Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming AM4 ATX Motherboard

A very decent board, works great and the bios is full of features.Board looks nice great with preinstalled i/o shield, the manual is clear, and the box contain all you need to get good build started.With Ryzen 5 3600 the system started without any hiccups. The bios update was trouble free and to my surprise, I could source the file from my hdd rather than the usual , potentially less reliable usb drive.I am not used to this bios UI since that's my first Asus since S1155 but it was not that difficult to get my head round it. The board assisted me well with my oc attempts - I managed to get my Ryzen 5 3600 working stable at 4.4ghz @ 1.25v (2022SUS) and all voltages, temperatures and system seem solid. I liked how this board responds to failed overclocking settings, ... MoreA very decent board, works great and the bios is full of features.Board looks nice great with preinstalled i/o shield, the manual is clear, and the box contain all you need to get good build started.With Ryzen 5 3600 the system started without any hiccups. The bios update was trouble free and to my surprise, I could source the file from my hdd rather than the usual , potentially less reliable usb drive.I am not used to this bios UI since that's my first Asus since S1155 but it was not that difficult to get my head round it. The board assisted me well with my oc attempts - I managed to get my Ryzen 5 3600 working stable at 4.4ghz @ 1.25v (2022SUS) and all voltages, temperatures and system seem solid. I liked how this board responds to failed overclocking settings, I did all my oc attempts without a single clear of cmos and I was playing a lot with it.The only thing I don't like are the single lock memory banks. think this design is bad and increase chances of damaging the memory sticks during the installation.However, overall, I am happy with the purchase - the quality is good, it's stable, the bios is rich in features, the audio chip is great, I/O ports are where they should be and all work perfectly fine.

Be very careful about the memory you buy

Most disappointing thing about this board so far has been the overclocking results. I used RealBench Total scores for comparisons. 1. GSKILL Trident Z F4-3000C16D-16GTZR is on the QVL. It is a 2x16GB kit. Everytime I build or buy a computer I wish I had more RAM, but not this time. So I bought two kits ***WRONG***. APPARENTLY even though the kits are on the QVL for this board, it does not mean you can use two of them on the same board. SO this means if you don't buy a 32GB kit in the beginning (my search on newegg had some astronomical price for 32GB kit) you CAN NEVER UPGRADE YOUR MEMORY. When I use either of the kits the system boots fine. But when I put both kits in the system fails to boot if I use the XMP. 2. If I use both kits of F4-3000C16D-16GTZR the only ... MoreMost disappointing thing about this board so far has been the overclocking results. I used RealBench Total scores for comparisons. 1. GSKILL Trident Z F4-3000C16D-16GTZR is on the QVL. It is a 2x16GB kit. Everytime I build or buy a computer I wish I had more RAM, but not this time. So I bought two kits ***WRONG***. APPARENTLY even though the kits are on the QVL for this board, it does not mean you can use two of them on the same board. SO this means if you don't buy a 32GB kit in the beginning (my search on newegg had some astronomical price for 32GB kit) you CAN NEVER UPGRADE YOUR MEMORY. When I use either of the kits the system boots fine. But when I put both kits in the system fails to boot if I use the XMP. 2. If I use both kits of F4-3000C16D-16GTZR the only Memory Frequency I can overclock to is 2800. Why pay for a 3000 speed kit when I can't set it to that speed on this board 3. Overclocking CPU can mean lower RealBench scores?? really? - One of the 16GB kits installed; non overclocked Real Bench total score = 88,822 - Two of the 16GB kits installed; non overclocked = 82,401 - One 16GB kit with XMP 3000 = 106,381 - Two kits with XMP 3000 = fail to boot - One kit tried to "overclock CPU" because of CPU fan it would only do 5% score = 83,934 = LESS THAN non-OVERCLOCK score So in the end, after all the testing, the "best" I could do right now is install the 2 kits to get 32GB, set the memory frequency to 2800 and not do any overclocking. I may also request to return one or all of the RAM kits

