On the computer hardware market for a long time, one can observe a confrontation between two computer giants AMD and Intel… More recently, the question “What processor should I put in my PC?” popular opinion unconditionally recommended Intel solutions. They were well susceptible to overclocking and the overclocking itself was easier, they were productive in games and demanding programs, they cost quite normal money and were even colder than the competitor’s processors for some time.
The situation changed very quickly. Before we literally had time to look back, AMD became the absolute leader in many PC price segments. When the Zen 2 architecture came out, the world got the amazing Ryzen 3-Series processors, which were recommended for gaming machines, as they delivered more power in games than Intel processors. Ryzen was preferred for multi-threaded tasks, while Intel was more like single-threaded. Also a significant plus was the price, which the competitor had less. And professional Threadripper has no competitors to this day. These are incredibly powerful processors that are the standard for modern developers.
Ryzen processors have powerful integrated Vega graphics, they turned out to be very cold (their TDP even on flagship gaming models does not exceed 95 watts – even the cheapest tower cooler can cope with such heat dissipation) and productive in games. You no longer need to flash the BIOS to get the AMD processor working out of the box, which has long been a pain for ordinary PC users who wanted to buy a machine just for gaming. A lot of friendly software appeared for processors, which helped to competently overclock the processor.
AMD hasn’t changed the socket for a long time, it was and remains to this day – AM4. By this, she won the respect among ordinary users, because it was possible not to change the motherboard every time, but to buy new, more powerful processors without having to replace other parts of your PC.
AMD has done the impossible this year. Announcing the new Zen 3 architecture and Ryzen 5000 series processors, she also said socket AM4 would be supported.
There are many motherboards on this architecture, and today we will look at three gaming solutions from ASUS a series ROG… Flagship model, mid-range solution and board for compact assemblies.
All three boards are compatible with AMD Zen 2 and Zen 3 (upcoming) processors. And primarily focused on gaming PC builds.
motherboards ASUS ROG STRIX B550-E, B550-F and B550-I GAMING are supplied in the same cardboard boxes – the only difference is that the B550-I series has a smaller box. The boxes are made in the red and black color of the ROG series. The packaging is tight, which means that the boards will most likely arrive to you safe and sound.
ASUS ROG STRIX B550-E GAMING
Specifications:
- Supported Processors: AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation (Gen 5 not officially released, but support is planned)
- Chipset: B550
- Supported RAM: up to four DIMM DDR4, up to 128GB
- Expansion slots: three PCI Express x16, two PCI Express x1
- Drive Slots: One M.2 SATA 6Gb / s PCI Express x4 4.0, One M.2 SATA 6Gb / s PCI Express x4 3.0, Six SATA 6Gb / s
- Network Card: Wi-Fi, Intel I225V, 2.5 Gbps
- Audio codec: Realtek ALC1220 7.1 HD
- Connectors: one HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.2, one RJ-45, one USB 2.0 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, five mini- jack 3.5mm
- Form Factor: ATX
- Price: from 21,799 rubles
- Warranty: three years
In addition to the motherboard, we can find a fairly extensive package bundle in the box:
- Instruction with user manual, a set of branded stickers, stickers for marking SATA cables, CD with drivers;
- Wi-Fi antenna;
- four SATA cables;
- screws for securing M.2 SSD drives;
- two extension cords for LED strips;
- cable ties;
- audio adapter from Type-C to mini-jack.
Design
The board is made in black and gray shades. As an accent, we have inserts of the ROG symbol in an unusual color for the series. The color is interesting – a gradient from red to pearlescent purple. Also, the ROG logo has been slightly modified. Now he seems to be “in the hindrances.” In principle, the entire B550 series is made in such design solutions, which distinguishes it from the usual ROG devices and looks stylish. Perhaps Sci-Fi and cyberpunk elements in the design of modern devices played into the hands of the general trend.
