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Worth It?
Review Summary
The ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi is a solid MicroATX motherboard for $179, offering good features like PCIe Gen5, WiFi 7, and plenty of USB ports. It supports AMD Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 CPUs and performs well in gaming. While its VRM cooling isn’t great for heavy overclocking, it’s a great pick for budget-friendly, compact builds, especially if you like its sleek white design.
Hours Tested: 7
Overall
-
Performance - 7.5/10
7.5/10
-
Features - 8/10
8/10
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Design - 8.5/10
8.5/10
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Value - 9.5/10
9.5/10
Pros
- Solid 12+2+1 VRM Design
- Excellent Value
- DDR5 Support (8000+)
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 Ports
- WiFi 7
- PCIe Gen5 Storage
- Beautiful White Design
- PCIe EZ Release
- Two SSD heatsinks
Cons
- VRMs run hot
Today, I will be reviewing another B850 motherboard, this time from ASRock. This is the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi; as you can guess from the M suffix in B850M, this is actually a MicroATX board, and Steel Legend is the brand ASRock uses for its white-themed boards. We have also tested and reviewed the ASRock B650E Steel Legend WiFi, which is the direct predecessor of this motherboard (apart from the form factor difference).
In any case, it is great to see B850 motherboards finally roll in, as we were left with just the flagship X870 and X870E chipsets for the Ryzen 9000 processor. Being more affordable and mid-range, there are definitely cut-downs, like optional USB 4, but B850 still brings USB 3.2 (20Gbps), PCIe Gen5, and OC support for both the CPU and the memory. In this review, I will go over all the features of the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi, along with its side-by-side performance comparison with other B850 motherboards.
Key Takeaways
- The ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi is a budget-friendly MicroATX motherboard with PCIe Gen5, WiFi 7, and decent performance.
- You should buy the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi if you want a white motherboard that packs all the essentials to offer a good experience.
- You should not buy the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi if you plan on overclocking as the VRMs can run a bit hot.
These are the key specifications of the motherboard:
| CPU Support | AMD Ryzen 7000, Ryzen 8000, Ryzen 9000 |
|---|---|
| Chipset | AMD B850 |
| Memory Support | DDR5 8000+ MT/s (OC), 4x DDR5 DIMM Slots, up to 256GB |
| PCIe Slots | 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| M.2 Slots | 1x PCIe 5.0 x4, 1x PCIe 4.0 x4, 1x PCIe 4.0 x2 |
| SATA Ports | 4x 6Gbps |
| Audio | Realtek® ALC1220 Codec, 7.1 CH HD Audio, Nahimic Audio |
| Network & Connectivity | 1x Dragon RTL8125BG 2.5G LAN, WiFi 7, BT 5.4 |
| USB Ports | 17 ports, including 1x USB 10Gbps Type-C (Rear), 1x USB 10Gbps Type-A (Rear), 1x USB 5Gbps Type-C (Front) |
| Video Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 |
| Form Factor | Micro ATX: 24.4 x 24.4 cm |
| MSRP | $179 |
The USB 3.2 ports, WiFi 7, BT 5.4, and Gen5 expansion are all the key improvements AMD has made with the B850 over the B650.
Packaging And Unboxing
The motherboard comes in a white cardboard box, matching the Steel Legend theme. There is a picture of the board at the box front, along with WiFi 7 and HDMI logos. At the back, you will find a lot more information about the motherboard, including its specifications, I/O overview, VRM design, and other features.
The motherboard comes with:
- 2x SATA Data Cables
- 2x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz Antennas
- 1x Thermistor Cable
- 2x Screws for M.2 Sockets
- 1x Standoff for M.2 Socket
Design
The motherboard features a beautiful white PCB with matching silver heatsinks. Speaking of which, the VRM heatsink/Rear IO cover is absolutely massive and features the Steel Legend logo with gray accents. The chipset heatsink below the DIMM slots also has some RGB elements around it.
You get a 6-layered PCB with 2oz thickened copper, which is pretty decent for a mid-range microATX motherboard.
You’re getting a Gen5 M.2 slot, a Gen5 PCIe x16 slot, and a Gen4 PCIe x4 slot from the CPU, along with two rear USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gb/s ports (Type-C and Type-A), and a rear USB 3.2 Gen1 port (5Gb/s). Moving on, the chipset, which is connected to the CPU through a PCIe x4 Gen4 BUS, offers the rest of the USB ports, M.2 slots, and the Realtek 2.5G LAN.
CPU Socket And Power Delivery
Being an AM5 motherboard, the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi uses the LGA1718 socket, as such, it supports Ryzen 7000, 8000, and the latest 9000 series processors.
For power delivery, ASRock has used a 12+2+1 (VCore+SOC+MISC) power delivery system with 12 phases dedicated to the processor; this is more than enough for even the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X, as long as you don’t plan heavy CPU overclocking.
You can power the CPU through the ATX12V1 (8-pin, 12V) and the ATX12V2 (4-pin, 12V) power connectors. They have a solid-pin design, which is better for stability.
