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Nauman Siddique

At Tech4Gamers, I take on the role of Hardware Reviewer with pride. My responsibilities involve a thorough examination of essential hardware components like motherboards, graphics cards, processors, PC cases, and CPU coolers, among others, focusing on their complexities and functionalities.

 

 

 

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We have been testing AMD’s latest B850 chipset motherboards for the last couple of days, and today is the ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi motherboard’s turn. The LiveMixer monicker motherboards by ASRock are generally targeted toward content creators, offering more expansion slots and connectivity options. With an MSRP of $190 USD, I expect the motherboard to live up to its name.

Key Takeaways

• The ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi is designed for content creators on a modest budget. It includes 23 USB ports and three PCIe slots and provides amazing audio for streamers.
• It’s a great choice for content creators and streamers who plug in multiple devices and need greater connectivity.
• It’s better to stay away if you need more HDDs, as this board only supports two hard drives.

Here are the motherboard’s on-paper specifications:

A quick specifications overview shows why the LiveMixer motherboards are for content creators. The motherboard has 23 USB ports and three PCIe slots, more than the usual number, which makes me look forward to its actual performance. I would have really appreciated a better LAN config for a content creator-focused board.

Packaging & Unboxing

We see a simplistic box packaging on the B850 LiveMixer with an image of the motherboard residing inside, the “LiveMixer” branding, and some curved line pattern designs in blue. 

The front packaging has a few certified tags at the bottom, such as HDMI support, WiFi 7, Polychrome Sync, and “AMD Ryzen 9000 Desktop Ready”. Overall, it’s an okay-ish design with little going on for the packaging.

Here’s what you can find alongside the motherboard:

• 2x SATA data cables
• 2x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6GHz antennas
• 1x thermistor cable
• 1x user manual
• 1x regulatory notice

ASRock provides a few things in the accessories, most of which won’t be that useful, like the WiFi antennas. The thermistor cable is handy for checking the temperatures of your preferred PC components, so I recommend you install it by checking out the user manual. You won’t need the antennas if you plan on utilizing WiFi 7.

Design

Right out of the box, you see a mixed-colored motherboard with a fully-black PCB and silver-colored heatsinks with a reflective metallic finish. The heatsink design includes a grayish curvey line pattern with the “LiveMixer” branding on the I/O and BIOS heatsinks. There’s no RGB, but that’s nothing to hassle for. Overall, I like the motherboard’s design.

A closer look at the motherboard design

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The motherboard has an 8-layer PCB structure, making it perfect for content creation. You can play around with your overclocks without facing instability issues with the higher-end PCBs. I expect lower temperatures on the VRMs because of the heatsinks, which should help with manual tweaking. The voltage output should be stable because of the 8-layer PCB, so there aren’t any worries on that end.

According to the block diagram provided by ASRock, the CPU powers the PCIe1 Gen 5.0 x16 slot, the M2_1 (PCIe Gen5x4) and the M2_2 (PCIe Gen4x4) slots. Similarly, the CPU powers the 4x DIMM slots, the super I/O controller (SIO NCT6686D), and a few USB ports. The chipset powers the PCIe2 Gen 4.0 x4, PCIe3 Gen 4.0 x4 (x16) slot, the M2_3 (PCIe Gen4x4) slot, the audio codec, and the rest of the USB ports.

Power Delivery System

The close-up images show the AM5 LGA1718 socket, which powers AMD’s latest CPUs. The motherboard houses 14+2+1-phase VRMs with 80A Dr.MOS SPS for VCore and SOC. With a total of 1,120A of power, you can easily overclock and power any high-end AMD CPU you wish without problems. However, I wouldn’t recommend diving into extreme overclocking with this chipset.

Upon closer inspection, the ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi utilizes 1000uF capacitors, rated for 20K capacitance, providing up to 20,000 hours of life. We also saw these capacitors in the Phantom Gaming B850 Riptide WiFi motherboard.

We see an 8-pin 12V connector with a separate 4-pin 12V connector. These connectors utilize ASRock’s Hi-Density Power features, which help increase their ability to withstand higher currents for CPU overclocking.

The heatsinks show a vertical-stacked fin design for optimal cooling of the I/O ports and the VRMs. The silver design on both heatsinks looks pretty decent, along with the grayish curved lines going through the I/O heatsink.

DIMM Slots

We see support for 4x DIMM slots, which is standard for an ATX motherboard. You can install up to 256GB of DDR5 RAM at 8,000MHz frequency speeds. Support for Intel XMP and AMD EXPO RAM kits makes transitioning from an all-Intel build to an all-AMD build easier.

PCIe Slots

We see a total of three PCIe slots on the motherboard. The PCIe1 Gen 5.0 x16 is for the graphics card and has the EZ latch feature to easily install and remove the GPU without any hassles. Aside from that, we have two additional PCIe slots, making this motherboard stand out for content creators.

The PCIe2 and PCIe3 support Gen 4.0 x16, making them perfect for installing any expansion card. This includes sound cards, M.2 expansion cards, network cards, or USB expansion cards. There are no caveats, so it’s suggested that you go all out and utilize these PCIe slots for maximum productivity.

