Today, we’ll be taking a look at the ASRock H470 Steel Legend motherboard designed for everyday desktop users. This motherboard utilizes Intel’s H470 chipet and is suitable for all Intel 10th Gen (Comet Lake ) processors on their latest LGA1200 socket.
The H470 chipset is basically a cut-down version the Z490 and feature 20 x PCIe 3.0 lanes (24 lanes on the Z490), and also fewer USB 3.2 Gen2 and USB 3.2 Gen1 ports. The motherboard can only support memory speeds of up to DDR4-2933 (a limitation by the chipset), but it does comes with ASRock’s unique Base Frequency Boost (BFB) Technology, which allows users to install non-K series of Intel CPUs and enjoy the base frequency boost, giving you increased performance. And to compensate for the lack of native PCIE 4.0 support, ASRock has included an additional base clock generator to deliver PCIE 4.0 standards. However, this feature is reserved for future Intel processors and chipsets that has built-in PCIE 4.0 support. Current Comet Lake processors from Intel lacks this.
I could go on and on, and express my frustrations on Intel’s 10th Gen processors/400-series … but I’ll do that another day!
The Steel Legend series of motherboards according to ASRock represents the philosophical state of rock-solid durability and irresistible aesthetics. It’s built around most demanding specs and features, providing high quality components and materials to ensure a stable and reliable performance. These include the Aluminium alloy XXL heatsinks, Nichicon 12K black caps, 2oz Copper, premium 60A power choke, and finally the PCB is made from high density glass fabric!
The ASRock H470 Steel Legend comes with a load of nice features including the 7.1 CH HD Audio (Nahimic Audio), Dragon 2.5GB LAN, PCIE x16 Steel slots, dual M.2 slots for SSDs, and of course their Super Alloy feature and Polychrome Sync.
Take a look at Intel’s block diagram above of the H470 chipset. You’ll notice that it only offers up to 20 x PCIE 3.0 lanes (24 lanes on the Z490) and no support for PCIE 4.0. There’s no mention of support for XMP memory profiles, and the maximum speed it could support is only DDR4-2933 MHz. It does however support Wifi 6, 2.5G LAN and Optane memory.
Since the H470 chipset is designed for the average everyday desktop user, I’m not expecting any huge bells or whistles. My only main concern is the limitation of the chipset, which is clearly something that Intel needs to address.
I would like to thank ASRock for providing the review sample. This is a snippet from what ASRock has to say about themselves on their website:
ASRock Inc. is established in 2002, specialized in the field of motherboards. ASRock strives to build up its own brand. With the 3C design concept, “Creativity, Consideration, Cost-effectiveness”, the company explores the limit of motherboards manufacturing while paying attention on the eco issue at the same time, developing products with the consideration of eco-friendly concept.
ASRock has been growing fast and become world third largest motherboard brand with headquarter in Taipei, Taiwan and branches in Europe and the USA. The young and vibrant company targets from mainstream to enthusiast MB segments for different kinds of users, owning reputation around the world market with its reliability and proficiency.
We’ll be testing the motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10900K featuring 10 cores/20 threads, 16GB of Thermaltake Toughram DDR-3200, along with a Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 AMP Extreme Core. All settings will be at BIOS default, so no overclocking here.
Let’s not waste anymore time, and begin with a look at the specifications and features on the next page. You can buy the ASRock H470 Steel Legend motherboard
Related articles
- ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax Motherboard Review
- ASRock B550M Steel Legend Motherboard Review
- ASRock B550 Taichi Motherboard Review
- ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard Review
- ASRock Z490 Steel Legend Motherboard Preview
- ASRock X570 Creator Motherboard Review
- ASRock X570 Steel Legend Motherboard Review
