ASUS ROG STRIX B850-I GAMING WIFI Mini ITX Motherboard

Pros: Aesthetics are pleasing. I am super pleased that this wasnt decked out with rgb lighting. It was a blast to build with this motherboard. It is tiny but has everything youre looking for. Easy to set up and I was gaming within less than 2 hrs. Cons: The q latch system may be the only con. Overall Review: Another great product from Asus!!!

Pros: Just built a new system, been running it for a couple weeks and its working flawlessly. All the features I need, prices fair for a quality board. Overall Review: No cons, I feel its good value.

Pros: UEFI is nice. Firmware updates are simple. Memory EXPO worked just fine. Nice layout makes it easy to install components. Cons: The onboard audio has problems. The Realtek USB audio used seems to be well documented online for having issues. With the drivers from Asus installed there are peaking/ringing sounds coming through. Its especially noticeable with the windows notification sounds. With the generic drivers installed it does not do it, however you need the more specific drivers for the microphone input to work properly for example. Recording volume is very low otherwise.
This issue in my case is through the SPDIF optical out going into a Schiit Modi multibit dac Ive used on 3 other Asus boards (Realtek pci-e HD audio) without issue. However other users online have similar issues through the analog line out. My issue seems to eliminate any problem post dac on the analog side.
I will be using the USB connection for my dac until there is a fix since this is clearly a firmware/driver issue. I generally liked using the built on audio to output digital to my dac because I thought maybe my Modi being a seen device in windows with drivers might cause issues, but it seems the built on Realteks have gotten extremely complicated with lots of stuff happening on the low/driver level.
Im hoping there are updated drivers coming in the future as I like this board overall. Overall Review: Board will be pretty much perfect once the audio is fixed

Pros: – Good overclocker
– Easy-ish bios
– Quiet VRM fan
– Debug LEDs
– 2 ARGB connectors and 4 fan connectors
– Onboard audio, so no hive device
– PCIe gen 5 for all slots
– WiFi 7 and BT 5.4 is nice to see
– Rear I/O is better than some other mini-ITX boards (Gigabyte) Cons: – M.2 SSDs can get HOT. I usually see >80C on my rear mounted SSD after a gaming session, and my drive is a budget gen 3 QLC drive. 70C on my front SSD (high end gen 4 TLC drive). Could be my case though, Phanteks Evolv SHIFT XT
– Clear CMOS button works only when there is no 5V power. This means that you have to turn off your PSU to use it. You could unplug the PSU, but some PSUs have really big 5V caps and it can take a while for them to drain completely.
– BIOS is funky. It’s alright if your a noob, but changing things like DDR5 Nitro Mode makes it completely ignore timings from the “Ai Tweaker” page, despite having custom set values; you must set the timings from the AMD overclocking menu which has an arguably worse UI and is way more annoying to get to. The same thing goes for PBO, if you change it from the AMD overlocking menu in the advanced tab (which has more toggles), it completely ignores what you have in the “Ai Tweaker” page. It is also hard to find certain features like command rate or gear down mode, it doesn’t help that they use different names for them and that some are just not there, and its completely up to the motherboards logic to decide whether or not to use it. FYI, I’m used to a Gigabyte Aorus BIOS.
– USB attached onboard audio. The codec is okay, but it being attached via USB WILL create some issues like digital audio completely breaking when drivers are installed.
– Support would not help me with the Rate Your Gear program. It’s to get a $20 steam gift card for leaving a review, this is a multi-BILLION dollar company btw. Overall Review: This board is really good… if I spent maybe $200. MSI and Gigabyte have better boards for cheaper. The only reason I got this is because this was the cheapest black am5 mini-ITX motherboard at the time, I also wanted to avoid ASRock due to the 9800X3D issues of the time.
However, if you can deal with the quirks, the board itself is decent. I was able to push my ram kit to both 6400 28-38-32-72 and 8000 36-48-48-100; however any higher than 8000 would be extremely unstable, regardless of timings. I was also able to push my 9800X3D to 5.6GHz @ 1.3v all core.