ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming Review

👤by Matthew Hodgson Comments 📅09-09-18
Closer Look
Around the AM4 socket are a pair of reasonably large power delivery heatsinks, styled nicely to look good while they function. The rear IO shield extends over the heatsink, with the RGB lighting recessed into it, but this does not provide any realistic function, instead it perhaps may be limiting airflow, hindering cooling.



DDR4 memory is dealt with by 4 DIMM slots, offering support for up to 3200MHz and 64GB capacity. Directly left of the upper most DIMM slot is the first of a pair of Aura Sync RGB connections, the small white piece, along with a pair of PWM 4-pin connections.



ROG have included a pair of M.2 ports on the B450-F Gaming, strangely mounted the opposite way to each other. The Primary, or top slot, is capable of running both SATA and NVMe M.2 disks, while the secondary slot is capable of NVMe only. The top slot is laid out to accept a disk up to 22mm x 80mm, while the lower slot can accept a disk of 22mm x 110mm.

Alongside the M.2 slots, we get three full-length x16 PCI-E ports, and four x1 ports. The two upper most x16 ports are reinforced with a steel bracket to help prevent interference and also help to reinforce the PCI-E port.



NVMe M.2 storage is lovely and quick, but SATA is usually a much more cost-effective method of storing large amounts of data. The Strix B450-F is equipped with six SATA 3.0 ports, mounted at a 90° angle to the board.



Audio is an important component on any gaming motherboard; the ROG Strix B450-F uses SupremeFX for their audio supply, isolated from the rest of the motherboard via the yellow trace on the motherboard. Nichicon audio capacitors are produced in Japan to stringent standards, used to produce a neutral audio output for exceptional clarity.



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