Listing Update...This is not so much an update as it is a brief comment about the computers and related parts I have available for sale. Personal computers (and in particular desktop computers) have always been a hobby of mine. I've enjoyed tinkering with this stuff over the years and have accumulated a number of items during this time...some new and some used. I am not an expert on the subject...more of an enthusiast...but I will still do my best to answer any questions as it relates to my computer related listings. Thank you.

Original Listing...
This offering is for a new (open box) ASRock B450M/AC R2.0 motherboard with an AMD AM4 socket and the B450 chipset. It's a micro ATX (form factor) and includes a respectable feature set. My research indicates this motherboard has a large 3 (Vcore) + 2 (Vsoc) phase VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) with decent/functional heatsinks to further aid in cooling. When I say this is a large 3 + 2 phase VRM, I mean that ASRock built this VRM with additional mosfets and chokes (or inductors) that allow for better (and cooler) power delivery to the processor. Unfortunately, ASRock advertises this motherboard (and similar models like it) as a 10 phase VRM, but this is really disingenuous on their part, as there are no "doublers" used to increase the VRM phase count from 5 to 10. Still, the added mosfets and chokes do help with power delivery capacity to the processor and make for a solid VRM at this price point. It's just not quite as good as ASRock marketing people would lead you to believe. After having said all of this (and probably coming as no surprise), there are certainly better B450 motherboards in terms of power delivery (but again...probably not at this price point). So if you want a higher end motherboard that is capable of running and overclocking Ryzen 7 or 9 processors, then I would spend more money and get a motherboard with superior power delivery. Although, if you are more interested in running a Ryzen 3 or 5 processor and prefer more of a value-priced motherboard with a respectable set of features, then this offering may be worthy of your consideration. Finally, if you really want to maximize the value of this motherboard and the large 3 + 2 phase VRM, then you could run a Ryzen 7 processor at stock speeds (so no overclocking) and still be okay...provided you have good case airflow and a decent aftermarket cooler seated over the processor.

As alluded to above, this is probably considered an entry-level B450M motherboard. Aesthetically, its mostly black with some gray accents and there are no LEDs. Although, there are one addressable RGB and two non-addressable RGB headers (four in total) on this motherboard. So this allows for the use of either 5V addressable RGB LEDs or 12V non-addressable RGB LEDs as part of any build, even though the motherboard itself does not have any such built-in lighting. I do wish there were more fan headers strategically located on the motherboard. I only see two of them. Fortunately, fans do not use a lot of power, so you can daisy chain a few of them together and then plug them all into one fan header without any problems. Finally, the ASRock B450 fan control technology either through the BIOS or software is nice. It's compatible with PWM (4-pin) fans and even DC (3-pin) fans. As most already know, the latter 3-pin fans are limited in terms of their speed control (RPMs). ASRock is able to manipulate the voltage that powers DC fans through their fan control technology to allow for some flexibility in the fan speed. This control is still not on par with PWM fans, but its better than the standard 12 volts powering DC fans that runs them wide open all the time. So again, another nice feature on an otherwise fairly basic motherboard.

Having said the above, I thought it might also be helpful if I shared a specifications sheet of sorts that provides more details....

• Chipset / Socket Type: B450 chipset that supports the AM4 processor socket and is suited for AMD first generation Ryzen 1000 series processors (Zen micro-architecture), second generation Ryzen 2000 series processors (Zen+ micro-architecture), third generation Ryzen 3000 series processors (Zen 2 micro-architecture), or fourth generation Ryzen 5000 series processors (Zen 3 micro-architecture). Regarding the latter, the retail box for this motherboard states it is compatible with the Ryzen fourth generation processors, so it's likely already had a factory BIOS update to achieve this level of compatibility.

• Size: Micro ATX form factor that measures 9.6" x 9.6"

• Memory: 128 GB (max) of DDR4 memory (4 x 288 pin slots)...dual channel supported and max clock speed of 3200 MHz

• Audio: Integrated Realtek ALC892/897 audio that supports up to 7.1 (8 channel) surround sound w/8 speakers (integrated means the sound card is built onto the motherboard)

• LAN: Integrated Realtek RTL8111H chipset w/transfer rate up to 1000 Mbps or 1.0 Gbps

• Wireless LAN (aka WiFi) and Bluetooth: Intel dual band wireless 5th generation chipset that is compatible with IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless standards running at either 2.4 GHz or 5.0 GHz. The chipset also includes built-in Bluetooth wireless technologies (version 4.2).

• Input/Output ports (rear shield): two black USB Type-A (2.0 running at 480 Mb/s), one video (HDMI), four blue USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 1 running at 5 Gb/s), one blue USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 2 running at 10 Gb/s), a RJ-45 Network (LAN) with LED indicator, blue audio input (various devices), green audio output (headphone, two-channel speakers or front speakers), pink audio input (microphone)

• Storage ports/sockets: four SATA 3.0 ports and one M.2 socket that will accommodate sizes 2242/2260/2280 (PCIe 3.0 support up to x4 lanes for SSD). Note1: performance assumes a Ryzen CPU or APU is installed on this motherboard. If an Athlon processor is installed, the performance may be less. Note2: data transfer rates are as follows...SATA 3.0 is stated at 6 Gb/s (750 MB/s, but it's actually less due to the overhead caused by the 8b/10b SATA encoding scheme. This lowers the actual transfer rate to about 80%, or 4.8 Gb/s, which when divided by 8 bits gives us 600 MB/s.), PCIe 2.0 is 4 Gb/s (500 MB/s) per lane and PCIe 3.0 is 8 Gb/s (1 GB/s) per lane. So as it relates to PCIe supported sockets, just multiply the number of lanes available by the applicable PCIe transfer rate and this will give you the theoretical maximum bandwidth for that socket (FYI: PCIe overhead is about 3%, due to a more efficient encoding scheme. So PCIe transfer rates are closer to their theoretical maximums relative to SATA transfer rates.). Note3: We generally use bits-per-second to measure transfer speeds, but bytes-per-second to measure data, because it takes 8 bits (or 1 byte) to encode a single character of text.

• Expansion slots: one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot running at x16 lanes and one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot running at x4 lanes. Note1: performance assumes a Ryzen CPU is installed on this motherboard. If a Ryzen APU or Athlon processor is installed, the performance may be less (with fewer lanes dedicated in some cases). Note2: data transfer rates are as follows...PCIe 2.0 is 4 Gb/s (500 MB/s) per lane and PCIe 3.0 is 8 Gb/s (1 GB/s) per lane. So just multiply the number of lanes available in a particular slot by the applicable PCIe transfer rate and this will give you the theoretical maximum bandwidth for that slot.

• Other: There are other available headers/connectors on the motherboard and I can try to answer related questions or refer you to the manufacturer's website for a full motherboard description.