 costs $230 here which subtracting the VAT would be $187 so cheaper than in the video.
They are higher everywhere that will have VAT. Though in the us you have sales tax which varies from state to state so easier to show pricing without it.
I normally don't give a thumbs up before I watch a video but since you demanded your payment up front I did it first thing ....... Hopefully I won't be disappointed ......
You screwed my pc build with this video (no offence, just kidding) 🤣 With your recommendation, i changed the build to the Asrock B650 Steel Legend Wifi. As a result, everything changed to white. Reason: I have seen that the X870 motherboards for Ryzen 9000 series provide 1100 A VRM (Computech showcase and board manufactors). The Steel Legend comes with fourteen 80 A VRM, capable of managing the upcoming CPU's of the 9000 series. In addition to this, it comes with PCIE 5.0 on the PCIE x16 connector, even if it isn't an "E" board, so the upgrade path in the future should be covered. Regardless what comes in the future for CPU's (9000 series) or GPU's. Thanks for your work, your continious updates on hardware and your effort to provide the best content to your viewers. Greetings to Australia an keep up the good work. 👍
Par for the course, sadly. The US usually has the best prices. And distributors around the world used world events as an excuse to raise prices, like a lot of other industries.
@@void_guy_yt it did take a couple minutes the first week now it takes like 80 seconds to boot but I also didn’t enable MCR because tbf I only boot up my computer once a day so it’s not a big deal to me
Amazing work, thank you! This will save a life for sure. Note for EU buyers: 1) The B650E PG riptide is 20€ cheaper than the B650 Steel Legend. 2) The Strix B650e-f Gaming WiFi is 45€ cheaper than the Taichi B650 Lite. EU prices suck.
Keep in mind that when they mention US prices it’s usually before tax. Same in Canada. You usually only know the real price of things at checkout. The prices are actually higher
I appreciate your dedication and hard work testing. Made my choices easier. I just finished a build today. Originally went with the Asrock b650m HDV/M.2 with the 7800X3D but unfortunately, the board was faulty, just got unlucky. Spent days systematically swapping parts and keeping track of hardware combos with several BIOS revisions to no avail. Its system building, can be frustrating, sometimes it works the first go around, sometimes computers just don't want to cooperate. I ended up spending a little more money on a suggested board the MSI MAG b650 Tomahawk wifi. The only hiccup was an outdated BIOS and the long RAM train time but it was worth it.
The Asus B650E-F has come down massively in price here (~£200) occasionally below the Steel Legend and is actually slightly better equipped. I presume the price drops were because of the Asus reputation hit and the early AM5 SoC issues.
I've Strix B650E-E since release day 2022 and it's stunning. My frist AMD board since I moved from crappy Intel which I used all my life. No regret at all.
Been rocking the Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi for over year and a half now. Got it in a bundle with the 7700X + 32GB ram at Microcenter. It has served me well, and just glad I never had any of those early Asus BIO issues.
They are not. Locally for me the Taichi lite is same price as normal Taichi (340e), Steel legend is 240e. At that point I might as well consider x670 mobos...
9:12 I see AsRock is maintaining the Steel Legend's legacy. Currently running the B550 non-WiFi, and this sounds like the same board, just with modern PCIe. Not to mention they've doubled down on the white, which I approve.
I've been using Asrock for AMD motherboards since AM3+, and on AM4 I have had the B350m, B450m, and B550m PRO4 models; never had a single issue with any of the motherboards and even managed to get my B350m PRO4 to post with my Ryzen 1600 set to 4.0ghz and RAM 3200mhz back in 2017 when it was increasingly difficult and notorious to get these things to play nice on even high end motherboards. Big fan of Asrock ever since. Nice to see their newer Micro ATX PRO boards still going strong.
I bought an ASRock board back in the Core 2 Duo days that served me faithfully for almost 6 years. Even my current X470 board is ASRock, and going on 5 years itself.
