You're getting a good deal with this motherboard and I have very few issues with it. The only thing I must mention: After using it for my PC, the chassis fans wouldn't go any lower than max speed. I spent a full day doing research until I found a little forum which said that the bottom fan header (cha_fan2) couldn't control the fan speeds of the case fans (I was using SP120s), this happened to be the header I was using. Instead, you'll have to use the awkwardly placed main fan header (cha_fan1) which is situated on the middle of the board, in order to control fan speeds. I suggest using a splitter or extension cable in order to make cable manage that slightest bit nicer.Apart from this slight hiccup, no other problems. When I plugged in the Case's USB3 Cable into ... MoreYou're getting a good deal with this motherboard and I have very few issues with it. The only thing I must mention: After using it for my PC, the chassis fans wouldn't go any lower than max speed. I spent a full day doing research until I found a little forum which said that the bottom fan header (cha_fan2) couldn't control the fan speeds of the case fans (I was using SP120s), this happened to be the header I was using. Instead, you'll have to use the awkwardly placed main fan header (cha_fan1) which is situated on the middle of the board, in order to control fan speeds. I suggest using a splitter or extension cable in order to make cable manage that slightest bit nicer.Apart from this slight hiccup, no other problems. When I plugged in the Case's USB3 Cable into it, though, it didn't feel right, so I unplugged it to find a bent pin which stopped one of the USB 3 ports working. This was most probably my fault though and nothing to do with Asrock. Ah well, great little budget motherboard nevertheless, especially since it has two M.2 slots!

A Lot of Compromises for a Budget-Friendly Mobo

If you are a seasoned PC builder and has a bunch of PC spare parts at home, there's not a lot of risk working with this motherboard. It has enough features that will satisfy the basic builds. For a hobbyist (like me), this motherboard has a lot of shortcomings. This becomes a real problem when you don't have a lot of spare parts lying around to troubleshoot if issues arise. Let me count the ways: - it has no on-board diagnostics. no digit display, no LEDs, NO SPEAKER. what does this mean? A successful post has no indication at all! this is a huge problem if you run into issues, which I did. if the PC doesn't start, you don't have any indication as it could be the CPU, memory, PSU, GPU or the Mobo itself. - In my case the problem is the memory, which brings the next ... MoreIf you are a seasoned PC builder and has a bunch of PC spare parts at home, there's not a lot of risk working with this motherboard. It has enough features that will satisfy the basic builds. For a hobbyist (like me), this motherboard has a lot of shortcomings. This becomes a real problem when you don't have a lot of spare parts lying around to troubleshoot if issues arise. Let me count the ways: - it has no on-board diagnostics. no digit display, no LEDs, NO SPEAKER. what does this mean? A successful post has no indication at all! this is a huge problem if you run into issues, which I did. if the PC doesn't start, you don't have any indication as it could be the CPU, memory, PSU, GPU or the Mobo itself. - In my case the problem is the memory, which brings the next issue: the latches are on ONE SIDE ONLY, I do not understand this cost-cutting measure. it makes installation of memory modules a real pain. - Display POST (and BIOS) is only supported on the installed GPU. you cannot use the on-board video outputs if you're not using a AGPU. Lastly, I don't know if this is common across all OEMs, but even though it has 4 memory slots, only 2 of them can support 3200 speeds, which is nonsense...you can't use all 4 slots and run at full 3200 speeds. Might as well just have 2 slots. So all in all, while it could be a solid board once put together, I dread the day of troubleshooting if i run into issues or if I have to upgrade this. Definitely not recommended for any beginners.

