IT Home reports that Sapphire has officially launched a new B650 micro-ATX motherboard based on the AM5 platform: the Pulse B650M. This motherboard features a unique two-DIMM slot configuration.
It is not uncommon for budget micro-ATX motherboards to remove two DIMM slots to save money. Still, the Pulse represents a more upbeat/premium micro-ATX motherboard, suggesting the two-slot configuration was done for performance reasons over price. The board features a built-in I/O shield and a cover over the entire left area of the power delivery area, a configuration generally reserved for mid-range and premium motherboards.
The Sapphire B650M Pulse has a 7+2+1 phase power delivery system featuring 60 amp power stages, powered via a single EPS 8-pin connector. The two DIMM slots are purportedly optimized for memory overclocking with support of up to "DDR5 7400+," making it more than adequate to run memory speeds Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000 chips are best suited towards (i.e., DDR5-6000 to DDR5-6400).
PCIe connectivity comes in the form of a single shielded PCie 4.0x16 slot and just one PCIe 4.0x4 slot at the bottom. Sandwiched between the two slots is a secondary M.2 slot rated at PCIe Gen 4x4 speeds. The primary M.2 slot is between the AM5 socket and primary x16 slot, with a cover attached and operating at PCIe Gen 5x4 speeds. Additionally, there are four SATA 3 connectors for adding additional slower storage.
The rear I/O consists of dual USB 3.2 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, a single HDMI port, and a single DisplayPort connector for video output through AMD Ryzen APUs. Networking comes in the form of a single Realtek RTL8111K Gigabit ethernet port at the rear and a Wi-Fi 6 card featuring Bluetooth 5 functionality.
Compared to competing AM5 B650 motherboards, Sapphire's Pulse model stands firmly in mid-range territory (or less) based on features and power delivery. For example, the Pulse features better power delivery than Gigabyte's B650 Gaming Wi-Fi, which comes with a 5+2+2 configuration but falls short of Gigabyte's more premium B650M Aorus Elite, which features a 12+2+1 power delivery configuration. The same trait applies to official memory overclocking compatibility.
Wi-FiPricing for the B650M Pulse is 899 Yuan with WiFi and 799 Yuan without Wi-Fi, which translates to $127 and $112, respectively. It remains to be seen if this board will make its way to Western markets, but at the very least, it will be available in the Asian sector.
