Board Layout and Pictures

So much like the packaging, with an initial look, the X470-G Gaming isn’t really a drastic change from the X370 version. This isn’t a big surprise considering most X470 boards have been the same. What does stand out though is Asus has clearly moved away from the two grey colors with a black background to use a lot more black. It still looks like a Strix board, but darker, like its goth teenage years. The X470-F is a full ATX board at 12-inch x 9.6 inches. Currently, this is their only full-sized Strix board on X470 as well, with just the ITX version as the other Strix model.

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So the cooling has a slightly different look but shape wise they are close to what I saw on the X370 boards. For VRM cooling there are two heatsinks around the CPU socket. One on top and one to the left. They do not connect together at all. Both have an angular design with side cuts on the inside to give a lot more surface area. They are then covered in a dark grey anodization. The other half of the cooling is a large low profile heatsink that handles the chipset on the bottom right portion of the board as well as covers one M.2 slot. This heatsink is all blacked out with the exception of the ROG branding in a holographic-like finish over a good portion of it. Personally, the one ROG logo that is angled and the rest in black would look a lot better to me.

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In addition to the heatsinks changing color, the other big aesthetic change is with the cover over the rear I/O. For starters, this design is much larger than the previous one. You can see it even goes over and covers up part of the VRM heatsink. The new design is also finished in flat black where past covers were in that Strix grey with a satin or glossy finish. The new look is clean though with most of it being just blank. You have the ROG logo and a dash like line under it that are both backlit. With this being integrated into the VRM heatsink I almost wonder if those should have been black as well.

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As for the rest of the top left corner, there isn’t too much going on given the CPU socket, heatsinks, and the I/O cover takes up most of that space. Asus did still slip the 8-pin CPU power connection up in between all of that though. There isn’t much space around it, in fact, if you look close you can see that it is up against the heatsink. There is also a four-pin RGB header in bright white down below the left heatsink as well as two fan headers for you to hook up lighting to your heatsink or to anything on the rear of the case as well as rear case fans. One of those plugs also doubles as the AIO/Pump header for situations where you need a little more amperage.

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Over on the top right portion, there is a little more going on. First, you have four DDR4 ram DIMM slots. Also if you look close at the PCB around the CPU socket you can see additional branding and logos in a glass black. There are two four-pin fan headers for your CPU cooler above the DIMMs as well. Then along the right side, there is another fan header, this is our fifth so far. Below that is the 24 pin motherboard power and then you have an upward facing USB 3.1 Gen 2 header for cases that support the new faster USB connections.

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Down in the bottom right corner, there are six right-angled SATA connections along the right edge. Behind those, there is an exposed M.2 slot. This is one of two, the other is up above the top PCIe slot under the heatsink. Down along the bottom edge, starting in the bottom right corner you have the front panel connections. Oddly enough Asus didn’t include a front panel helper on this board so the labeling of these is really important. I wish they would go with color-coded connections but there are at least labels right under the plug. Next, to that, you have two more 4 pin fan headers with a second pump header. That puts us at 7 so far. Then next to that the two white plugs are both for RGB lighting. One is for a normal RGB connection and the second is for addressable lighting. Then you have one USB 3.1 header and a USB 2.0 with it.

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Continuing along the bottom edge there is a second USB 2.0 header as well as a thermal sensor plug. Then you have a TPM plug and a communications port. Then on the far left the front panel audio connection. For PCIe slots, the X470-F has a total of six. Three are x1 length and the other three are x16 length. Of those, all of the x1 slots are obviously x1 bandwidth. The bottom x16 slot is always x4 for bandwidth then the top two have a little more going on. First, they both have metal shielding to help hold heavy video cards up. So with most CPUs, the top one will run at x16 if you run one card and if you use both slots they both drop down to x8. The exception to that is if you run a Raven Ridge APU, then the middle slot doesn’t work at all and the top only runs at x8.

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So for audio, the board has SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio using the CODEC S1220A. Asus did slip in dual OP amplifiers and impedance sensing for the front and rear headphone outputs. The controller is shielded as you can see in the picture below and they did use quality caps. It is also all split apart from the rest of the motherboard to help cut back on feedback.

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So the biggest thing with the rear I/O to me is that Asus has now built it right on to the board. Where in the past you have to pre-installed the shield into your case now you don’t. This is especially nice with a few of the In Win cases that don’t have mounting for a shield at all with open-air designs like the D-Frame Mini where you now can get legends and don’t have to worry about missing and shorting something out. Anyhow for connections available on the X470-F Gaming, there are a few. Over on the right side, you have the standard 5+optical audio configuration with each plug being color coded. Then over on the left, you have an old-school PS/2 port. There are two display connections should you use a CPU with onboard, you have the DisplayPort and HDMI connections, both are full sized with a lot of room around them. Then for USB connection, there are a total of 8 back here. So the two red USB ports are USB 3.1 Gen 2 so they are the new faster connections. Oddly enough the Type-C is not Gen 2. It is a regular USB 3.1 Gen 1. Then all five of the blue plugs are USB 3.1 Gen 1. Last but not least is the built-in NIC. The red indicates it has Asus’s anti-surge built in for a little extra protection and it is all running on the Intel I211.

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So with the X470-F Gaming flipped over there isn’t too much going on. You can better see the flat black PCB finish and if you look really close you can see Game On ROG Strix in gloss black across the middle. You can also see the PCB split for the audio circuitry over on the right side. None of the top mounted heatsinks have backplates other than the CPU socket. But they are all mounted from the bottom using screws, not those plastic push pins that break so later in the board's life cleaning and reapplying any thermal paste or pads will be easy if it is ever needed.

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VaporX's Avatar
VaporX replied the topic: #38525 26 May 2018 00:09
I am debating this board and the Prime X470 Pro, save a little money. The plan is to run a 2600X at stock settings, let the built in overclock do it job.

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