When AMD launched its first Ryzen 7000 processors, amidst a flurry of technical announcements and hype, die-hard fans were told they could get their hands on the new AM5 motherboards “starting at $125”. Finally, months later, ASRock has finally delivered on that promise with his ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2. David McAfeeOf course, it’s only natural to consider what ASRock did and sacrificed to reach this critical price point.
AMD’s Ryzen 7000 desktop processors haven’t sold as well as they should have. After years of using the AM4 platform beautifully and multiple CPU generations, it’s finally time to change the bath water.
The design of the powerful Zen 4 processor has forced us to make some premium choices on the motherboard side. AM5 motherboards required relatively expensive options such as an improved power delivery system, came with new socket mechanisms and retainers, and the platform didn’t allow users to keep their older DDR4 RAM. . At the high end, some models required multiple chipsets to deliver the full portfolio of expected features, costing a lot more extra.
Coming back to the ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2, it’s no surprise that this is a very basic AM5 offering. It is a Micro-ATX form factor and only has 2 DIMM slots and 2 M.2 slots that can accommodate 2280 storage devices (one PCIe Gen 5×4, another PCIe Gen 4×4). That his VRM power supply design is also basic and only looks like a small budget style heatsink.
Some users may find the mere 7 USB ports (4 of which are USB 2.0) a pinch. Similarly, there are only four SATA drive connectors. The onboard sound is a fairly old Realtek ALC897 chip and of course there is no his RGB here.
On the plus side, it’s nice that this motherboard offers a 2.5 Gigabit LAN. Another positive is the enhanced graphics card slot. I’m glad that there is an easy and convenient BIOS flashback function. ASRock’s B650M-HDV/M.2 provides both HDMI and DP ports for iGPU output and comes with a pre-installed I/O shield. One less thing to deal with when building a modern PC.
Interestingly, there are antenna mounting points if you want to install a Wi-Fi card, and the motherboard has an M.2 WiFi slot for exactly this purpose.So potentially you could grab something like this WiFi 6E adapter (opens in new tab) For $36, you can use it with any ASRock board. Of course, you’re actually spending $161 on an AM5 motherboard. This defeats the purpose of setting a low starting price in the first place. Still, it’s nice to have flexibility.
Hopefully other motherboard makers will follow in ASRock’s footsteps soon and it will be interesting to see how they compete. For those looking for a completely new platform and wondering between AMD and Intel, consider the competitive features of the Intel LGA1700 motherboards for Alder Lake / Raptor Lake as well. For more on the pros and cons of different options, check out our Best Motherboards for Gaming 2023 by Socket and Chipset.
