Testing the Sharkoon Rebel C50 – how much hardware fits into a case for around 100 euros?

1 - Introduction and technical data 2 - Look and feel - Unboxing 3 - Standard-PC build 4 - NZXT N7 B650E mainboard in detail 5 - Kingston Fury Beast 6 - Seasonic Focus GX1000 7 - Alphacool custom PC build 8 - Temperatures and noise 9 - Summary and conclusion

NZXT N7 B650E Mainboard

Yes, I could have taken the same hardware that I have installed in the black Rebel C50 and slapped a custom wakool on it. From my point of view, that would have been a total six. So I’m glad that I was able to spare you this sight. Most of you are probably already familiar with the NZXT N7 B650E, as my colleague Alexander Brose already used it in his last build.

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Unboxing

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The NZXT N7 B650E fits visually into the Rebel C50 as if it had been made for it. You can already see that. Technically, the mainboard is right up there with the best. The power supply alone is almost overkill for the VCore with 16x (90 amps) power stages. This allows you to overclock a Ryzen 9 7950X to the maximum without running out of power.

Technical data

You can find the essentials on pages 8, 18 and 19. The features are really impressive. The fact that the lower (third) M.2 is only connected to PCIe 4.0 x2 is annoying, but ultimately not too bad. As long as you install a fast 4.0 SSD, you still get the full bandwidth of a PCIe 3.0. You’ll see later.

The NZXT N7 B650E is currently priced at 299 euros (according to Geizhals), which is not really cheap, but in terms of features, this motherboard also belongs to the top class. Full PCIe 5.0 support for graphics cards and the upper SSD. Lots of internal connections such as 7x 4-pin PWM, 2x 3-pin aRGB, 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB-C (20 Gbit/s), 3x USB 2.0. This alone offers expansion options that probably cannot be fully utilized. The N7 B650E can also go all out externally: 1x USB-C (10 Gbit/s), 2x USB-A (10 Gbit/s), 4x USB-A 3.0, 2x USB-A 2.0, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as 2.5 Gbit Lan and audio via ALC1220.

There is only one point that I have to “criticize” about the NZXT N7 B650E – let’s call it that. The two lower SSD covers are visually perfect, but unfortunately have no cooling effect on the SSDs. This can lead to thermal throttling if the SSDs are used excessively. I could not overheat the SSDs when gaming! I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed this. Presumably NZXT will have already planned this as an improvement for the next board. If not, then NZXT can get in touch with me. If in doubt, you can get two cheap (white) passive SSD coolers to counteract possible throttling.

If you are interested in the VRM temperatures, I can reassure you. Steve from Hardware Unboxed tested the motherboard in conjunction with a Ryzen 9 7950X. The maximum voltage converter temperature is 74 degrees Celsius. No need to worry about that! (See video below: from minute 17:06)

The NZXT N7 B650E really blew me away visually – especially for white PC builds. However, I was surprised by the features and the very good workmanship. If you’re looking for a very good B650 motherboard, you can’t go wrong with the NZXT. In my opinion, a real buy recommendation!