Some of you might be skeptical about using the B450 motherboard today in 2021. There is nothing to worry about because even if you plan to design your PC based on the Ryzen 4000 & 5000 CPUs, you will have no issues doing that.
The B450 motherboard is a sublime choice even today and can offer support for Zen 3. We have roped in the ASRock B450 Steel Legend vs Gigabyte Aorus Elite gaming motherboards for your presentation in today’s review.
Now, these brands are popular among gamers globally. You can find them giving other names like Asus, MSI, and Biostar a run for their money. ASRock is an outstanding company and no longer part of Asus.
The maker is trying its best to outrun its rival motherboards. The Steel Legend was first introduced by ASRock 2 years ago, in the month of January. They wanted to give gamers immense stability, exceptional features, and opulent design, coming at an affordable rate.
It has complete spike ESD protection that ensures the Ethernet, audio ports, and USB. This enables the unit to make use of 60A power chokes and Nichicon 12K black capacitors. It also comes with a 6-phase power design, Steel Slot, dual M.2 slots, and USB 3.1 gen 2 support.
The board is a solid option for those planning to design a new gaming PC as it comes with immense durability and irresistible aesthetics. The unit was created using the most demanding specifications and features.
The Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite gaming motherboard comes with exceptional features and visuals. You can find some of the features that you may not find in most of the B450 motherboards. It has built-in Wi-Fi and does not require an adapter for running.
That was not entirely surprising to note, as Gigabyte is known for its breathtaking products that come with performance and flair. Gamers and users are completely satisfied using the priced cheaper product than the Steel Legend and under $110.
It won’t be fair to expect too much out of a cheap unit because the board has its own drawbacks. Our tester noted that the power consumption was slightly high and overclocking speed significantly reduced when it had to push up.
Apart from that, it is a powerful unit with a fantastic layout and durable aspects. Without wasting any time, let us delve into the review between these two fabulous products. We have also given the winner at the end of the post.
 |  |
|---|---|
| ASROCK B450 STEEL LEGEND | GIGABYTE B450 AORUS ELITE |
| PROS | PROS |
| The layout of the motherboard is minimal and clean. The board comes with a robust design. It has the right kind of firmware infused in it. It has good overclocking capabilities. The unit is priced at affordable. | The board is compact everything seems fine. The unit is of good build quality. It comes infused with an exceptional BIOS version. It has incredible overclocking power. The product is priced just right for the features in it. |
| CONS | CONS |
| It’s overclocking needs to be slightly improved. | Users have claimed that it has lag often. |
ASRock B450 Steel Legend vs Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite: Features & Layout
The features & layout of both the gaming motherboards have been done exceptionally decent. The ASRock B450 Steel Legend gaming motherboard is packed nicely in a box. In the front of it, you understand some of the motherboard’s features that have been mentioned in there.
When you flip it to the other side, you can read the present features, like the I/O overview. You can also find the complete list of specifications. You have more than the required information on the unit to make a well-induced purchasing decision.
You can then notice the 2 SATA cables, quick installation guide, driver and software CD, I/O shield, software setup guide, ASRock sticker, and screws for the M.2 slots. Our tester thought that the design present on the board is not like your usual ASRock models.
It comes with an urban winter camouflage along with silver accents and not black PCB. You would notice that the M.2 slot is there, the heatsink on the VRM, and the chipset are silver. This model is exceptionally well designed.
You have the AM4 socket found on the first- and second-generation Ryzen processors. You can also notice that the second generation comes with XFR2 and Precision Boost Overdrive. The unit has a 6-phase power design using 60A power chokes.
There is an 8-pin EPS connector at the top of the motherboard. You can find the memory slots, where 4 DDR4 DIMM slots are supporting 64GB memory. The speed of the memory depends on the processor.
As you look down, you can find notice 6 SATA 6GB/s ports. They are not in a stack shape, as you usually can see in most motherboards. The 4 ports come powered with the B450 chipset and offer support RAID 0, 1, and 10 modes.
