Visual inspection

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.

 

On the backside, we have the I/O panel.
The I/O panel is as follows (from left to right):
– 1x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1x D-Sub Port
– 1x DVI-D Port
– 1x HDMI Port
– 2x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C Port (Supports ESD Protection)
– 5x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone.

Related Posts

4 thoughts on “ASRock B365 Pro4

  1. I would like to know if you have any ideas about adding some sort of cooling solution where a second heatsink would normally go at a right angle to the giant vrm one. I think all I could do is some sort of stick on solution as no holes are supplied to connect any sort of aluminum block type heatsink. I find it odd that they felt it was ok to not include one on this board when it’s on every other. Can you explain what their thoughts may have been. Also what is under the smaller thinner heatsink? Not the M2 one but the other. Thanks you for the review and hopefully any help you can offer.
    Dan

    1. The best and cheapest way to provide some cooling for those VRMs is to add a small copper made heatsink that is using self adhesive thermal pads. You have plenty of choices, but make sure it is a self adhesive thermal pad or strip and not glue that you have to apply on the VRM.

      Their thoughts were simple, the motherboard was designed to be as cheap as possible for the end user, so they had to minimalize the cost of production without affecting the performance of the board.

      As for your question, if you mean the lower right heatsink, that is cooling the chipset of the motherboard.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *