The AB350 Gaming K4 is a gaming orientated AMD motherboard featuring the more affordable B350 chipset. Alongside the dedicated gaming features, ASRock also afford an additional M.2 slot.
Product on Review: AB350 Gaming K4
Manufacturer & Sponsor: ASRock
Street Price: £100.99 GBP / $105 USD
This motherboard represents ASRock’s B350 gaming motherboard and competes against the likes of the MSI TOMAHAWK B350, and the GIGABYTE AB350 Gaming 3. The B350 chipset is an interesting inception, as it allows gamers to create a powerful system at a lower cost when compared to the X370 motherboards. The primary differences between the chipsets are: four fewer USB 3.1 Gen1, 2x SATA3 ports fewer, and no SLI support. With that in mind, if you don’t plan on running a home server, or running more than one NVIDIA graphics card, a budget conscious gamer may want to consider a B350 motherboard.
Amongst the trademark ‘Super Alloy’ technologies (thicker gold contacts on the DIMMs, steel slot, high density glass fabric PCB, 2oz copper PCB, and more), we can find some similarities between the Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 and the GIGABYTE AB350 Gaming 3. For example, they both feature 6x SATA3 ports which is an additional two over what the chipset affords natively. To draw upon more comparisons, like on the TOMAHAWK B350, ASRock has given this board additional attention to the audio circuitry, featuring an isolated audio PCB, with dedicated PCBs for left/right audio channels, premium audio capacitors, and premium audio software (Sound Blaster Cinema 3). Another universal feature we noted is that each of these three examples only feature red LED lighting, and they have red coloured accents on the motherboard itself to varying degrees. Though what helps differentiate the ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 from the others is the inclusion of an additional M.2 slot. Though the additional M.2 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3_3 port, this isn’t a huge problem considering ASRock have included an additional 2x SATA ports anyway.
About ASRock
ASRock Inc. is established in 2002, specialized in the field of motherboards. ASRock strives to build up its own brand. With the 3C design concept, “Creativity, Consideration, Cost-effectiveness”, the company explores the limit of motherboards manufacturing while paying attention on the eco issue at the same time, developing products with the consideration of eco-friendly concept.
ASRock has been growing fast and become world third largest motherboard brand with headquarter in Taipei, Taiwan and branches in Europe and the USA. The young and vibrant company targets from mainstream to enthusiast MB segments for different kinds of users, owning reputation around the world market with its reliability and proficiency.
ASRock has been growing fast and become world third largest motherboard brand with headquarter in Taipei, Taiwan and branches in Europe and the USA. The young and vibrant company targets from mainstream to enthusiast MB segments for different kinds of users, owning reputation around the world market with its reliability and proficiency.
Technical Specifications
Gaming Armor
Memory
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
Audio
– Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 3
Unique Feature
ASRock Super Alloy
– Premium Power Choke
– Matte Black PCB
– High Density Glass Fabric PCB
– 2oz Copper PCB
ASRock Steel Slots
ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4)
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
ASRock Live Update & APP Shop
CPU
– Supports AMD Socket AM4 A-Series APUs (Bristol Ridge) and Ryzen Series CPUs (Summit Ridge)
– Digi Power design
– 9 Power Phase design
– Supports 95W Air Cooling
Chipset
– AMD Promontory B350
Memory
– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs support DDR4 3200+(OC)/2933(OC)/2667/2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD 7th Gen A-Series APUs support DDR4 2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB**
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
BIOS
– 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support
– Supports “Plug and Play”
– ACPI 5.1 compliance wake up events
– Supports jumperfree
– SMBIOS 2.3 support
– DRAM Voltage multi-adjustment
Graphics
– Integrated AMD Radeon™ R-Series Graphics in A-series APU*
– DirectX 12, Pixel Shader 5.0
– Max. shared memory 2GB
– Three graphics output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI
– Supports Triple Monitor
– Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 24Hz / (3840×2160) @ 30Hz
– Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports HDCP with DVI-D and HDMI Ports
– Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) playback with DVI-D and HDMI Ports
*Actual support may vary by CPU
Audio
– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec)*
– Premium Blu-ray Audio support
– Supports Surge Protection
– ELNA Audio Caps
– PCB Isolate Shielding
– Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel
– Supports Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 3
*To configure 7.1 CH HD Audio, it is required to use an HD front panel audio module and enable the multi-channel audio feature through the audio driver.
