The ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 Motherboard Review: Dual M.2 at $90
by Gavin Bonshor on April 9, 2018 9:00 AM ESTASRock AB350 Gaming K4 Conclusion
The ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 is specifically aimed at gamers on the cheaper side of the market: those who only need a single GPU and stndard functionality. ASRock gets straight to the heart of the matter here, having a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot that is reinforced, ready to take on any triple-slot behemoth that was purchased with the $$$ saved. The key headlines about B350 boards is price: if you can forgo SLI, are happy with 'standard' audio and networking, only need four SATA ports, and don't need USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports (as in this case, but the chipset supports them), then that extra money can be focused elsewhere for a gaming build.
In regards to the performance, there wasn’t any problems or irregularities during testing and I’m more than happy with the quality and fluidity of the BIOS. It’s clear that ASRock has made the AB350 Gaming K4 for gamers wanting an affordable Ryzen based system, but without capitulating the B350 chipset with bargain basement or inadequate components. The power delivery might not be the most potent of layouts, but it was more than adequate to keep an eight-core Ryzen 7 1700 with a modest overclock without having to worry about it. This is due to the Intersil ISL95712 PWM controller, which is found on other boards including the GIGABYTE AB350 Gaming 3 ($80) and even the ASRock X370 Gaming ITX/ac ($180) motherboard. The power delivery operates in an 8+3 configuration and is complimented by Sinopower SM4336 and SM4337 MOSFETs which makes up the bulk of space in the VRM area.
The AB350 Gaming K4 has a total of four native SATA 6Gb/s ports with support for RAID 0, 1 and 10, and another two ports from an ASMedia controller. In addition to the SATA, the board has two M.2 slots, which is impressive to find on such a value focused motherboard. Of course, the caveat here is the top M.2 slot does share bandwidth with the bottom PCIe x4 slot, and the second M.2 is SATA only.
One thing I would like to see included is an easy connector for the front panel pins, as the onboard guide is not as simple as it first appears. If the user is not entirely familiar with the pin out, the manual would be a great starting point, which means digging it out of the box (and so few people look at the manual anyway). The patience of people seems to be getting thinner and thinner within the building community and time saving devices such as an easy connector could enhance the users overall experience.
The BIOS on the AB350 Gaming K4 is very intuitive to enthusiasts, and enables enough overclocking options for those with experience to get to grips. Unfortunately, for users not so confident, there are no automatic overclocking methods featured, other than XMP. This board can accommodate DDR4 RAM up to a total capacity of 64GB (four 16GB modules) with speeds supported up to a maximum of DDR4-3200. This isn’t the theoretical limit on Ryzen for memory, but this will entirely depend on the integrated memory controller of the processor.
With a focus on value, ASRock has indeed included a single USB 3.0 Type-C port, enabled by an ASMedia ASM1543 redriver, as well as five USB 3.0 Type-A ports. For users investing in the new Ryzen Raven Ridge APUs, ASRock has supplied a HDMI port, a DVI-D port and a VGA port.
Audio wise, this board has a Realtek ALC892 codec, which gives the rear panel a total of three 3.5mm jacks; the ALC892 codec doesn’t support the use of a S/PDIF output, but on a board targeted directly at budget gamers, this can be forgiven. Finishing off the rear panel is a single Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) port controlled by the Realtek RTL8111GR Gigabit controller.
The ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 has enough to make it a very worthwhile purchase for gamers with single graphics cards wanting to save a bit of money over the X370 chipset, but without sacrificing much in the way of onboard qualities. There are a few options that perhaps wouldn't go amiss, such as USB 3.1 support, but the motherboard at this price certainly has no issue keeping up in 24/7 performance with the best of them.
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coder543 - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
Isn't it strange to have a whole series of reviews planned for this generation of AMD motherboards right now? A new motherboard (and processor) generation is expected to launch within the next 2 to 3 weeks. This ASRock AB350 should be forwards compatible (with a BIOS update), but wouldn't people buying a new motherboard be better off buying one with a newer chipset from the upcoming generation?But, according to the first page of this article, there are four other motherboards from this same generation with reviews in the works. Just something I find interesting.
The_Assimilator - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
Welcome to AnandTech anno 2018 - so perpetually late with certain reviews that it's often a wonder they bother putting them up. I guess Purch, "The Future of Digital Publishing", can't afford to hire more writers (because they sure as hell can't afford editors worth a damn, as shown by the ever-increasing amount of basic grammar and spelling mistakes in the articles that do get put up).I mean, it's certainly not like Purch bought AnandTech so that they can bleed it dry, then dump it once not even its name is worth anything. Nope. Not at all.
DigitalFreak - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
I really miss Anand.close - Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - link
These days the only 2 reasons to come here are if you still have some sort of muscle memory (like going to the fridge even if you don't want anything), or pure mistake - you actually wanted ArsTechnica or something like that.Dr. Swag - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - link
ArsTechnica over Anandtech? Is that a joke? The only thing they win in is timeliness. In everything else, especially CPU and smartphone reviews, Anandtech is WAY more thorough, especially on the benchmark side of things.NesteaZen - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - link
Oh? He sold the website? I'm not an uber active anandtech readerDr. Swag - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - link
He sold it to Purch in 2014Lolimaster - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
They make a intel propaganda site, that's the goal.Ryan Smith - Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - link
If you see any errors or typos, please by all means let us know.Time is fleeting and Google cares more about who's first than who's best, so while I always strive to keep quality high, we do have to move quickly to stay relevant.
SlyNine - Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - link
"A mid-range GPU, no overclock, a discrete graphics card"Not sure if this is an error or not. But it seems a tad redundant to mention GPU and discrete graphics card.