ASUS ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WiFi AMD Ryzen AM5 ATX motherboard, 12 + 2 power stages, DDR5, three M.2 slots, PCIe 4.0, 2.5G LAN, WiFi 6E, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port, and Aura Sync RGB

Review:I’ve just upgraded my PC with the ASUS ROG Strix B650-A, and it’s been an amazing experience so far. This is my first time building with a Ryzen 5 processor, and this motherboard has made everything incredibly smooth.First Impressions:When I unboxed it, I was immediately impressed by the sleek design. The silver accents and the RGB lighting really make it stand out—it looks amazing in my case! It feels solid and well-made, which gave me confidence right from the start.Setup Experience:As someone who doesn’t have massive storage needs, the three M.2 slots are more than enough for me. Installing the components was straightforward, and the BIOS is super easy to navigate, even for someone who’s not a hardcore PC builder. It didn’t take long before my system was up and running.Performance:Paired with my Ryzen 5 processor, this board handles everything I throw at it without breaking a sweat. From gaming to casual multitasking, it’s fast, responsive, and reliable. I’m not a storage-heavy user, but I love the speed of my NVMe drive on this board—it’s made a noticeable difference in load times for games.Connectivity:The WiFi 6E is a fantastic addition. My online gaming sessions have been smooth with no lag, and the dual USB-C ports make connecting devices effortless. The PCIe 5.0 slot is a nice bonus for future upgrades as well.Final Thoughts:This motherboard is perfect for someone like me who’s building a solid mid-range gaming PC without going overboard. It’s easy to work with, looks great, and has all the features I need. Highly recommend it to anyone looking to build or upgrade a Ryzen system!

I have nothing bad to say about my experience using the ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI for the past 5 months. It has worked flawlessly and coming for an ITX motherboard by a different brand previously, I have been impressed with this board’s features:3 M.2 drives12 rear USB ports, including 2 USB CThe BIOS is slick and intuitive when I wanted to:• tweak RAM EXPO timings• undervolt my CPU• use BIOS flashback feature• turn off the motherboard RGB after finding the lights distractingI use wifi, which has been both fast and reliableQuality of life features like M.2 Q-latch, PCIE slot Q-release and DIMM slots for the RAM that only latch on one side, something I have not seen on any other board.If I had to complain about one thing, it would be the ASUS Armoury Crate software rather than the motherboard. It feels bloated and slow, BUT once you’ve used it for any software drivers and firmware updates, I was able to uninstall Armoury Crate with no issues.I’m pleased with my purchase and from my experience so far, this board has all the features that I’d want so I’d be happy to recommend.

I recently sold my old Intel based 4790k system with the intention of upgrading to something a little more future proof, and importantly, faster. After doing a lot of research I decided to be daring and make a move over to the red team! This was for a few reasons. AMD at the moment just represents far better value for money, power for pound. The AM4 platform has also matured to a level where it is robust and reliable, so no longer an unknown quantity as was the case when it first launched. AMD are also promising that the AM4 platform will be around until at least 2020, whereas Intel are rumoured to be dropping socket 1151 after the 9th gen CPU’s are launched in the near future.Red team decided, I quickly opted for a Ryzen 5 2600 processor. With Amazon’s pricing at the time of purchase it was amazing value for money. The question though, which motherboard to slot it into!Again I donned my research cap and settled on the Asus ROG Strix B450-F gaming motherboard, and with good reason. The B450 platform offers almost all the advantages you would get from the new X470 platform, but with a significant cost saving. You lose some functionality such as less USB ports and SLI compatibility, but get access to precision overboost overdrive and Store MI. That’s not to mention guaranteed support for second gen Ryzen CPU’s. If you have the cash I would recommend getting an X470 board, but if you want value for money, or a good system on a budget, then B450 is the obvious choice.The board was a pleasure to work with when building a new system. I have been self-building systems for 22 years and off the top of my head I cannot think of a board I’ve worked with that was more intuitive. Observations include:Fan headers are just ‘in the right place’. There’s a selection close to the CPU, but also close to where rear mounted fans would go. Additional headers can be found at the top (perfect for AIO solutions), and also at the bottom which works well for both bottom and front mounted cooling solutions. Also, whilst I can’t speak for others, the RBG headers were perfectly located for my needs (top and bottom of the board).All 6 SATA ports are mounted perpendicular to the motherboard, which places less stress on the SATA connections and is also better for good cable management.The IO shield is already connected as part of the motherboard; this is a small but useful feature. You’re less likely to misplace it (it happens), and less likely to cut your fingers on the sharp edges (it happens).Port selection is very good. There are more than enough connections on the motherboard, with a sufficient amount of headers for additional connectivity.Two M.2 slots. On a board of this level and price I would expect to see a single M.2 slot, but to have two is a real treat. However note that when populating the second M.2 it drops the speed of the PCI-E lane for your GPU from 16x to 8x. This translates to a performance loss of under 1% (Source – Gamers Nexus), so it’s not really anything to worry about.The Aura RGB looks absolutely lovely. The on-board RGB close to the IO shield can be set to light up all the time, or just when the system is on, which is a nice touch. My CoolerMaster AIO cooler also has RGB and synced to the motherboard automatically with no set-up required. The Asus Aura software is excellent too; it even lets me Sync with my Philips Hue lights!Overall this board ticks all the boxes. It’s relatively cheap, I’d say it hits the premium budget category, but it’s still a step up from an Asus Prime motherboard. It’s comprehensively kitted out and features a chipset that won’t leave you regretting the purchase. Overclocking is impressive too. When running 3DMark the motherboard automatically boosted by CPU to 4.2GHz, which is the level most overclockers see with their 2600’s running more expensive X470 chipsets. One thing of note, for dual channel memory use slots 2 and 4, not 1 and 3.The motherboard and CPU should see me all the way to 2020 without incident. Then unlike Intel I will be able to swap the CPU for the best one around in 2020 and continue to benefit for a few additional years.TL;DR - This is a great board, buy with confidence.