Extra Performance on a Locked Motherboard? ASUS ROG Strix B760-F Gaming WiFi Review

A few years ago, getting a motherboard with good features won't cost you an arm and a leg. But right now, regardless on what platform you are in, getting one is like buying another new processor. That's why I am taking a look on this B760 board from ASUS and determine if it deserve its premium price tag.

Design & Specification

The ASUS ROG Strix B760-F is a locked Intel ATX motherboard that was released to be paired with their 13th and 12th Gen processor. This DDR5 board is currently priced at around 15,000 PHP which is a little bit expensive as you are stepping in the Z690 board pricing already. But before we go deeper with its specs and feature, let us take a quick peek what's included when you purchase one. Within the box, you'll get the board within its anti-static bag. Besides it is the antenna for the Wi-Fi6E. Underneath, we have a pair of SATA cables, M.2 accessories including pads, extra screwless lock and another strip of thermal pad which sadly has a small nick to it. There is also an ROG bag tag that actually looks good and can be hooked on your luggage or backpack to low key flex that you got an ROG product. Finally we got stickers and its documentations.

And as for my first impression, I would just like to say that this Strix B760-F has a heft to it just like those you see in other premium boards. Visually, this shouts a very gamer vibe with the usual ROG design. But they added a unique flare to it by adding pixel art design reminiscing our 8-bit gaming days.

Diving a bit deeper, this board features a six-layer PCB for added stability, and at the same time we have overkill VRMs considering that this is a locked board. it features a 16+1 power stage using 60A of Vishay SIC623 which shouldn't even a problem even if overclocking is possible. And two cool these chips, ASUS slapped in 2 big block of aluminum heatsink with right amount of grooves for added surface area.

Connectivity

Just a quick tour on the board itself, besides the mandatory 8+4 CPU power connector and 24-pin power connector, this B760 board has 7 Fan header, a thunderbolt 4 header, a front USB-3 Type-A and Type-C header, and finally four SATA ports which oddly enough seems two more less than what we usually see on ATX boards . And for those RGB lovers, this board has three 5V ARGB header and a single 12v RGB header to fully customized your own setup.

For its Rear I/O, It has two display connectors one HDMI and one DisplayPort, 6 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, another Type-A that is USB 3.2 Gen 2, a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2, an Intel® 2.5GB LAN. Its wireless connectivity includes a WiFi 6E with Bluetooth 5.3 support and finally audio jacks. A Clear CMOS and bios flashback buttons are also located at the back.

Performance

I would not go too much into detail on it's BIOS since this is a locked board but for the past few iterations, Intel has finally decided to unlock RAM overclocking hence adjusting RAM speeds, timings and voltage is possible on a B760 motherboard. I managed to push my Kingston Fury Renegade RAM up until 6800MT/S which garnered some performance gains. I also like the idea that ASUS included a copy of MemTest86 in this board so you can easily test your memories stability. Power limits can also be unlocked here and ASUS calls this the ASUS Performance Enhancement 3.0. Theoretically this should give us more performance at the expense of increased power and thermals.

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And after some testing, generally we get an increase on most cases, wherein the biggest gain is at 15% with Cinebench R23 multicore score. We also get decent uplift in gaming especially in the 1% and 0.1% lows for a smoother gameplay. But then again, this rise in performance has a tradeoff but surprisingly the increase in temperature is minimal on my Cooler Master Hyper 622 dual tower heatsink.

Verdict

As for my verdict, besides it's premium price point, I can hardly find any faults on this motherboard. Beefy VRMs, good number of connectivity, the ASUS Performance Enhancement 3.0 feature, solid aesthetics that can even be used in blacked out builds and guaranteed support for next gen Intel CPUs makes this ROG motherboard a recommendation to anyone. It is just a well built motherboard that is capable in handling even an Intel i9 CPU. And with that, the ASUS ROG Strix B760-F Gaming WiFi deserves a Top Pick award!