ASRock B650I Lightning WiFi

The B650I Lightning WiFi is ASRock's entry-level AM5 Mini-ITX board, notable for pairing a budget-tier PCIe 4.0 x16 slot with a Gen5-rated M.2 slot, an unusual combination that gives future SSD upgrade headroom without the cost of a full Gen5 GPU slot.

An 8+2+1 phase Dr.MOS design rated at 60A per phase is ASRock's clearly disclosed spec for this board, sized appropriately for mainstream Ryzen 7000/8000/9000 chips rather than flagship-tier overclocking. Two DDR5 DIMM slots support up to 128GB total capacity, with AMD EXPO enabling speeds of 7200+ MT/s depending on CPU and memory kit. The PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (rather than Gen5) handles the GPU, while two M.2 slots labeled "Blazing" (PCIe 5.0 x4) and "Hyper" (PCIe 4.0 x4) give this budget board future-proofed storage bandwidth despite the GPU slot's Gen4 limit. A 2.5GbE controller pairs with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. Audio uses a Realtek ALC897 codec, a step down from the ALC1220 found on ASRock's pricier ITX boards, reflecting this model's budget positioning. Against the ASRock B850I Lightning WiFi in this catalog, the B650I Lightning WiFi trades the newer chipset and PCIe 5.0 GPU slot for a lower price, while unusually keeping Gen5 M.2 storage support.