Introduction
Some headline features of AMD's current platform are usually only found on its X870 and higher chipsets apart
from some pricier B850 options, so it's no surprise that those in need of guaranteed added bandwidth, USB4,
Wi-Fi 7, alongside PCIe Gen 5 SSD and GPU support under one roof, turn to its more premium chipsets. That
comes with added costs, but ASRock's X870 Challenger Wi-Fi aims to buck that trend in a big way, costing just
$170.
This is one of the cheapest motherboards we've reviewed for AMD's 800-series chipsets period, never mind it
also offering the benefits of X870. Yet ASRock has also made a good-looking product given the price and one
that has plenty of M.2 heatsinks, decent-looking VRM cooling and enough features to keep your typical
enthusiast happy.
Of course there will always be cutbacks when it comes to aiming for ultra-low price points, so it's these as
well as the general performance of the motherboard that we'll be focusing on here to see if the X870
Challenger Wi-Fi is a bargain or if the cuts have gone a little too far.
Specifications
| Specifications
|
| CPU Support:
| AMD Socket AM5 Ryzen 7000, 9000
|
| Power Design:
| CPU Power: 16-phase/Vishay SiC661/80 A SOC Power: 2-phase/Vishay SiC661/80 A MISC Power:
1-phase/Vishay SiC661/80 A
|
| Chipset:
| AMD X870
|
| Integrated Graphics:
| Supported 2× DisplayPort 1.4 via Type-C Alt Mode 1× HDMI 2.1
|
| Memory:
| 4× DIMM, Support up to 256 GB DDR5-8200 (OC)
|
| BIOS:
| 512 Mbit (64 MB) AMI UEFI
|
| Expansion Slots:
| 1× PCIe Gen 5 x16 slot (x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4, x4/x4/x4/x4) 1× PCIe Gen 3 x16 slot (x2)
|
| Storage:
| 2× SATA 6 Gb/s 1× M.2 (PCIe Gen 5 x4) 2× M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x4) 1× M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x2)
|
| Networking:
| 1× Realtek RTL8125 2.5 Gbps Ethernet 1× Wi-Fi 7
|
| Rear Ports:
| BIOS Flashback button 1× 2.5 Gbps Ethernet 1× HDMI 2.1 2× USB4 40 Gbps (Type-C)
2× USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps (Type-A) 1× USB 3.0 (Type-A) 4× USB 2.0 (Type-A) 2× Wi-Fi
antenna connectors 3× Audio jacks
|
| Audio:
| 1× Realtek ALC897 Codec
|
| Fan / Thermistor headers:
| 6× 4-pin/0× 2-pin
|
| Form Factor:
| ATX Form Factor 12.0 × 10.5 in./30.5 × 24.4 cm
|
| Exclusive Features:
|
- M.2 Heatsink Tool-less Design
- Lighting Gaming Ports
|