FANTASTIC and seriously underrated board

Because this is a B450-F and not the new x570 hotness this board is often overlooked. However, this board is still CURRENTLY in production. The one I got was already updated to the newest bios, easily accepted my AMD 3700x and G.Skill Ripjaws 3200 with 0 issues. There's nothing you're going to be buying for an x570 board that you can't run on this board, the only difference is your wallet won't be on fire after you buy this one!A lot of the cutting edge boards that cost 4x more offer no real benefit to the users, even for high-end video and modeling users. Not to mention cutting edge parts that fit on cutting edge boards cost 4x as much as well (i.e. gen 4 NVME SSDs), yet nothing takes advantage of that performance bonus nor is it significantly noticeable.With ... MoreBecause this is a B450-F and not the new x570 hotness this board is often overlooked. However, this board is still CURRENTLY in production. The one I got was already updated to the newest bios, easily accepted my AMD 3700x and G.Skill Ripjaws 3200 with 0 issues. There's nothing you're going to be buying for an x570 board that you can't run on this board, the only difference is your wallet won't be on fire after you buy this one!A lot of the cutting edge boards that cost 4x more offer no real benefit to the users, even for high-end video and modeling users. Not to mention cutting edge parts that fit on cutting edge boards cost 4x as much as well (i.e. gen 4 NVME SSDs), yet nothing takes advantage of that performance bonus nor is it significantly noticeable.With this board, I'm running all games on the highest settings (with a 1080 FTW2 graphics card and easily getting rock-solid 135-140fps, including in games like Modern Warfare Warzone.When I installed this I made no changes to the bios by hand and when Windows loaded up I ran AMD Ryzen Master (software), it let me set the memory to 3600 (aka memory bus speed to 1800) and then reset and configured the bios for me. I've had 0 problems with this board. The AMD processor boosts itself, and the memory is OC'ed to 3600... when I spoke with userbenchmark (for those that use the site) it decried my new stealth machine as a UFO for all three categories.Don't waste your money, this board will be the bee's knees for a long time to come!

Good looks, good capability, good value

I got this motherboard to replace a dinky little mATX or maybe ITX form factor motherboard I got a while ago. The improvement is amazing. It's a very roomy motherboard, for one - there are lots of places to plug in everything I could *possibly* want to connect to my PC. It even has two M.2 slots, if for some ungodly reason I wanted to put twin NVMe SSDs in this thing. Currently I have it running 6 pieces of storage media and a graphics card and it's doing just fine. What I really appreciate about that is that it supports hot-swapping SATA drives: I've always wanted to use a 12TB hard drive as a big memory card I can swap.Despite the ludicrous amount of configuration this motherboard supports, it does have a few drawbacks. For one, there's only one part of the ... MoreI got this motherboard to replace a dinky little mATX or maybe ITX form factor motherboard I got a while ago. The improvement is amazing. It's a very roomy motherboard, for one - there are lots of places to plug in everything I could *possibly* want to connect to my PC. It even has two M.2 slots, if for some ungodly reason I wanted to put twin NVMe SSDs in this thing. Currently I have it running 6 pieces of storage media and a graphics card and it's doing just fine. What I really appreciate about that is that it supports hot-swapping SATA drives: I've always wanted to use a 12TB hard drive as a big memory card I can swap.Despite the ludicrous amount of configuration this motherboard supports, it does have a few drawbacks. For one, there's only one part of the motherboard that has LED lighting and it's the panel by the CPU. The one near the SATA ports doesn't actually light up. That was... mildly disappointing. Additionally, trying to figure out what configuration I could put everything in according to the manual made my head spin, because apparently what processor you use has a heavy effect on how the different connectors will operate. For instance, my GPU is running in x8 mode instead of x16 mode, and it took a lot of panicked Google searching to figure out that that doesn't actually matter all that much. The manual could be clearer on that matter.However, after a lot of puzzling over how exactly to attach everything, I have to say that it works really well. I've had no issues with this motherboard whatsoever beyond the confusing manual. Additionally, even though the B450 platform will be outdated pretty soon, it'll take me a while to outgrow this motherboard, I think. All in all, it's everything I could ask for except built-in wireless, and it looks good too.