I dunno where they get their prices from - every time EVERY TIME they say something like "The ASRock B650 LiveMixer is a $150 US" I go and look and it's $350 with some sellers asking $500 for it. For some reason I ALWAYS end up either paying 150~250% more than Tech-Reviewers claim they sell for or I end up buying them used for about what they say new ones go for. The only occasional exceptions are RAM and Mechanical Hard Drives - And I have been buying parts for and building, about 2 systems per month for the past 8 or 9 years - for retirement income. I dunno, but I think these reviews should omit price as a consideration - it's NEVER what is being claimed. Just review the boards for: Number of layers, Trace layout, VRM & MOSFIT, Number and Type of slots (PCIe/USB/SATA/RAM/M.2/Audio/FAN connections, etc.) - half of which you guys don't even cover. And then comment on the other "special features" like: on-board power button, error code display, socket to RAM distance, Audio subsystem noise and fidelity, Manufacturer RMA rates, possible case incompatibilities and so on. I dunno, it seems you're doing all that work to look up and evaluate based on price and it's just too volatile to go by - At least it's NEVER correct for me.
It's so dumb that many big tech channels don't do motherboards reviews anymore. It's weird they all just don't want to talk about it, almost like they signed a secret NDA for money.
They also don't review ram kits anymore. Maybe big ram also secretly pulls the tech reviewers strings with nda's and shit. Either that or those videos are just not worth the time and effort making them, since they get way less views than gpu and cpu videos
@@102728 TRUE, the RAM reviews have diminished to bare none across the board in the tech scene on TH-cam. HUB is one of the near none that do full PC components deep dive reviews. Even the people at GamersNexus don't do them anymore, which is odd.
I went with the MSI MPG B650 EDGE WIFI motherboard for my latest build after some research & I've been happy with it. I'm using it with a Ryzen 9 7900 12C/24T CPU, 64GB DDR5, & a Solidigm/Intel P44 Pro 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
I seem to be pretty limited for choice in my country compared to all these boards bring spoken of. I went with the Rog Strix B650E-F Gaming and it has been flawless so far. No complaints at all.
Over the years I have seen a lot of people on the internet call AsRock boards trash. I disagree and thanks HUB for supporting my opinion. The HDV .M2 is one the best budget boards out there. Glad I picked one up for 120,- while it was available. Their AM5 lineup is really good. Looking forward to Steve's opinion on the PG ITX board.
I've had an gigabyte b650m aorus elite ax ice in my basket for ages, hoping we'd see some discount on it and we haven't, the black version is nicely discounted but the MSI B650M GAMING PLUS WIFI is still cheaper at current/price availability, kudos to you and Timothy (sorry Tim) continuing to support everyone's budget and being realistic on what your audience want/need at said price point.
After a bad experience with an ASRock AM4 Mini-ITX board, I wasn't sure whether I'd buy ASRock again anytime soon. But these recommendations are hard to deny! For context, it was an ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax, unstable from the start and only got worse over time. Eventually replaced it with a Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX which has been rock solid so far.
Similar thing with me, replacing a ASRock B650M RS PRO with a Gigabyte board because of choppiness and audio cutouts during gaming. Issues instantly resolved, even with the same Windows installation. BIOS and driver updates did nothing.
ASRock is really stepping up to the plate in my mind. I’m even impressed with their range of monitors that have come to market. Two thumbs up for the video!! 👍👍
Great job with the videos. Just done choosing the parts on Amazon after watching your videos. Great reference materials since my last device is a laptop, and crazy prices at my area. 👍
It is a good thing you included other suggestions. Prices for some of the Asrock boards are a lot higher here in Germany. After watching the video I can say that I am really happy with the board choice I made and my board recommendations I make to our customers. As a sidenote: A topic you did not touch in your video, were the soundchips (it's become a terrible trend for mainboard manufacturers to not list the chip they use on the board). Asrock uses entry level soundchips on a lot of their boards. That is why, even at the prices mentioned here, I would take the B650 Tomahawk Wifi over all other boards well beyond 200 Euros. And for a lack of good Asrock prices here, the B650E-F Gaming as the upper price limit. These have good soundchips (Taichi lite has an even better one), which for me is important, since I am not a fan of dedicated soundcards.
![[Live สด] การออกรางวัลสลากกินแบ่งรัฐบาล งวดวันที่ 16 ธันวาคม 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dNTiBBthKgQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I have a dedicated AM5 Mini-ITX video coming next week.
Cant wait 4 the best 670 boards
Perfect! I was thinking about upgrading my ITX if the price to performance was right =)
Wondering if those itx board will be updated to amd agesa 1.2.0.0a for ryzen 9000 and the review?
It would be nice to include if the board has a conector for front panel USB-C and say what the audio chip is.
Please include which ones are zen 5 ready bios update available 🙏. Thank you! In advance.
The more you Steve, the more you Thanks!
Now Steve to you, back!
