ASUS PRIME B250-PLUS motherboard review. Asus Prime B250-Plus motherboard test and review: Medium

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ASUS PRIME PRIME B250M-C - Rich functionality at a low price

5 Evgeny Kiselev 20-06-2017

Opinion of a potential buyer
Advantages:
The only board on the market for mainstream processors Intel Core 7th generation with DisplayPort and full M.2 connectors (SATA and PCI Express x4) and one PSI Express x16 port. Ideal Solution for those who want to work with graphics, photos and videos in 2K and 4K resolution on integrated Intel graphics and use all the features of SSD drives.
Flaws:
Of. The Asus website does not claim support for most 7th generation Intel Core I3, I5, I7 processors. For ASUS comparisons PRIME B250M-A official Supports all 7th generation. This is confusing for the unprepared hardware builder and deters them from choosing this board, despite Nix's assurances of 7-series support. There is an urgent need to provide clarification on the Nix website on this issue. For me personally, the question remains open? (used to trust official sources)

ASUS PRIME PRIME B250M-K - Great for 7th gen

5 Volkov Andrey Alexandrovich 23-03-2017

Owner rating: ASUS PRIME PRIME B250M-K
Advantages:
Bought under i3-7100 in NIKS. Prots decided immediately. Memory Kingston DDR4 8 GB / 2400 - first determined at a frequency of 2133, after updating the BIOS, it switched to 2400 without any problems. Dual-channel mode. I really liked the settings in the BIOS. Russian fully understandable language. Convenient setup processor and case fan (both by RWM and by voltage, it is convenient if the fan is 3-pin). 6 SATA III ports and an M2 port - decent for the price. A sufficient number of USB 3.0 (3.1) ports I was pleased with the built-in sound - better than I had (previous board MSI-ZH77AG41), cod, hiss, extraneous noise no (tested on Pioneer 1000 ears, Microlab speakers) Also, very important point for fans of video encoding: in the BIOS, you can simultaneously enable the built-in Intel graphics(up to 1 GB from RAM) and discrete card. According to reviews of 7 generations of intel, this speeds up the video processing process. Turned on, it works.
Flaws:
- no RAID - Damp software included, a lot of superfluous. The description of the software is very, very abbreviated, so at first I had to put it in, understand what it is, understand that almost everything is for $ and delete it. It is better to download drivers directly from the website. - 1 case fan header

Our check, in the test category "Equipment", the motherboard Asus Prime The B250-Plus finished with a final score of 61.2 percentage points out of a possible 100. For most users the greatest interest are likely to represent PCI-Express slots(1 x x16, 1 x x4, 2 x x1), 2 (+ 2 intern) USB-3 interfaces and 4 bracket slots random access memory. In light of the above, this model suitable for the most part for those who do not pursue the maximum configuration, preferring to pay attention to other parameters.

Advantages

two M.2 interfaces
LED lights
USB Type-C interface
surge protection
price

Flaws

no cons

• Price-quality ratio
  Good
• Place in the overall ranking
  16 out of 16

• Value for money: 62
• Equipment (100%): 61.2

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Equipment

The motherboard is one of the most important components personal computer and at the same time, she is responsible for ensuring that all equipment connected to the system functions flawlessly. The CPU socket is in the center of the board. this case it's an LGA1151 socket. It is designed to install processors manufactured by Intel, belonging to the Skylake generation and Kaby Lake. For RAM, you will need to install DDR4 sticks, since the previous DDR3 is no longer supported. Current processors from by Intel have an integrated graphics subsystem. There are also corresponding interfaces for signal output on the motherboard. On the rear panel you will find the following ports: D-Sub, DVI, HDMI. For installation hard drive and SSD drives, the following interfaces are available: 6 x SATA, 2 x M.2. The integrated network chip has throughput 1000 Mbps, and the company is the built-in Realtek ALC887 audio chip. If you need more information about the equipment of this model, we recommend that you look at our corresponding rating.

Asus Prime B250-Plus test results

How Chip Prices Intel Motherboards

Motherboards are an indispensable basis for the functioning of any computer. They are the connection center for all the interfaces of the connected components in each PC. However, most models are very different from their competitors in only one point: equipment. Therefore, we evaluate motherboards for Intel and AMD processors by their equipment, giving a score from 0 to 100 percentage points. This assessment covers the whole range of relevant " constituent parts» board and places it in our corresponding rating adequately to the results of comparison with other motherboards. In our tables, you can get visual information about what the tested model is ready to offer the buyer - the number of different slots, the presence of such "on-board" chips as network or sound, as well as interfaces on the rear panel. In addition, we scrutinize the board design in the most careful way and evaluate significant errors in design and component placement. If, for example, elements of the cooling system interfere with the installation of a large graphic card, or if the RAM slots are too close to the processor and interfere with the use of a large fan - this has Negative influence to the final position in the ranking. In addition, by evaluating the value for money, you can quickly understand whether the motherboard is worthy of the money requested for it.

Specifications and test results of Asus Prime B250-Plus

Hello potential buyer Motherboard ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS(LGA1151, microATX).

With this review, I continue a series of assembly reviews universal computer for the office. I'll start, as usual, with the selection criteria and why the ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS motherboard. Since it was assumed that the operation of the assembled computer would be carried out by an ordinary office worker, the choice was guided by the following parameters, in order of importance:

1. Compatible with CPU Intel series , that is, the choice is only from the two-hundredth line.

2. The presence of an M.2 connector, as planned SSD installation M.2 2280.

3. The presence of an analog D-Sub video output, this is due to the fact that the monitor to which the system unit will be connected is ancient and without DVI and HDMI.

