ASRock Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi overview
In case you’re dead-set on proudly owning an Intel system and have a Core Extremely 200-series Arrow Lake processor in your sights, in addition to a Mini-ITX case, then ASRock has not one, however three motherboards vying to your consideration. The Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi we’re right here is the center of the three when it comes to value and options, sitting at $219, which can also be roughly what the competitors has its B860 choices set at too.
It is much less imposing than these choices from Asus or Gigabyte, with smaller heatsinks and maybe missing just a little wow-factor within the aesthetics division too by comparability, with Gigabyte providing an all-white motherboard and Asus sporting a moody black design with giant heatsinks.
Nevertheless, ASRock has carried out a good job of creating that price ticket go a great distance.
It has managed to cram in quite a bit at this value, together with Thunderbolt 4 help. After all, being a B860 chipset-based board, it lacks the power to overclock Okay-series CPUs, which is just doable on motherboards utilizing the Z890 chipset. That’s perhaps much less of a problem for small kind issue PC homeowners, who typically desire to dump much less warmth into their methods anyway. Plus Intel now has quite a lot of non-Okay fashions out there, together with some that price lower than $250.
B860I Lightning Wi-Fi specs
Socket: Intel LGA1851
Chipset: Intel B860
CPU compatibility: Intel Core Extremely 200 desktop
Kind issue: Mini-ITX
Reminiscence help: DDR5-4800 to DDR5-9333 (OC), as much as 128 GB
Storage: 2x M.2, 3x SATA
USB (rear): 1x Thunderbolt 4 Kind-C 40 Gbps, 2x USB 3.1 Kind-A ten Gbps, 4x USB 3.0 Kind-A 5 Gbps, 1 x USB 2.0
Show: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB/DisplayPort
Networking: Realtek 2.5G LAN, Wi-Fi 6E
Audio: Realtek ALC1220
Worth: $219 | £235 | $440
Different trendy options you get regardless of the $200 price ticket are PCIe 5.0 help for each graphics playing cards and SSDs, though each are considerably pointless proper now with graphics playing cards not benefitting and suitable SSDs solely providing larger sequential speeds relatively than higher all-round efficiency.
The heatsink for the first M.2 slot is kind of small too, so I’ve my doubts it may cool something hotter-running than a PCIe 4.0 successfully anyway. There’s a second M.2 port, restricted to PCIe 4.0, situated on the rear of the PCB.
The remainder of the specification is first rate, with ASRock not skimping in areas often in line for cuts at this value level. There’s Realtek ALC1220 audio, 2.5 Gbps LAN and 7 Kind-A USB ports, so even when you have half a dozen peripherals to plug in, you’ll nonetheless have a port left over. The facility supply isn’t essentially the most in depth on the market with 10 100 An influence levels, however because the board gained’t be concerned in overclocking, that’s lots.
Regardless of the Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi being mid-range, it even has a VRM cooling fan embedded behind the I/O panel. Fortunately, this didn’t spin as much as any noticeable ranges throughout out benchmarks so ASRock appears to have fine-tuned it to solely ramp up when the VRMs get extraordinarily toasty. Seeing as we had been utilizing a Core Extremely 9 285K, it’s unlikely it is going to be an issue, and even whether it is you possibly can management the velocity within the EFI or in ASRock’s software program.
In case you have older SSDs and laborious disks that require SATA ports, there are three of them on the PCB and there are additionally three 4-pin fan headers, which is typical of most Mini-ITX motherboards. ASRock additionally managed to squeeze in two 3-pin RGB headers and the entrance Kind-C port even provides USB 3.1 speeds.
Most likely the largest points right here aside from a relatively small SSD heatsink, are the shortage of a quick-release GPU mechanism so eradicating your graphics card may very well be a bit fiddly. Additionally, ASRock’s EFI isn’t the perfect and feels a bit clunky and dated in comparison with the competitors.
PC Gamer check rig
CPU: Intel Core Extremely 9 285K | Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Excessive | RAM: 32 GB Corsair Vengeance Professional DDR5-6000 | Storage: 2 TB Corsair MP700 | PSU: MSI MAG AB50GL 850 W | OS: Home windows 11 24H2 | Chassis: Open platform | Monitor: Dell U2415
Efficiency in our recreation assessments was largely on par with different B860 and Z890 boards we’ve examined, with comparable ends in Cyberpunk 2077 with a median body price of 115 fps and 105 fps in Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s Factorio results of 28 seconds was distinctive, although, and probably right down to new BIOS tweaks utilized within the newest model we put in from ASRock. The Blender, 7Zip and Cinebench outcomes had been all a match for the likes of full-size boards such because the ASRock B860 LiveMixer Wi-Fi and Asus TUF Gaming B860M-Plus Wi-Fi.
Regardless of its tiny dimension, it stored the VRMs at 47°C throughout our stress check, which was one of many coolest outcomes we’ve seen on an LGA1851 board, probably due to its tiny fan wafting air over the heatsinks, fortunately with out producing any noticeable noise.
The identical was true for the chipset, which peaked at simply 35°, coming joint lowest with the Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 Ice. Sadly, the PCIe 5.0 SSD temperature hit 80°C, so except you’re planning on utilizing a 3rd occasion heatsink, we’d recommend steering away from PCIe Gen 5 SSDs for now.
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Purchase if…
✅ You desire a good mix of worth and options: In addition to Thunderbolt 4 help, there’s seven Kind-A USB ports, first rate audio, 2.5 Gigabit LAN and three SATA ports, all for simply over $200.
Do not buy if…
❌ You need to overclock or need to use a PCIe 5.0 SSD: The B860 chipset lacks overclocking help, whereas the M.2 heatsink wasn’t in a position to tame our PCI 5.0 SSD.
The ASRock Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi stands up properly to the competitors from Asus and Gigabyte in quite a few areas equivalent to having extra USB ports and a quiet fan cooling its VRMs. It additionally has a good audio codec, USB BIOS Flashback and three SATA ports, so whether or not you’re utilizing a Core Extremely 9 285K or Core Extremely 5 225, it has what it takes to deal with high-end elements with out going overboard on value or options.
There are just a few disappointments, although, equivalent to its M.2 heatsink not being as much as the duty of cooling PCIe 5.0 SSDs throughout prolonged workloads. Getting on the GPU launch lever could be very difficult, ASRock’s EFI isn’t as nice a spot to be because the competitors and it lacks Wi-Fi 7. Finally, no B860 Mini-ITX board appears to tick all of the packing containers, with others falling quick in some areas in comparison with the Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi, whereas scoring extra factors in others. It’s by no means fairly a killer blow.
The sums up our view of the Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi too. It’s removed from a foul motherboard and is definitely very properly balanced when it comes to its options, particularly Thunderbolt 4, which has confirmed to be an eye fixed wateringly-expensive addition prior to now. Maybe our greatest criticism is that it doesn’t stand out. The competitors provides white designs that will entice these proudly owning a white case, or simply has extra visible pizzazz.
Rather a lot additionally depends upon which nation you’re in too. The US sees the competitors sit at very comparable costs, whereas within the UK, the Asus ROG Strix B860-I Gaming Wi-Fi is almost £100 extra, making it poor worth in comparison with Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi, which is an efficient match when it comes to options. We’d perhaps be swayed in the direction of the Asus and Gigabyte choices largely due to aesthetics and higher EFI’s, particularly on the Asus board, however provided that priced inside $30 or so. In any other case ASRock’s mid-range B860 providing is an efficient purchase.