ASUS ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II Review
Up Close
The Republic of Gamers brand has always had outstanding packaging and the Strix models in particular make full use of the multihued ROG Eye logo on a black background. It shows how quickly people adapt that the first all-black ROG box was a shock to the system but now we’ve got used to it.
If you’re fairly new to the world of PC hardware then perhaps the photograph below doesn’t do anything to excite you. It just looks like a normal modern motherboard. For those of us who recall the multicolour plastics on older ones – and we accept we’re old – the all black aesthetic is still one we love. Just look at the motherboards in the background for goodness sake. Who wouldn’t prefer this?
The CPU area of the X299 chipset can never be accused of being empty and the Strix II is no exception with eight DIMM slots and hefty power phases and cooling ensuring that even the heavy core counts of the next generation of Intel X CPUs will find their power demands sated. We’ll look at the ProCool II VRM cooling on the next page.
The extra M.2 slots the Strix II has when compared to its forebear also comes with the additional heatspreaders necessary to keep them running at premium performance. We have always liked it when manufacturers cover up the tiny chips and capacitors on their PCBs so this is a development which gets our thumbs up. It just makes everything look cleaner.
Above the beefy VRM heatsink we find the CPU pump and fan cooling headers alongside a RGB LED Strip header. Given how many people attach theirs to their roof mounted AIO radiators it’s a nice spot for it.
If the spot usually taken by the CPU power inputs is now home to a RGB header the movement of the 12V connectors to the top right was only natural, and our skinned knuckles thank ASUS for this design decision. The top left corner of motherboards has been too crowded for too long and this change is long overdue.
On the right hand edge we find the front panel USB 3.2 Gen2 connector alognside a vertically mounted M.2 socket for those of you with a surfeit of NVMe drives on hand.
