Release date : 30th Jan. 2025 MSRP : 350 USD Compatible CPU :RYZEN 7000 RYZEN 8000 RYZEN 9000 Chipset : B850 (AMD) PCIe Lanes : 24 PCIe 5.0 (CPU) 4 PCIe 3.0 (PCH) 8 PCIe 4.0 (PCH) CPU Socket : AM5 LGA1718 (AMD)
A couple of weeks ago, during the CES 2025 I had given you the first (and exclusive) look at the new ASUS B850 powered motherboards and we did spot the very sexy STRIX line-up of motherboards (cause they are sexy). And today we are taking it apart, touching it in forbidden ways, four our greatest geek pleasure.
While all eyes are on more budget oriented B850 powered motherboards ASUS priced its STRIX ‘E’ at a whooping 350 USD before taxes. And the all question is, what are you getting for it, and is worth it?
- Excellent VRM
- Excellent cooling components
- USB 4.0 plugs present
- 6.5 Gbs WIFI 7 adapter
- GREAT PCIe 5.0 integration and support
- Price
- M.2 SSD plates should have a screwless removal system
DESIGN AND RGB
The design remains STRIX loyal with a dark, aggressive and angular look. Its laser-cut, it’s point and I like it when things are pointy.
I also like the more punk / funk underlines, the turquoise blues, the flashy pink, the big lettering.
The RGB is classy with a single 8 bit back lidded ROG eye on the main vrm block . Nothing tacky.
In addition we have our usual 3 ARGB connectors to express, well whatever you want to express.
Definitely a more researched, more dressed and a more invested design coming from ASUS here… well done again.
RGB wise, the STRIX remains
- x3 addressable RGB Connectors
All of the above are obviously fully customizable (and sync-able) through ASUS very own AURA software.
PCB
It costs more, adding PCB layers is probably the most expensive thing a manufacturer can do, but its repercussions are deep and touches about every fundamentals on your board:
- Heat dissipation
- Signal interferences and hence system stability
- And the overall motherboard lifespan.
CPU Socket (AM5 LGA1718)
Our LGA1718 AM5 socket can support :
- RYZEN 7000
- RYZEN 8000
- RYZEN 9000
The board is powered by our usual AM5 CPU socket now providing a wide range of Ryzen CPU support. always a plus.
B850 CHIPSET
The brand new B850 chipset is powered by a familiar PROMOD21 chip running on a cold 7 Watts heat foot print, the B850 PCH doesn’t need much to stay cool.
The B850 chipset is a real revolution of its own right. It gives access to as many PCIe 5.0 lanes than seen on the more expensive X870 and X870E chipsets. The only limitations you will find are on the USB fronts.
It doesn’t mean that you will have as much bandwidth as seen on a X870E powered board, but you’ll get much closer than on the previous B650 / X670E combo.
In short, the B series powered boards, bring a clear price advantage and can compete with some of its more expensive X870 siblings.
VRM
- CPU : x16 90A MPS2427 power phases organized in a 8 parallel phase configuration
- VCCAUX: x2 80A SIC629 power phases
- IGPU: x2 90A MPS2427 power phases
- VRM CONTROLLER : ASP2206
We have a powerful 1,800 AMPS power solution organized in a 16+2+2 configuration, 1,440 AMPS of which is CPU centric. Clearly this is where ASUS is banking to partially motivate the rather heavy price-tag of this board.
This is a proper premium monster, agile enough to face voltage variations and powerful enough to toy with some serious overclocking because, again. the B850 chipset is OC enabled.
VRM Cooling
The two VRM cooling blocks are separated, but bring a lot onto the table.
VRM MAIN COOLING BLOCK
The main block has a strong a dense wall for heat storage and the extended roof, despite being smaller than expected is incredibly heat resilient.
VRM SIDE COOLING BLOCK
The side block shows off sharp winglets to maximize heat transfers and is wider than on the previous B Strix hethiration.
They got our usual double contact design with premium and fresh thermal pads for a more intimate power stage and chokes heat relief.
VRM Temps
And results are naturally good!
The cooling results are absolutely second to known. After an hour long synthetic stress test, we have a very homogeneous non saturated heat relief.
After the twenty minutes mark, the temps stayed in a very close range pointing at a faster heat relief than what is harvested by the blocks.
Giving a rather good prospect both in terms of room for oc performance increase, and overall board lifespan.
Given the price and the standing of the Strix I’m giving it a solid 8 / 10 and would NOT want to see this board paired with anything less than a R7.
RAM
RAM wise the board will support up to 192 GB of DDR5 ram with a 8000 MT/s rating, organized in a dual channel configuration, 48 GB of RAM less than supported of more expensive X870 powered motherboards.
But as it stands, it is quite a lot of memory for a B series. The clock rating surpasses most of the best premium X670 boards seen last season and is particularly suited for some memory intensive application such as video editing.
Which is exactly what we had seen last year on the STRIX B650E-E GAMING WiFi.
So if you were looking for something new, please pass your way peasant.
STORAGE
Our board shows-off 5 M.2 SSD connectors,
Staying in the memory things start to drastically change if compared to last year model. We have, 5 M.2 SSDs connectors, 3 of which are PCIe 5.0 enabled against “only” 4 M.2 SSDs last year two of which were PCIe 5.0 enabled. In other words, the PCIe 5.0 support is broaden, which is a good thing.
Cooling wise, obviously, the star here is the PCIe 5.0 connector, which features this tall and dense cooling block.
In addition we have a double contact thermal padded treatment which show a real care, almost paranoia-graded care, for that stick.
Special mention for the second double thermal padding treatment which is not that surprising since this is the M.2 SSD which will be trapped under the heat bleeding GPU. Good foresight coming from ASUS here.
