ASRock revealed five new B365 motherboards as CES today to offer gamers, professionals and people who like small cases more options for their 9th generation Intel processors. Four of the boards are divided into two product lines--Phantom Gaming 4 and Pro4--then further differentiated via their use of the ATX or micro-ATX form factors. The final board is the B365M-ITX/ac, which is made for those looking to cram a B365 board into a mini-ITX case.
Intel announced the B365 chipset in December 2018 as an incremental upgrade to the B360. It's made with the 22nm manufacturing process instead of the 14nm one, boasts 20 PCIe lanes instead of 12 and includes the Kaby Lake Platform Controller Hub (PCH) instead of the Coffee Lake PCH. We hypothesized in our initial report that Intel's primary goal for the B365 was to free up 14nm production resources amid continued struggles.
But that's not going to stop manufacturers from pushing the new chipset. Enter the new boards from ASRock. The company's billing the new products as "Power, Redefined" but admitted in its announcement that the new chipset "aims mostly at [the] mainstream market." Let's take a look.
The Phantom Gaming 4 line features built-in RGB lighting (as required of any gaming-focused motherboard in 2019), as well as support for ASRock's Polychrome RGB system. Both models feature two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, support up to 128GB of DDR4-2666 via four DIMM slots and offer Gigabit LAN connectivity. Aside from the form factor, the primary difference between models is the lack of an "XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink" on the B365M.
The Pro4 line ditches the built-in RGB (but keeps the ASRock Polychrome RGB support). In exchange, it gets a full-coverage M.2 heatsink, a D-sub port to bring the total number of monitors up to three and ELNA audio caps meant to "reduce noise level significantly and satisfy even the pickiest audiophiles." Those additions should help the board appeal to creative professionals who work with massive files or need a bunch of monitors.
Finally, there's the B365M-ITX/ac. This board nixes the RGB features entirely, cuts memory down to a maximum 64GB of DDR4-2666 via two DIMM slots and does away with one of the PCIe x16 slots. It supports up to three monitors via DisplayPort, as well as DVI-I and HDMI. But the motherboard's real draw will be its ability to squeeze into whatever itty-bitty mini-ITX case someone needs to fill.
ASRock didn't reveal a release date or pricing information for any of the B365 motherboards it announced today. However, you can find more information on the ASRock website at these product pages: B365 Phantom Gaming 4, B365M Phantom Gaming 4, B365 Pro4, B365M Pro4, B365M-ITX/ac.
