ASUS ROG Strix B450-I Gaming Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Board Layout and Features4. UEFI5. Software6. Testing Methodology7. Tests: CPU Related8. Tests: Memory Related9. Tests: Gaming Related10. Tests: Motherboard Features Performance11. Overclocking & Power Consumption12. Closing Thoughts13. View All Pages

ATTO Disk Benchmark

The ATTO disk benchmark is a Windows-based utility for testing storage performance of any storage drive or controller. We use the default benchmark setup.

M.2 PCIe Performance

For M.2 testing we use a Toshiba OCZ RD400 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

M.2 performance easily exploited the maximum performance potential of the benchmark drive. Thermal performance was very respectable too and the integrated M.2 heatsink performed well. Given the throttle speed is around 75-80 degrees Celsius most high performance drives should have no trouble performing consistently well with this motherboard.

USB Performance

We test USB 3.0 and 3.1 performance using a pair of Transcend SSD370S 512GB SSDs in RAID 0 connected to an RaidSonic Icy Box RD2253-U31 2-bay USB 3.1 enclosure powered by an ASMedia ASM1352R controller.

USB 3.0 performance was as expected while USB 3.1 performance experienced numerous performance and compatibility issues similar to those we observed with the ASRock X470 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard.

Effectively, there's a bug where connected USB 3.1 devices disconnect during heavy and sustained loading. We experienced this bug using a USB 3.1 ASM1352R RAID box and ASM1351 USB 3.1 to SATA III device with the OCZ Trio 150 480GB SSD.

The only way we were able to complete an ATTO run from start to finish without interruption while using USB 3.1 was with the ASM1351 USB 3.1 to SATA III device and a Transcend SSD370S 512GB SSD.

Given the MSI B450 Tomahawk successfully completed USB 3.1 testing using the B450 chipset controller we can only assume this is a motherboard specific problem. It's difficult to say which USB 3.1 component causes the problem, as it is unlikely to be the controller.

We expect this ASUS motherboard and the ASRock X470 Gaming-ITX/ac must have a similarity somewhere as both failed in similar ways when using USB 3.1, our best educated guess at this stage is that it is potentially a compatibility issue with USB 3.1 redriver chip.

SATA III 6Gbps Performance

For SATA 6Gbps testing we use an OCZ Trion 150 480GB SSD.

SATA performance was standard fare.

Audio

Rightmark Audio Analyser is a freeware benchmarking utility designed to objectively test the performance characteristics of audio solutions. We setup a line-in line-out loop and execute the record/playback test before generating the results report you see below. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz is tested where available. If unavailable the closest alternative operating mode available is used and clearly marked.

Audio performance was very good and the ASUS ROG Strix B450-I Gaming manages to keep pace with desktop motherboards using the same codec. This is likely due to the implementation of separate PCB for the audio which gave ASUS more space to implement high-end audio components like dual operational amplifiers and Nichicon audio capacitors.

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