ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 Review

LDTXR2

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Disclaimer : As this is a motherboard review not a Ryzen review, I will keep it sweet and simple pertaining to the motherboard alone not the entire architecture.

So, the ASRock AB350 Gaming K4.

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Er... That's not the board is it :s13:

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Ah, yes, that's more like it.
The Gaming K4 is ASRock's top B350 full size ATX form factor motherboard and it does come with a number of features that you might be interested in :
Even for a B350 board it has 2 RGB headers at the top right of the board.
It too has 1 M.2 x4 3.0 slot and another M.2 x2 2.0 or SATA3 slot at the lower right hand corner

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It has a 6+3 VRM configuration. Might not seem much but it got my Ryzen 1700 up to 3.9. Reasonable. VRM temps seemed reasonable (<60) at 3.9 even so.

The closest ASUS board at this price range on sale as of today is the ASUS B350 Pro which has a VRM setup that are a lot weaker and so is the absence of another M.2 slot.
Although, I personally don't see anyone buying B350 buying M.2 but that's an option and this board is cheap too!

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At least, it has 6 SATA3 ports. In the past you used to get really literally no frills boards at this price range.

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Ah, 2 USB2 ports and 5 USB3 ports along with one USB3 Type-C port (According to ASRock literature it's a USB3.1 Type 5GB/s port on the Type-C. A bit disappointed that they didn't use the 10GB/s port)
But at least it's a total of 8 USB ports on the back and another 4 USB2 and 2 USB3 ports available on the motherboard's headers.
The LAN port available is a Realtek chipset. While not a Intel chipset, Realtek chipsets have really taken great strides to be taken seriously now they really aren't as bad as they used to be.
One more thing is that it has a 8pin EPS12V plug for the motherboard. Solid!

To be continued.
 
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LDTXR2

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There are 4 PWM fan headers that are auto sensing dependent on the fan installed.
Another possible aftersight on ASRock's part is missing VDDR_SOC adjustment AND CPU Voltage offset. Why leave them out? I just hope that VDDR_SOC is set at 1.1v at 3200 memory frequency setting although again the target crowd probably won't make use of 3200 memory frequency either as their prices are quite... startling.

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It also slightly smaller than most ATX boards width wise but it means they cut down on size to save cost rather than maximise space used when it's not a higher end board. It's a win-win as it will fit into smaller ATX cases easier. That said... Most modern ATX cases already have no HDD cages visible or even 5-1/4" drive bays anymore so size is not a problem.

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Here is the board with a Ryzen 5 1600 and mounting hardware installed for a ID Cooling AIO.


All things considered, aside from some downsides this is a great motherboard for Ryzen's AM4 platform for B350 that's sufficient for overclocking plus the features available on it is plenty. 2 M.2 slots makes it a solid choice for B350 on AM4.
I use a X370 SLI Killer as my main rig with the 1700 and it's always been stable... Couldn't say the same for the ASUS CVI Hero when it first came out :s8:

I also happened to build a similar system with the B350 Gaming K4 recently and this is how it looks
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