High-end motherboards get an outsize share of the attention when it comes to reviews, but midrange platforms like Asrock’s B460 Steel Legend ($119.99) play an important role in the market. B460 is Intel’s chipset for mainstream PC upgraders and builders on the 10th Generation CPU family, and these boards are available at significantly lower prices than the flagship Z490-based models. And some, like this one, manage to look similar to their high-end counterparts, which matters if you’re putting together a high-visibility PC on a budget. Though the ATX-size Steel Legend does have a few issues that we can live with, it has plenty to offer PC gamers and build enthusiasts on tight budgets looking to assemble a cost-effective Intel 10th Generation desktop.
The Design: Digital Pixel Warrior
The B460 Steel Legend comes decorated with a camouflage aesthetic that’s a mixture of white, gray, and black. Far from helping the board to blend into the background, this actually helps the board to stand out in a windowed PC chassis. Though it’s not the only board we’ve seen with this kind of digital-camouflage PCB pattern, the Asrock manages to present its own look and feel.
This is further accentuated by the motherboard’s right edge, which has a notch in the middle and RGB LEDs that run the board’s full length. These lights illuminate the words “Steel Legend” and a logo on one of the heatsinks.
The board is equipped with steel heatsinks that sit over the VRMs and chipset; they also cover two M.2 Key M slots. These aren’t on par with what you would find on a high-end board, and neither is the Steel Legend’s nine-phase power design, but they don’t have to be. The board doesn’t support overclocking, but can handle power-hungry CPUs such as the Intel Core i9-10900K. Additional phases and cooling might be beneficial for the board’s long-term health when used with a top-end processor, but they aren’t really necessary when running at stock speeds, and it’s not very likely that motherboard buyers in this price range would choose such a premium CPU. We could see lots of these being paired with $150-to-$200 Core i5s.
A Brief Look at the Audio, Networking, and I/O
Asrock chose Realtek’s ALC1200 audio codec for the B460 Steel Legend. Information about this chip is thin, but it appears to be a slightly lower-end variant of the widely used Realtek ALC1220. According to Asrock’s product page for the Steel Legend, the ALC1200 has a signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of 110dB, 10dB lower than the ALC1220. It’s paired with a differential amplifier to help boost audio performance.
The market is transitioning away from single-gigabit Ethernet controllers, with 2.5Gbps chips like Realtek’s RTL8125BG becoming an increasingly common sight in midrange and high-end motherboards. Its use here gives the B460 Steel Legend a distinct advantage over lower-end boards that continue to use 1Gbps solutions.
The Steel Legend doesn’t have a built-in Wi-Fi chip, but it has a M.2 Key E slot for adding one at a later date. It also has cutouts in the rear I/O panel for routing two antennas to the case’s exterior, which is a useful design choice that OEMs often overlook when not including Wi-Fi functionality as standard.
The I/O panel itself offers six USB ports, an HDMI port, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, five audio jacks, and an S/PDIF connector. There’s also the usual RJ-45 Ethernet jack and a legacy PS/2 connector for antique keyboards and mice. Four of the USB ports follow the USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) standard; three are Type-A ports and one is a Type-C port. The last two USB ports are retro USB 2.0, though I don’t consider this problematic as you don’t need higher data transfer rates for keyboards and mice or their wireless dongles. Overall, the rear I/O panel feels a bit limited, but as this is a budget-oriented board, it does the job.
As for the Steel Legend’s RAM support, you get four DIMM slots for DDR4 modules, operating at up to 2,933MHz. The slots support modules up to 32GB for a lusty total of up to 128GB across the four slots. Note, however, that the peak memory speed of 2,933MHz works with only a Core i9 or Core i7 CPU installed; the speed ceiling is 2,666MHz with Core i5 and lesser 10th Generation chips.
The Building Experience
Speaking of retro, Asrock built the B460 Steel Legend with a detachable rear I/O faceplate that needs to be inserted into the case before the motherboard—in other words, the classic style of doing things. Not long ago, virtually every board shipped like this, but I haven’t seen it often in recent reviews; most boards nowadays have the rear I/O panel faceplate attached to the board right out of the box. This makes the building process easier, so I’m not surprised it’s become popular.
