Closer Look
Colorful CVN B460M Pro Gaming arrived in a retail package which well described in a similar way as most gaming series motherboards. The box design feels a bit too simple for a gaming product, which is usually screaming to us with bright colors and key features. It can also be that I’m used to seeing other brand motherboards with more lively design. What’s most important is inside the box.
Inside the box, we will find a well-protected motherboard, user’s manual, drivers and software DVD, SATA data cables, and IO shield. There is also a “Thank you for loving COLORFUL” card. I guess it’s a bit too early for that, but it’s still a nice touch.
Most new and more expensive motherboards have the I/O shield that is pre-installed. Here we still have it separated. It’s not an issue, just worth mentioning.
The motherboard looks pretty good for a lower series. We have to remember that the B460 chipset is not allowing us to overclock, but the CVN B460M is equipped with a robust power section, which we usually see in higher series motherboards. During the tests, there were no problems with stability using the i9 10900K, so the most power-hungry processor from the latest Comet Lake-S family.
We won’t find fans on this motherboard what is for sure an advantage as there are no moving parts that can break and no additional noise. Large heatsinks are taking care of the heat, and nothing is overheating.
The motherboard is equipped with two M.2 sockets, which are supporting up to PCIe 3.0 x4 drives. We wish to see PCIe 4.0 support, but even many motherboards on the more expensive Z490 chipset are not supporting that, so we weren’t expecting to see additional PCIe 4.0 chips on the B460. The PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth is more than enough for gaming PC.
On the motherboard, we can also find Realtek RTL8111F 1 Gbit LAN, but there is no WiFi and Bluetooth. If we wish to add it, then COLORFUL decided to install a dedicated M.2 socket so we can always buy the desired controller and install it on our own. I guess it’s not a bad idea as it lowers the price of the motherboard but still gives a chance to install the WiFi/Bluetooth module.
One of the key features of the latest chipsets is high capacity memory support, so 32GB modules. The CVN B460M is limited by the chipset to DDR4-2933, but it actually supports up to DDR4-3200 memory, and as you will be able to see later, 32GB memory modules also work at the maximum possible clock.
The motherboard is equipped with a single HDMI and single DVI outputs. I guess we could already say that Display Port is more popular than DVI in modern computers, but those who are into gaming, probably will use a discrete graphics card, so it doesn’t matter much.
I can’t forget about the RGB illumination as the motherboard has both RGB and ARGB headers but also has installed multiple LEDs. I will tell you some more about RGB illumination on the next pages of this review.
On the next page, there are more detailed specifications, so let’s move there to check additional components that were not described yet.