10/10 Jensen approves this comment 😂
The more you Steve, the more you Thanks!
Steve Steve Steve Steve, Steve!
The more you Steve, the more you save on stupid ass products
All the hard work is recognized and very appreciated!
SIMP!
Steve
Is
Meaningfully
Paid
I love how you're so upset over someone giving a donation 😂 @@dunrossb
@@Skankhunt6990 And I love how jokes fly over your head.
@@Skankhunt6990 You cannot see that he is joking from the tone of his comment? Bit weird.
I work at a PC hardware retailer in Canada. Our company bought so many B650M gaming wifi's that we ended up bundling them with the 7800x3d and a 32gb ram kit for 700 CAD (500 USD).
It sold really well considering if you weren't bundling you would have to pay for around 900 for an alternative.
Where was this? I look at memory express but never seen a deal like that.
@@RockyMountain947 canada computers. Most of our stores are in Quebec and Ontario. And as o right now we do not have a bundle like that active.
Yeah I just found out the have a store up from my scrap yard I go to here in Nova Scotia.
It where I be going for parts now days
which b650m gaming wifi? almost every manufacturer has a b650m gaming wifi
@@smooted718 the gigabyte one
i'm not planning to upgrade my CPU or motherboard any time soon but i still watch the video because i like Steve's dedication
People should upgrade hardware after +8 years, if hardware effience have increased at least +50%
@@GameBacardiI reckon 5 years is the sweetspot and doable for anybody
@@SimonePavano 5-6 Yes you are right.
@@GameBacardi i'm rocking still my 3700x from 2019 and still runs great
@@deadscene1 I do have i7-2600K + GTX 1080 as 2nd PC, running Linux though
Thank you! Much appreciated!
Audio comparisons would be a great addition, fantastic review as always.
Great, clear and concise information. I especially loved the way you point out the bad boards in each table so nobody gets confused. Really well done.
Probably your best video yet since I started following the channel
Glad to see Taichi lite validated. Got mine for 240 never looked back, no issues.
Same, but I paid AUD 575 for mine
I'm reading negative reviews for the LAN chip. Any issues?
@@clifmo none so far, killer is good.
Lan works fine for me. What I hate is the duplicated BIOS options. You can find some settings right on the start screen and deep in the cpu/memory OC. They do not change both when you change it in one spot.
So I go again and again back to the BIOS because I am never sure if the system is unstable due to the changes I made or my changes are overriten by the second spot value.
@@jankrawczyk1789 yea i had a issue on mine where I enabled expo, and it said it was but in windows it was not.. I had to enable expo and manually set the frequency to get it to work. thats been my only issue
Kudos to Balin for the B-roll. Superb work as always!
Indeed, he just made a slight error with the MSI B650M Gaming instead of the Plus one.
Excellent as per usual, Steve. Asrock really making a comeback these days. Not quite ready to upgrade yet but this will help when the time comes.
I was literally just googling this and of course Hardware Unboxed got me covered! Can't wait for this next AM5 update cycle. Finally time to upgrade the rig :)
Crazy how asrock went from being the company you should avoid when it comes to motherboards is now the go to at just about every price point
Most crazy is Pcie 5.0 on a B650 Non E class motherboard.With a good sound solution as well.
I really hate Gigabyte, due low cost onboard sound ALC 987, they really need to step up for a newer class solution.
Its so bad, that they dont even mentioned it on their website.
What was wrong with them before? Not familiar with them at all.
Endless cycle!
Whats the best bang for the buck?
@@jsullivan2112 basically, they were just not putting in the quality to be worth it and got a bit salty about people giving them some really bad reviews (then again, when you insist on putting out a poor quality product, I don't think you really have any grounds to expect good reviews).
Got the Asrock b650 Steel Legend wi fi when there were no real reviews, happy to see it Validated here as a very good board.
These are non existent now?
@@andrewgutt276 In the UK they "exist" but are insanely priced so pretty much don't. There is the B650E for £260 (pounds not Dollars) and the non-e is literally £400 which is just a scalp price.
14:35 - After countless recommendable MSI AM4 boards, Asrock AM5 boards are now the hot shit. It's as simple as that
:)
It does depend on where you live though. ASRock has very poor availability and pricing where I am in Europe. The Asus B650E-F is ~$30 cheaper than the Steel Legend for example, and the Taichi Lite is priced around the same as a mid-range X670E board.
