The ASRock X570S PG Riptide Motherboard Review: A Wave of PCIe 4.0 Support on A Budget
by Gavin Bonshor on October 22, 2021 9:00 AM ESTConclusion
With many premium X570 and now X570S models on the market, not everyone wants to pay through the nose to benefit from an entire string of PCIe 4.0 support. One of the main benefits of X570 and X570S involves full support for PCIe 4.0, including PCIe slots and all the M.2 storage too. This makes X570/S and a Ryzen 5000 one of the best combinations in terms of future-proofing and features.
I'm making the point that not every motherboard has to cost the earth, and the ASRock X570S PG Riptide slips right into the entry-level category as far as X570 and X570S go. It might still be an expensive board for some, at $185 which used to be the high-end pricing a decade ago! But with a lower than expected price compared to some of the more premium models, the PG Riptide spawns a new series for ASRock based on its already established Phantom Gaming series of models.
Its most prominent features include three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots operating at x16/+4/+2, with three PCIe 4.0 x1 slots. Storage is also varied with two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, the second with support for SATA drives, with six SATA ports capable of running AMD RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays.
When looking for a motherboard at such an entry-level model as the X570S PG Riptide, certain sacrifices have to be made for it to be cost-effective for the vendors to manufacturer it. This includes the use of an aging Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec. However, ASRock uses a premium Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE controller and offers a Key E M.2 slot for users to add whatever wireless interfaces they wish, such as a Wi-Fi 6 or even one of the newer Wi-Fi 6E controllers.
Connectivity isn't that bad for a sub $200 model such as this, as the ASRock includes one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel. Cooling support is also solid, with seven 4-pin headers. Although ASRock is advertising a 10-phase power delivery, it's more like a beefed-up 4+2 phase design - ASRock has tried to keep costs down by using two smart doublers.
Focusing on performance, the X570S PG Riptide does very well considering, as it is competitive with other AM4 models we've tested, including some of the most premium X570 models currently on the market. Our DPC latency testing showed that the Riptide isn't as good as others in audio workloads, but it's certainly good enough compared to others in terms of compute and gaming performance.
The other performance element comes in overclocking, and ASRock displayed some solid grit and determination in terms of VDroop control on the CPU VCore. We tested from 3.8 GHz all-cores all the way to 4.4 GHz all-cores and saw relative increases in POV-Ray performance, heat, and power consumption to boot. With our Ryzen 7 3700X processor, we managed a maximum stable overclock of 4.3 GHz, which is very respectable for an entry-level board, as only one board so far to date has managed to achieve beyond this; impressive.
Testing out the VRM thermal performance also puts the ASRock X570S PG Riptide in good stead, too, with respectable thermals given the power delivery heatsink isn't the most comprehensive we've seen, along with its simplistic yet unsimplistic VRM design at the same time. The temperatures topped out at 63°C from our K-type thermocouple, and the board doesn't feature an integrated VRM sensor to compare with.
Final Thoughts: Solid Value
The ASRock X570S PG Riptide has an MSRP of $185, making it more affordable than some B550 boards currently on the market. The caveat there is similar priced B550 models do include better-integrated audio, and some even include Wi-Fi 6 for a smidgen more. Looking at the PG Riptide for what it is, it's a competitive ATX sized offering with all of the benefits of PCIe 4.0, although users looking to run 2-way NVIDIA SLI won't be able to use this, with a lot of X570 models omitting this level of support; not that multi-GPU setups are commonly used these days anyway.
ASRock has a solid and cost-effective motherboard via the ASRock X570S PG Riptide, and it ticks a lot of boxes in the sub $200 marketplace. We would have liked to have seen a better power delivery and software bundle supplied with the board, but users looking to overclock will appreciate the intuitive and easy-to-use BIOS, and AMD's Ryzen Master overclocking utility does the job better than most vendors overclocking software anyway.
At $185, the ASRock X570S PG Riptide looks an excellent buy for users on a budget without sacrificing PCIe 4.0 support throughout and a 2.5 GbE controller which provides premium wired working for a reasonable price.
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meacupla - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
You are either clueless or a total moron, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt of being the former.The CPU socket, RAM slots, m.2 slots, and pci-e slots do not add much to the BoM on mobos
In fact, you can buy Intel LGA 115x and 2011 sockets off of Ali express for pennies.
Soldering everything to the mobo adds to the complexity, which means, it will, in fact, be more costly to manufacture.
Not only that, instead of having a single SKU for the mobo, you are now adding more SKUs for different configurations. This means you need more assembly lines building each of the SKUs, and are further increasing cost to manufacture.
