ASUS ProArt B760-Creator D4 Review
Up Close
If you’ve ever looked at the current design ethos behind modern gaming focused motherboards and grown tired of seeing the same old thing then maybe the ProArt will be just the ticket to refresh your enthusiasm. The transluscent IO shield and simple, almost stark, chipset cooler are a big change when compared to other motherboards.
The ProArt has 4+8 pin 12V ATX power inputs. Tucked away behind the VRM heatsink are three fan headers to ensure that your processor – 12th Generation, 13th Generation Intel Core or even Pentium/Celeron should you desire – runs cool during those lengthy renders. The top right has the first two parts of the AURA RGB ecosystem, allowing you to show off a colour choice if you so desire.
The lower half has the full suite of PCI Express options. The main slot, armoured of course, is PCI Express 5.0 x16. Below that is a PCI Express 4.0 x16, with the small PCI Express 3.0 x1 slot below that. Plenty of expansion options. Speaking of options, storage consists of 4 SATA 6Gb/s ports, and if you prefer your storage a little faster you’ll appreciate the 3 M.2 slots. Two of them are PCIe 4.0 whilst one is PCIe 3.0.
Beneath these sharply cornered VRM heatsinks lies a 12+1 50A power stage, demonstrating that the ASUS ProArt is strictly for those who plug and play, rather than demand that their Core i9 gets overclocked to the hilt.
The bottom right corner provides connection for the front of your case as well as three case fan headers. Front panel USB has a 3.2 G2 Type-C and 3.2 G1 Type-A you can see in the shot above as well as the two USB 2.0 headers visible here.
Audio is handled by a Realtek 7.1 codec, which makes sense given that the 2.5G LAN port is also a Realtek offering. There is a Thunderbolt header here next to to the other two RGB LED strip headers, one ARGB one regular RGB.
Lastly the rear is a bit less impressive than the Strix B760 motherboards we’ve also looked at. You get DisplayPort and HDMI outputs. Below those there are 4 USB 2.0 ports, 4 USB 3.2 G1 and a USB 3.2G2 Type-C only rated to 10G rather than the 20G we’ve seen on the Strix. One would imagine this is an area a creator would need the biggest bandwidth possible. However, the ProArt does have the benefit of a 1G LAN alongside the 2.5G that is more common.
