ASRock B360M-HDV LGA1151/Intel B360/DDR4/Quad CrossFireX/SATA3&USB3.1/M.2/A&GbE/MicroATX Motherboards

TL;DR Good motherboard, good BIOS, only supports up to 2666 32GB RAM, only has four 4-pin fan headersIn-depth review:I'm not interested in over clocking, so I didn't need a board designed for that. I picked an i7-8700 as my CPU in my new PC build and I found this motherboard (later referred to as a mb). I'm somewhat familiar with ASRock, so I felt like it's a brand that I could trust and depend on. It has USB 3.1 Gen2, which isn't something I'm familiar with, but so far works with every USB device I have, which includes a mouse, keyboard, phone, and USB drive. It has M.2, which isn't something I'm familiar with either, but it's cool to have this technology there if I ever want to try it out. Possibly related and yet still not something I'm familiar with is that it supports Intel Optane Memory. This technology seems to be excellent for speeding up old mechanical hard drives (not SSDs). It supports up to 9th gen Intel CPUs, although I bought an 8th gen. I think the box (or description) doesn't state that it supports 9th gen, but the website does and I'm sure that can be trusted. It only has two RAM slots, but I think that's enough. The highest RAM speed it supports is DDR4 2666, which I think is fine. I think there's faster RAM out there, but 2666 is an upgrade from the DR3 RAM I was using and doesn't really seem noticeably different (although that's a positive). The maximum amount of RAM it supports is 32GB. I currently believe that 16GB is enough and I wouldn't settle for less. I think 32GB, might actually be more than necessary, so this limitation doesn't bother me at all. If I decide to upgrade my RAM in the future, I still have room to do so and right now I can't imagine needing more than 16GB. The obvious downside is that if you want more than 32GB of RAM, you're going to have to buy a different mb. It comes with on board video (which requires a CPU with a graphics processor), which is very handy, actually. I have a GPU, but it's nice to have that extra feature in case something happens to my GPU. The mb's video capabilities (or specifications) seem impressive, although I don't think it's exactly something I'd use for video gaming, which is why I have a GPU. Still, to have that video backup is a relief. It also means that I could connect my PC to my TV easily. The audio is fine, although the program for it is slightly confusing. I had RealTek audio in my Alienware PC that I used before I built this one. I didn't need much from it and it gave me exactly what I wanted and needed. The only thing is that I was used to being able to see the enhancements in the Windows settings. For this mb, Windows installs a driver that does exactly that, but if you update your drivers with the ASRock software, that part in Windows settings will disappear. I like to use the loudness normalization, because it seems necessary. Luckily, I did a quick Google search and found out that this motherboard actually has RealTek software to use to configure it (I didn't notice it before). Sure enough, that's what I was able to do and so I'm satisfied. What really needs to be said about the on-board Ethernet? It's pretty much a must and I've had no problem with this one. It has one PCI-E (x16) slot for a GPU, which is really all I need. I'm not interested in using more than one GPU, so it fits my needs. The SATA connections are fine. It is kind of confusing, though as it seems four face towards the side of the board and at least two more face the top of the board. I'm not sure why that is, unless you're using different kinds of SATA cables. I have two old HDDs, an SSD, and a CD/DVD drive running on those ports and I still have some available. So, there are plenty of SATA ports for my use. I don't care about intrusion detection, but this motherboard has it. I don't think this mb came with an internal speaker, so I don't know if it'll beep at me if there's an issue. Most mbs do beep at you to tell you what's wrong, so I hope nothing goes wrong with this one, because I might not know it. Although, I think I do have an old PC with an internal speaker I can add to this mb, there is a spot for one, but I'm sure an internal speaker was not included. There are plenty of USB ports for me. I don't use very many, though. I use two on the back for my keyboard and mouse. My case has two on the front and I usually use one to charge my phone and sometimes I use one for a USB bootable drive, like when I need to install Windows or do some kind of troubleshooting. The BIOS is really good. I love that as soon as you turn the PC on, it tells you what buttons to press to enter BIOS or to access the boot menu (those are only two of the options). You can press two different buttons on your keyboard to enter BIOS (the menu tells you this). I don't understand why two different buttons have this same function. I can't really imagine why this is. The BIOS defaults to a basic view, but you can switch to advanced view (with F6 I think). You can also change this default. You can use your mouse and keyboard in it, too, which is handy. There are a lot of settings and things you can configure, which is great. The only odd thing I found is that I'm using 2666 RAM, but it seemed to detect it as 2333, so I had to change that setting. You can configure the speed of your fans, which is great. I also love the hardware monitor that will tell you the temperature of your CPU, mb, and how fast your fans are running. This was definitely helpful recently as my AIO CPU water cooler failed and was no longer working. I believe the software tells you it's not recommended to flash your BIOS (upgrade it) unless you notice something wrong, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," pretty much. But, I don't follow that rule, I want to keep everything up to date and this was very easy to do. I think there are multiple ways to do this, too, which is definitely helpful. There are other features of this mb, so I recommend checking out the description here and on ASRock's website if you're interested, to make sure that this is the right mb for you.My strongest (and yet minor) complaint is that it only has four fan headers. I wish it had more, but I do have more than four fans in my case. Pretty much all of my fans are 3-pin PWM fans attached to the 4-pin headers. The headers are really good, though, because they have a specific orientation for 3-pin fans, in other words you can only attach a 3-pin fan one way, so there's no confusion about which pins need to be connected. If you want to add more fans, you can look into adding a fan controller, or you can find some adapters or splitters. I have some old cables from another mb that I was able to reuse in this PC so that I have all of my fans connected. I have plenty of fans, two came pre-installed with the case and are in the front. One of which is attached to a fan header on the mb, while the other is attached to a splitter as I mentioned. Another fan is attached to the top, connected to one of the fan headers. The AIO CPU water cooler's radiator is sandwiched between two fans, one of which connects to the back of the PC. These two fans are are attached to a splitter on the cooler (by design) and the cooler itself attaches to a header. The cooler also attaches to a USB header, which is fine, because this mb has enough of these to do that. I think there are three of them, one main one for the front of the PC and two more.

First this is not a (Quad CrossFireX motherboard) I think you may need to take that out of your description. I didn't need that feature anyway. I used a i3 9100, ADATA SX8200 Pro 512gb M2 drive and 8gb of ram, it fired up fine, I was able to upgrade bios without a problem. Talk about bang for your buck. It runs great with the new 9th gen i3 processor. A+, I am not a gamer so I really can't comment on that. The motherboard was properly packed and shipped, I am happy with this purchase.

Running very well