4. The presence of 4 DDR4 memory slots, so that in the future, if necessary, it would be possible to increase the amount of memory.

5. Price and brand. With a gigabyte, I somehow got burned, the new system unit only worked for 1 day, then changed it under warranty. Therefore, other things being equal, I give priority to ASUS.

In the course of filtering the cheapest suitable model It turned out to be a motherboard based on the B250 chipset. I will say right away I originally chose another ASUS model on the B250, which is a little simpler and cheaper by a thousand rubles, but so far I have been picking up other components system block This model is no longer in stock. I had to look and select again, and as a result, my choice settled on Motherboard ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS (LGA1151, microATX) .

Upon receipt of the goods, we see the following:

In general, nothing special cardboard box in black and red, keeping the style directly with motherboard ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS, it is also in black and red with red backlighting, but more on that later. We start unpacking and see the following:

Here everything is also standard on the left - a paper compartment with SATA connecting cables, and on the right the motherboard itself in an antistatic bag. We pull out everything to evaluate the configuration and this is what we see:

As we see here, the Spartan minimum, because the ASUS PRIME motherboard is only the initial series of motherboards, and one can even say a budget series, since the price is around $100. And ASUS motherboards at this price have always been with meager equipment, so in our case we have:

1. ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS motherboard in the package;

2. Cheap tin cap on back panel computer case;

3. A bag with two sets of screws for the M.2 connector, since there are 2 of them on the motherboard;

4. A disc that I didn't even open because Windows 10 itself required drivers installed. Well, if only to install utilities from ASUS, you can view the disk.

5. A thin black book-instruction in English and two pieces of paper-instructions, where there is text in Russian.

We take the motherboard out of the package and see that even cheap motherboards are characterized by beauty and elegance of execution.

Since ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS motherboardLGA1151 is not full ATX, but microATX, it would be foolish to expect a lot of different slots and connectors. But despite its stripped-down form factor, the motherboard has not so little and more than enough for office computer, namely:

4 memory slots for DDR4 2400 MHz or even 2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory; The maximum amount of memory that can be installed is 64 GB. The memory itself is dual-channel, this is no longer surprising today, the main thing is to mount it correctly if you put a pair (through 1, as a hint, you need to put slots of the same color).

Expansion slots: one PCI slot 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 mode, gray), one PCI-E 3.0/2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black) and one PCI-E 3.0/2.0 x1 slot. Here microATX had an effect in full.

Eight-channel audio on the Realtek® ALC887 8-Channel chipset high definition Audio CODEC;

Intel® Network Controller I219V, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s);

On the back panel are:

1 x PS/2 (combination type, although it always has been)
Video output standards 1 x DVI-D, 1 x D-Sub, 1 x HDMI
1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s) for network
1 x 5Gb/s port(s) USB Type-CTM (support 3A power output) - new standard and is not yet widely distributed.
3 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ((Blue)) Type-A and 2 x USB 2.0
6 x Audio jack(s) - sound.

Connectors on the board:

One USB 3.1 Gen 1 to 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 port(s) (19-pin) - exactly for USB 3 to front panel corps,
Two USB 2.0 connectors for 4 USB 2.0 ports

2 x M.2 socket for 3 standard type SSD 2242/2260/2280,

1 x COM port - a tribute to history more than good,

For hard drives 6 x SATA 6Gb / s ports, and if the first M.2 slot has an SSD c SATA interface, then 1 SATA port on the board become inactive.

Three connectors for powering fans: one for the CPU (4 -pin) and two Chassis Fan (4 -pin). Here they were surprised that they were not stingy and made all 4-pin connectors.

Food motherboard 24-pin EATX Power connector(s) and one 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s) for powering the CPU, here they are disappointed, since two 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s) come from the power supply, as a result, one connected, and the second one nearby, not connected, dangles and the main thing is not to remove it, so they go in 1 braid.

One audio port (AAFP) for the front panel of the system unit.

One connector for standard system buttons, indicator lights and one connector S/PDIF out header(s).

At the place where the processor is installed, there is a plug that can be easily removed and an LGA1151 processor from Intel is mounted instead (see the instructions in which corner the triangle should be on the processor). The ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS motherboard itself is fixed to the system unit case with 6 screws.

If you do everything right, it will look like this:

with installed processor

The final fully assembled motherboard looks like this:

By the way, in my practice for the first time I encountered that only 1 side of the latches is bent in memory slots, the other is rigidly fixed. Because of this, it was a little unusual to insert memory sticks (as usual, they must be lowered strictly vertically into the slot, straight from above without prying from the side into the non-folding part of the side). In general, apparently because of this non-standard ASUS Solutions, the first time I put the slats slightly skewed, and the system did not boot until I took out and re-inserted the memory slats.

During operation, in addition to the standard red power supply indicator, the PCI-E latches and some of the lines in the PCI-E zone are highlighted in red on the board. Of course, if you do not have a transparent wall of the system unit, then you will not see all this illumination.

Summing up, I can say that the ASUS PRIME B250M-PLUS motherboard is a good option for an office computer on a processor, but if you have an opaque case wall, then it’s better to take a model 1 thousand cheaper and not overpay for nonsense that you won’t see.