• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

ASUS Also Unveils ROG Strix B550-XE Gaming Motherboard

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
47,670 (7.43/day)
Location
Dublin, Ireland
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard Gigabyte B550 AORUS Elite V2
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 16GB DDR4-3200
Video Card(s) Galax RTX 4070 Ti EX
Storage Samsung 990 1TB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
As we explained in our older article about the new ASUS ROG Crosshair XII Dark Hero, AMD's Ryzen 5000 series Socket AM4 processors based on the "Zen 3" microarchitecture are unlikely to be accompanied by a new chipset, presenting motherboard makers with the opportunity to refresh their AMD 500-series chipset product stacks with new products. ASUS has a new premium product based on the AMD X570, in the form of the ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero. The company also unveiled a premium product based on the AMD B550 chipset—the ROG Strix B550-XE Gaming. While the Dark Hero is an incremental upgrade over the original Crosshair VIII Hero while retaining the PCB design, this particular board appears to be largely based on the ROG Strix B550-E Gaming.

ASUS has traditionally used the "XE" brand extension for ROG Strix series motherboard refreshes to denote improved CPU VRM, and this appears to be the case with the B550-XE Gaming, too. The board features a meatier 16-phase CPU VRM, with a more elaborate VRM cooling solution that uses larger heatsinks, which are interconnected by a flat heat-pipe, and unless we're mistaken, a 40 mm fan underneath the rear I/O shroud. The rest of the board's feature-set appears to be identical to that of the B550-E Gaming.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
A fan?! The whole point of buying a B550 board is to not have a fan.
 
There is no fan, I don't know where the OP got that part.
Although I can't see the fan in the close up image, Asus does say this:

Comprehensive cooling: Actively cooled VRM heatsinks with L-shaped heatpipe and integrated aluminum I/O cover, plus dedicated M.2 heatsinks

To me active cooling indicates a fan.
 
Hmm, yeah, that could be it, or maybe the fan is optional, as with the Z490 Strix series, and with a dedicated bracket.
 
Back
Top