ASRock X870 Challenger WIFI White Motherboard Review: 19 Phases, Quad SSD, & USB4 For Just $169

Conclusion - A Strong Sub-$200 X870 Challenger

Last year, we tested the B850 Challenger, a value-oriented motherboard priced at $179, offering a great set of features. This year, ASRock is going a notch higher with its X870 Challenger WIFI, which comes in at a price point of $169, $10 US lower than the B850 option, and offering better features and specs than its sibling.

The motherboard offers a 16+2+1 phase VRM design fitted with an 8-layer PCB and dual 8-pin connectors, the same as that featured on its Livemixer, which costs $10 more. The motherboard also features DDR5-8000 support with up to 256 GB capacities, keeping in line with the rest of its higher-end & mainstream offerings.

The VRMs are cooled by two heatsinks, which keep temperatures within the mid-60s range, resulting in decent performance. Overclocking and Undervolting options are plenty on the motherboard, with the latest BIOS providing users with a lot of preset configurations, and even more if you want to go the manual route.

One of the biggest surprises on the Challenger is that it features quad M.2 slots, all of which are cooled by large heatsinks, and the primary Gen5 slot even comes with a toolless design. We saw several motherboards around a similar price range with two or three M.2 slots, so ASRock is offering more storage options.

The PCIe slots include two x16 configurations, one featuring full Gen5x16 speeds. The primary slot is a Gen5x16 design, which has an ideal 4-slot spacing. You won't have to remove the GPU to install or remove an M.2 device. The CMOS battery is also ideally positioned, so you won't have to remove the GPU or any M.2 heatsink to access it. There are 18 USB ports, which include:

• 2 x USB4 Type-C (Rear)
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_3))
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (Rear)
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_2))
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C (Front)
• 4 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (Front)
• 8 x USB 2.0 (4 Rear, 4 Front)
• All USB ports support ESD Protection

ASRock X870 Challenger WIFI White Motherboard Pros/Cons:

• + Great pricing at $169
• + Solid Ryzen 9000 CPU Performance
• + Quad M.2 slots with heatsink cooling
• + Up To 8000 MT/s memory support
• + WIFI 7 + BT5.4 + 2.5GbE LAN
• + 18 USB ports (including two USB4)
• + Well-designed with 4-slot PCIex16 spacing
• + Available in All-Black and All-White colors
• - Audio based on older ALC897 codec
• - Higher-capacity memory has some compatibility issues

Another strong aspect of the X870 Challenger WIFI is that it supports WIFI 7 with Bluetooth 5.4; once again, the competing $169 US options only offer WIFI6E capabilities. The all-white design is great for AM5 builders going with that theme, but there are 4 RGB/ARGB headers for custom lighting.

ASRock's X870 Challenger WIFI is a great ATX AM5 option for mainstream builders within the $169 US price point. It offers a solid VRM with support for AMD's latest Ryzen 9000 CPUs, the latest WIFI 7 wireless capabilities, support for some fast DDR5-8000 memory, up to 18 USB ports, and a very simplistic design scheme. It's all-white theme looks great, and all those features mentioned above, including the quad M.2 slots, make it an instant recommendation from me.

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