The ASRock X470 Master SLI/ac was a great board but the ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 is equally good too, just cost a little bit more at RM 719 but it comes with features that separates them apart.
Now as you can see from the image above, they’re all alike (ASRock boards) when it comes to colors and design style, you’ll have to put them side by side to note the difference.
On the upper right corner, ASRock’s signature style I/O panel cover and VRM heatsinks and what’s notable about this board is that it comes with 12 phase power design with premium 45A choke.
As always the DIMM slot corner is something that’s nothing out of the ordinary. We’ll move on to the next area.
Unlike the Master model, the Gaming model here comes with POST / DEBUG LED of which I find really hand when it comes to identifying component problems.
The board comes with 2x M.2 sockets and the shorter one is at this corner, along with 6x SATA 6Gb/s ports, along with the rest of the connectors as expected.
The Ultra M.2 socket here supports up to 22110 length component and it comes with a full coverage heatsink.
2x steel reinforced PCI-E slots that supports AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI with speeds at x8 / x8 when populated with 2 cards.
As for the audio system, it uses 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec) that supports Creative Sound Blasterâ„¢ Cinema 5
As for the rear the has the following, which is inclusive of the Fatal1ty mouse port.
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 6 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)*
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone (Gold Audio Jacks)
User Experience
Being the gaming series, it’s good to see ASRock retained the usual red and black theme on the UEFI – not that it helps with the user experience in any way, I’m just happy to see it there even though the boards have totally strayed from the beautiful black and red theme.
In terms of functionality it’s plenty sufficient for any user with the option if you have intention to overclock.
The Verdict
The ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 retails at just RM 719, it’s RM 60 more than the Master model but they key difference is that this model comes with debug LED and Fatal1ty mouse port, with all else being quite equal other than the audio system. The Master model comes with Wi-Fi module right on the board.
As to which one suits you it’s entirely your call, I’m the type of user who overclocks and connects via LAN port so this model suits me better than the Master model, your requirement could be otherwise. 🙂
Do check out the official product page for details.