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Alton Walton photo
United Kingdom, Belfast
1 Level
752 Review
47 Karma

Review on ๐ŸŽฎ ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming II AMD AM4 (Ryzen 5000, 3rd Gen Ryzen) ATX Gaming Motherboard: 8+4 Power Stages, HDMI 2.0b/DP, 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, BIOS Flashback, 256Mb BIOS Flash ROM by Alton Walton

Revainrating 4 out of 5

BIG BUDGET ROG AM4 Mobo

*****UPDATE*****New BIOS update 0602 Fixed board voltage issues (make sure to update your bios) got my Ryzen 5 2600 (non X) to 4.1GHz with reasonably good temperatures on the Cooler Master MA410P tower heatsink with a Corsair ML120 Pro fan instead of the standard fan overclock an RGB fan with 3200MHz RAM and 2065MHz OS on an Asus Strix OC GTX 1060 6GB. I still have some fiddling to do with my operating system, but everything is pretty stable. I love this motherboard as a great option for a budget AM4 ROG board! I've had nothing but great quality products from the Asus Republic of Gamers range (starting with LGA 775 with Maximus II Gene and then Maximus IV Gene-Z on LGA 1155). They now have a ROG Strix line of high-end budget options versus their more expensive options. I can be sure that a beginner PC builder can easily work with this board and gaming PC. Also, I didn't get SPD memory lock (it was on Crosshair VI board and Gskill Trident z RGB memory last year) when using Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro with Corsair iCUE (because RAM doesn't currently support Aura). This board also features excellent VRM cooling. The Ryzen 5 2600 was able to overclock to 3.85GHz on a Cooler Master MA410P (the RGB fan was replaced with a non-RGB Corsair ML120 Pro) at good temperatures, and the VRM stayed cool. The only downside to this board is that it requires Windows 10 to get Windows updates if you're hesitant to update platforms, still running 7/8.1, or just using a tinfoil hat (Microsoft provides the same telemetry in Windows 7 and 8.1, so Windows 10 or no, still the same telemetry) (yes, it has drivers for Windows 7, but Microsoft will not offer Windows upgrades on chips before AMD Summit Ridge and Intel Kaby Lake). This board is more expensive than the cheaper Asrock and MSI B450 boards (most B450 boards are around $70-$110), but if you're Republic of Gamers on a budget, you don't need an Nvidia SLi (I'm Assuming you're only using 1 GPU when you get this) you'll need a well overclockable B450 board and higher quality than the cheaper Asrock and MSI and the horrible boards Gigabyte makes to get this.

Pros
  • DIY fit: with BIOS Flashback and ASUS exclusive UEFI BIOS, 256MB BIOS Flash and pre-installed I/O Shield
Cons
  • Lots of stuff