LAN
– PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Realtek RTL8111GR
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
– Supports LAN Cable Detection
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE
Slots[b/]
AMD Ryzen series CPUs
– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x16 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE4))*
AMD 7th A-Series APUs
– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (single at x8 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x2 (PCIE4))*
– 4 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slots
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™**
*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.
**This feature is only supported with Ryzen Series CPUs (Summit Ridge).
Storage
– 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug*
– 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Ryzen Series CPU) or Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s) (with A-Series APU)**
– 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module**
*M2_2 and SATA3_3 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the other one will be disabled.
**If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.
Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
Connector
– 1 x COM Port Header
– 1 x TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 1 x RGB LED Header*
– 1 x AMD Fan LED Header
– 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)**
– 3 x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)***
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.0 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
*Supports up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip
**The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.
***CHA_FAN2 and CHA_FAN3 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
Rear Panel I/O
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)* 1 x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0) is included
– 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C Port (Supports ESD Protection)
– 5 x USB 3.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Software and UEFI
Software
– ASRock F-Stream
– ASRock RGB LED
– ASRock Key Master
– ASRock APP Charger
– ASRock XFast LAN*
UEFI
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash
– ASRock Internet Flash
– ASRock Crashless BIOS
– ASRock Easy RAID Installer
*These utilities can be downloaded from ASRock Live Update & APP Shop.
Support CD
– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar
Accessories
– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 2 x SATA Data Cables
– 2 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
Hardware Monitor
– CPU/Chassis temperature sensing
– CPU/Chassis Fan Tachometer
– CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan
– CPU/Chassis Fan multi-speed control
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, Vcore
Form Factor
– ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 8.8-in, 30.5 cm x 22.4 cm
– Solid Capacitor design
Memory
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
Audio
– Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 3
Unique Feature
ASRock Super Alloy
– Premium Power Choke
– Matte Black PCB
– High Density Glass Fabric PCB
– 2oz Copper PCB
ASRock Steel Slots
ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4)
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
ASRock Live Update & APP Shop
CPU
– Supports AMD Socket AM4 A-Series APUs (Bristol Ridge) and Ryzen Series CPUs (Summit Ridge)
– Digi Power design
– 9 Power Phase design
– Supports 95W Air Cooling
Chipset
– AMD Promontory B350
Memory
– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs support DDR4 3200+(OC)/2933(OC)/2667/2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD 7th Gen A-Series APUs support DDR4 2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB**
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
BIOS
– 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support
– Supports “Plug and Play”
– ACPI 5.1 compliance wake up events
– Supports jumperfree
– SMBIOS 2.3 support
– DRAM Voltage multi-adjustment
Graphics
– Integrated AMD Radeon™ R-Series Graphics in A-series APU*
– DirectX 12, Pixel Shader 5.0
– Max. shared memory 2GB
– Three graphics output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI
– Supports Triple Monitor
– Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 24Hz / (3840×2160) @ 30Hz
– Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports HDCP with DVI-D and HDMI Ports
– Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) playback with DVI-D and HDMI Ports
*Actual support may vary by CPU
Audio
– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec)*
– Premium Blu-ray Audio support
– Supports Surge Protection
– ELNA Audio Caps
– PCB Isolate Shielding
– Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel
– Supports Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 3
*To configure 7.1 CH HD Audio, it is required to use an HD front panel audio module and enable the multi-channel audio feature through the audio driver.
LAN
– PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Realtek RTL8111GR
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
– Supports LAN Cable Detection
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE
Slots[b/]
AMD Ryzen series CPUs
– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x16 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE4))*
AMD 7th A-Series APUs
– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (single at x8 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x2 (PCIE4))*
– 4 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slots
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™**
*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.
**This feature is only supported with Ryzen Series CPUs (Summit Ridge).
Storage
– 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug*
– 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Ryzen Series CPU) or Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s) (with A-Series APU)**
– 1 x M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module**
*M2_2 and SATA3_3 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the other one will be disabled.
**If M2_1 is occupied, PCIE4 will be disabled.
Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
Connector
– 1 x COM Port Header
– 1 x TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 1 x RGB LED Header*
– 1 x AMD Fan LED Header
– 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)**
– 3 x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)***
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.0 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
*Supports up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip
**The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.
***CHA_FAN2 and CHA_FAN3 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
Rear Panel I/O
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)* 1 x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0) is included
– 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C Port (Supports ESD Protection)
– 5 x USB 3.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Software and UEFI
Software
– ASRock F-Stream
– ASRock RGB LED
– ASRock Key Master
– ASRock APP Charger
– ASRock XFast LAN*
UEFI
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash
– ASRock Internet Flash
– ASRock Crashless BIOS
– ASRock Easy RAID Installer
*These utilities can be downloaded from ASRock Live Update & APP Shop.
