ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi Motherboard Unboxing Review

In this unboxing of ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard, we will not only conduct the slot tour and performance test, but also conclude the comparison with the M-ATX SKU in terms of specification difference, and how to choose between the two models in the same series with a price difference of about NT$800.

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi Motherboard Specification.

Size: ATX 30.5 x 24.4 cm
Processor Support: Intel Core Ultra processor (Series 2)
Processor Pin: Intel LGA 1851RL-ILM
CPU power supply phase: 14+1+1 phase power supply, VCore+GT+SA 80A Dr. MOS
Chipset: Intel B860
Memory: 4x DDR5 DIMM slots, 8666(O.C.) MT/s, 256 GB max capacity (single slot supports 64 GB capacity)
Memory Certification: Intel XMP 3.0 (Extreme Memory Profile)
Display output: 1x HDMI 2.1 (4K 120Hz), 1x DisplayPort 1.4 (8K 60Hz / 5K 120Hz), 1x Intel Thunderbolt 4 (8K 60Hz / 5K 120Hz)
Disk expansion slots: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x2 bandwidth)
Storage expansion slots: 4x SATA 6Gb/s, Blazing M2_1 2280 Gen5 x4, Hyper M2_2 2230/2240/2280 PCIe Gen4 x4, Hyper M2_3 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4, M2_4 2280 PCIe Gen4 x2
Wired Network: Dragon 2.5Gbps
Wireless Network: 802.11axe Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Audio: Realtek ALC1220
USB Ports (Front Expansion): 1x USB 20Gbps Type-C, 2x USB 5Gbps (supports front four USB 5Gbps Type-A ports), 2x USB 2.0 Type-A (supports front four USB 2.0 ports)
USB Ports (Rear I/O): 1x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C (40 Gb/s), 2x USB 10Gbps Type-C, 4x USB 5Gbps Type-A, 3x USB 2.0 Type-A
RGB: 3x ARGB 5v 3-Pin, 1x 12V RGB 4-Pin
FAN: 2x 4-Pin CPU Fan (1A-12W), 1x 4-Pin AIO PUMP (3A-36W), 5x 4-Pin Chassis/PUMP (3A-36W)

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi Motherboard Unboxing

ASRock has released two Steel Legend WiFi series SKUs in the B860 chipset product lineup, which are the M-ATX specification that has been previously unboxed and reviewed. ASRock B860M Steel Legend WiFiThe ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi is a larger ATX model with better expandability and a larger ATX version in this unboxing.

The author will also summarize the differences between the two models by comparing them slightly, is it only the difference in size?

∆ ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi.

∆ Motherboard product features.

∆ Channel Configuration Diagram.

 

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi uses LGA 1851 feet and only supports the latest Intel consumer Core Ultra 200 series processors, but since it doesn't support processor overclocking, it's recommended to buy models without K, which is called Non K, such as Intel Core Ultra 5, 225 or 235 to save money. 225 or 235 to save money on your budget.

ATX sizes are used, so you should pay attention to whether the chassis supports ATX motherboards or not. Some cost-effective chassis will only support M-ATX motherboards.

The motherboard adopts a 14+1+1 phase Dr. MOS SPS (Smart Power Stage) power supply design, with 14 phases for CPU Vcore Phases, 1 phase for VCCGT Phase (internal display voltage), and the last phase for VCCSA Phases.

In order to ensure a stable power supply environment for the processor under high loads, the motherboard is equipped with an aluminum alloy heat sink for the VRM power supply chip, which provides the power supply chip with an effective way to channel waste heat away from the processor to avoid overheating.

∆ ATX-sized ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard.

∆ There is no reinforced backplane on the back of the motherboard.

∆ Motherboard VRM heatsink and processor mounting block.

∆ LGA 1851 pin.

 

Let's take a look at the expansion and power supply slots on the ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard. On the top left side of the motherboard, there are dual 8-Pin ATX_12V power supply slots for the processor.

On the upper right corner of the motherboard, there are three 4-Pin fan power supply slots, CPU_FAN1, CPU_FAN2, and AIO_PUMP, where you can install the water-cooling header PUMP and water-cooling exhaust fan cables when installing an all-in-one water-cooling system.

∆ The ATX_12V Dual 8-Pin processor power supply slot on the upper left corner of the motherboard.

∆ CPU_FAN1, CPU_FAN2, AIO_PUMP.

 

In addition to supporting the common ECC Un-buffered DIMM / non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM, the B860 platform also supports Clocked Un-buffered DIMM (CUDIMM/CKD) memory, with a maximum expansion capacity of 256 GB for all four slots, or a maximum capacity of 64 GB for a single slot. The maximum expandable capacity of the four slots is 256GB, which means the maximum capacity of a single slot is 64GB.

