W
e rejoicedatthereturnof
theROGImpactseriesof
smallformfactor(SFF)
motherboards,courtesyoftheAsusROG
CrosshairVIIIImpact(issue195).However,
thefactthatthisboard didn’tadheretothe
mini-ITX170mmx 170mmformfactorand
costwellover£300meantthatformanyit
wastoopricey- andwastoolarge- fora
numberofsmallermini-ITXcases.Instead,
it’sthemoreconventionalROGStrixX570-I
Gamingwe’relookingatherethatwilllikelyappealtoa
broaderSFFaudience,thankstoitsmorereasonableprice
tagandstandardmini-ITXsize.
Thatsaid,youwon’tseeanychangefrom
£250,whichstillputstheStrixintopremium
motherboardterritory.NotthattheX570,
mini-ITXcompetitionis a greatdealcheaper.
Gigabyte’sX570I AorusProWiFicosts
around£215whileASRock’sX570Phantom
Gaming-ITXTB3goesforcloserto£240.
Thelattertwoboardshavea few
shortcomingstoo.
Theformeronlyhastwofanheaders
comparedtotheROGStrixX570-IGaming’s
three,whichwillatleastallowyoutopowera
bareminimumcoolingarrangementoffront
fan,rearfanandCPUcooler.Unlikethe
ASRockboard,AsusincludestwoM.2ports
aswell,withoneheatsink-cladportontop
anda bareportontheunderside.Both
supporteitherPCI-EorSATA-poweredM.
SSDsandtheusualfourSATA6Gbpsports
areincludedtoo,sothere’splentyofscope
fora decentstoragesetup.
Asushasdoneanexcellentjobwithits
R&D,crammingcomponentsontothePCB.
It hasbolteda longheatsinktothesouthern
endoftheboardthatspanstwothirdsoftheASUSROGSTRIX
X570IGAMING
/£257incVAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.ukX570 MOTHERBOARD
width of the PCB and cools the chipset underneath. A
heatpipe connects the chipset to the heatsink, with a small
30mm fan underneath for some added cooling. Below this,
there’s a daughterboard connected to the PCB using a riser
cable, providing a home for the Realtek ALC1220-based
SupremeFX audio and an M.2 port. Yet another layer sits on
top of this, which is the M.2 SSD. This did an excellent job of
cooling our SSD too, keeping the temperature at 50°C during
our stress test, which is a whole 20°C cooler than the slightly
odd arrangement with Gigabyte’s board.
A second 30mm fan cools a similar heatsink on the other
side of the board that deals with the 8+2-phase power
delivery. There’s no VRM temperature in Asus’ software but
our own readings sat at 47°C on the top VRMs and 48°C
underneath, with the latter benefitting from a large heatsink.
It’s actually larger than that included on MSI’s monstrous
Creator TRX40 motherboard, but Gigabyte has an even
bigger one, spanning the whole underside of its board.
Regardless, these VRM temperatures are cooler than
Gigabyte’s X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi, which is passively cooled.
There are no overclocking and testing tools on the PCB –
you’ll need to step up to the Impact for those – but it’s a
similar story with the ASRock’s X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX
TB3 and Gigabyte’s X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi too, although the
latter at least has Gigabyte’s version of USB BIOS Flashback
and the ASRock board has a clear-CMOS button. Due to the
packed I/O area, Asus has excluded an integrated I/O shield,
which is a disappointing but understandable choice if there’sREVIEWS / MOTHERBOARD
SPEC
Chipset
AMD X
CPU socket
AMD Socket AM4 (Zen+, Zen 2)
Memory support
2 slots: max 64GB DDR
(up to 4800MHz)
Expansion slots
One 16x PCI-E 4.
Sound
8-channel ROG SupremeFX S
Networking
1 x Intel Gigabit LAN,
Intel 802.11ac WiFi
Overclocking
Base clock 96-118MHz, CPU
Multiplier 28-64; max voltages,
CPU 1.8V, RAM 1.8V
Ports
4 x SATA 6Gbps 2 x M.2 PCI-E 4.0, 3
x USB 3 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 3, 1 x LAN, 3 x surround
audio out
Dimensions (mm)
170 x 170cc
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