Storage

This motherboard has three M.2 slots, with the M2_1 supporting PCIe Gen5x4 for ultra-fast read/write speeds. The M2_2 and M2_3 are PCIe Gen4x4. In addition to the M.2s, the motherboard supports two SATA drives. I would have preferred three or more SATA drives, but that shouldn’t be much of an issue.

The SATA devices support RAID 0 and RAID 1, while the M.2 drives support RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10. To enable RAID 10, you’ll need an additional M.2 NVMe expansion card.

It’s good to see all three M.2 drives have heatsinks, and the PCIe Gen5x4 slot has an EZ release mechanism to quickly install the drive. We see an anti-drop screw feature on the PCIe Gen4x4 heatsink, so you won’t have to worry about dropping your screws anymore.

Here are the M.2 types the motherboard supports:

• M2_1, M2_2: 2280
• M2_3: 2230/2242/2260/2280

Two heatsinks cover three M.2 drives, with the bottom longer one covering both the PCIe Gen4x4 drives. It’s nice to see priority being given to storage cooling, especially with high-quality heatsinks. Here’s an image of the M.2 drives with the heatsinks removed:

The M2_1 has a double-sided thermal pad on the heatsink, while the M2_2 and M2_3 only have one. I don’t expect there to be any issues, so you shouldn’t worry about temperatures at greater loads.

USB Connectivity

The ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi motherboard has a total of 23x USB ports:

• 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (Rear)
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear)
• 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (Rear)
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Front)
• 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (Front)
• 8x USB 2.0 (Rear)
• 4x USB 2.0 (Front)

The USB connectivity is another clear indication of why this motherboard is geared toward content creators. Except for USB 4.0, there are 23 USB ports, including a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port at the front. I have absolutely zero complaints about the USB connectivity on this board.

Network & Connectivity

It’s sad to see a 2.5G LAN network on a motherboard for content creators, but besides that, the WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity options are pretty decent. ASRock has provided support for Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which helps reduce latency and improve internet speed by enabling the simultaneous use of multiple bands and channels.

Audio Solution

This motherboard supports the Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, which is the best option for mid-range PC builds that focus on streaming and content creation. The ALC1220 is only slightly lower quality than the ALC4082, so you shouldn’t have any issues with audio quality. It also supports Steelseries’ Nahimic Audio software, which will help clear out murky audio while improving noise suppression and echo cancellation.

Separate PCBs are used for the right and left audio channels, which results in higher audio output. The impedance sensing on the rear audio output is a great feature for eliminating lousy, echoey audio.

Editor`s Note

Along with the greater audio output, the motherboard also supports multiple streaming devices like the AverMedia GC553, GC573, Bu113, GC311, GC570, GC570D, and Elgato HD60 S+. Using any of these devices will help improve your streaming quality exponentially.

– Nauman Siddique

Internal Connectors And Components

Here is a short list of all the connectors found on the motherboard:

• 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 AIO pump fan connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
• 1x 24-pin ATX 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 Gen2x2 header (20Gb/s)

In addition to the 8-pin and 4-pin 12V connectors, the 24-pin ATX connector has ASRock’s Hi-Power Density feature, which ensures stable voltage output during transient spikes and manual overclocks. We also see a few fan connectors on top of the DIMM slots, which is standard.

The motherboard features the Nuvoton NCT6686D super I/O controller to monitor the voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds across the motherboard. It’s an advanced super I/O controller, so you should be fine if you plan on monitoring your PC’s data.

ASRock has again provided us with the Post Status Checker (PSC) to easily troubleshoot any issues with the PC. Here’s what the four colors highlight:

• Solid Red: Indicates the CPU is dysfunctional
• Solid Yellow: Highlights an issue with the DRAM
• Solid White: Indicates the GPU is dysfunctional
• Solid Yellow-Green: Shows a problem with the boot device

The PSC lights will not light up when your PC is functioning and booting up properly. Similarly, the lights will not turn off until the issue has been resolved.

Heatsinks Removed

Here’s a top-down image of the motherboard after removing all of its heatsinks.

Rear I/O Shield Panel

Here are all the connections provided on the rear I/O shield panel:

• 2x antenna ports
• 1x HDMI port
• 1x DisplayPort 1.4
• 1x optical SPDIF outport
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port (10Gb/s)
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A port (10Gb/s)
• 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports
• 8x 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)

The rear I/O shield panel has many USB connectors, including 8 USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 3.2 Gen2 ports (one type-C and the other type-A), and 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. I like the BIOS flashback button, which helps simplify troubleshooting, even for beginners.

To use the BIOS flashback button, plug a USB drive with the latest BIOS installed into the BIOS flashback port. Press and hold the flashback button for three seconds, and you’ll see the LED start blinking. Once the blinking stops, your BIOS has been updated. In case the LED turns to a solid green color, which indicates an error with the BIOS flashback.

