ASRock has announced its B850 Challenger, offering gamers a mid-range motherboard solution outfitted with many of the latest features. Available in black or white, this board blends gamer styling with a simple and well-thought-out layout, allowing you to use all the mod cons without difficulty. At first glance, it’s clear the brand paid attention to detail, ensuring each colour variant includes colour-matching slots and headers.
Based on AMD’s B850 chipset, Challenger has all you need for a potent gaming PC. Despite targeting the mid-range, it offers the latest connectivity and hardware support. Starting with the heart of the machine, we have compatibility with all AM5 processors, including the gaming king Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Thanks to its 12+2+1 Dr MOS VRM design, the B850 Challenger will handle even 16-core Ryzens with ease. And in case you plan to delve into overclocking, the power system comes equipped with a large cooling heatsink to keep heat at bay.
Thanks to its eight-layer PCB, the B850 Challenger boasts high-memory overclocking, with ASRock advertising support for up to DDR5-8000 (OC) memory, be it using manual OC, EXPO, or XMP profiles. Those who prefer capacity over speed can also enjoy up to 256GB by filling all four DIMM slots.
B850 Challenger’s strong points don’t stop here. The board also features the latest PCIe 5.0 for graphics and Gen 5 M.2 for storage, allowing you to push any existing hardware to its limit. To be exact, you get access to one PCIe 5.0 x16, one PCIe 4.0 x4, two PCIe 4.0 x1, one Gen 5 M.2, plus one Gen 4 M.2. As usual, the main M.2 slot comes equipped with the brand’s toolless heatsink, though we would have preferred to see an extra slot instead of the x1 PCIe slots. Even so, the combo on hand is more than sufficient for most users.
Now, while fast slots are nice to have, being able to use them at the same time is better. And for that, ASRock did a great job. The main M.2 slot has been shifted to the top, making it accessible even when a graphics card is installed. The secondary PCIe slots have been pushed as far as possible from the main x16 slot, allowing you to install even four-slot graphics cards without blocking the x4 slot. Lastly, the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card is detachable, giving you the option to upgrade down the line.
Moving to I/O, we find one HDMI 2.1, four USB 2.0, two USB 3.2 5Gb/s, one USB 3.2 10Gb/s, one USB 3.2 10Gb/s Type-C, two USB 3.2 Lightning for gaming peripherals, three 3.5mm audio jacks, 2.5GbE LAN, plus a handy BIOS flashback button. On the wireless side, we even get the latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
Everything the doctor ordered? Well, not quite, as ASRock hasn’t yet shared pricing or release dates for the B850 Challenger series. We expect the boards to arrive soon, and knowing the company’s aggressive pricing when it comes to the mid-range, we anticipate pricing to be below $200/£200.
