ASUS ROG Strix B850-E Gaming Wi-Fi Assessment – Board Layout

Board Layout

This does not have the swagger of an ASUS X870E board, however then it prices $100 lower than the likes of the ROG Strix X870E-H Gaming Wi-Fi7 that we’ll be taking a look at quickly. We have some beefy heatsinks for the VRMs and decrease M.2 part right here, though the highest M.2 heatsink, whereas an excellent chunk of aluminium, is not significantly giant nor affords an honest floor space utilizing fins. Still, the board has that acquainted ROG Strix really feel, and we even have RGB lighting on the I/O shroud. We’d have favored to see some extra cooling on the rear of the VRMs although.

There is inevitably some bandwidth sharing, the primary sacrifice is your graphics card solely receiving eight PCIe lanes for those who use the second M.2 slot, which is PCIe Gen 5 suitable, or the third M.2 slot, which is capped at PCIe Gen 4. So realistically, you in all probability solely wish to use M.2 slots one, 4 and 5, of which the latter two are once more PCIe Gen 4, except twin PCIe Gen 5 SSDs is your aim, and you do not thoughts no matter hit if any this leads to to your GPU. Even right here you will be sharing bandwidth with the decrease PCIe Gen 4 x16 slot, which when used will disable the fourth M.2 slot.

There are some first rate high-end options we’ll get to in a second, however one which is not is the 12 W/1 A restrict for all of the eight fan headers. It would have been good for the CPU fan header on the very least to supply greater than this in case you are hooking up three or 4 highly effective followers, however you do not less than get shared management over the CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT headers, nonetheless one thing to concentrate on although. Three are positioned within the high proper nook together with a 3-pin ARGB header, LED POST code show and energy button.

It’s good to see that these headers are unfold round with one subsequent to the SATA ports on the appropriate aspect of the PCB, helpful for powering entrance case followers. You get 4 SATA ports in whole, which is the usual as of late. Sadly, the entrance USB Type-C header does not supply any uprated energy supply and is restricted to USB 3.2 10 Gbps. Enough to deal with most high-speed exterior SSDs, however 20 Gbps and 30 W energy supply would have been further particular.

The majority of fan headers are positioned on the decrease fringe of the PCB, which ought to actually profit anybody with base case followers, plus there’s one other 4 unfold round elsewhere. There’s additionally a single 2-pin thermistor header right here too for air and coolant probes, and this may be tied to fan speeds. We even have an extra two 3-pin ARGB headers.

The high PCIe slot options PCIe Slot Q-Release Slim, which permits the discharge mechanism to robotically open when lifting your graphics card up from the PCI slot finish. The high M.2 port is PCIe Gen 5 suitable and options M.2 Q-Latch, which is secured utilizing a big latch at one finish. The heatsink is stable metallic, however just isn’t significantly giant and lacks floor area-boosting fins. However, it does cool double-sided SSDs on either side, whereas single-sided SSD homeowners ought to use the included rubber helps to make sure good contact with higher heatsink.

The decrease heatsink is far bigger, however is secured by screws. You’ll probably see one thing tool-free right here by choosing one thing costlier, and it was just a little fiddly to put in. This caters for all 4 decrease heatsinks with the highest left or second slot being PCIe Gen 5, though on the expense of stealing lanes out of your GPU.

Ten Type-A USB ports is an honest quantity, particularly as the bulk are USB 3.2 10 Gbps. It’s uncommon to see USB4 on B850 boards, however you get a single Type-C 40 Gbps port right here together with a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20 Gbps Type-C port that helps 30 W energy supply. This is arguably extra helpful on the entrance panel for those who’re charging smartphones. You additionally get DisplayPort and HDMI outputs, with additional DisplayPort out there by way of the USB4 port. We even have CMOS clear and USB BIOS Flashback buttons, and 5 Gbps Ethernet, plus the standard pair of audio jacks and optical output. There’s additionally a pair of Q-Antenna suitable Wi-Fi antennas.