ASUS ROG Strix X870-A Gaming WiFi Preview

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Introduction

Strix, noun, a bird of ill-omen. Doesn’t seem like the most auspicious name. Then you realise it was also described as a Harbinger of War. Certainly if you look at the ASUS Strix range from the viewpoint of the other major hardware manufacturers, that probably is close to the truth. After all, the Strix brand took ASUS to staggering sales numbers in every area it appeared. It carved out a significant chunk of the userbase. You only have to glance at how all hardware looks aesthetically to understand the influence the Strix range had and has. Most products look like things a Strix product first brought to market.

With the new ROG Strix X870-A ASUS have kept the Strix A variant as a wholly white concoction. Given that we’ve already seen how their Prime models no longer swing for wallets of those who like white, it’s nice to know the massive selling Strix does. It shows there is still a market out there for white hardware. We first glimpsed it at Gamescom, and it had pride of place there. Given how much of a business this is, it’s reassuring ASUS see a long future in the world of white hardware.

Of the two new chipsets AMD are releasing to match their new 9000 series Ryzen CPUs, the Strix X870-A, as may be gleaned from its name, uses the more affordable X870 variant. The X870E seemingly saved for the Crosshair and other high end options. For the majority of users this distinction won’t mean much. The main differences we can tell is that the vanilla X870 has only a single PCIe 5.0 slot rather than two. Nobody really runs SLI/Crossfire, so that’s less of an issue than it might have been once. If you use so much storage you need a PCI Express NVMe expansion card, your requirements are beyond the remit of this particular product.

For gamers though, it’s got all you need. But enough flannel, let’s take a look shall we.

Technical Specifications