Blackfire Posted March 20, 2023 Posted March 20, 2023 And now for something different. Budget tier motherboards can look a bit same-same, with black on black or black with highlights being dominant. The ASRock B760M Sonic WiFi(opens in new tab) definitely bucks this trend. It's still a motherboard, but it's a Sonic the Hedgehog motherboard! And I love it. As a young lad, my earliest gaming experiences included sitting in front of the TV playing games on the Sega Mega Drive, or Genesis to our North American readers. The graphics and gameplay of the very first Sonic the Hedgehog game back in 1991 amazed me, and Sonic nostalgia holds a special place in my heart. In recent times, ASRock hasn't been afraid to step outside of the box when it comes to its motherboard designs. The Z790 Live Mixer(opens in new tab) being a good example of this. But as we all know, looks are only a small part of what makes a good motherboard. It can be plated in 24 carat gold but if it's got a junk BIOS it'll be a gold-plated paperweight The B760M PG Sonic WiFi belongs to ASRock's Phantom Gaming sub brand. It's an affordable B760 motherboard at $189(opens in new tab) / £166 / AU$349. That puts it up against some strong competition, including well-regarded and po[CENSORED]r options including the MSI B760 Tomahawk and B760M Aorus Elite. Notably, the B760M Sonic is priced below entry level Z790 boards, unless you can find one on special. If you're unsure about the B760 chipset, why should you consider a B760 board over an entry level Z790? Apart from Intel's lock on CPU overclocking, the major difference between the two is the CPU to chipset DMI link speed. In the case of Z790, this link is an x8 link, whereas B760 has an x4 link. This means B760 will generally have a lesser I/O with fewer SATA and USB ports or fewer M.2 slots. B760 allows you to run fast memory, which removes one of the historically major Z series selling points. If you run a single GPU and an SSD or two, and don't need a dozen or more USB ports, the chances are a good quality B760 board will suit you just fine. The Sonic branding is everywhere. There's a large blue Sonic stencil on the rear of the board and even the BIOS has a Sonic blue theme. The heatsinks have a brushed metal look and you get a line of RGBs underneath the bottom M.2 heatsink. Overall, I really like it. There's a definitely retro vibe to it. Credit to ASRock's design team. Socket: Intel LGA 1700 CPU compatibility: Intel 12th & 13th Gen desktop processors Form factor: Micro ATX Memory support: DDR5-7200+(OC), Up to 192GB Storage: 3x M.2, 4x SATA USB: Up to 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 6x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 6x USB 2.0 Display: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DP 1.4 Networking: Realtek 2.5G LAN, Wi-Fi 6E Audio: Realtek ALC897 Price: $189(opens in new tab) / £166 (opens in new tab)/ AU$349 The board has a good selection of onboard ports and headers. There are four RGB headers, three of which are addressable, six fan/pump headers and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C header. The onboard WiFi is provided by an M.2 WiFi module. It looks a bit out of place but in almost all cases it will be covered by a graphics card, so it's not an issue really. https://www.pcgamer.com/asrock-b760m-pg-sonic-wifi/
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