A bit flakey

After I installed the board in my case I fired it up with a single DDR4 3200 stick in the first RAM slot next to the CPU. Of course by default it ran at the default DDR4 speed, I believe 2133MHz or so. But in the BIOS is recognized the correct speed of the RAM in the single XMP profile. But whenever I tried to choose that speed the system would reboot a couple of times and finally boot to the low default speed again. I tinkered with the setting in the BIOS a fair bit and was able to get the RAM up to 2800 MHz, but I've had this stick in a couple of other systems and it never had a problem running the the XMP profile speed. So I put the stick in the next slot over and chose the XMP profile, and now everything is ducky. Not a huge deal, but still a PITA and not the ... MoreAfter I installed the board in my case I fired it up with a single DDR4 3200 stick in the first RAM slot next to the CPU. Of course by default it ran at the default DDR4 speed, I believe 2133MHz or so. But in the BIOS is recognized the correct speed of the RAM in the single XMP profile. But whenever I tried to choose that speed the system would reboot a couple of times and finally boot to the low default speed again. I tinkered with the setting in the BIOS a fair bit and was able to get the RAM up to 2800 MHz, but I've had this stick in a couple of other systems and it never had a problem running the the XMP profile speed. So I put the stick in the next slot over and chose the XMP profile, and now everything is ducky. Not a huge deal, but still a PITA and not the easy experience I'd had with my ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 or my MSI B450-A PRO. But recently I got a 128GB M.2 SSD and put it in the first M.2 slot. It wasn't recognized by the BIOS or by the Debian on my 120GB SSD. Simply wasn't there, even when I unplugged all the SATA cables. So I put the drive in the second M.2 slot, and it booted up fine, but my 2.5" 120GB SSD was gone, because I had it plugged into the third SATA port on the board. This was expected because using the second M.2 slot disables the 3rd SATA port. I switched the 2.5" drive over to another SATA port and everything booted normally. But this was very disappointing, one reason I bought this board was because I wanted to be able to run 5 drives, 4xSATA and 1xM.2, which should be possible. I would have preferred a board with 6 SATA ports, but I was trying to keep the price down, and boards with that feature tend to be pretty spendy. This isn't enough to get me to RMA the board, but I wouldn't recommend it to a friend either.

Bad VRMs, USB issues (AMD issue?) -- avoid this model if you're using more than a 6-core SKU

I have had nothing but a headache working with this motherboard. I have owned both revisions, and both had their issues. This revision seems to have better memory stability than the original revision, potentially due to the additional VSoC VRM. However, if your AMD processor has a bunk IMC, as many do (AMD's silicon is extremely hit-or-miss, so many issues with Ryzen despite its popularity), then no amount of voltage stability from the board is going to save you from having crashing, reboots, etc. This board had terrible USB disconnect issues with my Ryzen 7 3700x. This is probably mostly AMD's fault, as moving to a new board only partially resolved the issue. The main issue I had with this board was that the front panel USB headers kept dropping my external hard ... MoreI have had nothing but a headache working with this motherboard. I have owned both revisions, and both had their issues. This revision seems to have better memory stability than the original revision, potentially due to the additional VSoC VRM. However, if your AMD processor has a bunk IMC, as many do (AMD's silicon is extremely hit-or-miss, so many issues with Ryzen despite its popularity), then no amount of voltage stability from the board is going to save you from having crashing, reboots, etc. This board had terrible USB disconnect issues with my Ryzen 7 3700x. This is probably mostly AMD's fault, as moving to a new board only partially resolved the issue. The main issue I had with this board was that the front panel USB headers kept dropping my external hard drives. Moving to an MSI board fixed the issue, but I still have dropping out of USB while playing games, even from the motherboard rear ports. Seems the disconnect issue is primarily a silicon issue, and is exacerbated by a bad board. If you really want to avoid the headache, just get an Intel chip and board. Ryzen is not stable.

Excellent, excellent board - especially given the price.

I was worried when I first bought this board, as my planned build was a little atypical. I'm using 4x8GB sticks of RAM, which I have heard Ryzen doesn't like particularly (I'm using a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU), plus, I was using G. Skill Aegis 3000 Mhz RAM, which isn't on the Motherboard's QVL, and some have reported problems using it on AMD machines. However, I put everything together, along with my RX 5700 GPU, and it fired right up. Took just a few seconds to get into the bios. I made a couple of adjustments, saved and exited, and it booted straight into Windows. No muss, no fuss. After installing the chipset and video drivers, I booted into BIOS again, turned on XMP to run my RAM at the full 3000 Mhz, and everything worked perfectly. Stress tested on Prime95 with no ... MoreI was worried when I first bought this board, as my planned build was a little atypical. I'm using 4x8GB sticks of RAM, which I have heard Ryzen doesn't like particularly (I'm using a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU), plus, I was using G. Skill Aegis 3000 Mhz RAM, which isn't on the Motherboard's QVL, and some have reported problems using it on AMD machines. However, I put everything together, along with my RX 5700 GPU, and it fired right up. Took just a few seconds to get into the bios. I made a couple of adjustments, saved and exited, and it booted straight into Windows. No muss, no fuss. After installing the chipset and video drivers, I booted into BIOS again, turned on XMP to run my RAM at the full 3000 Mhz, and everything worked perfectly. Stress tested on Prime95 with no hiccups. I couldn't have asked for an easier, better build. If you are a super-serious tweaker/overclocker, there may not be enough here to keep you happy, but for the 95% of us that just want a competent, stable rig, with some modest overclocking, this board is a great option!

