ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-I Gaming WiFi Motherboard Review

How Much Does It Cost?

The ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-I Gaming WiFi Motherboard is available now, and let’s just get it over with, it’s not cheap. It’s going to cost you £467.99. However it was only £428.97 due to a sale at the time of writing. Why is it so bloody expensive I hear you ask? Well, it’s got just about everything and actually, a little more, than many ATX motherboards, crammed into a tiny form factor, and that puts the price up.

Overview

I absolutely love this motherboard, actually, I’m going to get right to it and say that it’s by far my favourite X670E motherboard so far. Not only does it have the performance to take on the big ATX motherboards we put it up against, but it does so while being a very trendy mini-ITX form factor. That’s fantastic for those who want a seriously fast gaming or work PC in a smaller form factor.

There are some limitations of this motherboard though, that may not show up in our overall testing. It’s smaller, duh, but that does mean fewer M.2 mounts, SATA headers, and internal USB headers than the big boards, but honestly, it’s still got more of everything than you typically see in mini-ITX boards.

Furthermore, the VRM heatsink and chipset heatsink is obviously smaller, and it has to make do with a 10+2 VRM, which is clearly enough as the CPU performance was freaking awesome. However, it’s good to push boost clocks when you need them and for gaming, but overclocking is going to hit thermal limitations sooner. However, if you can live with that (I know I can), then the performance is on par with ATX boards.

It’s weird having no audio I/O on the rear of the motherboard, but since it comes with that fantastic STRIX HIVE external amplifier, which also has a USB 2.0 port for BIOS Flashback, A USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, mic-in, headphone jack, a QLED display, volume knob, Flexkey, all from the luxury location of sitting on your desk, it is freaking epic. Plus, having no soundcard in the way of the heatsinks allows for more cooling on the motherboard.

Should I Buy One?

This is a little motherboard with seriously big ambitions. It may be expensive, but it’s clearly worth every single penny of the asking price. Its performance is on par with the bigger ATX motherboard, it delivered reliable and consistently in every single test, and it has extremely impressive connectivity and usability too. Could this be the ultimate Mini-ITX motherboard for Ryzen fans? Absolutely.