The Best B560 Motherboard

The ASUS TUF Gaming B560M-PLUS motherboard has a very impressive loadout for a smaller form factor design. The required PCIe 4.0 x16 is there for you to plug your GPU into, and few would need more than this, particularly if you’re looking for a smaller PC build – if you’re looking for an SLI rig, then look elsewhere. The 6x SATA ports should be more than ample and Thunderbolt support alongside HDMI and DisplayPort is a welcome addition.

In terms of M.2 slots there is unfortunately only a grand total of two: one PCIe 4.0 and one PCIe 3.0, which may be too much of a drawback for those looking to operate multiple SSDs, but isn’t surprising for this size of board. The single USB 3.2 Type-C port is only Gen1 unfortunately, but besides this the USB port coverage is impressive for a smaller board.

The biggest two advantages of this board are the Wi-Fi support, and in particular the great 5000MHz RAM speed capacity, which gives the 4x DDR4 128GB DIMM slots maximum ceiling for memory overclocking. A superb B560 Micro ATX motherboard!

The pièce de résistance of the MSI MAG B560 Torpedo ATX motherboard is the two lots of PCIe 4.0 x16 slots it comes with, either of which can be fitted with a state-of-the-art graphics card (or both if you’re planning on a dual GPU SLI build). Besides this larger size Gen 4 slot, there is also a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for any other expansions or smaller cards you may wish to add, such as dedicated sound cards, capture cards for streamers, or even a further USB expansion.

On that latter point however, the MAG B560 TORPEDO is already well covered with a great array of USB sockets, including two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, six USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and four of the older USB 2.0 type. Besides the ports and slot the most impressive thing about the motherboard is the 5033MHz maximum clock speed available for the RAM, which makes it the second fastest board on this page in this department.

Ultimately, the only real downside of this beastly board is the price tag, which some mid-range builders may find slightly more than they’re happy with paying for.

The ASRock B560 Steel Legend has a relatively simple design, as you’d expect for a motherboard of this price. The PCB of the board is colored black while the heatsinks have a grey houndstooth effect which may not be to everyone’s tastes, but is relatively non-garish.

Whilst VRMs are a relative weak spot of ASRock motherboards, unless you’re overclocking your CPU, something the B560 is incapable of, this isn’t an issue. One area you can overclock however is the RAM speed, and for that this board offers excellent coverage, up to 48000MHz.

Although there is only one PCIe 4.0 slot for graphics cards this won’t be an issue for 90% of users, who are unlikely to be running a dual GPU setup. The single M.2 PCIe 4.0 slot could ideally have been accompanied by a second, but you at least get 2x PCIe 3.0 slots to play with.

Besides this you get all the ports and sockets you’d expect, including four DIMM slots for up to 128BG of DDR4 RAM, six SATA ports, plenty of USB slots, a DisplayPort and an HDMI socket, and a legacy PS/2 socket. The lack of Wi-Fi is probably the thing which will turn off the most people about the board, but if this isn’t a problem for you, then all things considered, it offers great bang for your buck!

Another B560 board from ASRock, this one is very similar to the above Steel Legend board, the only two differences being the VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) and the available USB ports, for all other specifications, please see the above review to get an idea of what your money would buy you.

There are actually two more USB ports on this cheaper PRO4 board than on its more expensive brethren, and an additional four USB 2.0 slots, however it only has one USB 3.2 Type-C Gen1 port, in contrast to the Steel Legion’s two USB 3.2 Type-C Gen2 ports. How important this is largely down to your personal needs!

Ultimately the 8 Phase Power Design of this cheaper board (in contrast to the 10 Phase Dr.MOS Power Design of the Steel Legend) means that if you’re planning on running an 8 core i7-10700 for example, which can use up to 200W power when pushed to the max, you’d be better off going with the Steel Legend. For any CPU with fewer cores than this, such as the 6 core Intel Core i5-10600K or the Intel Core i7-8700K, then the ASRock B560 PRO4 4DDR4 LGA1200 is your best option if you want to save money that you can contribute towards other components.

This Gigabyte B560 Aorus Pro AX has the highest max RAM speed (5333MHz) of any motherboard on this page, from an already impressive array.

The single PCIe 4.0 x16 gives you all the speed you’ll need to make the most out of your GPU, though if you want a dual GPU SLI setup you’ll need to look elsewhere. The PCIe 3.0 x4 and PCIe 3.0 x1 give plenty of options if you want to install a dedicated sound card, capture card, or additional port connectors on top of the impressive existing amount.

Despite all these features though, ultimately the question needs to be asked as to why is this motherboard would be worth your consideration, given its high cost (over $200 at the time of writing). As discussed above, B560 motherboards are ideal for those looking for an affordable but powerful mid-range build, but spending this kind of money would only really be justifiable if you were going for high end enthusiast build and overclocking your CPU, in which case you’d be better off with an AMD CPU and a X570 motherboard, or at least a Z590 motherboard if you want to go Intel.