Great value option for parts bin build.

I built a lot of AsRock mini-ITX based PCs. Two X470 Gaming-ITX/ac Three B450 Gaming-ITX/ac One B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax One A520M-ITX/ac I had almost enough left over parts to build another computer, and I wanted another B450 Gaming-ITX/ac, but they disappeared from the market some time ago. They have Intel-based network chip and I like mini-ITX. Problem with B550 & A520 is that they don't support older AM4 CPUs, and A520 also doesn't let you overclock or even underclock properly. I don't understand this arbitrary decision by AMD. X570 supports all of them, but I don't want to spend that kind of money. This was the cheapest reasonable option that would work with my older AM4 CPU (R7-2700), so I went for it. I had to buy another case because the extra one I had ... MoreI built a lot of AsRock mini-ITX based PCs. Two X470 Gaming-ITX/ac Three B450 Gaming-ITX/ac One B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax One A520M-ITX/ac I had almost enough left over parts to build another computer, and I wanted another B450 Gaming-ITX/ac, but they disappeared from the market some time ago. They have Intel-based network chip and I like mini-ITX. Problem with B550 & A520 is that they don't support older AM4 CPUs, and A520 also doesn't let you overclock or even underclock properly. I don't understand this arbitrary decision by AMD. X570 supports all of them, but I don't want to spend that kind of money. This was the cheapest reasonable option that would work with my older AM4 CPU (R7-2700), so I went for it. I had to buy another case because the extra one I had was for mini-ITX only. All in all, I can't complain about the motherboard, especially given the low price. It came loaded with the latest BIOS (5.40 / AGESA 1.2.0.6b as of today), and even though AsRock site warns you about using older CPU with newer BIOS, I never had a problem with that, even on other boards I have. I threw in all my old parts (R7-2700, 1050Ti, two sticks of 2133MT ECC UDIMMs), old M2.SATA SSD, and lots of old 3-pin fans. Quick testing with Prime95 showed no issues. I like how the board supports speed control for older 3-pin (non-PWM) fans through voltage control. One thing I noticed is that it's a bit picky with memory speeds/timings. The same DIMMs that would run at faster speed on mini-ITX board would be unstable on this board. It's probably because all my other boards have just 2 DIMM slots, whereas this one has 4, so more traces, more noise. This is entirely as expected. On a slightly unrelated note, I had an issue at first which turned out to be dirty PCIe pins on my old 1050Ti. Wiping it with alcohol cleared that problem up. One needs to be careful of blaming innocent parts, especially when dealing with old parts-bin parts.

My 1st ASRock Build - Replace old HP MB - Success!

