ASUS ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi7 NEO - A Crosshair by any other name

TweakTown Rating: 93%

Our Verdict

The feature-packed ASUS ROG Strix X870E-E NEO loses hardly anything compared to more expensive Crosshair boards.

Pros

• Five M.2 slots
• Lots of fast USB ports
• Excellent cooling
• Strong VRM
• 64MB BIOS and integrated WiFi driver

Cons

• Only two PCIe slots
• Polarizing design (IMO)
• No front USB PD support

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

It's hard to believe that the X870E chipset launched back in September of 2024. Time really flies! As Zen 6 and accompanying next-generation chipsets are looking like a late 2026 release at best, several motherboard makers have used the intervening time to introduce refreshed X870 models, including ASUS, which has released four NEO motherboards. Though NEO boards were first revealed at CES 2026, it's taken some time for the models to reach the market. The first of our NEO reviews covers the ASUS ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFI7 NEO. It's a high-end board that wouldn't be out of place if it were part of the Crosshair family.

Though ostensibly a refreshed model, the X870E-E NEO offers more than a fresh coat of paint. Among the new features are NitroPath DDR5 DRAM technology, which optimizes memory slot design and traces, an external clock generator, a beefed-up VRM system, an AIO Q-Connector for easy integration with ASUS ROG Strix LC IV liquid cooling systems, and an optimized PCIe lane configuration.

Apart from a new design with an ARGB I/O shroud, the X870E- E NEO is unmistakably a high-end board with a strong feature set. Its networking options include 5G LAN and 320MHz WiFi 7. It supports up to 25 USB ports, including at least 11 10Gbps ports on the rear I/O, plus dual USB4. It includes five M.2 slots, it has a host of DIY friendly build options, a redesigned UEFI BIOS with a 64MB ROM, and it has a very capable thermal design, complete with a heatpipe-equipped primary M.2 heatsink.

ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi7 NEO (that's a really clunky name) supports AMD AM5 Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series CPUs. It supports up to 256GB of memory at 9600 MT/s+. The 64MB BIOS means it is ready for Zen 6 CPUs. With technologies such as USB5, PCIe 6.0, and DDR6 memory perhaps years away, the X870E-E NEO looks like a board that's as future-proof as it can be at this point.

The ASUS ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi 7 NEO is now on sale for $599. That's a pretty penny, but it's competitive compared to boards such as the GIGABYTE X870E AORUS Master X3D and some $100 cheaper than the Crosshair X870E Dark Hero and MSI MEG X870E Ace Max.

Packaging, Accessories, and Overview

Packaging and Accessories

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ASUS ROG boxes and fonts haven't really changed in a decade or more. It's part of the series' enduring appeal. There are actually ROG collectors!

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The rear of the box is packed with a detailed specification rundown and some of the NEO upgrades. Apart from 10G LAN, and expensive add-ons such as an LCD screen or a discrete M.2 card, there's not much more ASUS could include. Those are reasons boards like the MSI X870E Godlike and ASUS ROG X870E Glacial cost twice as much.

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The board comes with a comprehensive set of accessories. The WiFi antenna is a highlight. It's adjustable and well-built. A 60mm memory cooling fan and mounting bracket will assist those looking to tweak their memory. With Zen 6 expected to add full CUDIMM support, this could prove a very useful inclusion.

Aside from the expected SATA and RGB cables and M.2 bits and pieces, you get a set of cable ties and a keychain. However, ASUS omitted a thumb drive with utilities and drivers. You'll have to visit the ASUS site to get these, or rely on the Armory Crate app.

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Finally, there's a quick-start guide, a set of stickers, and a sheet inviting you to purchase ASUS cloud storage.

Motherboard Overview

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The X870E-E NEO has a busy design with extensive silk screening and branding across the board. Personally, I prefer a simpler design, and I'm not a fan of the pixel style used for the ROG logos. "For Those Who Dare" is also a bit cheesy. The main RGB highlight is the large area atop the I/O should. Though you do get three ARGB headers if you fancy showing the board off inside a windowed case.