Two ports come powered by the ASMedia ASM1061 controller. In the bottom part, you can find the rest of your headers and connections. You notice HD audio header, TPM header, 2 USB 2.0 headers, and the 4-pin RGB header.
There is also the COM port header, 3-pin addressable RGB header, reset CMOS header, front panel headers, and 2 4-pin fan headers. It is nice to see ASRock using the Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec.
You can also notice the expansion slots in the form of 4 PCI-Express 3.0 x1 slots and 2 PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots. At the top, you have the x16 slot that features ASRock’s Steel Armor. It does not come designed with Wi-Fi and has to use the Wi-Fi network card to make use of Wi-Fi.
The internet connectivity is given to the motherboard with the help of the Ethernet RTL8111H controller feature found on the Legend model. The unit does not come with Bluetooth connectivity. Instead, you can make use of the dongle.
You can also think of the PCIe expansion card. Likewise, the Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite has excellent features & layout. The packaging is superb. We liked the color combination of the black, silver, and brownish-yellow on the package.
Sometimes the package itself is enough to entice you over the entire stuff inside. Gigabyte has just done that. Perhaps, the marketing team is developing new modes of advertising, and they are getting it all right.
Our tester noted that the motherboard was ideal for gaming, video content, and entertainment purposes. You can also make use of other demanding computing tasks. There is close to 64GB of dual-channel DD4 RAM at 3600 MHz.
You can make use of the 4 memory slots when overclocking the unit. Besides, it provides you with exceptional multitasking and the ability to operate on some of the top-end applications on your PC.
It also comes with 2 M.2 SSD slots, supports close to 6 SATA III storage drives, and is used as the RAID 0, 1, or 10 configurations. Summing up, the features & layout of both the motherboards were exceptional and came with stunning features all-round.
ASRock B450 Steel Legend vs Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite: Software and Firmware
When you get the PC running, you may want to download the app that is given for gamers. It has a live update present on it so that you can effortlessly download it. Once you have done that, then the software downloads everything automatically.
It also can update the BIOS. Our tester was not impressed with the fact that the software called A-Tuning is quite similar for quite a while now. With the competition heating up, we thought they may make some changes beginning with this motherboard, which was not to happen for now.
The next tab, known as the OC Tweaker, can easily overclock and tune your system. Additionally, you can also change the voltages, CPU speed, memory settings, and do many more. As you see in the System Info tab, you can get a live view of your CPU speed, fan speeds, voltages, and temperature.
When you want to control the lights on the motherboard, you can make use of the Polychrome Sync software. It is not present on the app, and you have to use their website to download it. Upon opening, you can select the LED section and decide on the effect you want to view.
Additionally, you also have a color wheel for setting the colors. Users felt that having an RGB input can blend the colors properly. On the other hand, the Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite gaming motherboard has stupendous software & firmware. It comes with what it is priced for.
The RGB lighting on this board is excellent. Our tester did have some issues with the software at first. We are not sure what exactly the issue was. This is nothing to worry or to be concerned about, but you need to take care of it.
Our tester usually does not play around much with the setting and when the PC is all ready to go. Mostly gamers tweak the settings and want to use it to find some luck with it. We have found that the maker has always ensured the right blend of the connection on their motherboards.
The update procedure on the Aorus Elite is quite simple. You must ensure that the BIOS update is done by making use of the Ryzen 3000 support. When you want to update the BIOS, you must use the existing Ryzen 2000 CPU to do the update process.
The motherboard with works exceptionally well with the Ryzen 5 3600X. Though few features might get crippled on the Ryzen 3rd generation CPU, like the PCIe 4, the DDR 4 4400 RAM the dual M. 2 SSD with PCIe 4 high performance are absent from the unit.