Not bad but not cheap enough.

Pros-Aesthetically pleasing and tasteful RGB logo. The black and silver accents go really well together.-Good amount of USB ports and integrated I/O shield.-BIOS is fairly straightforward for the most part.-Integrated RGB lighting with iCue.Cons-If desired, the RGB logo has to be manually disabled through two sets of menus in the BIOS. There doesn't appear to be an option to turn it off when the PC is asleep and also have it on when it's awake. Seems to be either on all the time or off completely.-Not sure if it's ASUS' terminology but it was hard finding the option for AMD's equivalent of XMP.-Fan control isn't as tight as Gigabyte's.-Saving profiles isn't as fine-tuned as I'd like it to be.-My headphone jack works if you plug something in at ... MorePros-Aesthetically pleasing and tasteful RGB logo. The black and silver accents go really well together.-Good amount of USB ports and integrated I/O shield.-BIOS is fairly straightforward for the most part.-Integrated RGB lighting with iCue.Cons-If desired, the RGB logo has to be manually disabled through two sets of menus in the BIOS. There doesn't appear to be an option to turn it off when the PC is asleep and also have it on when it's awake. Seems to be either on all the time or off completely.-Not sure if it's ASUS' terminology but it was hard finding the option for AMD's equivalent of XMP.-Fan control isn't as tight as Gigabyte's.-Saving profiles isn't as fine-tuned as I'd like it to be.-My headphone jack works if you plug something in at least three times in a row and produces a buzzing sound intermittently.I do not believe the 129.99 price tag is warranted considering you're really just paying the ASUS tax and its VRMs aren't any better than the cheaper B450 Tomahawk Max. The only reason I went for this were the USB ports on the I/O first and foremost followed by the integrated I/O shield. If the Tomahawk Max had it, I would have bought that instead. If I could have found the Gigabyte Aorus Elite/Pro on Open Box, I would have purchased that over the Tomahawk Max due to familiarity and ease of use of the Gigabyte BIOS.

OK board, has issues

Purchased this board as a stopgap while awaiting Zen2, due to issues with an old system.As a stopgap, it works fine.As a "real" board, it falls short in a number of ways:- VRM temperature is WAY too high, even on a 65w CPU.- The first NVMe slot is too close to other hot components, making an NVMe drive run extremely hot.- Adding an NVMe drive - of ANY type - disables two of the SATA ports, meaning this board functionally only has four SATA ports, not six. This is difficult information to find, and will come as a shock if you boot and discover that some of your drives suddenly don't work.- ASUS advertises full control over all of the fan headers, but you ONLY have full control over the three chassis headers. The AIO_PUMP and W_PUMP headers provide some ... MorePurchased this board as a stopgap while awaiting Zen2, due to issues with an old system.As a stopgap, it works fine.As a "real" board, it falls short in a number of ways:- VRM temperature is WAY too high, even on a 65w CPU.- The first NVMe slot is too close to other hot components, making an NVMe drive run extremely hot.- Adding an NVMe drive - of ANY type - disables two of the SATA ports, meaning this board functionally only has four SATA ports, not six. This is difficult information to find, and will come as a shock if you boot and discover that some of your drives suddenly don't work.- ASUS advertises full control over all of the fan headers, but you ONLY have full control over the three chassis headers. The AIO_PUMP and W_PUMP headers provide some control, but will not go below 50% fan speed.- Aura software is incompatible with other ASUS Aura devices (mice, keyboards). Not sure if this is purely the software, or the board.- Aura software is incompatible with a number of other third-party devices which ASUS claims to be Aura-compatible. ASUS has admitted such, and has admitted that they have no plan to fix the issue.- BIOS bug causes the system to hard-lock if Aura is running while ANY other monitoring software (HWMonitor, CPU-Z) is running.If you have the money and this is going to be your long-term system, I highly recommend at least going with an MSI/ASRock board, or moving up to an X470.