Support CD
– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar
Accessories
– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 2 x SATA Data Cables
– 2 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
Hardware Monitor
– CPU/Chassis temperature sensing
– CPU/Chassis Fan Tachometer
– CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan
– CPU/Chassis Fan multi-speed control
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, Vcore
Form Factor
– ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 8.8-in, 30.5 cm x 22.4 cm
– Solid Capacitor design
Packaging, Bundle & First Look
The outer packing features a large red G (for Gaming) on black, in keeping with the long standing theme with the Fatal1ty branding.
The reverse side gives information about the various key features as well as the specification and an overview of the rear IO.
Included in the accessories we fine the manual, quick start guide, some SATA cables, 2x M.2 screws, the driver disc, and the rear IO plate.
The ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 features a matte black PCB with red heatsinks and some red decals indicating the placement of the M.2 slots. There is a PCIe x1 separating the primary PCIe x16 slot and the cooler. There is a triple slot spacing between each of the PCIe x16 lanes, which will make life easier should you wish to use CrossfireX.
Closer Look
ASRock has powered the CPU socket via an 8 + 1 power phase delivery, where each choke is capable of handling a loading of 42A. In practical terms, no CPU is likely ever to draw that much, but should help with keeping temperatures low. On the right there is a single 4pin CPU fan header, capable of delivering 1A of power.
The DIMMs feature an extra thick layer of gold to ensure a long lasting, high quality connection between the motherboard and your memory. On the left you will see the additional 2x SATA3 ports, a USB 3.1 Gen1 header, while on the far right there are a pair of RGB LED headers, one for the AMD CPU Fan, another for an RGB LED strip.
The ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 is the first B350 gaming motherboard we have seen to feature more than 2x SATA3 ports at a right angle.
The bottom right section features2x USB 2.0 headers, a Clear CMOS jumper, 2x 4pin fan headers, and the front panel connectors. Here we also find the SATA3 M.2_2 slot, which supports SSDs up to 110mm long.
At the bottom left, we find the HD audio front panel header, TPM header, and the COM header. Moving up the left side we see the ELNA audio capacitors flanking the ALC 892 codec.
The M.2_1 slot, when populated will disable the PCIe x1_4 slot (the very bottom), and is compatible with M.2 SSDs up to 80mm in length.
The rear input/output affords: a universal PS/2, 2x USB 2.0 (the top one is the Fatal1ty mouse port), followed by D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI 1.4a, (which means it will support triple monitors via APU), USB 3.1 Type A, USB 3.1 Type C, (ASRock gives no indication if these are Gen 1 or Gen 2), 4x USB 3.1 Gen1, followed by stereo out, microphone in, and line in audio ports.
Test Setup & Overclocking
Test SetupCPU AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
Cooling Noctua U12S
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4
Memory 2x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz @ 2666MHz
Graphics AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
Storage Corsair Force LE 480GB
PSU Corsair RM750X 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Cooling Noctua U12S
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4
Memory 2x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz @ 2666MHz
Graphics AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
Storage Corsair Force LE 480GB
PSU Corsair RM750X 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
Other Software
Temperature Analysis: Aida64 & Ryzen Master
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Performance Monitoring: MSI Afterburner
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Performance Monitoring: MSI Afterburner
Software
As an overview to some of the latest software supplied by ASRock to support their motherboards, we look at the F-Stream app, which acts as a system management and tweaker app, while the RGB app is sleek, easy to use and understand. The chipset LED lighting is limited to red which looks nice if that is your intention, otherwise you can turn the LED lighting off, or use the RGB function via the RGB LED header.
BIOS
ASRock Fatal1ty UEFI BIOS is is a high-res GUI that is easy to understand and navigate. We didn’t experience any lag, or delay while moving between tabs either via keyboard or mouse. The OC Tweaker tab features all the useful options for a quick and easy overclock in one location. Though we found that we couldn’t alter the memory timings without enabling XMP which felt rather odd. Though for this reason we didn’t set the memory to run at our default settings. This wouldn’t normally be a problem (and is still achievable, but is strange not to give access to memory timings without having to enable XMP.