We see a good cooling system on the board. Massive heatsinks in the near-processor space and VRM area, heatsinks for SSD drives, and a heatsink in the south bridge area. The cooling system is aluminum and massive – there are no problems with cooling. The radiators are decorated with LED inserts.
The board is powered by a classic 24-pin connector, while the processor is powered by 8 + 4 pins. This is enough for stable overclocking of modern processors. The power system is presented here according to the 14 + 2 scheme, but the number of elements in each channel is doubled. Each channel can withstand up to 70 A load.
The DIGI + ASP2006 PWM controller controls the processor batteries. This power system is enough for stable overclocking and use of any Ryzen processor. And thanks to massive heatsinks, albeit without a cooler, you don’t have to worry about cooling.
In a well-ventilated, air-cooled case, we got temperatures of the processor power supply circuits no higher than 50 degrees. There were no glitches or stability issues. With a liquid cooling system, the results were several degrees higher.
The board is equipped with six 4-pin headers for case coolers. This means that it can control all coolers that support it, not just voltage regulation.
The board is equipped with three PCI-e slots, two of them are metal-reinforced and allow the installation of video cards in them. According to the manufacturer, such reinforcement increases the port’s life for fracture almost twice, and for pulling out – a little more than one and a half. The PCI-e lanes in the board are distributed in such a way that when using one video card it will take 16 lanes, two – 8 + 8. The distance between the slots is sufficient to accommodate two massive video cards with impressive heatsinks. Typically, these video cards occupy from two to 2.7 slots. Moreover, the board supports NVIDIA SLI (or Nvlink) technology and AMD CrossFire. A big plus for the future – PCI Express 4.0 support – it is in place.
The lowest PCI-e slot is not reinforced and is in PCI Express 3.0 format. When all three ports are operating simultaneously, power will be distributed among all, giving preference to the first (close to the processor).
Such restrictions are considered the norm for a gaming device; now it is much more efficient to use one video card, since SLI and CrossFire do not multiply the power of video cards. And the three thousandth series from NVIDIA provides gamers with the opportunity to play at 4K / 60FPS even on adapters of the mid-price segment. For 2K resolution, which is slowly becoming the standard in modern gaming builds, everything is going great.
The board also has a connector for temperature sensors – T_SENSOR. With the help of special software, you can read from them the temperature of the sections of the board you need. But the sensors themselves are not included.
The backlighting of the LED strips connected to the board, as well as the backlighting of the board itself, is regulated by the AURA chip. A familiar solution – ASUS uses it in almost all devices, not even gaming ones. The chip allows you to customize the backlight from the BIOS in a user-friendly interface.
The audio system of the board is provided by the Realtek ALC1220A codec – an exclusive ASUS version, which differs from a similar codec in motherboards from other manufacturers. It has a cleaner signal in terms of ratio to noise – 113 versus 108 dB. The chip is shielded and separated from other board systems by a de-energized track. There are no complaints about the sound. The audio card covers all the basic needs of gamers, except for one – it is completely incomprehensible why ASUS decided to abandon the S / PDIF connector. The lack of an optical input was very frustrating for us, as many headphones and audio systems use it. So if you decide to buy this motherboard, you need to keep that in mind.
The M.2 connectors on the board support both PCI Express and SATA 6Gb / s. They are covered with metal heat dissipation plates. Great solution for hot drives. It is worth noting the convenient location of the ports on the board, the video card does not overlap them, so there will be no additional heating, and access to them will be easier.
On the rear side of the board there is a USB FlashBack button that allows you to update the BIOS of the board from a flash drive, even if the processor is not installed, and restart it. Very comfortably.
The board also has a POST code display. Convenient module for tracking PC startup errors.
The board supports Wi-Fi 6, while Ethernet connectivity is provided by an Intel I225-V controller. Wireless connectivity here is limited to 2.4 Gbps. There is Bluetooth 5.1.
