Custom PC – October 2019

X

570 boards might cost a fair amount
more than their X470 predecessors,
but at £270 inc VAT Asus’ ROG Strix
X570-E Gaming has price on its side compared
with most of the competition this month. It
also ticks a number of boxes when it comes to
acting as the foundation for a powerful 3rd-gen
Ryzen system.
That, said, there's a few omissions and
cutbacks. There are no power or reset
buttons, and you don’t even get a clear-CMOS
button either. The button on the rear I/O
panel is actually tied to the BIOS Flashback
function – even the £100 cheaper MSI
X570-A Pro has a clear-CMOS button.
The rest of the specification is bang on
though. You get a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet
port, as well as an Intel Gigabit port, plus
802.11ax Wi-Fi. The rear I/O panel is also
awash with the latest USB tech, with a total
of seven USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports and
a Type-C port – you get a full-fat Gen 2
Type-C header for compatible cases too.
There’s a generous count of eight SATA
6Gbps ports, and Asus has reined in one of
the M.2 slots to only offer PCI-E 3 support,
while the other offers full PCI-E 4 bandwidth.

ASUSROG STRIX X570E GAMING /£270 inc VAT

SUPPLIER ebuyer.com

VERDICT

Asolidoverclockerandall-rounderwith

sensiblefeaturesandreasonablepricetag.

STRIX

+ Good value

+ Quiet chipset fan

+ Decent features

for the price

STRICTLY

• Few overclocking
  and testing tools


• No VRM
  temperature
  monitor


• Only one PCI-E 4
  M.2 port

SPEC

Chipset AMD X570

CPUsocket AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2)

Memory support 4 slots: max 128GB

DDR4(up to 4400MHz)

Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E 4, two 1x PCI-E 4

Sound 8-channel SupremeFX S1120A

Networking 1 x Realtek 2.5 Gigabit LAN,

1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi

Overclocking Base clock 96-118MHz,

CPU multiplier 28-64x; max

voltages: CPU 2V, RAM 1.8V

Ports 8 x SATA 6Gbps 1 x M.2 PCI-E 4, 1 x

M.2 PCI-E 3, 7 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB

3.1 Type-C, 3 x surround audio out

Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244

PERFORMANCE

33 / 35

VALUE

24 / 30

FEATURES

27 / 35

OVERALLSCORE

84

S C C M D E

s mPP

CC

P

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IUM GR

A

D

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There’s a hefty total of 16 power phases too,

and while the board doesn’t have a VRM

temperature sensor, we measured the VRM

top and rear areas remotely using an IR laser

probe as hovering around 50°C, which was

only a little warmer than the ROG Crosshair

VIII Formula. The board is undoubtedly helped

by the huge 8mm heatpipe connecting the

two large VRM heatsinks, which is one of the

biggest we’ve ever seen on a motherboard.

Meanwhile, the EFI was up to Asus’ usual

standards, although it’s now firmly in second

place when it comes to fan control, with both

Gigabyte and MSI offering more control of

your fans. On the plus side, the Strix’s chipset

fan is completely inaudible, unlike some of

the competition. Meanwhile, Asus’ AI Suite

software has a great overclocking section,

although the fan control is again limited.

We managed to hit the usual 4.3GHz

frequency with our Ryzen 9 3900X using

a 1.425V vcore – that’s not as good as the

frequency we hit with the MSI Prestige X570

Creation, but a match for every other board on

test, although the Strix was one of the more

power-hungry boards at both stock and

overclocked speeds. Our overclock saw the

RealBench System score rise from 295,640 to

309,847, with the video encoding score rising

by 8 per cent too.

Conclusion

While it’s still the costs the best part of £300,

the ROG Strix X570-E Gaming coped well

in our tests and handled our overclocked

12-core CPU with ease and, unlike the

cheaper MSI X570-A Pro, it’s a potential

partner for AMD’s 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X

too. The MSI Prestige X570 Creation and

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master have more

features, but if £300 is your limit, this quiet,

well-featured board is the one to get.