And now for something different. Motherboards in the lower budget tier can look a bit the same, with black on black or highlights dominating, and the ASRock B760M Sonic WiFi (open in new tab) definitely bucks this trend. This is still a motherboard, but a Sonic the Hedgehog motherboard. And I love it.

As a young child, sitting in front of the TV playing games on Sega's Mega Drive (Genesis to North American readers) was my earliest gaming experience; the graphics and gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog, released in 1991, amazed me, and Sonic nostalgia has a special place in my heart.

These days, ASRock is not afraid to think outside the box when it comes to motherboard design, and the Z790 Live Mixer (open in new tab) is a good example of this. But as we all know, looks are only part of a good motherboard: 24-karat gold plating is only a gold-plated paperweight if it comes with a junk BIOS. [The B760M PG Sonic WiFi belongs to ASRock's Phantom Gaming sub-brand; the B760M PG Sonic WiFi is a reasonably priced B760 motherboard at $189 (open in new tab) / £166 / $349 Australian. It competes with strong competitors including such reputable and popular options as the MSI B760 Tomahawk and B760M Aorus Elite. Notably, the B760M Sonic is priced below the entry-level Z790 board, unless you can find a special price.

If you are on the fence about the B760 chipset, why should you consider the B760 board over the entry-level Z790? Aside from Intel's lock on CPU overclocking, the main difference between the two is the DMI link speed between the CPU and chipset; in the case of the Z790, this link is an x8 link, while the B760 is an x4 link.

This means that the B760 generally has less I/O, either because it has fewer SATA and USB ports or fewer M.2 slots; the B760 can run faster memory, which historically eliminates one of the main selling points of the Z series. If you have a single GPU, one or two SSDs, and don't need more than 12 USB ports, a good quality B760 board will suffice.

Sonic branding is everywhere. There is a large blue Sonic stencil on the back of the board, and the BIOS also has a sonic blue theme. The heatsinks are a brushed metal look and there are RGB lines under the bottom M.2 heatsink. Overall, I really like it. It certainly has a retro feel to it, and kudos to the design team at ASRock.

The board has a nice array of onboard ports and headers: four RGB headers (three of which are addressable), six fan/pump headers, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C header. Onboard WiFi is provided by an M.2 WiFi module. It looks a little out of place, but in most cases it is covered by the graphics card, so there is no problem.

On the back there is an eDP connector used to connect to the appropriate screen. We would like to know the percentage of people who use such connectors. eDP is not associated with gaming systems, but with embedded systems and signage systems.

Being a Micro-ATX board, it is not expected to have as many PCIe or M.2 slots as a full-size board. There is a primary PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and a PCIe 4.0 x1 slot; there are three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, all cooled by simple heat sinks. Additionally, there are four SATA ports, an ample storage complement for an mATX B760 board.

With 24GB and 48GB DDR5 modules now on the market, the B760M Sonic supports up to 192GB of memory with 4x48GB modules, according to ASRock.

The VRM is a proper 12+1+1 phase design; ASRock does not specify an amperage rating, but considering we are dealing with a B760 board that does not need to drive an overclocked K-series processor, we assume it is low. My Core i9 13900K (open in new tab) worked flawlessly.

Dual 8-pin power connectors provide ample power. The heatsinks are clearly more advanced than those on less expensive boards and are only warm to the touch under load on the CPU.

We were generally impressed with the I/O on the board: four USB 2.0 ports and four 10GB/s Gen 2 ports, one of which is Type-C. We would have liked a 20GB/s port, but you can't have everything a board twice the price has.

An Intel WiFi 6E and a Realtek 2.5G LAN controller handle networking, while a Realtek ALC897 provides audio. It does a reasonable job, but I wouldn't use it to provide a perfect signal for a $10,000 pre/power amp combo.

Also nice are the HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4a ports. These give a little more flexibility for non-gaming purposes.

The basic architecture and microcode share a lot in common with the 12th generation and the previous generation of the 600 series, so there is little chance of glitches or serious performance issues, and the ASRock B760M PG Sonic is no exception.

At Intel's default Core i9 13900K power settings, the Sonic performed within the margin of error of the other tested boards. And while overclocking is not possible on B-series boards, the chip's power limit can be removed at will; Sonic's heatsink, high-performance VRM, and dual 8-pin power connectors mean that running the K SKU at high power should be no problem.

The BIOS on the B760M PG Sonic will be familiar to ASRock users, if not for the funky blue Sonic the Hedgehog color scheme. we always like ASRock's BIOS screen layout. CPU, DRAM, and voltage. settings are grouped into submenus, making them easy to find.

There are no esoteric settings like on the overclocking-focused Z790 boards, but everything you reasonably need is here. We especially like Asrock's no-nonsense monitoring and fan control settings.

Going back to the B460 motherboards, they were generally tasteless, lacked memory overclocking capabilities, and had weak VRMs. While there will always be cheaper B-series boards, typical mid-range B760 boards like the ASRock B760M PG Sonic are a dramatic improvement over what we have gotten in the past (though admittedly more expensive).

This board has a decent, though not extreme, VRM, dual 8-pin power connectors, triple M.2 slots with heatsinks, 2.5G LAN, WiFi 6E, and a good number of USB ports. For many gamers looking for an affordable motherboard, this is just the ideal motherboard; 20 GB/s USB ports and the latest audio codecs would be nice, but at this price point it may be too much to expect.

Looks are not something that should be rated too highly when analyzing motherboards, but I am a big fan of the overall design. If the case has transparent side panels, the metal heatsinks and Sonic logo give it a really cool and nostalgic look.

Perhaps the biggest issue facing the B760M Sonic is its stiff competition. All major vendors offer boards in this price range, some are DDR4 products, but the Gigabyte B760M Aorus Elite is particularly competitive in terms of features.

In the big picture, if you are a Sonic the Hedgehog fan and like the look of this board, you will have no buyer's remorse. It has a good feature set, can run on any 13th generation CPU, and is priced well for mainstream gamers.