ASUS ROG STRIX B450-I Gaming Motherboard Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS ROG STRIX B450-I Gaming Motherboard Review

ASUS’ budget entry into the AM4 Ryzen mini-ITX world certainly has a lot going for it. With so many great mini-ITX motherboards coming from this company, expectations for the ROG STRIX B450-I Gaming are high. This small form factor motherboard lets us overclock as well. We put it to the test and find out just how well it does for $150?

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I literally just bought this and installed it with a Ryzen 5 2600. Using some spare DDR4 8GB 2400 until I can spare the cash for 16gb 3200C14.

Good to know re mosfets. I'm likely going to keep mine stock for a fair while so I'm hoping cooling won't be an issue. I'm in an NCase M1 hotbox but should be okay!

Thanks for the review!

Just to add. X-470 version is a 'higher end board'. From what I can tell the only difference is PCIE lanes (irrelevant really for SLI/Xfire for ITX), and maybe different USB ports?

Is there a difference in the thermal delivery solution?

I doubt it'd matter to my particular system but I'd be curious to know what makes it more high-end

Further edit:

Your article mentions 4 fan headers, I can only locate 3 along the top edge?
 
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Love these reviews. I'd seriously consider running a m.2-> pcie 3.0x4 connector if I ever needed something to populate the 3rd slot of my NCASE M1. Kind of negates some of the reasons others seek asrock boards for their pcie bifurcation support (aside from itx users who seek SLI)
 
Great review! Pretty sweet little board!


Kyle mentioned hiccups with the flash drive and mouse.
I have this issue as well on my Maximus. When I have my Corsair Stealth USB3 drive plugged in, my G903 mouse goes bonkers. It's quite annoying! Asus tried to tell me my mouse was bad even after telling them it works fine on my laptops and other desktops. Oh well

Thanks again for the review!
 
ReaperX22 said:
I literally just bought this and installed it with a Ryzen 5 2600. Using some spare DDR4 8GB 2400 until I can spare the cash for 16gb 3200C14.

Good to know re mosfets. I'm likely going to keep mine stock for a fair while so I'm hoping cooling won't be an issue. I'm in an NCase M1 hotbox but should be okay!

Thanks for the review!

Just to add. X-470 version is a 'higher end board'. From what I can tell the only difference is PCIE lanes (irrelevant really for SLI/Xfire for ITX), and maybe different USB ports?

Is there a difference in the thermal delivery solution?

I doubt it'd matter to my particular system but I'd be curious to know what makes it more high-end

Further edit:

Your article mentions 4 fan headers, I can only locate 3 along the top edge?
Click to expand...

As I said, you can shave some degrees off the MOSFETs with a little bit of airflow. I think it will be fine. As for the X470 version, its got everything the X470 chipset offers over B450, which isn't much in this scenario. It does have better MOSFET cooling, more USB ports, and a built in I/O shield. As I said, for a main rig I'd probably go that route for my money but for an SFF / HTPC / secondary machine the B450 would be just as good and save you some cash. I'm running the X470 in my SFF build and I'd have opted for the B450 version for this role were I staring at these two boards on the shelf knowing what I know now.

alxlwson said:
Great review! Pretty sweet little board!


Kyle mentioned hiccups with the flash drive and mouse.
I have this issue as well on my Maximus. When I have my Corsair Stealth USB3 drive plugged in, my G903 mouse goes bonkers. It's quite annoying! Asus tried to tell me my mouse was bad even after telling them it works fine on my laptops and other desktops. Oh well

Thanks again for the review!
Click to expand...

I did not have that issue with the flash drive and mouse. I had two different flash drives plugged into it. The Windows installer drive I've created and the one I use for capturing BIOS images and loading drivers from. I'm using a Logitech G602 mouse and didn't have any problems with it.
 
Is every chart mislabeled? What's the "2700x PB2" item? Is that supposed to be the 1700x in the MSI board?
 
Thanks I also just got this board with a 2600 last week. Put it in an H200.

The ram slots are very close. My gskill tridentz barely fit they felt like they were scratching each other to go in.

It's also a tight squeeze for many air coolers.

I'm curious how the board has 8 channel audio with only three audio ports? One being the mic. The review also mentioned spdif audio. I don't see the traditional port. Unless it uses spdif in the headphone jack like a Chromecast audio.
 
wifi.png
 
Thanks for the good review guys. My young nephew wants a budget gaming rig and I'm going to give this mobo a strong look.
 
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