The other connectors also benefit from a large, thick thermo padded plate.
I want to note the, again redesigned, and study screwless nvme locking mechanism.
So far and storage wise the strix e b850 has nothing to envy from it’s x870 counterparts. It’s heavy, it’s fast, and it’s cooled all around.
My only remark is that, only the this connector’s block got a screw-less latch mechanism, which btw is very precise and sturdy. For the rest we got screws… more screws. Something I’d love to see go away next year.
PCIe EXPORTS
When compared the its B650E predecessor (ROG STRIX B650E-E GAMING WIFI), we are losing the dual GPU @PCIe 5.0 support and thank God for that, because to be frank, that 2nd GPU port was fed by only 4 PCIe 5.0 lanes, which will bottleneck any available 5000 NVIDIA GPUs and even some of its 4000 series. Not exactly a multiple GPU platform. I much prefer to see our money focused on features we actually use instead of financing a pointless spec war.
Instead we have a refocused very fast, sturdy GPU export fed by a future-proofing 16 lanes @ PCIe 5.0 standard for a total of 64 GBs worth of data swap in each direction.
One other good point, the GPU eject mechanism is now replaced by a trigger based release system, housed inside the the PCIe export. Simple and intuitive, simply pull off the GPU, and, the once secured card, will be free as a bird.
I think that ASUS Q-SLIM ends the couple of years of GPU ejection mechanism conversation all the manufacturers went through and I can predict, despite some sterile that this is the final GPU removal mechanism we will see around for some time.
PCIe Bifurcation
Given the massive amount of bandwidth hungry components, it is without surprise that ASUS has to make some difficult choices in terms of PCIe re-routing and bifurcation.
If any (or both) of these two PCIe 5.0 supplementary M.2 SSDs, you are dividing the GPU export bandwidth by available lanes will be divided by two.
If you use any (or both) of the PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs, the secondary PCIe export goes dead.
But on the immensely bright side, it also means that you can use both a fully operational 16 lanes @ PCIE 5.0 standard GPU export along a fully operational PCIe 5.0 enabled M.2 connector.
Only could we see this kind of bandwidth availability on X670E or X870 powered motherboards, and this is incredibly exciting to now see it on B850 powered ones as well!
It really is a big deal!
The BACK IO
- Our accessible troubleshooting features, clear CMOS and BIOS button for a CPU-less BIOS UPDATE
- x4 USB 2.0 Gen (480 Mbs)
- x5 USB 3.2 2nd Gen all able to transfer data upto 10 Gbs
- x1 USB 3.2 2nd Gen 2×2 able to transfer data upto 20 Gbs (TYPE-C) with super fast charging ability.
- WiFi 7 (802.11Be / 320 MHz) with a subsistent ally higher 6.5 Gbs transfer rate and a very low latency fiber grade)
- x1 USB 4.0 with an unprecedented 40 Gbs transfer rate, which doubles as a 1.4a DISPLAY PORT (4K@60Hz or 8K@ 30 Hz) as well.
- x1 DisplayPort 1.4 4096×2304@60 Hz HDCP 2.3
- x1 HDMI 2.1 4096×2304@60 Hz with HDR
- x1 very premium, speed modulated 5 GbE LAN plug, which, doubles the previously available LAN adapter
- ALC4080 from Realtek cleanse by a massive 500 microfarads worth of capacitors and insulated by an interference shield. Obviously, with dedicated channel layers, that many cleansing capacitors, an interference shield, we get the best of what the ALC 4080 can give but most importantly it is perfection in terms of recording! Awesome for audio recording, and streamers of all sorts.
Overall, we are dealing with an extremely well-equipped back IO. It is about 30%less bandwidth abilities than the ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMGIN WIFI, but still, 140 Gbs worth of bandwidth is massive and most importantly the connectivity and audio features of the board are identical. Big KUDOS to ASUS for this !
Front Panel Connectors
We go the usual stuff, no super charging port, a limited 10 gbs type-C, we are in the lower spectrum of the norm.
- x2 USB 2.0 (480 Mbs)
- x1 USB 3.0 (5 Gbs)
- x1 USB 3.2 2nd Gen 2×1(10 Gbs)
Cooling wise,
We have 8 pwm fan connectors including 1 water pump AIO plug. Again in the norm but nothing exciting for the custom water coolers out there, but still all the basics for a solid air flow and our all-in-one water cooling apparatus.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Ez debugger, Q-code OLED screen for a precise problem identification, power soldered button (not present on the previous apparition of the board), CPU-less BIOS update button, CLEAR_CMOS button (BACK IO) WE HAVE IT ALL .
I am happy, I am centered, I am taken care of.
CONCLUSION
THE ROG STRIX B850-E GAMING WIFI will cost you about 350 bucks before taxes, or 150 USD cheaper than its ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI bigger sibling, and frankly talking, when you see what both bring on the table, I feel like The ROG STRIX B850-E GAMING WIFI has better arguments.
Sure it doesn’t have the same RAM support (192 GB DDR5 vs 256 GB on the ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI) , it doesn’t look as heavy and as dressed, but if I compare, spec to specs, well, the STRIX B850-E GAMING WIFI manages to do a lot of what its STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI more expensive counterpart can do.
We got the same fundamentals in terms of PCB layering, export and storage bandwidth abilities. And for the rest, I don’t see myself missing what the STRIX X870E brings, not as much as 150 of my own hard earned bucks.
But that is what you get when you have a B850 chipset which, non-sencically might be better than a X870 chipset.
In short, if you are looking for about the best gaming, robust, “slash” everything-board for less than 400 bucks, you’d be a flat-earther-graded moron not to buy it.
