Asrock B365 Pro4 9th Gen Motherboard

Asrock B365 Pro4 Motherboard

The ASRock B365 Pro4 features a black and white color scheme with an abstract striped design pattern applied on the PCB and engraved into the heatsinks. The metalic heatsinks themselves have a linear brushed texture alongside various design elements. The motherboard uses the Intel B365 chipset and is aimed towards the mid-range segment of the market. The B365 Pro4 has an 8 phase VRM in a 6 + 2 configuration. The MOSFETs are manufactured by Nikos and are the PZ0903BK model for the High side and the PK6188A model for the Low side. The PWM controller is manufactured by UPI semiconductor and has the model number: uP9521P. The capacitors used on the entire motherboard except for the audio system are electrolytic, however the manufacturer is unknown at this time.

The power delivery on the CPU side is achieved through a single 8-Pin connector. As always, this connector is located on the top left corner of the motherboard. The cooling of the VRM components is done by a single metallic heatsink. While this heatsink has a larger than average surface area for cooling and fins on the sides, a second heatsink could have been used. The motherboard features 5 (five) 4-pin fan headers: starting at the top of the board, the first header is found above the PWM Controller and next to the RAM slots. The next two fan headers are located under the CPU socket and above the top M.2 SSD slot, towards the VRM heatsink. The last two headers are placed on the lower edge of the motherboard, in the center.

The upper right corner has the four memory DIMM slots that support a maximum RAM capacity of 64GB. The rated speeds available are starting at 2133MHz and go up to DDR4 2666MHz. The B365 Pro4 has a single internal USB 3.0 header, which is located under the ATX 24Pin connector and above the six SATA connectors. This header is angled vertically and is close to the edge of the motherboard to aid with the cable management. The top PCIe x16 slot is reinforced with metal, this feature is implemented to prevent any damage caused by a sagging graphics card or when the system is being moved. The rest of the PCIe slots are not reinforced.

The management of the system is done by a single SuperI/O chip located under the second PCIe x16 slot. This chip is manufactured by Nuvoton and has the model number: NCT6791D. Fortunately, this chip has been used with other motherboards and is the same SuperI/O chip that many high-end motherboards use, such as the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming X. The audio system is simple in its structure and uses the Realtek ALC892 audio chip. The filtering is done by four electrolytic capacitors manufactured by ELNA. The standard line surrounding the audio system, and isolates it from the rest of the PCB is also present on both sides of the PCB. The ASRock B365 Pro4 offers two M.2 SSD slots, one accompanied by a metallic heatsink that will passively cool the SSD once installed. A third M.2 slot is located next to the Bios battery and below the metal reinforced PCIe x16. This slot is also called M.2 E-Key and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules type 2230.

The motherboard has a total of six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four of these ports are located on the right side of the motherboard. The last two ports are found on the lower right corner of the PCB, this feature should be included in all motherboards, as it offers a good option of routing the SATA cables without interfering with other cables found on the side of the motherboard. The motherboard itself has no RGB LEDs installed. However, it does have not one, but three RGB headers installed. Two of these headers are the standard 4-pin RGB headers while the last one is a 3-pin addressable RGB header. In simple terms, you get RGB connectivity and control but no RGB illumination and integration on the actual motherboard.