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1315 Review
43 Karma

Review on ASUS Prime B560M-A LGA 1200 (Intel 11th/10th Generation) micro ATX Motherboard with PCIe 4.0, Dual M.2 Slots, 8 Power Stages, 1 Gb LAN, DisplayPort, Dual HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, V-M.2-Key E Slot for Wi-Fi, and Aura Sync RGB by Trae Joubert

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Affordable option for 10th and 11th Gen Intel processors

I used this MB as the core of a spring 2021 budget gaming build. This MB supports 11th Gen Comet Lake and Rocket Lake processors. It has a good balance of features for the price, including *two M.2 slots, four storage slots, pretty solid VRM and cooling, and your usual SATA support ports. The only thing that might stand in the way of a five star rating is the poor USB 3 support. Only one USB 3 port on the back (although there are headers for internal/front USB 3 ports). It has an integrated NVMe heatsink for an M.2 SSD. The top socket (closest to the processor) is default for PCIe4 drives, but it can also be used in the bottom M.2 socket (for PCIe3 drives). If you choose to use the included NVMe heatsink for the bottom M.2 drive slot, the heatsink needs to be rotated 180 degrees for it to work in the bottom slot (this confused me like hell at first when I thought it was only worked on the top slot.Only after I rotated the heatsink did it go properly into the bottom M.2 slot). regardless of make/model), one of which will be PCIe4 and can only be used with 11th Gen processors. the second is PCIe3 and can be used with both 10th and 11th gen processors, but if you put a 10th gen processor in the MB, the PCIe3 port is the ONLY M.2 port you will need can use. This is NOT the fault of Asus or this particular board, you will find this on every MB 500 series from every manufacturer. Simply put, PCIe4 is NOT supported on 10th Gen Comet Lake processors, so no PCIe4 slot will work with 10th Gen processors. In this particular MB, the top M.2 slot (closest to the processor) is a PCIe4 slot, and the other bottom M.2 slot is a PCIe3 slot. If you have a 10th Gen processor, you need to put an NVMe SSD in the bottom slot to boot (it won't work in the top slot). Overall I liked this MB, the BIOS is reliable and easy to configure, which is not. It's certainly not a top-of-the-line MB and I wish it had more USB 3 ports, but for the price it's good value.

Pros
  • Improved memory performance: ASUS OptiMem's patented tracing scheme allows memory kits to operate at higher frequencies at lower voltages to maximize system performance. Memory overclocking support up to 5000MHz
Cons
  • Socket required