@@CaptainKenway I have an ASRock X670E PG Lightning that is great, and a B650M Pro RS that has crippling issues (and not just my board, after some searching). So yeah I guess they make some good boards and not so good ones (as do all manufacturers).
@@CaptainKenway asus brand reliability = nope
@@jay-5061 I don't think Asus has anything to do with ASRock these days, but I could be wrong (didn't they used to own them?)
@@jeffb.6642 they split off maybe almost 20 years ago now
Great video Steve, I appreciate these big Mobo rundowns. These are my go to videos when I buy Mobos and the other video with expanded VRM testing.
Keep up the good work
Bought the asrock b650 steel legend wifi a week before this video. Happy to hear I made the right choice! Thank you for the overview! Great stuff!
What's always missing on these mobo comparisons is the sound chipset. Some of these boards have far higher sound chipsets than others. Knowing the pcb layer counts would also be useful, as this can affect memory overclocking.
layer count alone isn't telling the whole story, weight of copper matters and some boards like tomahawk are 6 layers but have much better shielding on traces compared to some 8 layers
@@ZAKKORD Agreed and somehow I think this should be included when comparing the recommended mobo's.
if you do actually care about sound, get an interface.
that would add so much time to testing that the people who care about that would have their own DAC anyway
Sound chipsets can vary wildly. Most wouldn't need a dac but would like a higher grade onboard chipset. It only needs the chipset type to be added to the reviews, so no testing required. Some higher cost mobo's use cheap sound chipsets. Steve regularly says he doesn't know why a board warrants a higher price, but ignores the sound chipset and pcb layers/copper track quality. Likely the extra costs are there.
I've got the Asrock B650M HDV for my current HTPC and gaming builds. It's simple, reliable and does everything i need with Ryzen 7700's. I've used ASRock HDV boards in previous builds without hiccups, both Intel and AMD. But i would not use them for high end systems and workstations. The Ryzen 7700 is all i need for my home computing needs to be honest. I don't play AAA and competitive games anymore. Most is Indie, AA and older games in 4K144Hz. Currently a lot of Insurgency Sandstorm and No Man's Sky.
For my CAD/3D workstation, i use Full ATX boards and HEDT sockets in 19" Rackmount with split trays for fast SSD RAID storage. I'm on a Intel Xeon build currently, but i may consider Threadripper for a future build. I chose Intel in 2021, because of reliability and stability only. Threadripper 3000 had some small issues. It would be cool, if you guys could do workstation tests.
I would like to see reviews of competency of using the bios on these motherboards and software that is/isn't required for their usage
Been running a B650-Plus WiFi for like a year now and it’s been great, really happy with it especially when i bought it discounted
I've bought 2 Asus 650E-F boards this year; there's usually a small pile of open box specials at my Micro Center, and yet so far they've both worked out with no complaints.
Yeah, got mine with the 7900x bundle there. Latest bios update seemed to really make it stable as ever. Certainly happy with it so far. I would definitely buy Asrock if bundle options were not available.
This is the board I have. Very happy with it, but update the BIOS. My previous Asrock boards were great as well.
Same here, got the 7800x3d bundle and swapped out the board it came with for the 650E-F that was open box, been working flawlessly, also swapped out the Gskill ram for Corsair Vengeance 6000 Cl30.
I love these breakdowns and evaluations. Thank you for all the hard work in collecting the data and compiling all the testing results.
It's always nice when you put out a video like this and what I have is what you still recommend.
Can't wait on the mini itx videos. These are such good needed information
This channel reads my mind. It has the perfect videos for every question I asked before I purchase parts for a new computer. Its kinda mindblowing!
thanks for validating my purchase of an Asrock B650E Taichi Lite. i did my homework but never really sure
Same here. The mobo decision has been the hardest for me.
@@Rad_Pug It should be like that, when building a PC.
100% agree about the Taichi Lite. Amazing features for a surprisingly reasonable price. Very happy with mine.
so while Steve has his hands on those zen 5 CPUs he still prefers B650 boards, that's some dedication!
more like abx800 motherboards are not launching with zen5. Manufacturers have confirm it will come a few months later
@awalay-wz3nh True but which boards have official outside of beta drivers support. One has to do their homework in current status. Hopefully more bios drivers drop before Zen5 drops outside of beta.
because he said the higher end boards aren't worth buying before
because theres no reason to get a X670 unless you're chasing a very specific feature they might have.