The USB header complement is excellent, offering a range of options for your case. The board provides up to six USB 2.0 ports, four USB 5Gbps ports, and two Type-C 20Gbps ports. Curiously, the front USB-C ports lack official PD support, though they can deliver up to 15W by default. USB 2.0 headers can be used for things like AIO powering and monitoring, and it's better to have too many than not enough.

The X870E-E NEO includes a bank of metal pads between the CPU socket and memory slots. ASUS calls it the AIO Q-Connector. It's compatible with ROG Strix LC IV series AIO CPU liquid coolers. It omits the need for power, LCD control, and ARGB cabling. It also powers radiator fans, meaning it's a great way to remove cables for the cleanest of builds. It's a clever solution. Wouldn't it be nice if the industry could come together and standardize a feature like this?

Other key headers and connectors include eight fan headers, a thermistor header, a PCIe mode switch, and a CPU overvoltage jumper. A power button is also welcome.

Like most 800 series refresh boards, the X870E-E NEO includes a 64MB BIOS ROM. That means the board won't have issues supporting future processor generations. One may recall that many 300 and 400-series AM4 boards had issues supporting Zen 3 processors due to small ROMs, while others had to omit Excavator support. With the current AI boom, there's every chance AM5 will remain supported for many years to come, much as AM4 still is (kind of) nearly 10 years after its launch.

The BIOS includes an integrated WiFi driver, negating the need to download a driver from another device and then transfer it to the new PC.

The X870E-E NEO features an extensive range of builder-friendly features. In addition to the aforementioned AIO Q-Connector, the board includes M.2 heatsink quick-release mechanisms, tool-free M.2 slide for easy switching between 2280 and 2242 M.2 drives, M.2 Q-Latches, PCIe quick release, and one-click WiFi antenna installation.

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The rear of the board features more of the ASUS retro pixelated silk-screening.

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Four DIMM slots support up to DDR5-9600+ speeds with a Ryzen 8000 series processor. 9000 series processors support up to 9000 MT/s. That's very impressive for a four-slot board. ASUS claims its NitroPath technology delivers up to 400 MT/s faster speeds with these optimizations. I wonder if this was developed with future CUDIMM support in mind. There are rumors of EXPO support for 10000 MT/s straight out of the box!

Such speeds are sure to be more relevant for Zen 6 processors. For 7000 and 9000 processors, AMD still recommends memory in the 6000-6400 MT/s range in 1:1 mode for the best balance of speed, latency, and compatibility.

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The board offers two PCIe x16 slots. The top slot supports PCIe 5.0 x16. The bottom x16 slot supports PCIe 4.0 x4 electrically.

The X870E-E NEO supports five M.2 SSDs. Both of the upper slots support PCIe 5.0 x4. ASUS managed this by sharing the M2_2 slot bandwidth with the rear USB4 ports. The USB4 ports and M2_2 slot run at PCIe 5.0 x2 when a drive is installed in that slot. The primary slot is cooled by a very well-designed heatsink. A single long plate cools the dual Promontory 21 chipsets.

Four SATA ports join the five M.2 slots.

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The primary M.2 heatsink is a work of art. It comes complete with a heatpipe. This, combined with dual-sided thermal pads, results in one of the best M.2 cooling assemblies I've ever come across.

All M.2 slots, except the primary slot, are cooled by a single large plate. It features a toolless mechanism for easy access.

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The ROG Strix X870E-E NEO features a high-end 18+2+2-phase VRM with 110A stages. That rivals the mighty Crosshair X870E Apex. It hardly needs to be said that this is sufficient to power any Ryzen CPU, overclocked or not. ASUS probably knew a thing or two about Zen 6 when it was developing this board, particularly the targeted TDPs. Even if the TDPs of high-core-count Zen 6 CPUs hit 250W+, the X870E-E NEO will handle them with ease.

The VRM heatsinks are more than capable of keeping the VRM cool. Though they cannot match the surface area of true finned designs, they are a match for pretty much every other high-end X870E board on the market. When considering the excellent primary M.2 SSD cooling as well, the X870E-E Neo's cooling is really top-notch.