3DMark – Before Overclocking
3DMark – after overclocking
Cinebench – Before Overclocking
Cinebench – After Overclocking
AIDA64 CPUID
AIDA64 Cache & Memory
AIDA64
CTR 1.1. beta 3 – Optimization for ZEN 2 CPUs
ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WI-FI)
Specifications:
- Supported Processors: AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation (Gen 5 not officially released, but support is planned)
- Chipset: B550
- Supported RAM: up to four DIMM DDR4, up to 128GB
- Expansion slots: two PCI Express x16, three PCI Express x1
- Drive Slots: One M.2 SATA 6Gb / s PCI Express x4 4.0, One M.2 SATA 6Gb / s PCI Express x4 3.0, Six SATA 6Gb / s
- Network Card: Wi-Fi, Intel I225V, 2.5 Gbps
- Audio codec: Realtek ALC1220 7.1 HD
- Connectors: one HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.2, one RJ-45, two USB 2.0 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, five audio 3 , 5mm, one S / PDIF
- Form Factor: ATX
- Price: 16,630 rubles for the version without Wi-Fi, 17,690 rubles for the version with Wi-Fi
- Warranty: three years
In addition to the motherboard, the box contains the following configuration:
- Instruction with user manual, a set of branded stickers, stickers for marking SATA cables, CD with drivers;
- Wi-Fi antenna;
- four SATA cables;
- screws for securing M.2 SSD drives;
- one extension cable for LED strips;
- cable ties.
Design
The board is almost identical in design to the B550-E. All color solutions are the same, only the backlighting has become less. Only the ROG logo is lit on the board. On the body we can find three connectors for LED strips. They also have an AURA controller and Aura Sync, which synchronizes the backlighting of all PC components.
The graphics subsystem is represented here by two PCI-e x16. There are also three PCI-e x1 available. One of the x16 slots is reinforced, and it received support for PCI-e x16 of the fourth version. The location of the slots is not entirely good – if you use massive video cards that take up more than two slots, you will lose access to PCI-e x1. But the location of the M.2 slots is good here, like on the older model.
SSD M.2 here are also covered with heat-dissipating panels, they are adjacent to them using thermal pads. When plugging in a second SSD, it will share PCIe lanes with SATA6G_5 / 6, so either it or SATA ports will work. All M.2 slots support PCI Express 4.0.
The network and sound cards of the motherboard are identical to the older version. The only difference is that ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING can be sold in a version without Wi-Fi. A set of ports on the back of the card has also migrated here from the older model, only in an improved form (from our point of view) due to the presence of an S / PDIF port. The firmware and BIOS reset button is also in place.
The second PCI-e x16 of the third version received four PCI-e lanes, it shares them with the rest of the PCI-e x1 lanes. The distribution of the lines of the graphics subsystem is good. All the main “power” of the motherboard goes to the operation of one video card; when additional modules are connected, it will not be cut in performance. However, the board lost support for NVIDIA SLI (NVlink) and AMD CrossFire due to the second cut off PCI-e x16. But gamers who need to integrate graphics cards may want to look at the older B550-E model, where this option is available.
The cooler control system in this board is the same as in the older version – six adjustable connectors. You can also note the presence of a temperature connector T_SENSOR, as in the older model of the series.
There is no POST indicator here, but there are LEDs soldered on the board itself, which show the initialization of PC components at startup. Better than nothing.
The VRM zone power controller is the same as the B550-F, but the circuitry is slightly different. The manufacturer claims 14 phases, but in fact the circuit looks like 4×3 + 2×1. The composition of the chokes and power cascades has changed in comparison with the older model of the motherboard. There are no problems with cooling, temperature readings are sometimes even a few degrees lower in a well-ventilated case.
