ASRock’s B650E Steel Legend Wi-Fi is a mid-range product in the B650E board area. Priced at $269.99, it has a black steel-on-grey look, PCIe 5.0 support, good power delivery, three M.2 sockets (including one 5.0 128 Gbps socket), eight USB on rear IO It has ports etc. This is a capable and high performance board, but it only has 2 SATA ports. Although the price of M.2 drives has dropped, many people still use two or more SATA-based storage devices. Also, its audio hardware, while probably fine for most people, is outdated compared to its competitors.
ASRock’s B650 lineup (as of this writing) consists of 10 different motherboards. You’ll find all standard sizes and a wide range of prices under familiar names like Taichi, PG Riptide, PG Lightning, Pro RS, Livemixer and Steel Legend SKUs.The price range is $349.99 (opens in new tab) (Taichi Carrara) to ASRock B650M PG Riptide $169.99 (opens in new tab)There are many options in the existing lineup such as MicroATX and Mini-ITX SKUs.
In terms of performance, Steel Legend was average to above average across our test suite. It performed well overall in games and elsewhere in our benchmarks.It wasn’t too fast, but neither was it extremely slow. Proper cooling allows this board to take full advantage of AMD processors.
Below we dig into the details of the board and see if it deserves our spot best motherboard list. But before we get into testing and board details, we’ll start by listing the specs from ASRock’s website.
Specifications: ASRock B650E Steel Legend Wi-Fi
| socket | AM5 (LGA1718) |
| chipset | B650 |
| form factor | ATX |
| voltage regulator | 19 phases (16x 60A MOSFET for Vcore) |
| video port | (1) HDMI (v2.1) |
| (1) DisplayPort (v1.4) | |
| USB port | (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10Gbps) |
| (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) | |
| (4) USB 3.2 Gen1 (5Gbps) | |
| (2) USB2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| network jack | (1) 2.5GbE |
| audio jack | (2) Analog + SPDIF |
| Legacy Port/Jack | ✗ |
| Other Ports/Jacks | ✗ |
| PCIe x16 | (1) v5.0 (x16) |
| (1) v3.0 (x4) | |
| PCIe x8 | ✗ |
| PCIe x4 | ✗ |
| PCIe x 1 | ✗ |
| Crossfire/SLI | AMD Crossfire |
| DIMM slots | (4) DDR5 6600+(OC), 128GB capacity |
| M.2 socket | (1) PCIe 5.0 x4 (128Gbps) / PCIe (up to 80mm) |
| (2) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps) / PCIe (up to 80mm) | |
| Supports RAID0/1/5 | |
| SATA port | (2) SATA3 6Gbps (supports RAID 0/1/5/10) |
| USB header | (2) USB v3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) |
| (2) USB v2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| fan/pump header | (6) 4-pin (CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump) |
| RGB header | (3) aRGB (3 pin) |
| (1) RGB (4 pin) | |
| diagnostic panel | (1) Post status check (4 LEDs) |
| Internal button/switch | ✗ |
| SATA controller | ✗ |
| ethernet controller | (1) Realtek Dragon RTL8125BG (2.5GbE) |
| Wi-Fi/Bluetooth | ✗ |
| USB controller | ✗ |
| HD audio codec | Realtek ALC897 |
| DDL/DTS | ✗ / ✗ |
| guarantee | 3 years |
Inside the ASRock B650E Steel Legend Wi-Fi box
Inside the retail packaging, under the motherboard, are some accessories to help you get started. Comes with 2 SATA cables, screws/standoffs for M.2, Wi-Fi antenna, and user manual. ASRock also includes a graphics card holder that attaches to the motherboard to support heavy video cards.like Z790 Live Mixer Accessory stack, not much here. I actually listed them all in the box.
Design of ASRock B650E Steel Legend Wi-Fi
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ASRock describes Steel Legend as “a philosophical state of rock-solid durability and compelling aesthetics.” Aimed at daily users and mainstream enthusiasts, there is no LED screen or fully covered board, but a ‘steel’ colored heatsink on top of an 8-layer black PCB. The motherboard also has a duck-like black, white, and gray pattern around the socket, audio area, and chipset.
The VRM heatsink and shroud on the left side of the socket house have RGB LEDs that light up the Steel Legend ‘S’ symbol. There is an additional RGB under the chipset heatsink, a large heatsink is above the PCI 5.0 M.2 socket and another heatsink covers his other two his M.2 sockets at the bottom of the board increase. Overall, this is a nice looking midrange B650E board.