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With a couple of exceptions, the rear I/O of the ROG Strix X870E-E NEO is about as good as it gets for any X870E board. We'll begin with the USB complement, which starts with dual USB4 Type-C ports, both of which support DP 1.4a. The other 11 ports all support 10Gbps. The Type-C port with the little lightning bolt is not a Thunderbolt port; it denotes support for 30W PD.

There's also an HDMI 2.1 port, which gives you triple-monitor support without a GPU.

A Realtek RTL8126 controller provides the 5G LAN port. Would you like 10G or perhaps a secondary 2.5G controller? Maybe, but I don't expect it on a Strix board, even in 2026. The MediaTek MT7927 controller supports 320MHz connections and delivers up to 5.8Gbps of bandwidth.

Next are the audio ports, which consist of 3.5mm line-in and line-out ports and S/PDIF. These are driven by a Realtek ALC4080 codec. ASUS added additional circuitry, including a Savitech SV3H712 amp and dedicated audio capacitors.

Finally, there are CMOS clear and BIOS flashback buttons. Overall, the board offers a great set of connectivity options.

UEFI and Test System

UEFI

ASUS has overhauled the UEFI design on its NEO motherboards. The EZ Mode page now includes almost all the settings a set-and-forget type user will need. It's easy to read and provides instant access to important monitoring and fan control settings without having to access the advanced pages.

ASUS went further, adding an Essential Mode page that bridges the gap between EZ mode and the more difficult-to-navigate Advanced section. Here, users can access features such as PBO settings, CPU core ratio, and memory frequency. Given that these settings are found here, perhaps some basic voltage controls would be beneficial too, but such controls really are in the realm of advanced settings, so I can understand them not being here.

ASUS ROG BIOSes are typically jam-packed with features, and the X870E-E NEO is no different. There are plenty of esoteric settings to tweak.

I was a fan of the Q-Dashboard page, which listed the important headers and ports and whether they had been populated. It was useful for troubleshooting. I could not find it here, though.

Test System

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X - Buy from Amazon
• GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux - Buy from Amazon
• OS Storage: Teamgroup T-Force Z540 2TB - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex Titanium 850W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro - Buy from Amazon

Benchmarks - Rendering and Encoding

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench 2024 is a reliable, widely used benchmark that measures both single- and multi-threaded performance. Note that all our benchmark testing used the latest available Windows updates.

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This is the best result we've seen yet from an 800 series board. It achieved 2,321 in the nT test and 141 in the 1T test.

Blender

A rendering application like Blender is just one of many reasons a user might consider a high-core-count CPU, such as the Ryzen 9 9950X. We use the Whitelands demo file and record how long it takes to render the image.

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It's almost a win in our Blender test, too, though the time covering the whole field is just nine seconds.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a simple-to-use video encoding and transcoding application. Here, we convert a 4K movie trailer to 1080p. The results below show the average FPS, where a higher value indicates the task will take less time to complete.

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161.4 FPS is another excellent result for the X870E-E NEO.

Benchmarks - File Compression and Memory Latency

7Zip

7Zip is a commonly used free file compression and decompression app. It's very sensitive to changes in memory speed and latency, and scales with the number of CPU threads.

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The NEO is proving to be a consistent high scorer so far.

AIDA64 Memory Latency

Memory latency has been an area where Intel has traditionally held an advantage. Chiplet architectures inevitably add some latency compared to monolithic chips. The real-world benefits aren't that important, though.

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70.7ns is a good result for a four-DIMM board.

Benchmarks - PCMark and 3DMark

PCMark 10 Productivity

We'd love to use our PCs solely for leisure, but some of us have to work too! The PCMark 10 productivity test performs a series of tests using office productivity applications.

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Ultimately, all the tested boards are within a couple of percent of one another. Nevertheless, this is still a good result for ASUS. But PCMark 10 is now dated. I'll be replacing this benchmark with something more modern when next-generation CPUs and motherboards are released.

3DMark Storage

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. It is superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs of the actual game.

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It's another strong result for the X870E-E NEO.