Pretty solid board during pandemic

If you are trying to build a rig like I did during the pandemic, not only good luck finding parts or good luck finding parts that aren't double retail prices right now, (ridiculous and should be the opposite) but buying this board as opposed to a tomahawk isn't IMO a step down, this thing really is solid, works out of the box as of end of June/beginning of July with 3rd gen Ryzen's. Awesome and easy to use/understand BIOS, ( i'm in ZERO way a PC nerd or expert, just built my first "pro rig" to better my Twitch stream, and I overclocked my Ryzen within 30 minutes and GPU ) , plenty of USB 2.0 AND 3.0 ports. Has 2 fast charging 3.1 ports as well. Has a DP port which is nice, but kind of unnecessary as not many people use built in graphics anymore. Mine didnt come with ... MoreIf you are trying to build a rig like I did during the pandemic, not only good luck finding parts or good luck finding parts that aren't double retail prices right now, (ridiculous and should be the opposite) but buying this board as opposed to a tomahawk isn't IMO a step down, this thing really is solid, works out of the box as of end of June/beginning of July with 3rd gen Ryzen's. Awesome and easy to use/understand BIOS, ( i'm in ZERO way a PC nerd or expert, just built my first "pro rig" to better my Twitch stream, and I overclocked my Ryzen within 30 minutes and GPU ) , plenty of USB 2.0 AND 3.0 ports. Has 2 fast charging 3.1 ports as well. Has a DP port which is nice, but kind of unnecessary as not many people use built in graphics anymore. Mine didnt come with a IO frame or plate, not sure if its meant that way or not, kind of has one on it already on the edges. But other than that, super nice board, with a hint of RGB on the logo. So much to make it look presentable but not too much RGB to where is looks like a try hard. The only downside ive come into contact with would be the lack of more than 3 fan headers. I know you can use the AIO pump header but you can't customize the fan as much/easily as the 4 pin dedicated fan headers can. So you'll need a 4 pin splitter or fan controller if you want to completely control more than 3 fans in your case. Does have 2 RGB headers in pretty smart spots as well to hide wires efficiently. 4 channel Ram is a nice touch. I'm currently built with This MOBO Ryzen 7 3600x EVGA RTX 2070 super Corsair H115i water cooler Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32gb (4 x 8gb) Corsair LL120 Rgb Pro fans x 6 NZXT H710

Really nice motherboard

There hasn't been the full selection of Ryzen motherboards since COVID, so this wasn't my first choice. I was incorrect, this is a top choice board. I'm running Ryzen 3700X with no hiccups at all, and it is considerably more tasteful that the Asus TUF boards. It lacks any built in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth but it has gobs of PCIe ports to remedy that.A pet peeve that I have with 99% of Ryzen boards is that they have monitor headers even though most Ryzen chips don't support graphics. This is a lost opportunity, especially on higher end boards to utilize that space to better effect. Imagine that Ryzen boards had on-average 6 more USB 3.2 ports vs intel counterports?Back to this board specifically, a clean install of Windows 10 triggered the ASUS ROG installer, which was ... MoreThere hasn't been the full selection of Ryzen motherboards since COVID, so this wasn't my first choice. I was incorrect, this is a top choice board. I'm running Ryzen 3700X with no hiccups at all, and it is considerably more tasteful that the Asus TUF boards. It lacks any built in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth but it has gobs of PCIe ports to remedy that.A pet peeve that I have with 99% of Ryzen boards is that they have monitor headers even though most Ryzen chips don't support graphics. This is a lost opportunity, especially on higher end boards to utilize that space to better effect. Imagine that Ryzen boards had on-average 6 more USB 3.2 ports vs intel counterports?Back to this board specifically, a clean install of Windows 10 triggered the ASUS ROG installer, which was pretty sweet, I was able to get the chipset drivers from there... very polished.The fit and finish on the board itself is impressive, it's kind of a shame that it will never be visible when you're not holding the board in your hands. The text is gloss black over matte black... invisible after 6 inches. Maybe a white case with better lighting would show this text better.Overall I'm really happy with it, so much so that I may have to redo the TUF board on another system and exchange it for another one of these.

Rock solid board through MC's CPU/MOBO bundle.