I usually get ASUS boards but I wanted to try ASRock and finally had my chance for a build for a family member for low end gaming PC. (no overclocking required) - AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz CPU/APU - Used QVL listed 16GB memory F4-2400C15D-16GFXR (GSkill FlareX DDR4 2400) installed on slots 2 & 4 per manual. Would have liked to get 2667MHz but the price was good for the 2400MHz at the time. - Termaltake Smart 650W 80-Plus Bronze ATX PS (I just had an extra lying around) - Reused HP Pavillon P6 Series case, perfect fit and replacement board for prior AMD CPU/APU system. I would recommend getting a modular power supply for such small cases. I was able to verify installing with Windows 10 version 18xx and using the latest AMD drivers for chipset and video resulted in ... MoreI usually get ASUS boards but I wanted to try ASRock and finally had my chance for a build for a family member for low end gaming PC. (no overclocking required) - AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz CPU/APU - Used QVL listed 16GB memory F4-2400C15D-16GFXR (GSkill FlareX DDR4 2400) installed on slots 2 & 4 per manual. Would have liked to get 2667MHz but the price was good for the 2400MHz at the time. - Termaltake Smart 650W 80-Plus Bronze ATX PS (I just had an extra lying around) - Reused HP Pavillon P6 Series case, perfect fit and replacement board for prior AMD CPU/APU system. I would recommend getting a modular power supply for such small cases. I was able to verify installing with Windows 10 version 18xx and using the latest AMD drivers for chipset and video resulted in stable operation (no BSOD's). I am very pleased with this purchase and I will be considering ASRock for future builds. Too bad 2200G/2400G did not support ECC and consumers can't get the PRO version of these CPU's from newegg. I would have likely made another purchase right away for a new workstation build with good integrated video. Changed from 3 to 5 eggs. I don't care about wifi or motherboard lighting and would prefer an add-in card for these MB features instead to reduce MB cost and so back panel space can be used to offer more USB ports.

One of the better Micro ATX motherboproviding products with many great features at a price equal to or less than their rivals. The ards for socket AM4

ASRock are well renowned for providing products with many great features at a price equal to or less than their rivals. The B450M Pro 4 (also Pro 4-F) continues with this tradition. Of the current crop of Micro ATX motherboards that support AM4 processors, THE ASRock B450M offerings provide great value and many features not found on the majority of Micro ATX AM4 motherboards which tend to be all very similar to each other or compromised. There are 2 Pro 4 versions (F and non F). The differences are minor but that should be taken into account where there is a possible choice between them. The Pro 4 is a slightly cut down version of the B450M Steel Legend that is currently at the top of ASRock's AM4 mATX range. The latest Ryzen 3000 series processors are supported ... MoreASRock are well renowned for providing products with many great features at a price equal to or less than their rivals. The B450M Pro 4 (also Pro 4-F) continues with this tradition. Of the current crop of Micro ATX motherboards that support AM4 processors, THE ASRock B450M offerings provide great value and many features not found on the majority of Micro ATX AM4 motherboards which tend to be all very similar to each other or compromised. There are 2 Pro 4 versions (F and non F). The differences are minor but that should be taken into account where there is a possible choice between them. The Pro 4 is a slightly cut down version of the B450M Steel Legend that is currently at the top of ASRock's AM4 mATX range. The latest Ryzen 3000 series processors are supported provided a newer BIOS version is present. 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen plus all current Ryzen processors with integrated graphics are supported. For your money there is AMD Crossfire support (2-way) so you could potentially run a single dual processor graphics card in the 1st slot nearest the processor OR a single processor graphics card in each slot (with a slight performance hit). NVIDIA SLI is not officially supported. Overclocking features are present in the easy to use BIOS. I was able to get a Ryzen 7 1800X to run without issue at 3.95GHz (all 8 cores) within a few mouse clicks. Fan speeds and memory overclocking options are all easily found in the BIOS. The PRO 4-F has fewer fan headers than the PRO 4 (still better than many other MATX motherboards that usually only have 2). The stand out feature of this board is that power delivery components have decent heat sinks including the chip that supports video out if a processor with built in graphics is installed. A USB C port can be found on the rear of the board. The various connectors on the motherboard were all laid out in good locations including side exit SATA ports. There are two M.2 connectors available. Only one can be used with an NVME board (check ASRock website). If you want fancy LEDs on the motherboard (which the Pro 4 lacks) then the Steel Legend is an alternative (PRO 4 does have 3 sets of RGB headers though). Four RAM slots are available should they be required but support is finicky when all four are populated at the same time. It should be noted that if a SATA M.2 board is installed in the 'ULTRA' slot, it will not be recognised. If the same is fitted in the other slot then SATA port 3 on the motherboard is disabled. This will limit you to 3 storage devices on the 4 SATA ports should a M.2 board be present. I would recommend this motherboard to anyone looking to fit one into a Micro ATX case. Definitely amongst the best for AM4 processors (after MSI B450M MORTAR and ASRock B450M Steel Legend).