The memory overclocking QVL support list lists up to 8400 MT/s (oc), so once again, it's best to choose the memory model you want to install based on your motherboard's memory QVL compatibility report.

For the 2 DIMMs dual-channel memory kits that are often purchased in today's orders, it is recommended to prioritize the installation in slots A2 and B2 (the second and fourth slots counting from the left). By installing the two memories in these two slots, the memory will be able to operate more easily and at a higher frequency.

However, the ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi doesn't have the Memory OC Shield sticker like the Z890 chipset, so it seems that only those with a good budget can enjoy the better features after all.

∆ 4x Un-buffered DIMM DDR5 memory slots, UDIMM / CUDIMM compatible, supports up to 256GB capacity expansion, QVL up to 8400 MT/s (O.C.).

 

The right side of the motherboard features two 5V 3-Pin ARGBs, EZ DeBug, motherboard 24-Pin power supply slots, two USB 5Gbps (supporting four USB 5Gbps Type-A ports on the front), one USB 20Gbps Type-C slot on the front, four SATA 6Gb/s.

The EZ DeBug status indicator, labeled with CPU / DRAM / VGA / BOOT text, allows users to quickly view what parts of the motherboard are failing to boot during the self-test process, and users can refer to the motherboard manual for debugging actions.

∆ Two 5V 3-Pin ARGBs, EZ DeBug, motherboard 24-Pin power supply slots, one USB 3.2 Gen1 slot, one front Type-C USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 (20Gb/s) slot.

∆ One USB 3.2 Gen1 slot (90° placement), four SATA 6Gb/s, TPM security device slots.

 

The bottom row has an error code card slot, a front panel slot (PANEL1), a buzzer slot, two USB 2.0 slots (supporting four front USB 2.0 ports), four CHA_FAN fan power slots, a clear CMOS jumper slot, a temperature sensing slot, 5V 3-Pin ARGB, 12V 4-Pin ARGB, front audio jack slots.

On the rear of the motherboard, underneath the I/O armor block and at the junction of the Blazing M2_1 2280 Gen5 x4 slot, there is a CHA_FAN fan slot that can be used to install a fan on the rear of the chassis.

∆ Error code card slot, front panel slot (PANEL1), buzzer slot, two USB 2.0 slots (supports four front USB 2.0 ports), four CHA_FAN fan power supply slots.

∆ One clear CMOS jumper slot, one temperature sensing slot, 5V 3-Pin ARGB, 12V 4-Pin ARGB, front audio jack slot.

∆ The CHA_FAN 5 fan supply slot for fan mounting at the rear of the chassis.

 

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi provides two PCIE expansion slots, the first one is a metal-reinforced PCIE 5.0 x16 slot that uses a direct connection channel for the processor, and is recommended for gamers who want to install a discrete graphics card.

There is a second PCIE 4.0 x16 size slot on the bottom, but note that this PCIE slot only supports x2 bandwidth, so it is recommended to use it with an expansion device such as a capture card, sound card, or storage card.

∆ PCIe 5.0 x16 metal-reinforced slot, PCIe 4.0 x16 (x2 bandwidth) black slot.

 

The top BLAZING M.2 slot is equipped with an enlarged M.2 heatsink, which is responsible for compressing the M2_1 PCIe Gen5 x4 expansion slot underneath (2280 form factor only) to ensure that the PCIe Gen5 x4 SSDs do not overheat when in use.

The lower two Hyper M.2 slots (M2_2, M2_3) both support PCIe Gen4 x4 bandwidth, but the Hyper M.2_2 without heatsink supports 2230 / 2242 / 2260 / 2280 SSD expansion, while the Hyper M2_3 only supports 2280 size.

The M2_4 in the bottom right corner only supports PCIe Gen4 x2 bandwidth, so it is recommended to expand M.2 SSDs with weaker read/write performance into this slot.

Each M.2 SSD expansion slot is equipped with M.2 fixed quick release swivel clips, but unfortunately only the first slot of the BLAZING M.2 is equipped with double-sided heat sinks, and the second slot of the Hyper M.2_2 is not equipped with any heat sinks, so for those who are concerned about the temperature of SSDs, it is recommended that they purchase M.2 SSDs with their own thin heat sinks to expand them.

∆ The topmost BLAZING M.2 slot supports PCIe Gen5 x4 SSDs.

∆ There are four M.2 expansion slots in total, but the second slot, Hyper M.2_2, is not configured with any heatsink.

∆ M.2 SSD heatsink at a glance.