Still, building the Steel Legend into a case isn’t difficult. Inserting the rear I/O panel plate takes an extra minute, but you get that time back because the board doesn’t require a screw in the upper right corner to attach it to the case. Attaching all the cables is also easier than on many high-end boards I’ve tested. This is because the heatsinks on the VRMs are smaller, which may be a bit less effective for cooling but is great for trying to fit your hand between them to plug in a cable.
A Brief Look at the BIOS
The B460 Steel Legend review unit I received shipped with BIOS version 1.1, which acted buggy out of the box. At first, I actually thought the board was DOA, as I couldn’t get anything onscreen despite trying three graphics cards. Eventually, I was able to get into the BIOS using my Core i9 CPU’s integrated graphics, but this also only worked on the first boot after resetting the BIOS using a jumper. After exiting the BIOS, I had to reset the BIOS once again to get the board to POST again.
Upgrading the system to BIOS version 1.5 resolved this issue and enabled me to successfully reach the BIOS on every boot with either the integrated graphics or a discrete GPU. I noticed one issue after the upgrade, but it was relatively minor: The system kept sporadically opening the interface to set the date and time in the BIOS. I’m not sure why this was happening, but I could back out of this menu and use the BIOS normally until it happened again. As far as problems go, this one was just a small nuisance.
As for the BIOS user interface itself, it’s similar to that of many other recent Asrock motherboards. The board initially boots into an Easy Mode BIOS with options for changing the boot priority, flashing the BIOS, enabling or disabling RAID, or checking system temps. There’s also a switch at the top for turning on and off the RGB LEDs. The Easy Mode lacks an option for setting the memory profile, though, which I view as an important thing to have control of up front.
If you prefer, the board can be configured to boot straight into the advanced BIOS menu instead. The main page of this menu is plain, but there’s an option to enter the My Favorites menu from here, which can hold any controls you want.
The generously named OC Tweaker page isn’t really meant for overclocking—you get options to set the memory profile and overclock the RAM, but there aren’t any for overclocking the CPU itself. As this is a B460 chipset, it’s not surprising that you can’t overclock by raising the core multiplier, but typically you still can overclock by adjusting the base clock. That option is also missing here, however.
What’s strange about this is that the description and info on the side of the screen mentions overclocking and the BCLK on some of the other options. This gives the BIOS a feeling of being cobbled together by removing options from a BIOS originally designed for a higher-end motherboard—which is probably the case.
The rest of the BIOS is essentially what you’d expect, with options to adjust more basic parameters like the SATA settings and USB options.
The Software Set
Asrock includes the same set of software utilities with the B460 Steel Legend that it ships with most of its midrange and high-end motherboards. Some of these, such as the free Norton Security trial, aren’t particularly useful unless you’re considering buying that software. The App Shop may be useful, as it can check for driver updates, but otherwise it’s not particularly valuable either.
By contrast, you’ll probably want to install Asrock’s Motherboard Utility and Polychrome RGB apps. The first can display the vital info on the system’s hardware. The Polychrome RGB software, meanwhile, controls the color and behavior of any LEDs connected to the system that support the Polychrome control spec. Without it, the lights will typically execute a predefined multicolor pattern, so it’s not crucially important. But it’s handy if you’re dead-set on controlling your PC’s aesthetic to that level.
Verdict: A Value Legend, a Steel Steal?
Asrock’s B460 Steel Legend has a lot to offer for its $119.99 price. It’s stable—or at least it is after you install the BIOS update—and it has a relatively strong feature set including 2.5Gbps wired Internet support. Even after the update the BIOS is unimpressive, however, and it’s fairly simple without BCLK overclocking options.
Then again, you go with the B460 chipset for that very reason—overclocking is not important to you. Overall, there’s not much to complain about, and the Steel Legend has a noticeably more premium look than the similarly priced Gigabyte B460 HD3. It’s a good go-to option in this price range.
