Surely It is important to note that this card has two versions. The first one is a micro Atx with some fewer features, and the second one is an Atx. The Atx itself has 3x PCI Express x1 while the micro Atx has only one, and both have 2x PCI Express x16.

Furthermore, the Atx one has protection against excessive heating on the plug for SSD M.2 due to that slot be situated near the Graphics card backplate, as the Micro Atx version hasn’t this shield, consequently being able to overheat your SSD.

As a result the price difference between these two versions is currently twenty bucks.

Design

Talking about design now, this board lives up to its name, having a look that, in fact, simulates steel. Also, Both heatsinks of the Vrm and the chipset have a gray color. Seeking to make the board more illuminated, the ASRock B450M Steel Legend has Rgbs in the heatsink fairing and next to the chipset.

Regarding dimensions, the Atx version of this board is 14.20 x 12.00 x 3.00 inches, and the micro Atx is 12.00 x 2.50 x 9.60 inches. Also, this board has the AM4 socket compatible with the 1st and 2nd and 3rd Ryzen generation. According to AMD, there will be support for the 4th generation of Ryzen processors that is yet to be launched.

Equally important, about the Vrm circuit, this card has a pattern located in intermediate AMD plates. With 4 phases for Vcore and 2 for the sock, 3 MOSFETs per phase. Also has 4 per phase in the Vrm of the socks.

Finally, on connections, this motherboard has four slots for DDR4 ram, supporting up to 64Gb 3533Mhz (OC). Also has on the front 1 USB 3.0, four SATA ports 4Gbps. Also, this board has 2x M.2 slots, one for M.2 SATA 2280. And the other allows M.2 Ultra PCIe x4 3.0. Besides the ASRock B450 Steel legend has two video card slots. The first one has metal reinforcement, to support heavy video cards. On the back of the board, we have 8 USB ports, 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.1, and 4x USB 3.0. As for the video ports, this board counts with a Display Port, HDMI, and 7.1 audio connection.

Benchmarks

Last, tests will be done on the blender with different processors in stock and overclocked to see how long the Vrm circuit can handle at a temperature within the limit. Remembering that the acceptable degree limit is 100°.

Ryzen 5 3600 in the blender classroom reached a maximum of 54 degrees. Also, when playing, the temperature slightly reduces.

The Ryzen 7 3700x peaked at 53.2 degrees during the blender, when overclocking, it reached an incredible maximum of 80 degrees. But Playing it was in the 45° range.

With the Ryzen 7 2700x, which has a TDP of 105W, the tests were already a little alarming, raising the maximum temperature to 94.8 degrees. But, while playing games, this processor passes smoothly on average at 50 degrees. With this same overclocked processor the Vrm did not support the load. Consequently, The frequency was drastically reduced to 500mhz every 4 seconds turning off the pc. In addition, the maximum temperature in this test was 118 °, which exceeds the limit of 100°. Remembering that this is a mid-range motherboard, so be cautious overclocking.

Overview

Indeed, the ASRock B450M Steel Legend is a mid-range motherboard, due to that, try to avoid using processors that will require a lot of circuits. Or even if you intend to overclock, at least choose a Ryzen with a lower Tdp to prevent extrapolating the acceptable temperature of this motherboard.

Therefore, the processors that I would recommend you for this motherboard, in case you do not intend to overclock, are, for instance from the 2nd generation: up to the Ryzen 7 2700x. From the 3rd: up to the Ryzen 7 3600. And If you intend to overclock I would recommend the Ryzen 5 3600, or even the Ryzen 7 2700.

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