Motherboard manufacturer ECS has silently expanded its AMD portfolio. The B450AM4-M motherboard (via Hermitage Akihabara) that attempts to be one of the best motherboards to consider for consumers with very tight budgets.
The B450AM4-M is a microATX motherboard that exploits AMD's budget B450 chipset. It has a modest power delivery subsystem that conforms to a 4+2-phase design and feeds the CPU with a single 4-pin power connector. The motherboard's full processor support list wasn't available at the time of writing, but the user manual states that the B450AM4-M supports 7th Generation A-series and Athlon APUs and processors up to the second-generation Ryzen 2000-series (Pinnacle Ridge) parts with a maximum TDP (thermal design power) of 95W. This effectively closes the door on the Ryzen 7 2700X, which is rated for 105W.
ECS equips the B450AM4-M with four slots that support up to DDR4--2666 memory modules. The motherboard can hold a maximum of 64GB of memory, but that will vary from processor to processor.
The B450AM4-M comes with different expansion slots that will surely satisfy the typical consumer. There's one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot wired at x4, one PCIe 2.0 x1 slot and even one PCI slot. Thanks to the presence of the two PCIe x16 slots, the B450AM4-M can accommodate up to two AMD Radeon graphics cards in a CrossFire setup.
For storage, the board offers a combination of four SATA III ports, which support RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays, and one M.2 M-key slot that houses PCIe- and SATA-based drives up to 80mm in length. There's another M.2 slot, but it's a E-key format for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless cards only.
ECS' B450AM4-M also features four display outputs: one HDMI 1.4a port, one DVI-D port, one D-Sub port and one DisplayPort 1.2 output. Logically, you'll need to pair the motherboard with a APU to get an image from it.
The Realtek ALC662 audio codec delivers a 6-channel high definition audio experience. A Realtek ALC1304 amplifier integrated circuit accompanies the ALC662. Sadly, there's only one 3.5mm jack though that acts as a line-out, line-in and mic-in port. The single Gigabit Ethernet port is based on the Realtek RTL8111GN controller.
Despite the segment in which the motherboard competes, the B450AM4-M isn't short of I/O connectors. The rear panel boasts a PS/2 combo port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. In the event that you require more USB ports, the motherboard also sports one USB 3.2 Gen 1 header and two USB 2.0 headers. The list of headers also includes two serial port and one LPT headers as well as three 4-pin fan headers.
ECS hasn't announced the pricing or availability for the B450AM4-M motherboard.
