Gaming On A Budget? Check Out Our Review Of The ASRock Fatal1ty B150 Gaming K4!

It has never been a more exciting time to build a new gaming PC these days. Lots of new games are coming out – including the flavor of the month Overwatch – and NVIDIA’s Pascal graphics cards are going to push the boundaries of graphics as we know it. But that new build wouldn’t be complete without moving onto the new Skylake architecture, and for consumers looking for the right amount of gaming features with the least amount of fuss, ASRock’s Fatal1ty B150 Gaming K4 motherboard might just be for them. A lesser expensive model to the Z170 Gaming K4 we reviewed last month, the B150 eschewes from the overclocking side to provide a more affordable board for the simpler man / gamer. And affordable it is: priced at about US$100 or PHP 5,500, should you be considering this Taiwanese board for your next system? Find out on our video review above or our findings below!

ASRock Fatal1ty B150 Gaming K4 – Est. US$ 99 / PHP 5,500

• ASRock Super Alloy
• Gaming Armor – Memory / VGA Card / Cooling / Internet / Audio
• Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors (Socket 1151)
• Digi Power, 10 Power Phase design
• Supports Dual Channel DDR4 2133
• 2 PCIe 3.0 x16, 3 PCIe 3.0 x1
• AMD Quad CrossFireX™
• Graphics Output Options: DVI-D, HDMI
• 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), Supports Purity Sound™ 3 & DTS Connect
• Killer™ E2400 Gigabit LAN
• 6 SATA3
• 6 USB 3.0 (2 Front, 4 Rear)
• Supports Full Spike Protection, ASRock Live Update & APP Shop, Key Master, XSplit

Test Build

• Case: NZXT S340
• PSU: Seasonic G-650 650W
• Processor: Intel Core i7 6700 + Stock Cooler
• Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B150 Gaming K4
• GPU: Palit GeForce GTX 760 JetStream 2GB
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2400mhz 2x8GB (16GB)
• Storage: Samsung 850 Evo 120GB SSD
• OS: Windows 10 Enterprise Evaluation 64-Bit

Benchmarks:

• 3DMark Fire Strike: 6,234
• Cinebench R15: 123.54 FPS (OpenGL) / 811 cb (CPU)
• League of Legends Max Settings 1080p: 164 fps (Min) / 218 fps (Ave)
• DotA 2 Max Settings 1080p: 117 fps (Min) / 120 fps (Ave)
• Overwatch High Settings 1080p: 76-80 FPS
• Long Overwatch Gaming Session Temp: 76-79 degress C

Pros:

• Killer LAN and 7.1 Surround Sound
• Good performance; same as Z170 with same config
• High quality materials & parts
• AMD Crossfire support
• Affordable Price

Cons:

• No WiFi, Bluetooth, LED lights, board buttons / displays
• Less future proof feature-set with the lack of Ultra M.2 and USB Type C
• No CPU / RAM overclocking
• No GeForce SLI support

Like the AsRock Z170 Gaming K4, the B150 looks and performs great and comes with nice gaming features. While it does lose out on Ultra M.2, overclocking, and NVIDIA SLI, most one-and-done builders wouldn’t really notice. This might even be the preferred choice for net cafes and non-tinkerers, as a system built on it wouldn’t need as much maintenance. That means if you’re looking for a gaming oriented board but don’t want the fuss of going overclockable, the AsRock Fatal1ty B150 Gaming K4 is a great choice and we give a our Good Value award.