ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi Review: The Best Value Motherboard?

I tested two B860 series motherboards from MSI recently. This time I am taking a spin on ASRock’s take on B860 chipset series motherboards starting with B860 Steel Legend WiFi. Steel Legend represents the philosophical state of rock-solid durability and irresistible aesthetics aimed at mainstream users.

The B860 Steel Legend WiFi comes in at a USD 200 price tag compared to the hefty USD 240 price tag of MSI B860 Tomahawk WiFi. The main differentiating areas are a single Thunderbolt port on Steel Legend compared to Tomahawk, WiFi 6E on Steel Legend compared to WiFi 7 on Tomahawk, Audio Solution, and MOSFET/VRM components.

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Key Takeaways

• The ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi is a feature-packed, affordable ATX motherboard designed for Intel Core Ultra series processors, with support for DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen5, and solid networking and storage options.
• You should buy the ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi if you want good value for your money from a beautiful and solid all-rounder motherboard.
• The only reason to skip the ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi is if you really need a DEBUG LED panel or WiFi 7.

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The salient features include:

• This motherboard supports Intel Core Ultra series 2 Processors.
• It supports DDR5 Memory up to 8666 MHz (OC)
• ASRock has deployed 14+1+1+1+1 Power phases for VRM/MOSFET
• This motherboard has 1x M.2 Gen5 and 3x M.2 Gen 4 Slots
• It supports a PCIe Gen5 x16 slot for the graphics card
• This motherboard has a RealTek ALC 1220 driver.
• This motherboard supports Graphics Card Lite Release

These are the key specifications:

Form Factor	ATX
CPU Support	Intel Core Ultra Series 2
CPU Socket	LGA1851
Memory Support	4x DDR5 DIMM Slots
PCIe Support	1x PCIe Gen5 x16 slot 1x PCIe Gen4 x16 slot [Supports x2 mode]
On-board Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics Intel X LPG Graphics 1x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C 1x HDMI 2.1 FRL 1x DisplayPort 1.4
Storage	4x SATA ports 1x Gen5 NVMe M.2 port 3x Gen4 NVMe M.2 ports
USB Ports	19x USB Ports
LAN	2.5 Gbps Dragon RTL8125
WiFi	Intel WiFi 6E

What Makes The ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi Different?

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi is a true value-oriented motherboard for mainstream and budget users, unlike MSI counterpart which sets you back 40 bucks more. But ASRock has made some cuts like only one Thunderbolt 4 port, no WiFi 7 solution, and no auxiliary PEG connector for ATX 3.1 standard. To compensate, ASRock has provided a beefier power delivery with a better audio solution and the overall feature set makes it a highly competitive offering.

Packaging And Unboxing

The motherboard is shipped inside a standard cardboard packing box. The salient specifications and features are listed over the packing box for the on-the-go users. ASRock has included the following in the box:

• 1x ATX-sized Motherboard
• 2x SATA Data Cables
• 2x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz Antennas
• 1x Thermistor Cable
• 1x Regulatory Notice
• 1x Quick Installation Guide

Design Overview

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard comes equipped with an Intel LGA1851 socket powering the 4x DIMM slots, 1x HDMI 2.1 port and 1x DP 1.4 port rated at 8K@60Hz, and a Thunderbolt port. In addition, this socket provides 20x PCIe lanes for PCIe Gen5 x16 and M.2 NVMe Gen 5×4 slots. This motherboard’s PCB is a 6-layer design using 2 oz thickened copper.

The DMI link operates at x4 PCIe between the socket and chipset. The rest of the connectivity comes from the B860 chipset including 3x Gen4x4 M.2 slots, WiFi 6E solution, Intel NUC, SATA, USB ports, and Audio solution. Let’s start with the power delivery circuit of this motherboard.

Power Delivery To Socket

This motherboard has an Intel LGA1851 socket which is only compatible with Ultra Core Series 2 CPUs. Intel has used narrow ILM mounting on this socket and aims to provide better and even pressure compared to the Intel LGA1700 socket.

There are two stylish and enlarged heatsink covers over the power delivery circuit. They are white and gray stenciled. The S letter on the main cover represents Steel Legend. These two covers are not interconnected. There is no LED backlighting on these covers.

This motherboard uses a Richtek RT3638AJ PWM controller. The power delivery consists of 14+1+1+1+1 phases with the 14 phases covering the vCore. The VRM phases are from Vishay SiC659 rated at 80A each. The single phases for the rest of the components are SM4503NH and SM4508NH. The upgraded 20K Black capacitor not only extends the lifespan to 20,000 hours but also increases the capacitance value from 560uF to 1000uF

DIMM Slots

ASRock has implemented 4x DDR5 CUDIMM slots that are on different PCB layers. This motherboard supports a maximum of 256GB memory capacity. These support Intel XMP 3.0 with dual-channel and dual-controller modes.

This motherboard supports frequencies up to 8666MHz (OC). The memory overclocking is also supported on this motherboard in addition to XMP. It supports Intel POR speed and JEDEC speed.

Storage Options

This motherboard has a total of 4x M.2 NVMe ports. Three ports have heat sink covers whereas one port is without a cover. These ports have a form factor of 2280/2260.

You can see that all heatsink covers have thermal pads. The top port uses a tool-less design. The other heatsink has an anti-drop screw design. You would need a screwdriver to handle this large-size cover.

The top slot is PCIe Gen5x4 M.2 NVMe wired to the CPU and has a 128GB/s bandwidth rating. It has dual thermal pads. The remaining three ports are wired to the chipset and only two are PCIe Gen4x4 whereas the third one is rated at PCIe Gen4x2.

Speaking of SATA ports, this motherboard has a total of 4x ports wired to the chipset.

PCIe Connectivity

This motherboard has a total of 3x PCIe slots. The first slot is full x16 slotted and wired to the CPU socket. It can’t be bifurcated or split. The other two are wired to the chipset. The top slot is PCIe Gen5x16 rated. The last slot is PCIe 4.0 x16 but operates at x2 mode. The middle slot is PCIe 4×1 and it is used for the WiFi module.

This motherboard features the Graphics Card Lite Release feature. The locker has an extended clip for easy handling of the graphics card.

USB Connectivity

This motherboard is packed with USB ports on the front, rear, and mid-board. It has:

• 1x Thunderbolt™ 4 Type-C (Rear)
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Front)
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear)
• 8x USB 3.2 Gen1 (4 Rear, 4 Front)
• 7x USB 2.0 (3 Rear, 4 Front)

ASRock has used several USB hubs and controllers including GL852G and ASM1074. All ports support ESD protection.

Networking Solution

This motherboard comes equipped with a Dragon 2.5 Gbps LAN port powered by RTL8125 controller. The wireless solution consists of Intel WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 (Intel AX211NGW WiFi Module). Although this platform has full support for WiFi 7, ASRock has cut it down in favor of 6E. This seems to be a cost-saving factor.

Audio Solution

ASRock has provided a better Audio solution on this motherboard compared to the MSI B860 Tomahawk. The MSI board comes with RealTek ALC897 whereas the ASRock motherboard is equipped with RealTek ALC1220. This is a 7.1 Channel audio solution that has S/PDIF output as well.

Internal Connectors

• 1x Thermistor Cable Header
• 1x SPI TPM Header
• 1x Power LED and Speaker Header
• 1x RGB LED Header
• 3x Addressable LED Headers
• 2x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
• 5x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
• 1x AIO Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
• 1x 24-pin ATX Power Connector
• 2x 8-pin 12V Power Connectors (Hi-Density Power Connector)
• 1x Front Panel Audio Connector
• 2x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports)
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Headers (Support 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports)
• 1x Front Panel Type C USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Header (20 Gb/s)

Each fan header is powered and controlled by nuvoTon 3961SP. The Pump Header is rated for 3A. The CPU Fan header is rated for 1A. The other fan headers are rated at 3A each. There are 4x LEDs to troubleshoot the system in case anything goes wrong. These LEDs correspond to the CPU, RAM, VGA, and Boot. However, there is no debug LED on this motherboard.

Rear IO Panel

There are:

• 2x Antenna Ports
• 1x HDMI Port
• 1x DisplayPort 1.4
• 1x Optical SPDIF Out Port
• 1x Thunderbolt™ 4 Type-C Port (40 Gb/s for USB4 protocol; 40Gb/s for Thunderbolt™ protocol)*
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Ports (10 Gb/s)
• 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports**
• 3x USB 2.0 Ports
• 1x RJ-45 LAN Port
• 1x BIOS Flashback Button
• 1x Line Out Jack (Gold Audio Jack)
• 1x Microphone Input Jack (Gold Audio Jack)

* Supports USB PD 3.0 up to 5V@3A (15W) charging

** USB32_45 support Ultra USB Power

The rear IO cover is pre-installed on this motherboard. ASRock has reserved more tolerance space and allows the IO shield to be adjustable when installed, thus fitting the chassis perfectly without any mechanical issues.

Let’s go over the B860 chipset after removing its heatsink cover. The main IO chip is Nuvoton NCT6686D.

BIOS

ASRock has provided a white interface that syncs well with the overall white theme of the PCB. However, the interface layout is the same as I have seen on other ASRock motherboards with no difference as such. This is why I am not going into the details here.

Software

If you enable (enabled by default) the System Drivers Installer in the BIOS, you will be prompted to use the Auto Driver installer on the Windows startup. This is an automated utility. It will look for available drivers and updates on the server and download/install them as per the user selection.