Need update for holidays... i'm being forced to build a new AM5 for my son for xmas. Mobos are killing me with pricing and availability in U.S. Want something he won't ever replace on AM5 lifecycle, starting him on R5 7600 but imagine he'll be R9 in a few years.
I would love it if you include audio solutions that these motherboards offer.
even at a recent computex the best offerings included very simple solutions in terms of sound, any external DAC within 100$ will solve all problems with any hardware and you will never need to think about sound in your motherboard again, so I don't see the point of this.
@@АндрейЕлисеев-ы6й
You're right.
On board audio is decent enough output for casual users, while severely lacking on input capabilities. Also, having those physical knobs on EQ is very handy.
Like the person above mentioned, just get something like a Schitt Fulla and you will never have to think about PC audio again. It literally does not even have/need drivers - never mind software. Motherboards are notorious for being noisy, and trying to get around this will inevitably just steer into audiophile trash very quickly. Just remove all of that mess from the picture and ignore onboard audio.
Get a DA / amp.
I have a Topping MX3S on my desktop. It is a fine little 2.1 DAC/AMP with a pretty good headphone amp for around $200. There are plenty of other great inexpensive options out there. It just depends on the features you want. Spending a bit on a nice desktop setup greatly outweighs the enjoyment of motherboard sound.. I
1:15 The new AI Unboxed jingle sounds very retro-futuristic.
HUB disco Bontempi.
Love it! Beep-boop-beep-boop 🎶😊🎶
I recently purchased the ASRock B650M HDV/M.2 for around £106 on the strength of your previous recommendations and it's awesome! 😎 Many thanks! 🙂
A+ Guides as usual! Well done UB Team and thank you for the detailed videos on the B650 series.
Love the Asrock B650e Taichi Lite MB. Hands down the best as you mentioned. Only downside is that at least here in the US the only place to purchase it from is Newegg.
Man, really appreciate thew amount of useful info in your B650 videos, tons of effort I see.I always viewed your board videos as unique and useful. I chose a MSI Pro board for my girl a couple years ago thanks to your recomendations.
I love my Asrock B650 live mixer, it's been solid since the day it was installed, I have had no thermal issues or compatibility issues and my R7 7700 typically runs at 5.3ghz. The only downside is some may think it's a little ugly.
Never you mind the haters.. I think it looks fly.
That mobo might be "too much" but anyone who thinks it looks outright ugly has no taste.
i got in and its worked well with ! glad to see my choice validated by ! 👍👍💯
I'm In the market for a B650 with bios flashback to go with a Ryzen 9000 series CPU when they come out. Perfect timing HUB ! Thank you.
they all have bios flashback
It's a standard feature these days thankfully
I have been running an AsRock Riptide 650e wifi for about a year now. It indeed is a great board. Haven't had an issue and the temps stay relatively cool.
Since the new 650 Steel Legend looks like the same architecture I'd definitely go with that one if doing a future 9xxx Ryzen build. Maybe they'll bring out a strong B850 version in the near future.
From what I've heard, the new boards will be released in September. So they're not too far off.
I went with the 'PG Lighting' earlier in the year for a Linux build. Gets my thumbs up, great value board.
What distro are you using with what gpu? Is it working okay for you?
@@ritchie2137 Fedora Linux 40 (Workstation Edition).
Linux 6.9.8-200
GNOME 46.3.1 (Wayland)
Ryzen 7 7700X
32GB DDR5
RX 6600 ( RDNA2 )
Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6E(802.11ax) PCI card.
Everything is plug and play, just works after first install, update and reboot. No issues, best computing experience I've had in years. ( Fedora will also support RDNA3 plug and play )
@@ritchie2137 Fedora 40 6600. All good.
@@ritchie2137 Fedora, 6600, all good.
Almost went with the Asus TUF b650-e!!!
Happy I saw your Mid-Range ATX segment. I had started following claims on multiple forums and even review sites of it being superior to the ASROCK steel Legend. PCIe5 + 2.5G Lan = Instant sell on the Steel Legend.
Thanks Bruv
You are GREATLY appreciated :)
did you get the TUF b650m-e? did you recommend it? I am especially curious about the boot time.
B650M-HDV/M.2 quickly becoming a staple. Love to see it
Agreed. It's rock solid.
My Asrock B450 Pro4 has been in my PC for 6 years now and it's still going strong. So glad I went with Asrock.