Test Bench

Here’s the test bench I used to test the motherboard on:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16C/32T
• ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 Liquid CPU Cooler
• G. Skill Trident Z5 Royal NEO DDR5-8000 CL36 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

Let’s see how the motherboard performed in synthetic tests:

The ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi is on the lower end of the Blender 4.0.2 test, taking 53 seconds to complete the render.

The Cinebench 2024 scores are also a letdown. The score difference isn’t too vast, so you won’t see much performance decrease.

The Corona 11 tests are also a dud. The B850 LiveMixer WiFi shows a 4-second difference from the first spot.

The motherboard is again in last place, scoring 21,684 in the Geekbench 6 benchmarks. The difference isn’t great, but I’d like it to perform better in synthetic tests.

The motherboard scored 48,718 points in the V-Ray test, going towards the bottom barrel once again.

Overall, I’m not too happy with the synthetic benchmarks. Given that the motherboard is targeted at content creators, I hoped to see it always in the upper half of the graphs.

Gaming Benchmarks

Let’s check whether the ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi can perform better in the gaming benchmarks:

The motherboard scores an average of 143 FPS, with a minimum of 108 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077. It’s on the bottom end, but there’s only a 1 FPS difference, so that’s fine.

We see the same pattern in the Far Cry 6 benchmarks, with the LiveMixer WiFi providing the lowest FPS.

The ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi provides the lowest FPS in the Starfield, showing no improvements from the other two games.

Overall, the FPS difference is tangible, and you will definitely not notice a lack of one or two FPS in games.

Power Consumption And VRM Temperatures

We used Cinebench 2024 to test the motherboard and the CPU’s total power consumption and temperatures. Here are the results:

The motherboard’s power consumption chart shows both sides of the spectrum. At 100% load, it uses up to 375W. However, it is lower while gaming, at 115W, and it’s the lowest of all the others while idle, at 101W.

The motherboard has okay VRM temperatures at 66°C in a stressful environment. I would have preferred lower temperatures, but it shouldn’t be an issue for most use cases.

Boot Times

Unfortunately, the motherboard also botched the boot timings, taking 24 seconds. It’s not by much, but it’s dead last nonetheless.

Should You Buy It?

Should you buy this motherboard or skip it? Here are the deciding factors:

Buy It If

✅ You need more USB ports and PCIe slots: This motherboard is perfect if you require more USB ports and PCIe slots. It comes with 23 USB ports and three PCIe slots, two of which are secondary Gen 4 x16 slots.

✅ You’re building a PC for content creation on a tighter budget: While the ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi isn’t the most affordable B850 motherboard, it does have impressive support for content creators. If you’ll be utilizing all the ports and PCIe slots, this is a decent choice.

✅ You want good audio support: This motherboard is perfect if you’re looking for a good audio codec (Realtek ALC1220) on a budget. To boost, the motherboard also provides Steelseries’ Nahimic Audio Software to help enhance the audio quality and suppress echo.

Don’t Buy It If

❌ You require the best synthetic performance: Although the board has impressive connectivity and PCIe slots, its performance in our synthetic benchmarks was just okay. I don’t recommend this motherboard if you’ll be spending a lot of time on productivity software.

❌ You want to install more HDDs: In case you want to install more than two HDDs, I don’t recommend this motherboard because, unfortunately, it only supports up to two HDDs and three M.2 drives.

My Thoughts

The ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi motherboard is catered for content creators and streamers who are on a slightly tighter budget. With a $190 USD MSRP, the motherboard adds decent features that are noteworthy of praise. For example, the motherboard has a 14+2+1 VRM phase with 1000uF Dr.MOS 80A capacitors, rated for 20K capacitance, ensuring stable voltage.

The main USPs of this motherboard are its 23x USB ports and 3x PCIe slots. You also get a front USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port for ultra-fast connectivity. Two of the PCIe slots are Gen4 x 16 for expansion cards. The three M.2 slots are notable, as well. M2_1 is a PCIe Gen5x4 slot, and M2_2 and M2_3 are PCIe Gen4x4 slots, providing impressive speeds.

We also witness several DIY-friendly designs. For example, an EZ latch on the PCIe1 slot to easily install and remove the graphics card. Similarly, the M2_1 heatsink has a quick release mechanism, streamlining the entire installation process. The M2_2 and M2_3 heatsink features an anti-drop screw design to ensure your screws never go missing in your chassis again.

We’re not too happy with the 2.5G LAN network, especially because this motherboard is catered for content creators, but the WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 features are noteworthy. Additionally, support for multiple streaming devices like the AverMedia GC553, GC573, Bu113, GC311, GC570, GC570D, and Elgato HD60 S+ is a remarkable feature.

The motherboard has a unique design, featuring silver-accented heatsinks on a fully black PCB. The grayish curves on the heatsinks help stylize the motherboard. Some RGB would have been good, but it’s fine as is.

Overall, the motherboard is pretty good for content creators or streamers looking to build a PC within $1,000 to $1,200. The synthetic and gaming performance isn’t this board’s strong suit, but if you’re looking for a decent value product with lots of USB ports and better connectivity, I recommend buying it.