ASUS ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi Motherboard Review

How Much Does It Cost?

When it first hit the market in 2023, this motherboard launched with an MSRP of £316.99, which I think is a reasonable price given the level of hardware and features that it offers, and even more so given its relative performance. However, it’s since come down in price and can be snapped up for just £229.99, making it one of the best-value mid-range gaming motherboards on the market right now. This is a lot of motherboard at a price that’s too good to ignore.

Overview

ASUS is top of their game with the new ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F Gaming WiFi, and it really does offer up a bit of something for everyone here, and it does so at a fiercely competitive price, especially for an ASUS motherboard, which are often more expensive than their rivals for no other reason than it being an ASUS board.

It delivered superb overall system performance, but especially so when it came to CPU performance. What’s more staggering is that it did this with the lowest overall power consumption of any board in its class, and significantly lower VRM temperatures, which meant the CPU could be pushed hard for literally hours on end and never have any issues with VRM throttling, making it a prime choice for enthusiast gamers and content creators.

While some of the flagship boards cost more than double and come with wild 20+ VRM power stages, it’s clear that’s just not needed. The 12 + 2 Power Stage design allowed our 7000 Series AMD CPU to absolutely fly, and with robust cooling on the M.2 storage, and consistent GPU performance, it’s a solid all-round performer. The only thing that seemed to lack was the memory read, write and copy performance, but at the same time, it delivered some of the best memory latency, which seemed to balance things out, and overall it’s clear this didn’t hurt the overall performance at all.

Should I Buy One?

With the latest PCIe 5.0 M.2 for the latest storage, PCIe 5.0 x16 supporting the latest and next-generation of graphics cards, super fast USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-c, ten rear USB ports, exceptional VRM cooling performance, powerful WiFi 6E and 2.5 GbE LAN, and ASUS’s flagship ALC40880 Savitech powered audio, this motherboard has it all. Why spend more for more, when clearly this is all you’re likely to need?!