ASUS TUF Gaming X870-Pro W NEO Review
Up Close
Up Close
Lovely crisp white packaging gives you a hint of what lies inside. We also enjoy the idea of a 64MB BIOS. It shows how fast things move on in the technology world. Or perhaps we just notice because we’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years.
Freed from its cardboard confines you can see how crisp the TUF NEO aesthetic is. Big bold branding against the kind of whiteness reserved for arctic foxes.
Beneath those two towering heatsinks is the 16+2+1 Smart Power Stage with 80A available. We’ll ask you to pay close attention to the solidity of the west heatsink. It’ll be referenced below.
Around the back of the TUF NEO ASUS have cut out some room. For airflow one would think but, as you saw above, the heatsink itself is solid. No gaps for air to enter. Either you need a very strong fan in the foot of your case – and no GPU – or invert a roof fan to blow downwards. We’re sure there is a reason, we just find it odd. If you want to hide the unused space on the IO shield from this being a plain X870 option, just screen print a bold ASUS or something.
Not a big issue. Just a curious one.