 

I/O on the rear of the motherboard includes: 802.11axe Wi-Fi 6E / Bluetooth 5.3 antenna port, BIOS Flashback button, HDMI 2.1 internal display output, DisplayPort 1.4 internal display output, Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A blue ports (10 Gb/s), four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A blue ports (5 Gb/s), three USB 2.0 Type-A, RJ-45 2.5 Gb/s wired network jack, fiber-optic SPDIF digital audio output port, Line Out Jack (Gold audio jack), Microphone Input Jack (Gold Audio Jack).

Thunderbolt 4 Type-C supports HDCP 2.3, and the maximum resolution output from the internal display is up to 8K 60Hz / 5K 120Hz.

∆ Rear I/O output interface list.

∆ Motherboard Extras: Devil's Felt Harness, Temperature Sensor Cable, Two SATA Cables, WiFi Antenna.

 

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi Lighting Showcase

The ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi not only allows you to set up the lighting effects in the BIOS, but you can also customize the lighting effects in the system with the POLYCHROME RGB. The motherboard itself has a lighting effects section, which is centered underneath the M.2 heatsinks on the underside of the motherboard as well as underneath the PCH chipset heatsinks.

∆ Close-up of lighting effects.

 

BIOS Function Setting Menu

After the motherboard has passed the self-checking program, press the F2 or DEL button to enter the BIOS, where gamers can make adjustments to the voltage, frequency, and other parameters.

∆ EZ Mode.

∆ Advanced Mode Main Menu tab.

∆ Overclocking Tools sub-page.

∆ Processor overclocking related settings.

∆ Memory overclocking related.

∆ Overclocking voltage setting.

∆ CPU DLVR Setting.

∆ Advanced menu.

∆ Advanced menu CPU settings.

∆ Advanced Menu Chipset Settings, there is Re-Size BAR here.

∆ Storage device setting.

∆ Thunderbolt 4 Settings.

∆ Power Management.

∆ USB Settings.

∆Reliable setting related.

∆Tools paging.

∆ Hardware monitoring.

∆ Security Interface.

∆ Startup options.

 

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi Performance Testing

The ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard is tested with a 24-core, 24-thread motherboard. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor and updated the motherboard BIOS to version 1.25, and the memory is used for the Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5 RGB CUDIMM 8400MT/s 48GB (2x24GB) Dual-channel memory kits to build testbeds.

Testing Platform

Processor:Intel Core Ultra 9 285K QS
Radiator:LIAN LI GA II LITE 360 RGB (full speed)
Motherboard: ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi (BIOS version: 1.25)
Memory:Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5 RGB CUDIMM 8400MT/s 48GB (2x24GB) cl 40-52-52-132 1.45v
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Founders Edition 8GB
Operating System: Windows 11 Professional 24H2
System disk: Kingston NV3 2TB
Power supply:MONTECH CENTURY II 850W
Case: Montech HS01 PRO
Graphics driver: GeForce Game Ready 572.83

 

firstly CPU-Z Viewing the hardware information of the test platform, Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor has 24 (8P+16E) cores and 24 threads, series code Arrow Lake using TSMC process, motherboard using ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi supporting PCI-E 5.0 lanes, and BIOS is 1.25 version. BIOS version 1.25.

Also ran CPU-Z internal tests Version 19.01.64(beta)The results are provided for your reference.

∆ CPU-Z information at a glance and Version 19.01.64(beta) built-in test score results.

 

AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark It is mainly used to test the performance of processor caches and RAM. The read/write/copy bandwidth performance score represents the rate of transfer between CPU and memory, which means the efficiency of data throughput (the higher the score, the better), and the time delay score of accessing data indicates the responsiveness of the memory system.

Tested on this motherboard with Memory Profile 1 open, read speeds were 126.5 GB/s, write speeds were 98.4 GB/s, copy speeds were 108.6 GB/s, and latency was 82.7 ns.

∆ AIDA64 cache and memory test.

 

new version Cinebench 2024 MAXON ONE is Maxon's benchmark software for MAXON ONE software. MAXON ONE includes Cinema 4D, Red Giant Complete, Redshift, ZBrush, Universe, and Forger, and is a powerful tool for creating animation effects, motion design, motion graphics, film-grade portraits, and game art scenes. Each of these software programs fits together to provide a complete visual solution for creators.

Cinebench 2024 uses Cinema 4D's default Redshift rendering engine to test GPU and CPU performance. If multiple graphics cards are used to run Cinebench 2024 tests, the software utilizes multiple cards for the rendering tests at the same time, and Cinebench 2024 performs multiple rendering tests with six times the amount of computation when compared to Cinebench R23. Compared to Cinebench R23, the Cinebench 2024 multi-threaded rendering tests show a six-fold increase in the amount of computation for scenes. This reflects improvements in CPU performance and the higher hardware requirements that multimedia workers must now meet.