The VRMs are cooled using a massive aluminum heatsink with a stacked design for efficient heat transfer. Flipping it over also shows the thermal pads used to fill the air gaps between the heatsink’s base and the MOSFETs.
These are some more pictures of the VRM heatsink from different angles.
DIMM Slots
As far as memory is concerned, the motherboard has 4x DIMM slots and supports DDR5 RAM with speeds north of 8000+ (OC). The total capacity is 256GB, so each slot can be populated with a 64GB kit. The board supports both AMD EXPO and Intel XMP for easy memory overclocking through the BIOS.
Storage
In total, there are three M.2 slots. The top M.2 (M.2_1) slot is ASRock’s Blazing M.2 Socket, which basically means it can run at PCIe Gen5x4 speeds (128 Gb/s). The second and third slots support PCIe Gen4x4 and PCIe Gen4x2, respectively. It should be noted that the first slot runs at its rated speeds when paired with a Ryzen 9000 or 7000 processor and turns down to Gen4x4 or Gen4x2 if you pair with a Ryzen 8000 Phoenix 1 or Phoenix 2 CPU, respectively.
Apart from that, there are also 4x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, which is fairly standard in 2025. Both the SATA and M.2 NVMe storage options support RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10, but the board requires an M.2 NVMe expansion card as an add-on to support RAID 10.
As you can probably guess by the supported speeds, the first and third slots are the way to go if you only have two drives. That’s because these are not just the fastest slots, but they also feature their dedicated aluminum heatsinks. ASRock has skipped the heatsink for the M2_2 slot, this is not necessarily bad as the slot supports Gen4x2, so the SSD shouldn’t really thermal throttle all that much.
Taking off the two heatsinks, we can also spot the thermal pads ASRock has used to keep the SSDs cool. The Blazing M.2 Socket has the most cooling, which makes sense because it supports PCIe Gen5 speeds.
PCIe Slots
You also get two PCIe slots from the CPU. The top is PCIe Gen5 which supports x16 mode, and the second is PCIe 4.0 (x4 mode). Since you’ll be using the top slot for your graphics card, ASRock has included an EZ PCIe Release button for it. This has become an industry standard as we are seeing it in pretty much every motherboard. Basically, you press this button to remove your GPU without applying any excess force, which reduces the risk of damage during installation or swapping cards.
Just like with the M.2 slots, the PCIe slot also tones down to Gen4x8 or Gen4x4 speeds if used with a Ryzen 8000 Phoenix 1 or Phoenix 2 processor, respectively.
USB Connectivity
In total, the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi supports 17 USB ports, out of which eight ports are located in the rear IO and the remaining nine ports are available through the internal headers. Here’s the full list of the included USB connectivity along with supported speeds:
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 10 Gb/s Type-C (Rear)
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 10 Gb/s Type-A (Rear)
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen1 5 GB/s Type-A (Rear)
- 1x USB 3.2 Gen1 5 GB/s Type-C (Front)
- 5x USB 3.2 Gen1 5 GB/s Type-A (1x Rear, 4x Front)
- 8x USB 2.0 480 MB/s (4 Rear, 4 Front)
Overall, for a MicroATX motherboard, the USB connectivity is quite good. I mean, I would have appreciated a SuperSpeed 10 GB/s port at the front too, since the two available are at the back, but then we are getting a Type-C port at the front, so it is alright. We know that the B850 chipset is capable of supporting up to six 10Gb/s ports and even one 20Gb/s port, so a faster port at the front isn’t asking for a lot.
Networking, Connectivity and Audio
For LAN, ASRock has used a Dragon RTL8125BG chip that supports 2.5 Gigabit LAN. There is also a WiFi 7 module installed (802.11be 2×2) in the rear IO. Lastly, the motherboard also supports Bluetooth 5.4.
Furthermore, the B850M Steel Legend WiFi supports the Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec. As such, you get support for 7.1 channel HD audio. This is a fairly decent audio codec for most usage, so you shouldn’t have any problems.
Internal Connectors And Components
The motherboard features these connectors:
- 1x SPI TPM Header
- 1x Thermistor Cable Header
- 1x Power LED and Speaker Header
- 1x RGB LED Header*
- 3x Addressable LED Headers**
- 2x CPU Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
- 3x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
- 1x 24-pin ATX Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
- 1x 8-pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
- 1x 4-pin 12V Power Connector (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 Gen1 Header
From the thermistor to RGB, fans, and USB, there are plenty of internal headers available and you shouldn’t face any issues in normal tasks. All of these headers are controlled using the Nuvoton NCT6796D-S chip.
Rear IO
We have already gone over the USB ports at the back in the USB connectivity section of the review. Apart from them, the rear IO also brings a DP 1.4, an HDMI port, a couple of WiFi antenna ports, a BIOS flashback button, and more.
Here is the full list of ports available through the rear IO:
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2 x Antenna Ports
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1x HDMI Port
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1x DisplayPort 1.4
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1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s)
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1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s)
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2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports
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4x USB 2.0 Ports
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1x RJ-45 LAN Port
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1x BIOS Flashback Button
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HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Before we head into benchmarks, here is a final look at the motherboard with VRM and M.2 heatsinks removed:
Test Setup
We have been testing a large number of B580 motherboards for the past couple of weeks, and all the options, including this B850 Steel Legend WiFi from ASRock, were tested on the same testbench for fair comparison.
