ASUS ROG Strix B550-XE Gaming WiFi Preview
Introduction and First Look
Published: 30th October 2020 | Source: ASUS | Price: |
Introduction
As we’re sure you are aware the next generation of the wildly successful AMD Ryzen CPUs is nearly upon us. To say that the Ryzen launch was a triumph is almost understating things, and whilst the original CPUs were good, the second excellent, the current models are tremendous both in terms of performance and affordability.
The Zen 3 Ryzen are only days away now, but as always you want a motherboard that will maximise your new purchase, and ASUS have long been as reliable as any manufacturer you could choose. We have their newest B550 in the office for review, but first let’s give you a quick preview to whet your appetite.
As regular readers will know there are always many bits we can’t officially reveal, so don’t expect this to be a deep dive. Instead think of this as a chance to see it in the flesh and get some of the interesting things pointed out. It’s cold and wet outside so grab your comfiest sweater and enjoy the ASUS ROG Strix B550-XE Gaming WiFi. It has an X in the name, so it must be good.
Up Close - Packaging
As always there are a few things that we're not allowed to talk about prior to launch. Therefore here is the packaging, which lives up to the famous ROG standards, particularly the Strix Republic of Gamers products, by combining the black and red that is so familiar with plenty of glitzy lighting in the form of the ROG Eye, as well as a demonstration of the RGB sections on the PCB.
Here is the back of the box, listing all the things we can't tell you. If you happen to embiggen this picture and stare intently at the listing that's not our fault, and we definitely don't recommend you do exactly that, if you're curious.
Now let's see what you get in the box.
Most Recent Comments

From what I can make out the CPU has so many lanes, then the PCH adds more. I got caught out by this when I got my X570, as I thought I had so many lanes. Turns out I could fit both PCIE SSDs and etc without losing any on the GPU. IIRC the CPU takes care of the GPU, then the PCH does the rest.Quote
https://i.imgur.com/ctHU8Kt.png
this would be more fit for an x570 board.
when it will increase the price even more this is kind of a stupid decision.Quote
the connection to the chipset is only 4x PCI3.0 if im not wrong so yes there will be a bottleneck for the expansion card.
this would be more fit for an x570 board. when it will increase the price even more this is kind of a stupid decision. |
That is the ecosystem you will need to get the most out of SAM any way. PCIE 3.0 X4 SSDs are fine for everything else. Gen 4s will only (maybe) make a difference to SAM. And that needs coding for, so won't happen for a while yet.Quote

https://i.imgur.com/6fe8NdZ.pngQuote