The only reason why apple is capable of soldering everything onto the board, is because
1. They have a very small niche market, which is around 7.4% of the worldwide PC market share.
2. Their very small niche market doesn't seem to care how their PC can't be upgraded or repaired.
3. Their very small niche market doesn't seem to care how expensive Macs cost.
Also, how the hell did you arrive at the conclusion, "Apple is cheaper, because they solder everything to the mobo"?
Wrs - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
Sockets always add to product cost, but then so do multiple SKUs, in terms of inventory management. The added costs may be minimal when done well, but technically I don't see how soldering a chip directly to board can be higher BOM than soldering the socket and then inserting the same chip later. You are aware that sockets have to be soldered to board, right? :)And Apple ain't small. 7.4% share is still 20 million units each year, plus they share techniques & components with the miniature boards in another 150-200 million phones. Assembly line logistics & just-in-time manufacturing are kind of Apple's superpowers. Swapping one component for another of the same size on the same assembly line ought to be trivial.
meacupla - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
Yeah, and then, when you have to do this exact same, multiple SKU thing for the Asrock X570 lineup, which consists of...X570 AQUA
X570 Creator
X570 Taichi Razer Edition
X570 Taichi
X570 Extreme4 Wifi ax
X570 Extreme4
X570 Pro4
X570M Pro4
X570 Steel Legend Wifi ax
X570 Steel Legend
X570 PG Velocita
X570S PG Riptide
X570 Phantom Gaming X
X570 Phantom Gaming 4 Wifi ax
X570 Phantom Gaming 4
X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3
And combine most of those mobos with the Ryzen 5000 series lineup, which consists of...
Ryzen 9 5950X
Ryzen 9 5900X
Ryzen 7 5800X
Ryzen 5 5600X
Ryzen 7 5700G
Ryzen 5 5600G
Ryzen 3 5300G
Oh, and we can't forget RAM and SSDs, since those too will be soldered on in various configurations.
So, for RAM we will do 8/16/32/64
And for SSD, we will do 128/256/512/1TB/2TB
16 x 7 x 4 x 5 = 2240 possible SKUs
And this will be PURELY from Asrock's lineup. We haven't even done Asus, Gigabyte or MSI yet.
It's pretty easy to see there is going to be a bit of an issue.
Qasar - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
imagine this, but change it for intel. 2240 for amd ? i dont even want to consider this for intel. at the store i go to, there are 23 intel cpus ! just swapping cpus, while leaving everything else the same is 7,360 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!yea this would NOT work at all.
Wrs - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
All that said I agree with your implied stance that we should keep major sockets on the desktop - RAM, CPU, GPU, storage - for the plain fact that the factories to solder/desolder the stuff are so far away, and we need a local ability to customize our stuff and upgrade/fix our components piecemeal.Arbie - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
"You are either clueless or a total moron"Do you pay extra, meaculpa, for being gratuitously insulting? Or maybe you think flame wars improve a forum, and would like to be treated that way yourself.
meacupla - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
I aim to please.TheinsanegamerN - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
Well someone has to tell idiots they are idiots, otherwise they'll try to fly off of the empire state building thinking they've invented flight.Oxford Guy - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
1. Except for the employees (including people being paid to astroturf and such by their firms), all people who post here can automatically be characterized as not being geniuses. Geniuses typically have better things to do with their time and are able to recognize that.2. Among the group of less intelligent folk who do post here 'altruistically', each person has a different knowledge base and a different age. Expecting everyone to know everything is foolish. Some overreach in their posts but lack the knowledge to know that. That includes people who preen and pose whilst mocking others' efforts. When people make erroneous claims all that's needed is a simple factual correction, not a narcissistic display of bravura.
Bottom line is this: Worry about yourself first. Worry about your factuality first. When correcting others, do it politely — especially when the people making the posts aren't being paid to do it. Correcting in a bullying manner is its own forum error, one deserving of correction.
Culturally, it is clear that Internet discourse is becoming less civil. I have seen forums devolve, even those that don't have mechanisms (like downvoting and post hiding) that encourage the aggression that causes that devolution. I am not a sociologist so I don't know enough to be able to explain (with less guesswork and more facts) the origins of all of this trend but it is one that I can see clearly in many places — even though pockets of rudeness have always been around. Attention spans seem to be shrinking and with that there seems to be a proportionate rise in entitled smirky wrath.
One thing humanity desperately needs is mandatory curriculum in all schools for understanding fallacies — how to avoid using them in discourse in particular. That would go a long way toward restoring some level of efficiency in public Internet-based communication. Even huge corporations use naked crass fallacies in court (as Sony did when trying to attack consumers who opposed the decision to retroactively strip the PS3 of Linux support).
haakon_k - Sunday, October 24, 2021 - link
Post of the month! Nearly post of the year !! Well said, 'Oxford Guy'.