ASRock recently revealed an expansion card it has been working on, designed with the ability to transform an AMD B650 motherboard into an X670. It’s called the X670 Xpansion Kit and it comes bundled with an ASRock-branded (obviously) B650 motherboard.
That B650 motherboard is officially known as the LiveMixer motherboard and while the idea sounds interesting, it should be noted that neither it nor the X670 Xpansion card is currently on sale. The motherboard was tested by the Level1Techs, who received a sample of the PCB and the hero product from the Taiwanese brand, in order to showcase just how it works.
Here’s a quick primer: typically, an X670 motherboard ships out with two Promontory21 chipsets. For B650 motherboards, they only ship with one of those chips. ASRock’s Xpansion card houses one of those chipsets which, when plugged into the LiveMixer motherboard, effectively transforms it into the high-end, enthusiast-level AM5 chipset motherboard.
Other specifications of the X670 Xpansion card include two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, three additional USB-A ports, a USB-C port that also serves as a 10Gbit interface, two SATA connections, and a 10GbE port. As for the LiveMixer motherboard, the board itself displays an orange theme, along with a splatter effect design all along its shroud, while the PCB itself is all black.
Once again, the X670 Xpansion card will only work with the B650 LiveMixer motherboard, so even if the component were made available, there’d be no way you’d be able to pair it with a B650 motherboard of another brand. At least, not without some extensive and prolonged period of reverse engineering and coding.
ASRock is clearly just testing out the waters at with this X670 Xpansion card, as a means of providing its supporters and consumers that purchase its motherboards a means of upgrading their B650 system. Although, having said that, it does feel a little bit like a futile exercise, given that if one really wanted to upgrade their motherboard to an X670, actually purchasing a full-fledged model seems like a much easier option.
(Source: Level1Techs via Videocardz)
