ASUS TUF Gaming B850-Pro Wi-Fi7 W Neo Overview – Board Layout

Board Layout

The board is unmistakably TUF Gaming and appears similar to the ASUS TUF Gaming B850-BTF Wi-Fi W we checked out final 12 months. The coloration scheme is a mixture of silver and white, however the heatsinks are comparatively skinny in comparison with extra premium boards. The main M.2 heatsink that cools the board’s solely PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port appears significantly small for dealing with the newest SSDs. However, even when utilizing triple-slot graphics playing cards, the decrease two M.2 ports—each of that are PCIe Gen 4—are nonetheless accessible, albeit due to the width of the heatsinks being loads slimmer than we’re used to.

The lowest PCIe slot and third M.2 port are the one space you may see bandwidth sharing, with a most of 4 lanes between them. You’ll want to move to the EFI to divert these lanes to 1 or the opposite or have two lanes to each slots. Still, which means you may have three different PCIe slots and two M.2 ports with no lane sharing, though two of these PCIe slots solely have one lane every. For higher future-proofing we might choose to see a pair of PCIe Gen 5 ports, which you get on the marginally dearer ASUS ProArtwork B850-Creator Wi-Fi Neo, for instance.

There are a good seven 4-pin fan headers in whole, however these are all capped at 12 W/1 A. It’s unlikely {that a} board of this caliber will see three or extra high-power followers linked to a single header, however ideally we might prefer to see a minimum of one header providing 24 W. Three of the seven headers are positioned within the high proper nook, so are well-placed for powering multiple-fan coolers and pumps. There are additionally two 3-pin ARGB headers.

The entrance panel Type-C header provides a formidable 20 Gbps, being USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, however there is no further energy supply right here. Next to this we’ve got a USB 3.0 header and a little bit additional down we’ve got two of the 4 included SATA ports. These are right-angled, and it is a disgrace the USB 3.0 header is not as properly.

The GPU launch mechanism right here, also referred to as PCIe Slot Q-Release, makes use of a lever extension that releases your GPU, with no enter required if you set up it. ASUS appears to be fading out its PCIe Slot Q-Release Slim, the place you’d elevate the GPU from one finish, whereas extra premium fashions use buttons, as do MSI and Gigabyte. The backside proper nook is the place you may discover the opposite two SATA ports together with three USB 2.0 headers.

On the opposite facet of the decrease edge we’ve got three extra 4-pin fan headers, a 3rd 3-pin ARGB header plus a USB4 header. A rarity lately is having a fan header subsequent to the rear I/O panel for powering rear followers, however we’ve got one right here.

The main M.2 port is after all PCIe Gen 5-capable, nevertheless it does lack an underside heatsink so we already know it is going to wrestle with our double-sided SSD. If you do go Gen 5 it will be important to go for a mannequin that is single-sided, corresponding to Samsung’s 9100 Pro or Kingston Fury Renegade G5. The heatsink can also be fairly small, however is a minimum of tool-free.

The decrease two M.2 ports are each PCIe Gen 4 and cooled by a single slim heatsink that can require a screwdriver. All three M.2 ports are outfitted with neoprene helps, however for single-sided SSDs you may want to make use of the included rubber helps to make sure good contact with the heatsink.

The rear I/O panel has eight Type-A USB ports, which is above common, and are a mixture of two USB 2.0, 4 USB 3.0 and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps, with an additional two of that velocity within the type of the Type-C ports. No USB4 right here. There are DisplayPort and HDMI ports, however that is it so far as video outputs go along with DisplayPort alt mode over Type-C not an choice right here because it was with the B850 ProArtwork. We have Q-Antenna connectors, and it is price noting these will not be suitable with commonplace aerial threads. There are CMOS clear and USB BIOS flashback buttons, and ASUS has determined to get rid of an optical audio output in favor of a microphone enter.