ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Review: Small Wonder

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How We Test

A lack of Mini-ITX samples for socket AM4 forced us to re-test an earlier ASRock model, the X370 Gaming-ITX/ac, as a direct comparison to the cheaper and more modern B450 Gaming-ITX/ac. Larger ATX models based on the even higher end X470 chipset, the Biostar Racing X470GT8 and Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi, fill out the rest of our comparison roster. We hope that including those top boards will help to prove the worth of today's lower-cost focus.

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SoundIntegrated HD audio
NetworkIntegrated gigabit networking
Graphics DriverGeForce 399.24

The same platform that cools the intense heat of our X299 motherboards works equally well with AMD’s AM4 processors, as proven in the overclocking evaluation on the next page.

Comparison Products

Benchmark Settings

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Synthetic Benchmarks & Settings
PCMark 8Version 2.7.613 Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft)
3DMark 13Version 4.47.597.0 Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets
SiSoftware SandraVersion 2016.03.22.21 CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth
DiskSPD4K Random Read, 4K Random Write 128K Sequential Read, 128K Sequential Write
Cinebench R15Build RC83328DEMO OpenGL Benchmark
CompuBenchVersion 1.5.8 Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing
Application Tests & Settings
LAME MP3Version 3.98.3 Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.9.9 Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x265 mp4
BlenderVersion 2.68a BMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark
7-ZipVersion 16.02 THG-Workload (7.6GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9"
Adobe After Effects CCRelease 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144 PCMark-driven routine
Adobe Photoshop CCRelease 2015.5.0, 20160603.r.88 x64 PCMark-driven routine (light and heavy)
Adobe InDesign CCRelease 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64 PCMark-driven routine
Adobe IllustratorRelease 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit) PCMark-driven routine
Game Tests & Settings
Ashes of the SingularityVersion 1.31.21360 High Preset - 1920 x 1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAA Crazy Preset - 1920 x 1080, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA
F1 20152015 Season, Abu Dhabi track, Rain Medium Preset, no AF Ultra High Preset, 16x AF
Metro: Last Light ReduxVersion 3.00 x64 High Quality, 1920 x 1080, High Tesselation, 16x AF Very High Quality, 1920 x 1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF
The Talos PrincipleVersion 267252 Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AF Ultra Preset, Very High Quality, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • Onus
    I've been eyeing this board for months now; it looks like a real winner. If I build another AM4 system (hey, I DO have a 1600X on a shelf right now...), this one is on the Short List.
    Reply
  • TCA_ChinChin
    Looks like a cheap but still good ITX option. Thanks for review.
    Reply
  • stdragon
    A real Intel I211 Gigabit Ethernet controller. Very NICE! Much better than Realtek
    Reply
  • Onus
    Historically, the only expansion cards I have used are video cards, modems, and wireless NICs. Ok, I can add a video card to this board. I don't need a standard modem, and my Brother MFC all-in-one can fax (yes, I've done it quite a few times); and this board has wireless built-in. It's marginally low on SATA ports, but the M.2 takes care of that, so I can have: Data drive, Backup drive, optical drive, and external SATA dock, in addition to the M.2 boot drive.
    So, it checks all the boxes. Well, all except current need...
    Reply
  • adamdbz
    I have it paired with an r5 2600 and UV Vega 56, 4 sata ssd's and one nvme drive boots in 5-6 secs in a cooler master elite 130..
    great board, but for the past 3 weeks the Bluetooth started to disconnect every second so i had to disable it in device manger.. ill get to fix it when I have time..
    Reply
  • hamoo
    i can't believe that this board is already six years old
    the one thing about asrock is its excellent tech and customer support
    that is the bare botkin right there
    i have never had an issue with this board, and i built several builds with it, at least 4. some of the builds i rebuilt over and over. always had great tech support.
    so, the only thing, i was using a non compliant case - a fractal design. the housing for the power supply is not where it is suppose to be. so when i purchased a 3060ti, there was no way to make it fit. i ended up gutting my mini pc and transitioning to a gateway tower. well, there are four usb 2 connectors - two of them 9 pin motherboard connectors. and this b450 has only one. i don't think this will be a problem for most people, however, i've seen a few posts on how to solve this issue since i first encountered it. this is the only issue with this board. and i'm sure there's a workaround; i haven't come across a solution yet
    Reply