3DMark – Before Overclocking
3DMark – after overclocking
Cinebench – Before Overclocking
Cinebench – After Overclocking
AIDA64 CPUID
AIDA64 Cache & Memory
AIDA64
ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING
Specifications:
- Supported Processors: AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation (Gen 5 not officially released, but support is planned)
- Chipset: B550
- Supported RAM: up to four DIMM DDR4, up to 128GB
- Expansion slots: one PCI Express x16 4.0
- Drive Slots: One M.2 SATA 6Gb / s PCI Express x4 4.0, One M.2 SATA 6Gb / s PCI Express x4 3.0, Six SATA 6Gb / s
- Network Card: Wi-Fi, Intel I225V, 2.5 Gbps
- Audio codec: Realtek ALC1220 7.1 HD
- Connectors: one HDMI, one DisplayPort, one USB 2.0, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A), two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-C), one 2.5G LAN, 3 minijack
- Form Factor: mini-ITX
- Price: from 18,199 rubles
- Warranty: three years
In addition to the motherboard, the box contains the following configuration:
- Instruction with user manual, a set of branded stickers, stickers for marking SATA cables, CD with drivers;
- Wi-Fi antenna;
- two SATA cables;
- screws for securing M.2 SSD drives;
- adapters;
- cable ties;
- audio adapter from Type-C to mini-jack.
Design
Although the motherboard form factor is mini-ITX, we have similar design solutions as in the entire B550 series. Namely – black colors with red and purple accents, a stylized ROG logo.
The board is powered by a standard 24-pin connector. There are 8 pins for the processor. Next to the power connector, we can see the diagnostic LEDs, as on the B550-F-series.
PCI-e х16 port on the board is armored using the same technologies as on other B550 models.
There are two M.2 slots on the board, one on the back side, the second on the front, it is covered with a heat dissipating plate. The first slot divides the PCIe processor lanes and supports PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA-III. The second slot is for chipset lines and supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA-III.
Three case coolers and two LED strips can be connected to the board.
It should be noted that the solutions of the audio codec and the network card here migrated from the older versions of the B550. The same high quality, non-trimmed chips.
The board supports DDR4 DIMM memory with a maximum capacity of 64 GB and a frequency of up to 5100 MHz (overclocked).
SATA connectors are presented here in the amount of four pieces, we can also connect additional USB 3.2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports.
The board has the ability to connect temperature sensors and update the BIOS from a USB flash drive. There is also a BIOS reset button.
The processor power subsystem is composed of 10 phases (8 + 2), located around the socket. PWM controller – DIGI + ASP1106JGQW (4 + 2).
If the heatsink on other B550 motherboards was enough to get good temperatures with a passive cooling system, then due to the mini-ITX form factor, ASUS decided to install several heat pipes and a 30 mm radius cooling cooler – it is hidden under a branded plate. Temperatures, of course, will be significantly higher here – we got 73 degrees in the zones of power circuits without a well-ventilated case. But the system worked stably.
The rear panel includes the following connectors and interfaces: one FlashBack button, one HDMI, one DisplayPort, one USB 2.0, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A), two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-C), one 2.5G LAN, two Wi-Fi / Bluetooth antenna connectors, three mini-jacks.
3DMark – Before Overclocking
3DMark – after overclocking
Cinebench – Before Overclocking
Cinebench – After Overclocking
AIDA64 CPUID
AIDA64 Cache & Memory
AIDA64
Outcome
All boards excellent for their price segments and do an excellent job. We have the flagship B550-E, the mid-range B550-F board and the B550-I compact PC board. If the first two are still possible to look for competitors in terms of configuration and price, then the mini-ITX solution pleased us the most. An excellent board for fans of compact assemblies, which allows you to both overclock the processor and especially do not deny yourself the assembly of a powerful PC. In general, all boards are balanced in terms of price / quality ratio and will be an excellent foundation for assembling your PC, based on the amount you want to spend on components. And most importantly, these boards have a reserve for the future, as they are compatible with the next generation Ryzen processors and include PCI-e 4.0 ports.
Author: Alexey Sarafanov (ASarafanov)
Read also: Premium water cooling: ASUS TUF Gaming LC 240 RGB review…
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