∆ Cinebench 2024.

 

V-Ray 6 Benchmark V-Ray Engine Test Software is an image rendering program developed by Chaos Group. The free Benchmark examines the rendering speeds of the CPU and GPU on the V-Ray Engine, which tests the rendering performance of the processor.

∆ V-Ray 6 Benchmark.

 

Corona Benchmark is a free test software based on the Corona 10 rendering core that evaluates the performance of a system by using Corona 10 rendered scenes to measure the rendering speed of the system in terms of rays per second (rays/s). More rays per second means faster rendering, and the scores are linearly scaled. For example, a system with 6 million rays per second will have twice the rendering speed and performance of a system with 3 million rays per second.

∆ Corona Benchmark.

 

Geekbench 6 CPU Benchmark can be used to test CPU and memory performance, including data compression, image processing, machine learning, optical tracking, and many other daily use and professional productivity tests.

∆ Geekbench 6_ CPU Benchmark.

 

CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0 It is a comprehensive benchmark software that measures CPU, HDD, 2D graphics (GDI) and 3D graphics (OpenGL) performance. Developed by hiyohiyo and koinec, the authors of CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo, the results are individual scores and not in any common units.

∆ CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0.

 

PCMark 10 It also simulates test scenarios to determine the overall performance of the computer. The common basic functions include application launching, web browsing, and video conferencing tests, while productivity simulates document and spreadsheet writing, and the last item, video content creation, includes professional tests such as photo editing, video editing, and rendering.

∆ PCMark 10 test.

 

CrossMark There are a total of 25 items, including productivity, creative content work, system responsiveness and other work simulation load test, the following three scores have different scoring criteria and use of the context, Productivity (Productivity) includes document editing, spreadsheets, web browsing, the second Creativity (Creativity) includes photo editing, photo organizing, video editing, the last Responsiveness (Responsiveness) has opened the file, document response speed, multi-processing context. The second category, Creativity, includes photo editing, photo organizing, and video editing, while the last category, Responsiveness, includes file opening, document response speed, and multitasking scenarios.

∆ CrossMark Everyday Use Scene Test Program.

 

OCCT CPU BENCHMARK CONFIGURATION Single thread and Multiple threads will be tested using AVX and SSE instruction sets respectively.

∆ OCCT CPU BENCHMARK CONFIGURATION.

 

Next up, the 3DMark series, one of the most benchmarks for gaming scores, was used to compare the theoretical results of the same graphics platform with different processors through a series of tests with different picture quality and different GPU APIs.

3DMark CPU Profile This test will test the performance of MAX, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1 threads respectively, while the performance of 16 threads and above is more for 3D rendering or audio/video professional work, and most of the mainstream DirectX 12 game performance can refer to the score of 8 threads, while the score of 4 and 2 threads are related to the old games developed with DirectX 9.

∆ 3DMark CPU Profile.

 

In addition, the author has also used the commonly used game performance simulation test 3DMark Fire Strike、3D Mark Time SpyThe two programs are Fire Strike, which represents the 1080p quality DirectX11 GPU API situational game simulation test, and Time Spy, which represents the 1440p quality DirectX 12 GPU API situational game simulation test.

∆ 3DMark Fire Strike.

∆ 3DMark Time Spy.

 

Conclusion

This summary is to compare the two B860 chipset Steel Legend WiFi models in the end what is the difference between the two, so that we can refer to the purchase of what to choose according to the place, if you are a renter or hostel users such as limited space for host, of course, it is more suitable to choose the smaller size of the MATX size. B860M Steel Legend WiFiThe B860 Steel Legend WiFi is a great choice for those who have no space constraints, as it can be paired with some low height chassis and then placed in a space such as a bookcase, which is more suitable for the B860 Steel Legend WiFi, as the ATX specification is bound to have better expandability.

In terms of hardware specifications, the B860 Steel Legend WiFi has a better power supply specification and an extra PCIe 4.0 x16 (x2 bandwidth) slot for expanding devices such as capture cards, and a better specification and number of USB ports on the front (20 Gbps for USB Type-C, two more USB 5Gbps ports, and one more USB 2.0 port on the back of the motherboard). Type-A port, and one more USB 2.0 port on the back of the motherboard), but the B860M Steel Legend WiFi's four M.2 expansion slots are all full x4 bandwidth, while the B860 Steel Legend WiFi's has one that's only x2 bandwidth (which is split between PCIe expansion slots).