Overclocking
The AB350 Gaming K4 allows for a reasonable overclock over stock settings, but didn’t quite hit the top frequencies we have seen on the various X370 motherboards. Despite whatever voltage we tried, we couldn’t get over 4GHz bench-stable. We ended up finding 3.9GHz using a little over 1.43V.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z270 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but we believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Benchmarks: POV-RAY
Persistence of Vision Raytracer’s PovRay is a free and open source 3D animator application with versions for computers with different operating systems.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
Benchmarks: TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a discontinued source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or encrypt a partition or (under Microsoft Windows except Windows 8 with GPT) the entire storage device (pre-boot authentication).
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product PageThis simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8
PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8 Photoshop
The PCMark 8 Applications benchmark measures system performance using popular applications from the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. You can choose which tests to run based on the applications installed on your system. Each test automatically steps through a series of actions such as opening, editing and saving a file. The results are used to calculate the PCMark 8 Applications scores for the system.
Benchmarks: 3DMark
3DMark FireStrike Product PageFire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
VR Performance – VRMark
VRMark Product PageVRMark includes two VR benchmark tests that run on your monitor, no headset required, or on a connected HMD. At the end of each test, you’ll see whether your PC is VR ready, and if not, how far it falls short.
Gaming Performance – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two recent gaming titles.
Conclusion
We have looked at a fair number of B350 motherboards now and each offer their own little party piece, and the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 is no exception. It is made using premium components, and has a plethora of features that keep it competitive against the alternatives. Some of the key features that we liked, aside from the additional M.2 slot, is that it features 3x video outputs, and it has a total of 8 USB ports immediately available at the rear, which is the most we have currently seen on a B350 based motherboard.
The most annoying factors we would like to note is the non-standard ATX size, and that the PCB is very flexible. This means that when installed in a chassis, there will be an overhang around the memory slots/ATX 24pin slot. So care should be taken to ensure while pushing memory/24pin ATX power cable.
If we were consider some of the features more realistically, aside from the Fatal1ty Mouse Port, much of the ‘Gamer’ specific features are naturally occurring (such as VR support via USB 3.1 ports). The rest of the gaming features are left to software/apps such as the ‘Sniper, and Master key’, enabling a sniper mode for your mouse, and macros on your keyboard. Then, when considering the audio solution, why not use the ALC 1220? What happened to the 8 channel audio ports? If we were to consider it logically, surely gamers would benefit more from a fast Intel LAN? Why no onboard RGB LED lighting (only red)? Why colour the PCB with red? Well, it could be that this board is pretty much identical to the somewhat cheaper AB350 Pro4, so gamers may need to decide if a few bonus utilities/apps are worth the additional cost.
All things considered, The AB350 Gaming K4 is an attractive motherboard that has been made to be stable and durable, however, aside from the additional M.2 slot, it is rather uninspiring as a gaming motherboard, feeling more like a mainstream solution capable of proving gamers with a little extra.
ASRock give users a greater focus on storage options with an additional pair of SATA3 ports as well as an additional M.2 slot. Great for an affordable all round solution.
Pros
+ Good layout
+ Enhanced audio solution
+ ‘Super Alloy’ features
+ 2x M.2 socket (1x 32Gb/s, 1x SATA3)
+ Additional 2x SATA ports
+ RGB LED header
+ Three video-out: HDMI, DVI-D, D-Sub
Neutral
+- Neutral colouring would be preferred
+- non-standard ATX size
+- Requires audio header expansion for 7.1 audio
+- Would have preferred Intel LAN
+- Seems like ASRock are confused over whether they offer USB 3.1 Gen2 or not.
Cons
– Overly flexible PCB
+ Good layout
+ Enhanced audio solution
+ ‘Super Alloy’ features
+ 2x M.2 socket (1x 32Gb/s, 1x SATA3)
+ Additional 2x SATA ports
+ RGB LED header
+ Three video-out: HDMI, DVI-D, D-Sub
Neutral
+- Neutral colouring would be preferred
+- non-standard ATX size
+- Requires audio header expansion for 7.1 audio
+- Would have preferred Intel LAN
+- Seems like ASRock are confused over whether they offer USB 3.1 Gen2 or not.
Cons
– Overly flexible PCB
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