ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming K4 Motherboard Review

Overclocking

Disclaimer: Overclocking is never guaranteed, so the results may vary depending on certain conditions and various hardware configurations. I am not recommending overclocking if you do not know what are you doing. High voltages may damage hardware and it will not be covered by warranty.

We managed to overclock the our Ryzen 5 2400G to 3.95GHz (default is 3.6GHz). I was hoping it could reach 4.0GHz, it posted but failed to load into Windows. For this, we set the CPU speed to 3950 and increased the Vcore voltage to 1.475v. All other settings were untouched at AUTO.

Since we got the massive (and silent) Noctua NH-D15 CPU air cooler, our CPU temperatures were a little high, but it was expected. Still, it could handle high temperatures of around 84 degrees Celsius with no problems.

Verdict and Conclusion

In conclusion, the ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming K4 motherboard is a decent performer, and a good all-rounder for all 2nd Gen Ryzen processors. It produced some good scores in our benchmarks, and we found it to be pretty solid and stable.

I like the fact that ASRock have included some extra features with this motherboard, which are normally reserved for their higher-end enthusiast range. Take for example, the PCIE-E steel slots, 2 x M.2 Slots, Polychrome RGB, Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 5, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type-A and Type-C), as well as support for DDR4-3200+ (OC) and AMD CrossfireX.

As you can see from the benchmarks in our previous pages, the ASRock B450 Gaming K4 does outperform motherboards which used the previous B350 chipset, albeit marginally. What you have to consider is the fact that the B450 natively supports all 2nd Gen Ryzen processors, along with some new features which includes XFR2 Enhanced, Precision Boost Overdrive and StoreMi … features that are not found on B350 based motherboards.

As for overclocking, the ASRock B450 Gaming K4 didn’t do too bad either. I was able to overclock the Ryzen 5 2400G to a respectable 3.950GHz (although the default was at 3.6GHz with the CPU boost at 3.9GHz). Word of advice … when you do overclock, remember to get a decent CPU cooler. AIO liquid CPU coolers are recommended.

From what I can gather, the price of the ASRock B450 Gaming K4 motherboard will be both very attractive and competitive. It should be similar to the B350 motherboards which range between $90-130, depending on the brand and the amount of features. We’re expecting a price of around $120.

This motherboard was only just released this month, so I don’t have a MSRP … but can buy the previous model, the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 Motherboard from Amazon for around USD $109 – https://amzn.to/2JQ78tM

Pros:

Decent performance
Supports all 2nd Ryzen processors
Latest AMD B450 Chipset
Supports DDR4-2666+
ASRock Polychrome RGB
Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 5
USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type-A and Type-C)
2 x M.2 slots for SSDs

Cons:

At this price – Nothing.

Final words

I’m pretty impressed with the ASRock B450 Gaming K4 motherboard. Not only does it offer decent performance and great value for money, but comes with some unique features that are normally found on high-end enthusiast boards. It’s definitely a good all-rounder that’s worth considering.

Want to win this motherboard? Why not enter our free prize giveaway here. Hurry, closing date is 25th August, 2018.

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