The ASRock Phantom Gaming B850 RIPTIDE Offers More Than You’d Expect For $220
More Options Than An X870, If You Ignore USB4
The greatest rival of AMD’s X870 chipset is their own B850 chipset, which tends to offer a very similar est of features at a significantly lower price. ASRock’s Phantom Gaming B850 RIPTIDE WiFi is a perfect example, as the only thing it doesn’t have is a USB4 port. It does feature four M.2 ports, one of which is PCIe 5.0, and four SATA 6 ports which mean this B850 offers more storage flexibility than most X870 board. The 14+2+1 Smart Power Phase design offers 80A, so you aren’t losing out on power delivery and the eight layers of copper inlay in the PCB mean the board is very sturdy.
The FPS Review really couldn’t find anything to dislike about this board apart from the lack of USB4, the benchmarks from this board match the performance of the X870 Steel Legend and it does so at a significantly lower cost. Check out the Phantom Gaming B850 RIPTIDE WiFi in detail here.
With the release of the B850 chipset motherboards comes the plan to allow entry or upgrade to socket AM5 at an affordable price without sacrificing form or (much) function.