Ram slots defective - Loose heatsinks???

Quality control seems to be lacking on these boards. Mine came with loose heatsinks and 3 out of 4 defective ram slots. Loose heatsinks... Not a hard fix, but c'mon... any inexperienced builder might just fry their motherboard if that heatsink isn't making a solid connection. (it will take time, yes. Possibly enough time to get out of the return window?) I tried multiple ram sticks (different speeds/brands) and none of them work on any slot but B2, mind you every single stick works in that slot. Luckily, with my application, I only need one ram stick. I don't have any time to loose on this, unfortunately, so I'll be keeping this board. I will certainly loose out on ever getting dual channel running. Triple check your components, ASRock. Sometimes a two week RMA is ... MoreQuality control seems to be lacking on these boards. Mine came with loose heatsinks and 3 out of 4 defective ram slots. Loose heatsinks... Not a hard fix, but c'mon... any inexperienced builder might just fry their motherboard if that heatsink isn't making a solid connection. (it will take time, yes. Possibly enough time to get out of the return window?) I tried multiple ram sticks (different speeds/brands) and none of them work on any slot but B2, mind you every single stick works in that slot. Luckily, with my application, I only need one ram stick. I don't have any time to loose on this, unfortunately, so I'll be keeping this board. I will certainly loose out on ever getting dual channel running. Triple check your components, ASRock. Sometimes a two week RMA is out of the question. (I suppose if all ram slots were defective I'd have no choice, lol)

Solid board with one weird quirk

I realize most people won't be affected by this, and the majority of my issues are with bad drivers for the 2400G iGPU, but the lack of showing POST over VGA has been the mud icing on a dirt cake. All of my other computers running Linux have absolutely no problem showing my native 1366x768 resolution over any connection. I'm guessing there is some issue with the iGPU where it refuses to use that resolution over HDMI or DVI. Even manually editing it in and selecting it just causes the screen to refuse it because of a resolution or refresh rate issue. This is no fault of the motherboard. The only way I can get it to work is to use a VGA cable. Mine was quite old and fiddly, so I got a new one that has no issues. Unfortunately it won't show POST, won't go into ... MoreI realize most people won't be affected by this, and the majority of my issues are with bad drivers for the 2400G iGPU, but the lack of showing POST over VGA has been the mud icing on a dirt cake. All of my other computers running Linux have absolutely no problem showing my native 1366x768 resolution over any connection. I'm guessing there is some issue with the iGPU where it refuses to use that resolution over HDMI or DVI. Even manually editing it in and selecting it just causes the screen to refuse it because of a resolution or refresh rate issue. This is no fault of the motherboard. The only way I can get it to work is to use a VGA cable. Mine was quite old and fiddly, so I got a new one that has no issues. Unfortunately it won't show POST, won't go into UEFI/BIOS, or boot up with the VGA cable connected. I'm fairly certain the machine is in fact working, and then the OS (Linux Mint, the only thing I could get to fully install) hangs on boot up. Using DVI or HDMI seems to show POST, UEFI/BIOS, and now boots without hanging using kernel 4.19RC. Then I have to get up and swap cables to the VGA if I want to run at the native resolution, otherwise text rendering looks horrific. The OS hanging and other OS issues are no fault of the motherboard. The inability to show POST over VGA is completely the fault of the motherboard! I have tried swapping out everything - cables, monitor, all hardware except the CPU/APU, broken things down to bare minimum required to POST, changed to a different monitor with VGA, changed UEFI/BIOS settings (one of which mentions a fix for monitors that don't support full HD; my screen will display full HD but text looks horrible) - all to no avail. I realize that I would probably still have to get up to swap cables and have all of my OS issues even if it did show POST over VGA, but I can't even tell exactly where it is hanging during boot. On rare occasion it manages not to hang and I am left with a 4:3 aspect ratio with no way of getting out of it, short of rebooting with HDMI. I can't leave both cables plugged in or it won't work right. If I don't swap the cables and the screen input before powering up it will not work. 99% of my problems are not caused by this motherboard. Everything about it has been great so far, except the lack of showing POST over VGA that hardly anyone uses but is critical if you are going to include a VGA connector. -1 egg.