3DMark Time Spy Extreme

Time Spy Extreme has lost favor as a graphics benchmark to Speed Way and Steel Nomad, but its CPU test is still a good measure of multi-core performance.

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ASUS really hasn't put a foot wrong at all. Though to be fair, the differences are minor, with only a few hundred points separating the field when measured by CPU score.

Benchmarks - Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is brutal on graphics cards, but when things like ray tracing are removed, it becomes more sensitive to CPU and memory performance differences.

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The ASUS performs well in games too, though it's no surprise that the motherboard makes little difference in graphically limited scenarios.

Horizon Zero Dawn

When using the 'favor performance' preset, Horizon Zero Dawn can achieve high frame rates with powerful graphics cards.

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Numero Uno! Though the differences here are negligible in percentage terms. If you're lucky enough to own an RTX 5090, the margins would be a little larger.

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition

Metro Exodus received an update that added improved DLSS support, enhanced ray tracing features, and variable rate shading, among other things. Still, with a powerful graphics card, it is affected by CPU and memory performance at 1080p, though less so with a card like the RTX 4070 Ti Super.

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Just four frames per second cover the entire field in this test.

VRM and SSD Temperatures

These tests are performed to show off the differences between each motherboard's cooling assemblies. Each board is subjected to a 20-minute Cinebench loop, while the SSD test records the peak temperature during the lengthy 3DMark Storage test.

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A peak temperature of 56 degrees is a strong result. It's only a few degrees away from the top spots.

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This result really impressed me. The GIGABYTE in the top spot has a large, tower-like heatsink, so for the ASUS to get within touching distance of it while giving up some surface area is a great result, and it's a good step up over the Crosshair X870E Hero.

Final Thoughts

The ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi7 NEO is ostensibly a refresh motherboard, but it really seems like an all-new model. ASUS has made some significant changes that probably won't be significantly improved upon when next-gen motherboards are released. As mentioned earlier in the review, until we see technologies such as USB5, PCIe 6.0, or DDR6 memory, next-gen motherboards probably won't look all that different spec-wise. Given that, a good, solid board like the X870E-E NEO is almost certain to be a safe bet if you've got your eye on a Zen 6 CPU in the months and years ahead.

I'll begin with the look of the board, which I feel is not the best I've ever seen, though beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I feel there's a little too much going on, but apart from that, the X870E-E NEO is a very fine motherboard indeed.

Though the differences are quite small, the board performed well in our benchmarks, taking its fair share of the top spots. That's great if you're looking to build a high-performance system. I'm also very pleased with what ASUS did with its refreshed UEFI. The inclusion of a WiFi driver is welcome, and the addition of the Essential Mode is a great step between the novice-friendly EZ page and the Advanced section, which can be overwhelming for some users.

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The board's cooling is excellent, particularly the primary SSD cooler, which looks great, too.

In terms of connectivity and networking, it's hard to expect too much more at this price. 5G LAN and 320MHz WiFi 7 are expected. 10G LAN would have been a nice cherry on top. The USB complement is also very good indeed, with plenty of high-speed ports for all your devices, plus a Christmas tree or plasma ball or two.

The five M.2 slots - two of which support PCIe 5.0 - means it's a great option for users frequently shifting around large files. You'll have to live with just two PCIe slots, as unfortunately, it's not possible to run five M.2 SSDs, USB4, and multiple expansion cards at the same time, but that's not a problem unique to ASUS.

ASUS isn't always known for offering stellar value, but at $599, you get a genuinely feature-rich board. I'd consider the GIGABYTE AORUS Master X3D its most formidable competitor, but ROG fans are a loyal bunch, and either way, you're getting a great board that will happily house any components you care to name, including Zen 6 CPUs.

It's got dual PCIe 5.0 SSD support, very good cooling, 320MHz WiFi 7, 5G LAN, fast memory support, lots of fast USB, and it delivers excellent performance. If you're a fan of ROG and want a high-end board that undercuts the more expensive Crosshair models, while sacrificing very little, then the ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi 7 comes highly recommended.