In December, Intel released the B365 chipset, created on a 22nm process to relieve some stress off the 14nm chips of the B360 chipset. This change enabled Intel to keep the flow going for higher end chips to be made on the smaller updated process. Since then, a slow trickle of motherboards have arrived, with Asus today adding the Micro-ATX size ROG Strix B365-G Gaming motherboard - the first ROG Strix product to use the B365 chipset.
The board supports Intel’s 8th and 9th Generation Intel Core, Pentium Gold and Celeron processors and is able to handle up to 64GB of DDR4-2666 RAM across four DIMM slots. The B365-G Gaming being a bit higher in the product stack includes a pre-mounted I/O shield, the premium SupremeFX S1220A codec for audio and Intel I219-V LAN for that ROG Strix gaming feel.
On the storage front, the B365-G Gaming gives users the full complement of six SATA ports (supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) along with two M.2 sockets. The first M.2 socket supports both SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4, while the second is PCIe 3.0 x4 only. A third M.2 socket (Key E) intended for Wi-Fi adapters (not included) is below the primary PCIe slot next to the CMOS battery.
USB connectivity is plentiful and includes two USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports, four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and two USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O, all being fed from the chipset. The board itself has two more USB 2.0 headers, along with a USB 3.1 header rounding out USB connectivity. Also located on the rear I/O is a legacy PS/2 port, DVI-D and HDMI ports, along with 5-plug audio stack, plus S/PDIF.
The ROG Strix B365-G Gaming with its dual full-length PCIe slots supports AMD CrossFireX, for using multiple AMD graphics cards. The primary PCIe slot, using Asus’ Safeslot shielding, is fed from the CPU, while the other full-length slot receives its bandwidth from the chipset running at x4 (max). Nvidia SLI users need not apply.
Those who want some RGB bling with the black and red ROG-styled board have to buy their own and connect it to the single 4-pin header.
Neither pricing nor availability was listed, but being a part of the lower cost of entry B365 chipset and hailing from the ROG Strix family, we expect it to be around $100+.
