ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming Motherboard review

This review was written for DV Hardware by Costea Lestoc from Pro Clockers

Asus released an excellent motherboard for gaming in 2018 with a price tag of only $120, making it one of the most logical choices for gamers on a budget. Interestingly, despite the low cost, it has been identified as one of the best motherboards for the AMD Ryzen 7 3700x; one of the most popular and successful processors available at the moment. The mobo looks good and it comes with plenty of features – except for a few missing things like M.2 heatsinks or Wi-Fi. But before we decide whether this motherboard is a good choice for your new gaming PC or not, let’s take a look at it and put it to work.

In our Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming Motherboard Review, we will see what this motherboard offers, and we will look at its specs, software, benchmark results before drawing a conclusion.

the motherboard

Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming - The Best ATX Motherboard Under $125
Budget-friendly and OC-capable, the Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming comes with an enhanced DRAM overclocking. It is classed as a mid-range motherboard, focusing on gaming and offering related premium features.

The motherboard has 6+2 phase VRM and supports all Ryzen processors. The Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming has features based off its bigger sibling, the X470 board. Here are the full specs.

Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming – Specs

Socket: AM4

Chipset: B450

Memory: (4) DDR4

Storage: 2 × M.2, 6 × SATA

Multi GPU Support: Crossfire X

Expansion Slots: 2 × PCIe x16, 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16, 3 x PCIe 2.0 x1

Form Factor: ATX

Dimensions (W x H x D): 10.8 x 13.3 x 2.7 in

Back Panel Ports: 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s), 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, 1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s), 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (red)Type-A, 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (blue), 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x Optical S/PDIF out, 5 x Audio jack(s)

Features: DDR4-3200 support, Gigabit LAN, SupremeFX S1220 audio, Dual NVMe M.2, Pre-mounted I/O shield, Aura Sync RGB, 5-Way Optimization by Dual Intelligent Processors 5, TPU, Fan Xpert4, Gamer´s Guardian, ASUS EPU, AURA, AI Suite 3, Ai Charger, ASUS Grid, Digi+VRM, Turbo APP, ROG RAMCache II, ROG CPU-Z, Pre-mounted I/O Shield, Overwolf, GameFirst IV

Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming – Packaging and Accessories

the motherboard box

The Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming comes in a sturdy box, along with accessories, an installation manual, stickers, and everything you need to get started.

The board is matte black. The Rear IO and a part of the VRM heatsink are covered by the ROG logo lit by an RGB LED. There are also two RGB headers for those that want extra illumination – all the RGB setup can be controlled through the Asus Aura RGB Software.

the motherboard closeup

The Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming is missing heatsinks for M.2, but for most users that’s not a big deal because some M.2 SSDs come with great heatsinks.

the motherboard rear IO

Looking at the Rear IO, we see that this motherboard includes two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports, four USB 3.1 Gen1 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort, and an HDMI port. There are also several legacy ports, a S/PDIF port, and 5-plug audio jacks.

Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming – Software & Firmware
We noted in our spec sheet that this motherboard comes with an app called AI Suite 3. This program lets you monitor your system, control the fans, overclock, and more. Even new users will find this app easy to navigate.

Asus Aura is another software that lets you control all the RGB madness you have going on “under the hood.” You’ll be able to sync all the lights to match the entire hardware setup.

Then, there’s Fan Xpert 4, an app that will let you choose from four presets: silent, standard, turbo, and full speed. You can also control each fan using this app.

BIOS screen

As for BIOS, Asus starts it in Advanced mode, letting users tweak and change whatever they want, from fan controlling, to overclocking and enabling or disabling RGB LEDs. There’s also an EZ mode in ASUS’ BIOS, where you get to see all the info about your system, including hardware, CPU voltage, Fan profiles, temperatures, and more.

Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming – Tests
We took the Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming for a ride and tested it against the Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wi-Fi.

In synthetic benchmarks, we checked to see how this board performed. Looking at the test results below, we see that the Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming worked great.

3DMark Sky diver

In terms of gaming performance, we see the same great results for both motherboards.

Ashes of the Singularity scores

The overall performance when using different workloads, we saw that the results the Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming had were 1% lower than the competition, so there was no noticeable difference.

Overall performance overview

Finally, in terms of power consumption, the Asus ROG Strix peaked at 187W under load, while it only used 69W when idle. The Gigabyte was better at conserving power, so if you’re worried about power use, then the Asus ROG Strix is not exactly great in this test.

power draw compared

Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming – Final Thoughts
The Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming comes with all the features a gamer would need, allows for overclocking, and lets you run modern games at high settings. If you’re not bothered by the lack of Wi-Fi, this motherboard is a solid choice if you want to have a new Ryzen build. Overall, this board is more than capable of offering premium features at under $130.

Added: December 14th 2020
Product reviewed: ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming Motherboard
Reviewer: Costea Lestoc

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