Test Build

I have used the following configuration to test the motherboard:

• ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi
• MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio 24G
• Intel Core Ultra 7 265k [Stock, Auto]
• My_Valkyrie A360 White
• XPG Lancer RGB 32GB 7200MHz CAS34 DDR5 kit
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 1TB Gen4x4 NVMe SSD [For OS]
• Sabrent Rocket Q XTRM 2TB Thunderbolt Drive
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 4TB Gen4x4 NVMe SSD [For Games]
• Fractal Design ION+2 860 Platinum PSU
• Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout

The above is a picture showing a run of CPU-Z. We can see that the CPU is reported at almost 5400.49MHz (Bus speed was at 100.1MHz to show this value). The RAM was operating at its tested speed of 7200MT/s after loading the XMP.

Test Result

The testing was done on stock settings with XMP loaded. Intel’s default power profile is used.

CPU And Memory Benchmarks

Latency is high on this platform as I observed during MSI’s motherboard testing. The DDR5 kit was performing at its rating but with high latency. The overall performance is competitive and the CPU is found working at its potential.

Storage Test

I have used a PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe drive and a Thunderbolt 4 drive which is the Sabrent Rocket Q-XTRM 2TB portable drive. I did not observe any issue with the storage performance on this motherboard and the result is competitive.

Gaming Test

The overall gaming performance is satisfactory.

System Performance Test

The overall system performance is excellent as well.

Core Clock Behavior

The system was left idle for 10 minutes under the Balanced Power Profile. The idle clocks were 1795~2194MHz on the P-Cores whereas these were 3192MHz on the E-Cores more or less. The clocks were peaking at 5.5GHz under 1T load. All cores load put these clocks to 5.2GHz. These figures confirm Intel’s clock ratings for Core Ultra 265k.

Power Draw

I am reporting the system-wide power draw here. This power draw is not comparable with any other system and it only tells you the relevant power usage given this particular configuration. The four categories are:

• System Idle Power
• System Gaming Load Power
• System Power with Single-Core Load
• System Power with Multi-Core Load

I did not observe any power peak or abnormal behavior from this motherboard.

Thermals

Testing was done at an ambient temperature of 27ᵒC. The CPU was idling at 34ᵒC and the graphics card was idling at 40ᵒC. Under load, the CPU was doing 79ᵒC whereas the GPU was doing 80ᵒC.

Should You Buy It?

Buy It If

✅You want to experience Intel’s latest platform: ASRock has got you covered for a variety of B860 motherboards. The Steel Legend stands out with a good feature set justifying this price tag.

✅You prefer gaming without a hiccup: The ASRock B860 Steel Legend has a PCIe Gen5x16 slot wired to the CPU socket. It also has an M.2 Gen5x4 slot.

✅Value is your thing: This motherboard retails at USD 200 making it a true value addition for most of the needs.

Buy It If

❌You already have a Z690/Z790 motherboard: I would not upgrade if I am on an Intel 13th or 14th gen platform.

Final Words

ASRock B860 Steel Legend WiFi is a mainstream motherboard that is tank-built and carries a value-orient well-balanced feature set. This motherboard is powered by an Intel LGA1851 socket and B860 Chipset. This motherboard comes with 3x PCIe Slots out of which one is already used for the WiFi module. It has PCIe Gen5 connectivity as well.

The storage solution consists of 4x SATA ports and 4x M.2 ports. The topmost M.2 port is rated at PCIe Gen5x4 whereas two slots are PCIe Gen4x4. The one port is PCIe Gen4x2. Only the top slot has a tool-less cover.

The motherboard packs 19 USB ports including a Thunderbolt port and a USB 3.2 20Gbps port. The Thunderbolt 4 port on the rear panel uses USB 4 tunneling and it provides PD charging of 15W. It can also be used for display purposes.

This motherboard features a 14+1+1+1 power delivery mechanism which is beefier than the MSI motherboards. The cooling department is strong as well with 8x fan headers, adequate heatsink covers, and thermal pads. ASRock has paid attention to this department in a better way.

ASRock has dropped WiFi 7 in favor of WiFi 6E hence bringing the cost down. This board has a 2.5Gbps LAN port. MSI game is strong in this department but then the price is high as well on MSI.

The BIOS interface is the same as I have seen on other ASRock motherboards. Speaking of audio, ASRock has provided RealTek ALC1220 codec which is better than ALC897 on MSI. Overall performance of this motherboard is good.

ASRock has managed to provide a better feature set in a reduced price bracket without much of a compromise compared to the MSI counterpart. The DDR5 frequency of up to 8666MHz (OC) is quite good. SOC Overclocking and Flash BIOS on the rear IO are among the features. ASRock offers a 3-year warranty on this motherboard.