Review on Motherboard ASRock B550M STEEL LEGEND by Nikifor Stoilov ᠌

Name: Motherboard ASRock B550M STEEL LEGEND
Item: Motherboard ASRock B550M STEEL LEGEND
Rating: 5

July 25, 2023

Excellent quality, absolutely not expected for such a price.

As a rule, I think you should buy it. The motherboard is state-of-the-art and respectable if you are not an audiophile. If you're an audiophile, you probably already have a collection of external ADCs and other devices for digitizing sound.

Pros

In theory, a fantastic mainboard. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800x booted up without a hitch, and it appears to be running the most recent UEFI/BIOS release (version 1.7) that came out only a few months before the purchase was made. We've taken extra precautions with every step. Additional power connectors (8-pin + 4-pin) mean there's room to expand. that 4722 MHz is the maximum memory frequency. The video card slot is reinforced, the PCI-E, DIMM, and audio connectors are gold-plated, the M.2 connector supports PCI-E gen.4x16 (for Vermeers and Matiss) and is, in a word, a bomb (it's a shame that only one drive is supported in this mode), the audio connectors have audiophile "golden" tips in the audio path and "black series" for digital, there is a digital audio output (this with a plethora of backlight connectors (I have no idea why anyone would need them, but someone does). It seems like a ceramic board. Having solid copper layers on the inside for insulation and cooling. It's very neat, in my opinion. The number of USB ports is about par for the industry (8 on the back, 8 more on the internal connectors). Of the nice - one USB Type-C port, but other than it - standard fare.

Cons

Maybe these aren't drawbacks at all, but rather benefits, but just in case: When powered off, the motherboard's internal lighting remains on while any attached external backlight turns off. It will always give you light if you set it up properly. Maybe there isn't enough light in the room. This is a benefit for at least one person:). When you power down your computer by depressing the power button, the backlight will return to its factory settings (which are bright and unpleasant). The use of a chipset heatsink in conjunction with an NVMe solid-state drive is nonsensical. To begin, NVMe solid-state drives (SSDs) come with their own heatsinks or have stickers at the point of attachment for the heatsink that cannot be removed. There are stickers on every side of the NVMe SSDs, and removing them will void the warranty. Second, there is a 2-millimeter space between the heatsink and the solid-state drive (SSD), and a 5-millimeter space between the heatsink and the chipset (there are Velcro-thermal pads, which are stuck without a gap but are pressed "in no way"). I measure an average ssd temperature of 46 degrees (maybe the opposite is true and the heat is generated by the video card). Three sata ports on the motherboard will be disabled in order to accommodate the second M.2. This is a feature of Matisse and Renoir-inspired processes (I can't speak to Vermeer), although it could be offensive. Fourth, I didn't need it because 64GB is plenty for me, but the memory bus frequency drops if all four DIMMs are installed. In general, everything may be "overclocked" back to its original speed, and the motherboard has a large overclocking margin. The chipset has this capability as well. Five, it detects cellular pickups along the analog line with the full quality of the internal sound card. The readings on the equipment show a level of about -58 dB, which is obviously inaudible to the human ear. I have been known to digitize vinyl on occasion. It's frustrating. Even though I have a brand-new case with excellent plastic coating and even stops-platforms for attaching the motherboard, the problem is probably just poor grounding. Infuriatingly (if the paint is scraped off, anything can "leave"), yes.