The prices of computer equipment in Poland are much higher. For example, the ASRock B650E Steel Legend WiFi motherboard costs around $260 Madness
Yeah, I have seen x670e motherboards in the States for those prices. 😢
just buy Asrock B650M HDV M.2 it's cheap
23% VAT that alone will take you from $180 to $224. But also Steel Legend seems to be higher priced here by retailers because of popularly.
Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX V2 costs $230 here which subtracting the VAT would be $187 so cheaper than in the video.
They are higher everywhere that will have VAT. Though in the us you have sales tax which varies from state to state so easier to show pricing without it.
You are lucky you can get it in your locale!
I normally don't give a thumbs up before I watch a video but since you demanded your payment up front I did it first thing ....... Hopefully I won't be disappointed ......
AsRock has no competition.
Whats the best bang for the buck motherboard?
@@close638 B650E Steel Legend Wifi
B650 HDV/M.2
It has and its called asrock crap bios
@@ognjenjakovljevic494why is the bios bad?
I'm really glad to hear that! Just bought my AM5 CPU and can't wait for my RAM to arrive next week. Always exciting to upgrade the setup! :)
Asrock B650 LiveMixer does look intriguing good to see that it doesnt suck
I want that board, but sadly cost $250 in my region. .
@@Oz-gv5fz damn, in germany its 165€ (around 180$)
I paid about 220 euros but I live in the balkans, tech here is outrageously expensive.
Here in Greece it's only 145€
If AMD got the purple version like Intel I would've already bought it, the orange isn't doing it for me lol
You screwed my pc build with this video (no offence, just kidding) 🤣
With your recommendation, i changed the build to the Asrock B650 Steel Legend Wifi.
As a result, everything changed to white.
Reason:
I have seen that the X870 motherboards for Ryzen 9000 series provide 1100 A VRM (Computech showcase and board manufactors).
The Steel Legend comes with fourteen 80 A VRM, capable of managing the upcoming CPU's of the 9000 series. In addition to this, it comes with PCIE 5.0 on the PCIE x16 connector, even if it isn't an "E" board, so the upgrade path in the future should be covered.
Regardless what comes in the future for CPU's (9000 series) or GPU's.
Thanks for your work, your continious updates on hardware and your effort to provide the best content to your viewers.
Greetings to Australia an keep up the good work. 👍
Thank you, Steve "B650" Walton.
Nice to see ASRock kicking ass. Still rocking 2 ASRock B550 mobo's here with no issues. When I move to AM5 will be going with ASRock again.
Thanks Steve 4 helpping :) Waitig on my Asrock B650 coming July 22 , paied w a 7950x3d jumped off Intel 14900k that was acting up. :)
Prices in some Countries are way higher than what is announced in the video unfortunately!
Especially the recommended boards seem to have way higher prices what a bummer
Par for the course, sadly. The US usually has the best prices. And distributors around the world used world events as an excuse to raise prices, like a lot of other industries.
@@t4imz Asrock B650M HDV M.2 is cheap and good enough for 90% of the builds
@@rhoharaneSure but Asrock specifically seems to be more expensive compared to others.
Happy with my B650M-HDV/M.2 based on your recommendation. Cheap and works great. No wasted cash on this great board.
b650 steel legend is €100 more expensive than the msi gaming plus wifi over here lol, went with the latter 🙏 hopefully everything goes smoothly
Hows the gaming plus wifi doing now?..does it have any long boot time issues
@@void_guy_yt it did take a couple minutes the first week now it takes like 80 seconds to boot but I also didn’t enable MCR because tbf I only boot up my computer once a day so it’s not a big deal to me
Just bought the B650E Taichi Lite! Thanks for the recommendation
Loved the video Steve. Also I'd be interested an ITX recommendation as well.
Amazing work, thank you! This will save a life for sure.
Note for EU buyers:
1) The B650E PG riptide is 20€ cheaper than the B650 Steel Legend.
2) The Strix B650e-f Gaming WiFi is 45€ cheaper than the Taichi B650 Lite.
EU prices suck.
Keep in mind that when they mention US prices it’s usually before tax. Same in Canada. You usually only know the real price of things at checkout. The prices are actually higher
I appreciate your dedication and hard work testing. Made my choices easier. I just finished a build today. Originally went with the Asrock b650m HDV/M.2 with the 7800X3D but unfortunately, the board was faulty, just got unlucky. Spent days systematically swapping parts and keeping track of hardware combos with several BIOS revisions to no avail. Its system building, can be frustrating, sometimes it works the first go around, sometimes computers just don't want to cooperate. I ended up spending a little more money on a suggested board the MSI MAG b650 Tomahawk wifi. The only hiccup was an outdated BIOS and the long RAM train time but it was worth it.
