ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7 Motherboard Review Layout, design and features

Quickly to the right hardware equipment …

Let’s take a closer look at the ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7.

Layout, design and features …

The ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7 is built on a high-quality, high-density, 8-layer glass-fiber PCB and supports all processors released by AMD for the AM5 socket to date, ranging from the entry-level Ryzen 7000 series to the latest Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor with DUAL-3D V-Cache. With the B850 Rock WiFi 7, ASRock aims to offer a rock-solid motherboard that provides a stable and reliable foundation for all use cases. Its practical design is intended to provide all essential interfaces in sufficient numbers without being overloaded with unnecessary features and excess components. The first thing you notice about this board is its weight. Weighing less than one kilogram, it weighs less than half as much as a high-end motherboard.

Chipset …

AMD’s B850 chipset (PCH), featuring the Promontory 21 chip, forms the basis of the ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7. It is connected to the CPU via a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. Through this connection, the board provides the lower PCIe slots, the second M.2 slot, the 2 SATA ports, the LAN port, the Wi-Fi port, the USB headers, as well as a USB 3.2 Gen1 port and the USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O panel.

Below is an overview of how AMD has designed the interface connections. Board manufacturers may implement these differently.

AMD AM5 chipset comparison
Chipset	PCIe total	PCIe Gen5	USB 3.2 Gen1	USB 3.2 Gen2	USB 3.2 Gen2x2	SATA
X870E	44	24	2	12	2	8
X670E	44	24	2	12	2	8
X670	44	8	2	12	2	8
X870	36	24	1	6	1	4
B650E	36	24	1	6	1	4
B850	36	4	1	6	1	4
B840	34	0	2	2	0	4
B650	36	0	1	6	1	4
A620	32	0	2	2	0	4

Although the ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7 is an entry-level motherboard, it features a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and doesn’t create a bottleneck even for an NVIDIA RTX 5090.

Voltage regulators and heat sinks …

With a 9+2+1 Dr. MOS power stage configuration, the B850 Rock WiFi 7 features a robust power delivery system that has also been certified for the new AMD Ryzen 9 9950 X3D2 processor with DUAL 3D-V Cache. The resulting heat is dissipated via thin-walled aluminum heatsinks, which may look large but have limited dimensions and surface area.

Neither the chipset nor the VRM cooler has a fan, which helps when building a particularly quiet PC.

Expansion cards …

The graphics card slot is connected directly to the CPU via PCIe 5.0×16, which is by no means a given on B850 motherboards, as AMD’s specifications only require PCIe 4.0. This makes the ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7 compatible with the most powerful graphics cards currently available. When it comes to the slot latch, you can see the cost-cutting measures applied to the new Rock board. Unfortunately, there is no practical solution for easily unlocking the graphics card slot. The lower x16 slot features four PCIe 4.0 lanes and could therefore be used to add a third M.2 slot.

Memory modules …

Currently, the B850 Rock WiFi 7, with its 4 DIMM slots, supports up to 256GB of DDR5 RAM. Thanks to the high-quality 8-layer PCB and support for XMP and EXPO profiles, nothing stands in the way of achieving memory frequencies well above the JEDEC specification. According to ASRock, speeds of up to 8000MT/s are possible.

M.2 Slots …

The B850 Rock WiFi 7 supports up to two M.2 SSDs, with one slot featuring PCIe 5.0 connected directly to the CPU and the second slot featuring PCIe 4.0 routed through the chipset. Both M.2 slots are equipped with quick-release clips for the SSDs, and the faster slot also includes a small aluminum heatsink, which is absent from the second slot.

Drive connectors …

A total of four SATA 3 ports with 6 Gb/s are available for optical drives and hard drives/SSDs, two of which are angled. RAID modes 0, 1, and 10 are supported on both the SATA ports and the M.2 ports.

USB …

It was to be expected that the B850 Rock WiFi 7 wouldn’t have a USB4 port, but the fact that not a single USB port supports fast charging is a real letdown. At least the number of available USB ports gives no cause for complaint. There are 7 Type-A and 1 Type-C port on the rear I/O panel, of which 1 Type-A and the Type-C port offer 10Gb/s speeds, and two additional ports still reach 5Gb/s. USB 3.2 Gen2x2 is also not available on the ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7. Using the internal headers, the number of USB ports can be expanded by four USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, and one Type-C front port with 5Gb/s.

Network / Wireless …

The 2.5 Gb/s LAN port lets you navigate your home network quickly. With Wi-Fi 7, including 6 GHz support and 160 MHz channel bandwidth, you’ll also enjoy fast wireless speeds using the latest standard. Bluetooth 5.4 is included as well.

Sound …

For audio, the board supports up to 7.1 HD audio via the Realtek ALC897 chip. Like the B850 Rock WiFi board itself, the ALC897 is an entry-level chip. It offers decent sound quality, but quickly reaches its limits when used with high-end headsets or speakers. Unfortunately, there is no optical audio output either.

RGB lighting …

The B850 Rock WiFi 7 features three 5V A-RGB headers and one 4-pin 12V RGB header. However, there are no LEDs for lighting located directly on the motherboard.

Fan connectors …

No corners were cut when it comes to fan headers. The ASRock B850 Rock Board features a total of six 4-pin PWM fan headers. Five of them deliver up to 3A, while only the CPU fan header delivers 1A.

POST Status Checker …

If your PC fails to boot, the POST Status Checker located in the upper-right corner of the motherboard can help you troubleshoot the issue. In the event of a problem, four LEDs will indicate where the issue lies during the boot process.

Test System …

For testing the ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7 motherboard, we are using an AMD Ryzen 5 7500F CPU and 2x 32GB DDR5-6400 modules from Crucial. For cooling, we’re using the ASRock Steel Legend 360 LCD liquid cooler, and for thermal paste, we’re relying on the Arctic MX-6 paste. The Crucial T710 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD naturally takes its place in the top M.2 slot, which is connected directly to the CPU via PCIe 5.0.

The necessary power is provided by the high-performance Seasonic TX-1300 ATX 3.0 power supply, which offers more than enough power reserves.

ASRock B850 Rock WiFi 7 BIOS and overclocking …

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