The VRM heatsink in the top left corner shows ASRock’s branding in white, along with the Steel Legend series and B650E stenciled onto the heatsink/shroud. His RGB here (and on the chipset heatsink) are bright and saturated, which is good for lighting the inside of the chassis. The VRM heatsink isn’t as big as the others, but it works well. Above the VRM heatsink are two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) that power the processor.
To the right of the duck-like pattern around the socket area are four reinforced DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on top. Supporting DDR5 up to 128GB, Steel Legend supports speeds up to DDR5-6600+(OC), but mileage may vary. His DDR5-5600 and DDR5-6000 kits from our company worked fine during testing.
Above the DRAM slots are the first two (out of six) 4-pin fan headers. CPU_FAN1 supports up to 1A/12W fan power, and the rest of the headers (CPU_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN1~4/WP) support up to 2A/24W fan power. These headers are sufficient to run most, if not all, fans from the motherboard. The BIOS or ASRock’s A-Tune application controls these headers.
Scroll down the right edge and you’ll find the first two (out of four) RGB headers. There are two 3-pin ARGB headers in this area, and additional 3-pin ARGB and 4-pin RGB headers on the bottom of the board. Just below these is the post status checker. Four LEDs will light up during the POST process if there is a problem with the DRAM, CPU, boot device, or VGA. Next are the 24-pin EPS connector that powers the board, the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector, and the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) header. There are only 8 USB ports on the rear IO, so some users may really need the extra headers/ports provided.
The B650E Legend’s VRM consists of a total of 19 phases, 16 of which are dedicated to Vcore. Power is supplied from an 8-pin EPS connector to a Renesas RAA229628 20-phase PWM controller and goes to 16x 60A Intersil ISL99360 SPS MOSFETs.The 960A available is certainly not the most powerful we’ve seen, but it handled our flagship Ryzen 9 7950X Flagship without a care.
The audio section is slightly hidden by the stencil on the left side of the PCB. Along with the old Realtek ALC897 codec, we see the ever-present audio isolation line that runs from the bottom of the board to his M.2 socket at the top. You won’t find third party DACs or amplifiers at this price, so if you are a critical listener or have the right set of cans/speakers, you will need an external solution for the best results. Most other people will not notice the old codecs used here.
In the middle of the board are two full-length PCIe slots and three M.2 sockets. The top PCIe socket under the large heatsink connects through the CPU and runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds. The bottom socket feeds lanes from the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. The board states support for AMD Crossfire.
The top M.2 socket sits above the primary PCIe slot, takes lanes from the CPU, runs at PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) speeds, and supports up to 80mm modules. The bottom two sockets are under a small (by mass) heatsink below the bottom PCIe slot. Each socket supports PCIe 4.0 x4 drives up to 80mm. With this configuration, no ports or bandwidth are shared, so you get what you see!
Move past the illuminated chipset heatsink to the far right and you’ll find two SATA ports. In fact, these are only his 2 his SATA ports on the board, so that could be a problem for quite a few users looking to carry over their old drives. Worst case: You can add more with an add-in card for about $40, but you need at least 4 ports. Especially on budget models where M.2 drives aren’t as common as his SATA. His SSD or HDD in the base.
Several headers are exposed at the bottom of the board. You’ll find the usual stuff like extra USB ports, an RGB header, and a power/reset button. Below is the complete list from left to right.
- front panel audio
- 4-pin ARGB header
- 3-pin ARGB header
- 5-pin Thunderbolt AIC connector
- (2) system fan header
- clear CMOS jumper
- (2) USB 2.0 headers
- system fan header
- USB 3.2 Gen1 connector
- speaker header
- system panel header
The B650E Steel Legend’s rear IO plate, like many others, comes pre-installed on the motherboard. It features the same black, white, and gray background against a black label, along with the Steel Series ‘S’ brand. The rear IO has a total of 8 USB slots. It has two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C and Type-A ports, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. Video output consists of one HDMI and DisplayPort. There’s also a Wi-Fi antenna connection for integrated Wi-Fi 6E, a BIOS flashback button, his Realtek Dragon-based 2.5 GbE port, and last but not least, dual analog and SPDIF audio stacks.
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