Asus Prime X370-PRO AM4 Motherboard Review
Peter Donnell / 8 years ago
Final Thoughts
Price
The ASUS PRIME X370-PRO AM4 Motherboard is currently available for just over £140 at Amazon. That’s pretty fantastic value for money given it delivered performance that was competitive with some of the much higher priced X370 motherboards, including ASUS’s RoG board.
Overview
There’s a lot to love about this motherboard, and for the price range, it packs in a pretty fantastic number of features that are sure to make it appealing to many. There are a few minor drawbacks, however, but for a board the costs over £100 less than the RoG X370 board, they can be easily overlooked for the majority of consumers. There’s no BIOS reset button or power buttons directly on the board, nor is there a BIOS reset button on the back of the I/O, and this can make overclocking a bit of a hassle. Seriously though, all motherboards should have a button for resetting BIOS these days, especially for a board that has overclocking.
The VRM coolers look really good, but they are a little smaller, and I think that’s what is limiting us from hitting a stable 5.1 GHz as they tend to get quite warm. Of course, we still managed to post a very stable 5.05 GHz, which is very good indeed for the 1800X and very close to what we hit on the more expensive motherboards.
In terms of features, the BIOS is pretty robust, allowing for multiple overclocking profiles, where you can set independent voltages for just about everything, customise your fan profiles, load line calibration and more. That being said, hitting a stable overclock on this motherboard needed no more than a CPU voltage boost and changing the multiplier, so it’s very user-friendly overall.
There’s a lot of added value here too, thanks to features like the RGB lighting, with headers to use AURA SYNC to connect any compatible chassis lighting, fans, and more. There are lots of overclocking features, comprehensive audio hardware that’s going to be great for all types of multimedia, good connectivity, and storage support is excellent too. There is only a single M.2 compared to some of the X370 boards with two, but that’s clearly reflected in the price.
If you’re building a mid-to-high budget gaming or work rig, then the PRIME is clearly a strong contender. It has a few minor drawbacks, but with the overall performance it delivers and the range of features on offer, it’s giving you most of the thrills of the high-end boards at almost half the price.
Pros
- Stylish aesthetics
- RGB lighting
- Good overclocking
- Excellent on-board audio
- Great for work and gaming
- Very competitive price
Cons
- No direct BIOS reset or power buttons
Neutral
- Only 1 x M.2
- Doesn’t overclock as high as some other X370 boards, but it’s nowhere near as expensive
“If you’re looking to get high-end features and performance like you find on the more expensive X370 boards, the PRIME trims most of the non-vital extras to deliver X370 at near B350 chipset prices, making it great value for money overall!”