Board Layout

The ASUS ROG Strix B850-F Gaming Wi-Fi is very obviously a cut-down version of its more premium X870-based ROG Strix offerings with flatter heatsinks and a more exposed PCB with fewer features. That said, there's perhaps more here than you might expect and that's thanks to ASUS ditching USB4 and limiting the I/O panel to a more standard array of ports to cut costs. Unsurprisingly, there's no backplate, but then the ROG Strix X870-A Gaming Wi-Fi lacked one too. RGB lighting is confined to a small ROG logo on the I/O shroud.


While there's no LED POST code display, you do get the ASUS Q-LED array of lights and even a power button, which is always useful for testing the motherboard prior to installing it or for benchmarking. We're still not convinced by the small rubber covers on the 4-pin fan headers, though, as they can be fiddly to remove once you've installed the motherboard in a tight space. We guess they're to protect the pins from getting bent. In addition to the onboard RGB lighting, there are three 5 V 3-pin ARGB headers too, so there's plenty of scope for expansion if you need more. Sadly 4-pin accessory owners are out of luck. Continuing with the more standard array of features on this B850 board, there's just the usual USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps Type-C header, with standard power output and nothing fancy like we've seen on more expensive boards, although this has been cut to 5 Gbps on occasions so it's good to see ASUS hasn't cut back that far.


The first issue some of you may run into, especially if you haven't quite made the transition to M.2 SSDs yet, is that there's only two SATA ports. For a single SSD and maybe a hard disk too, which is by far the typical configuration owners of this board will use, this is likely ample, but we thought we'd highlight this here given there are likely lots of enthusiasts out there that are still using 2.5 in SSDs, so there's the potential to run out of ports if you have a couple of hard disks too. If that's you, well, it's probably time to drag yourself into 2025 and grab yourself an M.2 SSD. The audio is your typical Realtek ALC4080, which is identical to the 1200-series codes except it runs over the USB bus instead. This is rebranded under the ASUS SupremeFX name with some snazzy cosmetic tweaks on the board too.


Tool-free features are the hot topic with the current generation of boards and the PCIe slot here features PCIe Slot Q-Release, which does away with buttons or latches found on the competitions boards, and instead requires you to lift your graphics card up from the port end, which in turn releases the slot. This is normally a recipe for disaster, but here it works relatively well, although we do still prefer the buttons or latches on other boards as they're a little more positive and confidence-inspiring.


A slightly different M.2 mechanism with the primary PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port on the ROG Strix B850-F Gaming Wi-Fi, which includes a large latch that locks the heatsink in place. We're not complaining, though, as this is the quickest and easiest to install M.2 heatsink we've seen yet so well done ASUS. Unlike some others, there's no fiddling around trying to slot the heatsink into place or lining things up. This just works, and the slot cools both top and bottom sides of the SSD too. We'll talk about temperatures in detail later, but this is the slot you'll want to use if you have a PCIe Gen 5 SSD or a single PCIe Gen 4 SSD too as it offered better cooling than the lower heatsink,


That's likely due to the lower slots lacking cooling for the underside of the SSD, which will certainly hurt anything double-sides such as our PCIe Gen 5 SSD. This heatsink also lacks any tool-free features and is tricky to install as a result as you have to align various screws. Thankfully all the M2 ports themselves are tool-free so if you do have a second M.2 SSD to install, it's still a relatively pain-free process. It's also worth noting that the second slot is also PCIe Gen 5 compatible and doesn't appear to steal lanes from the graphics card either.


The rear I/O panel has an impressive 10 Type-A USB ports configured as two USB 3,2 Gen 2 10 Gbps, four USB 3.2 5 Gbps and four USB 2.0 ports so we doubt anyone will be left wanting here. The two Type-C ports, as mentioned earlier, do not support USB4 and instead offer 10 Gbps and 20 Gbps. As they also lack USB4's DisplayPort out capability, you get both separate HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

It's highly likely future owners of this board may encounter a CPU its BIOS doesn't support so as usual there's a USB BIOS Flashback button to be able to update it without a CPU in the socket, and you also get a clear CMOS button to help with those overzealous overclocks. You also get Wi-Fi7 which benefits from the ASUS Q-Antenna, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and lastly there are mini jacks and optical output for the ASUS SupremeFX Realtek ALC4080 audio.