Biostar B650M Motherboard Review – All The Basic AM5 Features In A Sub-$100 Design

The Biostar B650MT motherboard comes in a small cardboard package. The front is themed in black and silver.

The backside of the package lists some of the main highlights which include DDR5, PCIe 4.0, USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, and HDMI support.

Inside the package is another box that contains the accessories at the bottom. It is very easy to access although the accessories.

Following is the full list of accessories in the package.

• 2 x SATA Cable
• 1 x I/O Shield
• 1 x DVD Driver
• 1 x Quick Guide
• 1 x M.2 Anchor

The motherboard is housed above the accessories and has anti-static wrapping to protect it from any built-up electrical resistance that can affect the board. Out of the box, you can tell that Biostar went with a very basic design with its B650MT motherboard.

The Biostar B650MT motherboard features a brown PCB and has black-colored heatsinks. The motherboard comes with the mATX form factor so compatibility won't be an issue on a wide range of PCs. It measures 22.1x23.5cm.

The board uses the LGA 1718 socket to support AMD Ryzen 7000, Ryzen 8000 & Ryzen 9000 processors. Biostar is already offering BIOS support for the upcoming Zen 5 chips.

Next to the socket are two DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 96 GB (48 GB x 2) of dual-channel memory. These slots are rated to support EXPO profiles up to 6000 MHz (OC Plus). Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation. DDR5 memory comes with a different latch position so forcing a DDR4 module into a DDR5 slot will cause permanent damage.

The Biostar B650MT motherboard features a 6+2+1 (VCore/ VccGT/VccAUX)  phase digital power delivery that utilizes a Richtek RT3678BE PWM controller with SM4377 (50A) & SM436A-N MOSFETs for the VCore & SOC.

Biostar has slimmed down the heatsinks for this motherboard with the VRMs only featuring a small black heatsink but given that this motherboard isn't designed for extreme overclocking, it should do the job.

The CPU is supplied power through a single 8-pin power connector. This will feed the CPU with up to 150 Watts of power. The AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs can consume over 200W at peak with PBO enabled so its certainly better to go for 65/105/120W options with this motherboard.

Expansion slots include a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot for discrete graphics (AMD Ryzen CPU Lanes) and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot (B650 PCH Lanes).

The Biostar B650MT motherboard also features a single M.2 Gen4x slot which is powered by the CPU lanes while the 4 SATA III ports are powered by the B650 PCH.

For internal USB, you get 2 USB 2.0 headers (4 USB devices), a single USB 3.2 Gen1 header (2 USB devices) and a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C header.

The B650 PCH is housed beneath a small heatsink which is colored in plain black. This is big enough for the tiny B650 chipset which doesn't produce a whole lot of heat.

Biostar is using a Realtek ALC897 Audio Codec for audio output through a 7.1 channel HD audio jack. There's no Debug LED but the motherboard does have LEDs to highlight codes. The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.

•  4 x SATA III Connector (6Gb/s)
• 2 x USB 2.0 Header (each header supports 2 USB 2.0 ports)
• 1 x USB 3.2 (Gen1) Header (each header supports 2 USB 3.2 (Gen1) ports)
• 1 x USB 3.2 (Gen2) Type-C Header
• 1 x 8-pin Power Connector
• 1 x 24-pin Power Connector
• 1 x CPU Fan Connector
• 1 x System Fan Connector
• 1 x CPU water cooling connector (CPU_OPT)
• 1 x Front Panel Header
• 1 x Front Audio Header
• 1 x Internal Stereo Speaker Header
• 1 x Clear CMOS Header
• 1 x COM Port Header
• 1 x TPM Header

Biostar features a single 1GbE LAN connection on the motherboard and there's no onboard WIFI support. The motherboard comes with the following I/O connectors:

• 1 x BIOS UPDATE Button
• 1 x HDMI Port (HDMI1.4)
• 1 x DP Port (DP1.2)
• 4 x USB 3.2 (Gen1) Type-A Ports
• 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A Ports
• 1 x Giga LAN port
• 3 x Audio Jack