Sticker price was $129, got $20 off by pairing it with a Ryzen 5 3600 through MC. Was going to pair with a TOMAHAWK MAX but MC was out of stock, so for less than $20 more than that, I grabbed this board, justifying the increase to aesthetics.And let me say, it's a great looking board. ROG logo on the heat shield is the only ARGB component on this board, the text in the bottom right is passively reflective, but will look great under case-lighting.If you're not going the full RGB Route, the logo alone is actually a nice splash of color in what may be an otherwise dark case like my setup. Enough to make the board pop out when you want, but you won't be scrambling for the settings because it is distractingly bright.For a typical gaming PC, this board has virtually ... MoreSticker price was $129, got $20 off by pairing it with a Ryzen 5 3600 through MC. Was going to pair with a TOMAHAWK MAX but MC was out of stock, so for less than $20 more than that, I grabbed this board, justifying the increase to aesthetics.And let me say, it's a great looking board. ROG logo on the heat shield is the only ARGB component on this board, the text in the bottom right is passively reflective, but will look great under case-lighting.If you're not going the full RGB Route, the logo alone is actually a nice splash of color in what may be an otherwise dark case like my setup. Enough to make the board pop out when you want, but you won't be scrambling for the settings because it is distractingly bright.For a typical gaming PC, this board has virtually everything you need. Works with the Ryzen 5 3600 out of the box, no BIOS update needed (but confirm this with MC staff before you purchase, just in case!), works with the 3600 MHz RAM I paired with it, multiple PCLE slots and more than enough fan headers for my needs.I do not overclock the build that I paired this with, so I can't speak to its capabilities and performance there, but for my use of stock components to play games, I have zero issues at all.BIOS settings are straightforward and easy to set up so that my RAM runs at the speed I want and boot drives are correctly chosen. Plenty of youtube tutorials for those who need them (like me)My one gripe is that it's got a 12V RGB header and to be honest I would much rather prefer the 5V ARGB header instead, but that's not a fault of the product and more of buyer's choice. Just know that's what you're getting with this board and pick any components accordingly.All in all, for a Ryzen 5 3600 build this is a great board to build around, and for a great price to boot. Grab it with a bundle and save some money.

Terrible integrated back plate doesn't fit standard cases; unit Dead on Arrival

This motherboard came recommended with my upgrade to AMD Ryzen products. Unfortunately, I have not even been able to put it together because the first step I took, putting it into the case, failed. The motherboard's integrated IO back plate or "shield" is incompatible with any case that is not specifically designed to accept it. There is a huge plastic cover over the IO area on the board itself and the integrated back plate will be prevented from popping into place if the hole in your case is even a millimeter off. ASUS, there's a reason why IO shields are a separate thing with every other company: it's an industry standard. Nobody asked for this terrible solution to a problem nobody had. Separate back plates are universally compatible because there isn't a MASSIVE ... MoreThis motherboard came recommended with my upgrade to AMD Ryzen products. Unfortunately, I have not even been able to put it together because the first step I took, putting it into the case, failed. The motherboard's integrated IO back plate or "shield" is incompatible with any case that is not specifically designed to accept it. There is a huge plastic cover over the IO area on the board itself and the integrated back plate will be prevented from popping into place if the hole in your case is even a millimeter off. ASUS, there's a reason why IO shields are a separate thing with every other company: it's an industry standard. Nobody asked for this terrible solution to a problem nobody had. Separate back plates are universally compatible because there isn't a MASSIVE HUNK OF PLASTIC preventing them from fitting. I will never buy another ROG product, you clearly do not understand what "gamers" need - the ability to actually fit their hardware. After setting up a test case with it, however, I was able to hook everything up and try to turn everything on to test the rest of my new components. The computer failed to even post. I removed everything down to the motherboard and it turns out the mobo is completely unresponsive. The power supply works for everything else, but there's no post. Even just a power supply, motherboard, and monitor do nothing. Then I tested with a known working power supply (from my current PC) and no post. I am extremely disappointed in this "high end" "gaming" motherboard. ROG is a lot of flash for not a lot of return, so don't waste your time - get a cheap $80 board that does the same thing.