The Asus B650E-F has come down massively in price here (~£200) occasionally below the Steel Legend and is actually slightly better equipped. I presume the price drops were because of the Asus reputation hit and the early AM5 SoC issues.
Thanks to Hardware Unboxed I have made good decisions in buying my motherboards and cpus... thank you very much for all your videos.............
Just picked up the Taichi Lite and it's a beautiful beast! Can't believe you can get this mobo for under $300!
In England is 340£ , so gutted
This kind of content is why HUB/Steve is the best PC parts/accessories channel on TH-cam. Top shelf. Thank you!!
Great video! Quite informative! Thank you!
Cannot stress enough how helpful these videos are, thank you.
I've Strix B650E-E since release day 2022 and it's stunning. My frist AMD board since I moved from crappy Intel which I used all my life.
No regret at all.
I've just purchased the ASUS ROG Strix B650-A. Do you think that that was a good choice?
Been rocking the Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi for over year and a half now. Got it in a bundle with the 7700X + 32GB ram at Microcenter. It has served me well, and just glad I never had any of those early Asus BIO issues.
Lets hope all of these boards will still be available, at their "normal" price.
Just wait a month for the demand spike from the video to die down.
most likely the company will run out of stock by the time the next chipset marketing cycle starts.@@concinnus
They are not. Locally for me the Taichi lite is same price as normal Taichi (340e), Steel legend is 240e. At that point I might as well consider x670 mobos...
instant like for that intro. "can i please get paid?". I love honesty. lol
Gamers Nexus and Hardware Unboxed are the best and only people i listen too
i loved the sponsor intro, well deserved :D
"Could I please get paid"? XD
Yes sir, I'll turn off SponsorBlock for your vids ✌️
How does that help? Sponsors measure success from clicks on the affiliate link.
I bought the ASRock riptide b650e WiFi. It's a nice looking board and worked great so far. Its been running for 7 months
1:04 Rake them in!
Thanks!
This came into my feed 9 seconds after it posted with 8 likes. The video was up to 339, by the time I finished. It seems to be going well Steve.
9:12 I see AsRock is maintaining the Steel Legend's legacy. Currently running the B550 non-WiFi, and this sounds like the same board, just with modern PCIe. Not to mention they've doubled down on the white, which I approve.
I was expecting the b650i round up.
Next week
I've been using Asrock for AMD motherboards since AM3+, and on AM4 I have had the B350m, B450m, and B550m PRO4 models; never had a single issue with any of the motherboards and even managed to get my B350m PRO4 to post with my Ryzen 1600 set to 4.0ghz and RAM 3200mhz back in 2017 when it was increasingly difficult and notorious to get these things to play nice on even high end motherboards.
Big fan of Asrock ever since. Nice to see their newer Micro ATX PRO boards still going strong.
Steel legend b650 is more like $280
definitely get the gigabyte aorus board instead that’s what i’m going with. still get the white and plenty of performance
@@iam_vibes9991 I managed to find the Steel Legend for around $200 now so I just picked it up.
I bought an ASRock board back in the Core 2 Duo days that served me faithfully for almost 6 years. Even my current X470 board is ASRock, and going on 5 years itself.
I dunno where they get their prices from - every time EVERY TIME they say something like "The ASRock B650 LiveMixer is a $150 US" I go and look and it's $350 with some sellers asking $500 for it. For some reason I ALWAYS end up either paying 150~250% more than Tech-Reviewers claim they sell for or I end up buying them used for about what they say new ones go for. The only occasional exceptions are RAM and Mechanical Hard Drives - And I have been buying parts for and building, about 2 systems per month for the past 8 or 9 years - for retirement income.
I dunno, but I think these reviews should omit price as a consideration - it's NEVER what is being claimed. Just review the boards for: Number of layers, Trace layout, VRM & MOSFIT, Number and Type of slots (PCIe/USB/SATA/RAM/M.2/Audio/FAN connections, etc.) - half of which you guys don't even cover. And then comment on the other "special features" like: on-board power button, error code display, socket to RAM distance, Audio subsystem noise and fidelity, Manufacturer RMA rates, possible case incompatibilities and so on.
