ASRock B250M Pro4

Closer to the people

ASRock B250M Pro4 is a prime example of how innovations that were only used in flagship motherboards a year ago are gradually becoming available to mainstream and even low-cost models. So, the increase in the number of PCI-E 3.0 lines in the B270 chipset to 12 pcs (this is without processor lines) made it possible to equip the motherboard with two M.2 slots for SSD drives at once. The transition from SATA to M.2 allows not only to triple the speed of the disk subsystem (from 500 to 1500 MB / s), but also to reduce the mess of wires inside the PC case (M.2 drives are attached directly to the motherboard without any cables).

Under cover

The second innovation of ASRock B250M Pro4, as an inexpensive motherboard, is a protective cover for the rear interface panel. It is of practical use only in the case of frequent reassembly of the PC (journalists, reviewers, service centre engineers), but, of course, no one will dispute the improved aesthetics. But the heatsink on the processor power circuit, which no one except ASRock installs on low-cost and mid-price motherboards, is of the most practical use, especially when power-hungry Core i7 chips are installed.

no turns

The third innovation was the high-speed USB Type-C port, which allows you to connect external devices to your computer in any convenient direction. Finally, the fourth improvement is an increase in the frequency of DDR4 RAM from 2133 to 2400 MHz. The processor will not speed it up much, but the integrated graphics accelerator is still like - an additional 3-5 FPS in games. ASRock B250M Pro4 costs about the same as motherboards on the old B150 chipset. Moreover, if the B150 did not differ in anything important from the low-cost H110, then the advantages of the B250 are obvious. The ASRock B250M Pro4 is of greatest interest to those who decide to completely switch to M.2 drives, but do not want to spend a lot of money on a motherboard.