ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming

amazon ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming reviews

ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming – In the market over the years, playing PC with iTX compact size has gradually received attention and response from users, especially from the large modder community.

That’s why the manufacturers, in turn, experimented with bringing iTX standard motherboard models to the market to serve this special target group. With the recently launched B550 chipset, ASUS has quickly launched the ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming version to the gaming community.

ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming is a very small, iTX-sized motherboard, so ASUS has packed its product in an impressively sized package, just larger than the size of an iTX board. Sometimes, that’s why the attached accessories such as SATA cables, Wi-Fi antennas are “stuffed” below the board, making the product box thicker and more square than the way it is closed common board package.

The outside design of the box has not changed much, still the familiar design of Strix series products for gamers, similar to the new ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming or ASUS Strix TRX40 E Gaming models recently launched with the Strix “seven-color” logo and product image, but with a tighter layout than a regular box.

The back of the box is still customary, showing information about some outstanding technologies equipped for the product. The most “strange” is probably the Audio USB Type-C feature. The writer will cover this feature in more detail in the following section.

Proceed to “unbox” the product; it is easy to see that the ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming is designed with an extremely tight component layout with many elements reminiscent of the iTX-sized version of the ASUS ROG Strix B450 I GAMING motherboard before.

The same M.2 slot is arranged on a layer of stacked circuit boards “close to the edge” of the “armored” 16x PCI Express port, and the connection ports are arranged “closely” along the top and edge. The right side of the board, but the version equipped with the new B550 chipset, has an I/O port cover and a heatsink for the power supply phases that are much larger, covering almost the entire left edge of the board.

This heatsink has a much larger size because the power supply structure of the ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming is relatively enhanced with an 8 + 2 structure, enough to run new generation Ryzen processors with multiple cores, and requires more power than previous generation CPUs.

This area is also where ASUS placed the B550 chipset, so it had to add a small cooling fan to dissipate heat more effectively instead of letting this area passively dissipate heat depending on the airflow in the room chassis as before.

It is also because the heatsink is much larger, covering both the Wi-fi 6 connection card area and the audio section, making the Front Audio slot obscured, much more difficult to plug in than the previous generation.

To support users, ASUS is also equipped with an Audio USB Type C extension cable to still use the 3.5mm connection without using the audio connections on the back of the board.

Although the board size is quite limited, ASUS still equips ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming with many “playful” features for a high-end PC.

It can be mentioned that the company still does not “forget” the pump port for AIO radiators that are very popular on the market today. The Aura RGB Header port for products that share the Aurasync “ecosystem” and the Addressable Gen 2 RGB Header port to control “lights” for external devices.

In addition, users still have two M.2 ports for SSD solid-state drives, which can satisfy users’ high-speed storage needs with a port on the top that connects to the CPU using the connection standard PCIe 4.0 with 4 data lanes.

Meanwhile, the M.2 port on the bottom is only connected to the B550 chipset using the PCIe 3.0 standard with a slightly slower speed. Still, it is also completely enough for most hard drive models available on the market today.

In addition, the new motherboard model is also fully equipped with today’s most advanced connections such as Wi-fi 6, LAN 2.5G, or Bluetooth 5.1, bringing convenience and high speed to users.

A rather strange thing, and different from the previous version of ASUS ROG Strix B450 I GAMING, is that the company has “cut down” many RGB LEDs on the ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming version this time. The only decorative “lights” element that remains the same is the lights integrated into the 3.5mm audio ports on the back.

As for the decoration on the board surface, the company only uses the Strix logo with a relatively simple 7-color reflective paint.

OVERVIEW

In general, ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming has some changes compared to the previous version using the B450 chipset, but the product still ensures high-end features, meeting the needs of highly demanding users now.

However, the product also lacks a few USB or SATA ports like other motherboards with the same B550 chipset due to its limited size. Not too important because the size factor is still at the forefront, especially with extremely compact systems but still full of pow.

where can you get a ASUS Strix B550 I Gaming online

ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming AMD AM4 (3rd Gen Ryzen Mini-ITX SFF Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 4.0, WiFi 6, 2.5Gb LAN, DDR4 5100+ (O.C.), Front USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, Addressable Gen 2 RGB and Aura Sync): Buy it now