A detailed review of the ASUS ROG Strix X570-E gaming motherboard

ASUS has built quite a portfolio for its X570 chipset. From the top-of-the-line ROG crossshare to the budget-friendly Prime X570-P, there is a board for every budget and the X570-E is at the center of the gaming lineup. It distinguishes itself from X570-F gaming by adding an additional LAN port (which is 2.5G), Intel AX200 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 chip. It has three full-length PCIe x16 slots that allow you to set up 2-way SLI or 3-way CrossFireX in x16 or x8 / x8 or x8 / x8 / x4 configuration. At `27K, it’s not a cheap board by any metric but then again, with the X570 chipset, there’s no new board.

Packaging

ASUS’s STRIX features red and gray as well as black for accent branding. The packaging looks fairly simple with only the main ingredients highlighted.

Specification

To see the detailed specification list of different versions of the motherboard, please visit the official website of ASUS.

CPU supported	Ryzen 1st / 2nd / 3rd Generation
Socket	AM4
Memory supported	4 x DIMM, max. Up to 64 GB, DDR4-4400 (OC)
Chipset	AMD X570
VRM design	CPU power: 6 phases
	Memory power: 2 phases
BIOS	AMI UEFI Dual BIOS with 128 Mb Flash ROM
Expansion	2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (x16 / NA or x8 / x8)
	1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4) slot, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x1 slot
Storage	8 x SATA 6.0 Gb / s (supports RAID 0/1/10) CPU
	1 x M.2 slot (PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gb / s) 22110
	1 x M.2 slot (PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gb / s) 22110
Networking	1x Intel® I211-AT GbE 1x Realtek® RTL8125-CG 2.5G LAN
I / O	7 x USB 3.2 Port Gen 2 (Type-A)
	1 x USB 3.2 Port Gen 2 (Type-C)
	1 x ASUS Wi-Fi module
	1 x BIOS flashback
	5 x audio jack
	1 x dp
	1 x HDMI port
	1 x S / PDIF out header
	1 x 2.5G LAN RJ45 + 1x 1G LAN RJ45
Myth	SupremeFX S1220A 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec
Fan header	PCH, 2xCPU, 2xChassis, 2xPump, M.2
Form factor	ATX form factor (305 mm x 244 mm)
Miscellaneous features	5-way optimization by dual intelligent processor TPU – Auto tuning, Turbovi, GPU boost Gamer Guardian: – DRAM overcurrent protection – Stainless steel back I / O – Highly durable material – DIGI + VRM – Secure slot – ESD guard on LAN, audio and USB ports ASUS EPU: –EPU AURA: – Ora lighting control – Addressable General 2 headers ASUS Exclusive Features: – USB BIOS Flashback® – AI Suite 3 – Load – ASUS node: hardware control interface – BIOS Flashback® button ASUS EZ DIY: – ASUS Crashfree BIOS 3 – ASUS EZ Flash 3 ASUS Q-Design: – ASUS Q-Code – ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, LED boot device) – ASUS Q-slot – ASUS Q-DIMM Gaming aesthetics: – AURA-RGB light

Content

As a mid-range board, you won’t find much with the ASUS Strix X570-E gaming motherboard but the RGB and ARGB LED strips have extra value in the form of thermistors, Wi-Fi antennas and extension cables.

Here is a list of the full contents of the box.

Board layout

ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming is a full-size ATX board so there is plenty of real estate to incorporate a wide range of features.

The board uses a 6-phase VRM design that spans 12 power stages. You can see that they are covered with a heat sink and even a heat pipe running through it. The heatsink in question is made of two machined aluminum blocks and is not a well-spaced fin stack as we have seen in some other designs. Either way, it gets the job done on cooling the MOSFETs.

Since we are talking about VRM, it uses Infineon IR35201 configured in 6 + 2 mode without any duplication. For power phases, it uses Infineon IR3555 for CPU VCC and IR3553 for SoC. The former can handle 60 A whereas the latter is capable of 40 A. For memory, it uses a Vishay SiRA14DP which is rated for 58A. Overall, ASUS ROG Strix X570-E is capable of handling VRM gaming and even high current demand for overclocking in top-end AMD SKUs.

The four RAM sockets are packed closely with only one side release lever. Fortunately, they are on top, so removing the DIMMs shouldn’t be a pain and you won’t need to remove the GPU first.

There are lots of slopes around the expansion slots. We can clearly see that it maintains a clean aesthetic by matching the NVME heatsinks with the Dust Guard. Below the Dust Guard are PCH fans which have become common on X570 boards due to the high TDP of PCH. If you blame PCIe 4.0. With the 3rd Gen Ryzen platform, the processor can run x24 PCIe 4.0 lanes including x16 for graphics, x4 for NVMe, and downlink for x4 chipset. Thus PCIe full-length slots get their bandwidth from the processor as well as PCH when all three slots are populated. If you are only going to use two, all lanes will be taken from the processor.

For audio, ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming uses a Realtek ALC1220 that offers 7.1 channel audio output and you have a simple bunch of “audio caps” with it. Also the dual OPAMP and the whole assembly together are called SupremeFX S1220A. ASUS has incorporated a DTS software solution with this motherboard in the same way that MSI transmits its products with the Nehemic audio suite. The DTS solution has three profiles – soundscape mode, aerial mode and tactical mode. All profiles are ready to provide positional signals based on the selected mode. The latter means that strategic mode will place an overlay on your game screen to provide visual cues for audio directions. Some competitive games consider this a hoax, so be careful when using it. You never know when anti-cheat engines may flag such solutions. So far, you’re relatively safe.

The rear I / O has an adequate set of connection options There are three USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C and four USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports but no PS / 2 port. With this legacy port you can hardly find any high-end or mid-range keyboard so that no love is lost there. Then you have a DP and HDMI port for your video output if you have an APU installed. A black 2.5G LAN port and a red Intel LAN port with a Wi-Fi antenna SMA connector. It is followed by an audio jack and, finally, a BIOS flashback button on top of the USB ports. Ideally, we want to give these buttons some kind of protection to prevent accidental press. The entire rear I / O panel is fixed to the board and the rear I / O shroud has a light panel. The whole assembly looks quite exquisite on all sides.

At the time of testing, the board was still using AGESA 1.0.0.3, which allows AMD processors to accurately strike the advertised frequencies. The upcoming AGESA 1.0.0.4 microcode is set to further improve all-core boost clock speeds and provide less boot time.