ASRock B450 Steel Legend vs Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite: Overclocking
The overclocking of any motherboard is the most important aspect of any review. Most users are swayed by the fact that the model has exceptional overclock. The same can be said about the ASRock B450 Steel Legend gaming motherboard.
Based on our testing, we found that the results were slightly disappointing. There is nothing to have a concern about, but they are known for producing incredible units for overclocking. We cannot include the ASRock B450 Steel Legend model in that category.
Its speed, however, still comes through because the market positioning can exceed expectations. You may want to know that it comes with no support for DRAM higher than 3,600MT/s. The unit was able to hit 3,800, some incredible numbers.
Our tester was quite happy with the performance as it could be used for some other purposes too. You might have to make use of other motherboards that can cost more than 4 times what is available.
But you will want to know that it needs to be supported with the DRAM voltage. Sadly, it was out by 1.4V was something of a bother. Otherwise, it went our expectations, and for the price point, you know you have something on your hands.
This chipset helps you to overclock your processor and memory. We felt that overclocking using the board is relatively easy. Users have to check in the BIOS and go to the “OC Tweaker” section. Then you have to set CPU frequency and VID change to manual mode.
When using the AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, you may want to check the speed of the module. Do not forget about the capacity of it. For the moment, the sweet spot in them is close to the 16GB RAM clocked at 3200MHz.
The overclocking segment is perhaps things may change the tide for the Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite model. This unit comes with the Smart Fan 5 with Fan Stop. The maker has always managed to produce top-notch cooling technology.
It plays a vital role in cooling the unit and other components. You see, the several hybrid fan headers and temperature sensors found on the motherboard are part of the technology. They work such that the software is able to operate in exceptional settings continuously.
ASRock B450 Steel Legend vs Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite: Price
The ASRock B450 Steel Legend gaming motherboard is priced under $130. Our tester felt that the model came with the right kind of firepower to take on the likes of units from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte.
The Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite gaming motherboard is priced under $110. Our tester was highly amazed at the numerous features that the lower-priced model came with. Gigabyte models are known for their reliability, durability, and affordability.
ASRock B450 Steel Legend vs Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite: Verdict
This is it we have come to the end of the comparison review between ASRock B450 Steel Legend vs Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite gaming motherboards. The ASRock B450 Steel Legend is a great motherboard that ably supports AMD processors.
It comes with 4 DDR4 slots to support 64GB RAM and a CPU-dependent graphics solution. Our tester was impressed with the incredible stability features like 60A power chokes and Nichicon 12K black capacitors.
As it is designed for a single graphics card, it comes with a single PCI-Express 3.0 x4 M.2 slot. Likewise, the Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite gaming motherboard offers the best support for the AMD Ryzen 2000 series processors with more control.
The Steel Legend motherboard is maybe slightly better than the Aorus Elite as it has 3 more fan headers, has USB Type-C, 1 more PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. You can also find 2 more USB 3.0 ports, 15dB higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and it offers support to ECC memory.
The unit also has S/PDIF out port and supports RAID 5. Likewise, the Aorus Elite has the edge over the Steel Legend as it is easy to reset BIOS, supports a USB charging boost, and comes with 1 more PCIe 2.0 x16 slot.
It has 1 more USB 2.0 port, 1 more DVI output, and 1 more audio jack connector. The board also has 2 more USB 2.0 ports and is 9mm shorter. Our winner in the review is the Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite.
This was a closely fought battle, with both the gaming motherboards coming with tremendous power and artillery fire. However, the Gigabyte Elite unit proved to be slightly better than the effervescent ASRock Steel Legend model caliber.
James Smith has always been intrigued by electronic products since his childhood. After his post graduation in electronics from a popular university, he decided to pursue a career in the electronics sector. But his calling for writing about these marvellous pieces of work got the better of him. That is how UBG was started. With a writing career spanning more than 12 years, James has worked on several hundred product reviews. During his free time, he like to spend time with his pet dog and relax in the swimming pool.