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16C/32T
- ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 Liquid CPU Cooler
- G. Skill Trident Z5 Royal NEO DDR5-6000 CL28 EXPO Kit (2×16 = 32GB)
- XPG Lancer RGB 32GB 7200MHz DDR5 RAM
- Nvidia GeForce Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC
- Western Digital SN850 Black 500GB NVMe SSD [For OS]
- Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB Gen4x4 NVMe SSD [For Software]
- Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 4TB Gen4x4 NVMe SSD [For Games]
- Sabrent Rocket NANO V2 4TB Portable SSD
- Corsair HX1200i Platinum PSU
- Windows 11 Pro Build 23H2
Synthetic Benchmarks
Starting with Cinebench 2024, the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi performs fairly well. It is very near the Phantom Gaming B850M Riptide WiFi, which beats it in multi-core by just 4 points.
At a 21,691 multi-core score, this is again a pretty decent performance from a MicroATX motherboard. Just below the standard (ATX) variant of the same motherboard.
In Blender, the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi comes in at 5th position with a 52-second time. The overall difference between the boards is not much, which is very impressive.
It seems that this B850M Steel Legend is ruling the middle of the charts, as it is very neck-to-neck with the PG B850M Riptide.
Finally, here are the V-Ray results, and the ASRock B850M Steel Legend outperformed all competition coming in at fourth. This is very impressive.
Gaming Benchmarks
There is not much of a difference in gaming benchmarks across all motherboards. In any case, the B850M Steel Legend ran CP 2077 at 144 average FPS.
As for Starfield, the motherboard ran the game at 111 average FPS, which is again very similar to other motherboards.
Lastly, here is its numbers from Far Cry 6, and a similar story is shown as the board runs the game at 184 FPS.
Power Consumption, Boot Times, And VRM Temperatures
Just to recap, we are looking at a 12+2+1 VRM structure with a 6-layer PCB and one stacked VRM heatsink. Well, the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi is quite impressive, as it came in third in terms of power consumption.
The boot times are very similar to what we saw from its ATX variant with just a second of difference.
Here’s how that single heatsink is performing. Definitely not the best. To be honest, we didn’t expect any better, and since it is a mATX motherboard, you are unlikely to use it for overclocking.
Should You Buy It?
Buy It If:
✅ You want bang for the buck: Given the features, design, and overall mid-range performance (literally, as seen in the graphs), the $180 price tag on the B850M Steel Legend WiFi is quite good, making the motherboard one of the best value-oriented B850 out there.
✅ You prefer a white motherboard: The white design on the B850M Steel Legend WiFi looks simply amazing, and the chipset heatsink actually has RGB lighting beneath it, so if you’re one for good looks, this motherboard is worth considering.
✅ You are building a compact PC: Being a MicroATX motherboard, the ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi has an advantage for compact builds, and given the features and performance, it is definitely a good choice for one.
Don’t Buy It If:
❌ You want the most performance: As seen in the test results, especially productivity benchmarks and VRM thermals, the motherboard is not exactly a chart-topper, and if you want that extra bit of performance without going towards an X870/X870E chipset, there are other options to consider. Of course, they will cost you more.
My Thoughts
The ASRock B850M Steel Legend WiFi is a solid MicroATX motherboard that offers a lot for its $179 price. It works with AMD Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series processors and has a decent power delivery system with 12+2+1 power phases, so it can handle high-end CPUs. However, its VRM cooling isn’t the best, so it’s not ideal for extreme overclocking.
For connectivity, it has PCIe Gen5 support, including a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for graphics cards and an M.2 slot with Gen5 x4 speeds for super-fast SSDs. The USB options are great too, with a total of 17 ports, including fast USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C and Type-A connections.
Performance-wise, it holds up well compared to other B850 motherboards, delivering solid gaming performance and efficient power consumption. While it’s not the best choice for heavy overclocking due to its VRM cooling, that won’t matter much for most users.
In short, if you want an affordable, feature-rich MicroATX motherboard with a stylish white design, this is a great choice. But if you need top-tier performance or better cooling for overclocking, you might want to look at higher-end options. At $179, it offers a good mix of price and features, making it a strong option for mid-range, value-oriented PC builds.
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[Reviews Specialist]
Usman Saleem brings 8+ years of comprehensive PC hardware expertise to the table. His journey in the tech world has involved in-depth tech analysis and insightful PC hardware reviews, perfecting over 6+ years of dedicated work. Usman’s commitment to staying authentic and relevant in the field is underscored by many professional certifications, including a recent one in Google IT Support Specialization.
8+ years of specialized PC hardware coverage
6+ years of in-depth PC hardware analysis and reviews
Lead PC hardware expert across multiple tech journalism platforms
Certified in Google IT Support Specialization
Get In Touch: usman@tech4gamers.com
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