ASRock X870E Challenger WIFI White Motherboard Review:

Conclusion - Surprisngly Good at Mainstream Pricing

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 & X870E Challenger WIFI offering, which offer better features. Last week, we tested the $169 X870 option, and today, we are testing the higher-end X870E option that is priced at $229.

The X870E Challenger WIFI White motherboard offers a 20+2+1 phase VRM design fitted with an 8-layer PCB and dual 8-pin connectors, the same as that featured on its X870E Nova WIFI, which is priced the same. The motherboard features DDR5-8200 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 three M.2 slots, so ASRock is offering more storage options. The remaining three are all Gen4x4 slots, not Gen4x2 or Gen3x4 like the competition.

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. The CMOS battery is also ideally positioned next to the PCIe x1 slot, so you won't have to remove the GPU or any M.2 heatsink to access it. There are 21 USB ports, which include:

• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Front)
• 3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_2 and USB32_56))
• 7 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A (3 Rear, 4 Front)
• 6 x USB 2.0 (2 Rear, 4 Front)
• 2 x USB4 Type-C (Rear)
• 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear (USB32_1 and USB32_7))
• All USB ports support ESD Protection

ASRock X870E Challenger WIFI White Motherboard Pros/Cons:

• + Good pricing at $229
• + Solid Ryzen 9000 CPU Performance
• + 23 VRMs that run cool and stable
• + Quad M.2 slots with heatsink cooling
• + Up To 8200 MT/s memory support
• + WIFI 7 + BT5.4 + 2.5GbE LAN
• + 21 USB ports (including two USB4)
• + Well-designed with 4-slot PCIex16 spacing
• + White color scheme looks great
• - Higher-capacity memory has some compatibility issues

Another strong aspect of the X870E Challenger WIFI is that it supports WIFI 7 with Bluetooth 5.4; once again, you will find various older X870E motherboards with WIFI6E support. 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 X870E Challenger WIFI is a great ATX AM5 option for mainstream builders in the sub-250 USD 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 DDR5-8200 memory, up to 21 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 and solid support for existing and future Ryzen CPUs, make it an instant recommendation from me.

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