I dunno, it seems you're doing all that work to look up and evaluate based on price and it's just too volatile to go by - At least it's NEVER correct for me.
I'm glad I got the Asrock B650-HDV/M.2 when I did at $120. It's been rock solid since i bought it.
It's so dumb that many big tech channels don't do motherboards reviews anymore.
It's weird they all just don't want to talk about it, almost like they signed a secret NDA for money.
They also don't review ram kits anymore. Maybe big ram also secretly pulls the tech reviewers strings with nda's and shit.
Either that or those videos are just not worth the time and effort making them, since they get way less views than gpu and cpu videos
@@102728 TRUE, the RAM reviews have diminished to bare none across the board in the tech scene on TH-cam.
HUB is one of the near none that do full PC components deep dive reviews. Even the people at GamersNexus don't do them anymore, which is odd.
I went with the MSI MPG B650 EDGE WIFI motherboard for my latest build after some research & I've been happy with it. I'm using it with a Ryzen 9 7900 12C/24T CPU, 64GB DDR5, & a Solidigm/Intel P44 Pro 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
Itx fans are doomed
that video is probably underworks. that Itx tax is real.
There's only like 1 itx board for a certain price range, so top 5 would be basically impossible
Asrock A620I Lightning is a good choice.
Yeah i know. I had to shill ouy 300€ for a b650e strix board. I hate it @@StefandeJong1
This is invaluable for prospective buyers. I'd love to see a similar video on current X670 boards.
Been using MSI since 1989 a 486 motherboard and have always used since then, no problems, works great and never had 1 fail.
AsRock rocking lately with the boards. Got a B450 fatality running on my AM4 system for more than 5 years without any temp issues
I seem to be pretty limited for choice in my country compared to all these boards bring spoken of. I went with the Rog Strix B650E-F Gaming and it has been flawless so far. No complaints at all.
Over the years I have seen a lot of people on the internet call AsRock boards trash. I disagree and thanks HUB for supporting my opinion. The HDV .M2 is one the best budget boards out there. Glad I picked one up for 120,- while it was available. Their AM5 lineup is really good. Looking forward to Steve's opinion on the PG ITX board.
I've had an gigabyte b650m aorus elite ax ice in my basket for ages, hoping we'd see some discount on it and we haven't, the black version is nicely discounted but the MSI B650M GAMING PLUS WIFI is still cheaper at current/price availability, kudos to you and Timothy (sorry Tim) continuing to support everyone's budget and being realistic on what your audience want/need at said price point.
Good to know the Steel Legend line is going strong. Been rocking a B550M Steel Legend since it came out and it's been pretty good to me.
After a bad experience with an ASRock AM4 Mini-ITX board, I wasn't sure whether I'd buy ASRock again anytime soon. But these recommendations are hard to deny!
For context, it was an ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax, unstable from the start and only got worse over time. Eventually replaced it with a Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX which has been rock solid so far.
Similar thing with me, replacing a ASRock B650M RS PRO with a Gigabyte board because of choppiness and audio cutouts during gaming. Issues instantly resolved, even with the same Windows installation. BIOS and driver updates did nothing.
ASRock B650E Steel Legend board is an absolute perfect board for my 7800X3D and RTX 4070 Ti Super.
Is it really good
do you have any plans on testing x670 boards? In my region quite a few of them are cheaper than Steel Legend and Riptide
ASRock is really stepping up to the plate in my mind. I’m even impressed with their range of monitors that have come to market. Two thumbs up for the video!! 👍👍
Thanks a lot for that awesome work to all the Hardware Unboxed team
Great job with the videos. Just done choosing the parts on Amazon after watching your videos. Great reference materials since my last device is a laptop, and crazy prices at my area. 👍
It is a good thing you included other suggestions. Prices for some of the Asrock boards are a lot higher here in Germany. After watching the video I can say that I am really happy with the board choice I made and my board recommendations I make to our customers.
As a sidenote: A topic you did not touch in your video, were the soundchips (it's become a terrible trend for mainboard manufacturers to not list the chip they use on the board). Asrock uses entry level soundchips on a lot of their boards. That is why, even at the prices mentioned here, I would take the B650 Tomahawk Wifi over all other boards well beyond 200 Euros. And for a lack of good Asrock prices here, the B650E-F Gaming as the upper price limit. These have good soundchips (Taichi lite has an even better one), which for me is important, since I am not a fan of dedicated soundcards.
Just get an external dac/amp combo.