Overall and Final Verdict
While the TUF Gaming X870-Plus Wifi had a unique styling, the Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi is a lot more up my alley with its styling. The combination of everything being blacked out and simple along with that stamped and cutout cover on the top M.2 heatsink that almost looks like it is made of titanium it’s a good look. The Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi also stands out with the sheer number of connection options you get, both on the rear I/O and inside. For the rear I/O, I was blown away at the number of fast USB ports available. It isn’t crazy to see a lot of USB ports on a board, but often a chunk of those are older USB 2.0 speeds and sometimes base USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds but with the Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi you get 10 USB 3.2 Gen 2 speed ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, and two of the new USB 4.0 ports and that doesn’t count the number of USB connections you can add in with the internal headers. You won’t want for fan headers and you also get three addressable RGB headers. The only thing missing for me was at least one of the older 4-pin RGB headers, I still run into a lot of devices that use those and it would be nice to be able to control those without having to run another controller. You get a lot of M.2 slots but what impressed me the most was the M.2 cooling. All five M.2 slots had solid cooling which is important with PCIe 4 and 5 M.2 drives. Asus has also gotten creative with their M.2 mounting including the flexible slot toolless mounting and the push button release on one of the heatsinks and the snap in match for the M.2 drive inside under that heatsink.
The only other things I would change about the Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi is that like with the other X870 boards I’ve tested so far, the RGB lighting is all clumped in one area. I would also love to see the possibility of a 10 GbE NIC on these higher-end gaming boards. I understand why Asus focuses that on their ProArt line and frankly, I am in the minority to have a 10GbE network at all. But if you are going to have support for 5GbE you will most likely also be able to run 10GbE on your network. The 5GbE connection seems like a half-step to me. I’m hoping however it is more reliable than what we have seen with the 10GbE onboard NICs so far.
The Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi has an MSRP of $499.99 which firmly puts it up into the higher-end range and isn’t going to be for everyone. That said, Asus is justifying the pricing by loading the Strix X870E-E Gaming Wifi with features. For comparison this is in line with the X870E Aorus Master from Gigabyte and Asus is a step above on things like the VRMs and connectivity. But if you are looking for a higher-end X870E board but aren’t willing to throw down for the Crosshair Hero then this is the board for you.
Live Pricing: HERE
