Three stars because as a motherboard it has potential. Nevertheless, I am disappointed. The motherboard had issues, especially with the RAM in expo, which had been checked for compatibility. At some point, boot problems started, until the card stopped working, it wouldn't post and only the lights stayed on. Asus used to be a top company; we once knew that if we wanted good hardware, especially motherboards, it was a one-way street. In recent years, it has gone from bad to worse. From the burned x3D, the poor treatment (beta BIOS update that voided the warranty), and generally the free fall in reliability, plus the fact that you pay a premium for their products, leads us to seriously consider other options. Especially for a motherboard with military-grade materials, such a failure is problematic.

Because I knew very well what I was buying and I knew very well how to make use of it, I also bought an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 that provides cooling with a special fan on the motherboard's VRM. From what I saw in a video from an experienced user on YouTube, it guarantees a drop of up to 7 degrees Celsius, which is quite significant. What I personally see in terms of temperature at that specific point is a drop of 4-5 degrees, which still serves me well, as no other cooler would provide me with such support.

The processor I am using is the 7700x, which is already very hot on its own, and in stock settings it keeps it at 39 degrees idle, but if I increase the fan speed, at the cost of noise, it reaches 32 degrees. Something I haven't done yet, because I don't think it will be that useful. The noise of the fans covers many sounds around us, and if you play with friends and headphones, it's annoying. I will simply add a few more for better airflow.

The most positive thing is that compared to previous TUF motherboards, they have changed the positions of many internal ports, making the installation of various hardware easier. If you do some research, you will see that in old TUF motherboards, the Watercool AIO ports are in inaccessible areas for the sake of not extending the power cable, while now they are located on the top right along with additional 4Pin ports and an ARGB port. Also, the space around there for installing cooling solutions is quite large, the heatsinks or VRM capacitors do not interfere, and you can easily install any cooler you purchased. You will find AI Cooling in Armour Crate quite useful, especially if you don't want to make tweaks and search for speeds and related settings on your own.

The RAM is in a very good position, providing the space comfort you desire in a motherboard for installing large coolers, and you will definitely have the convenience to work on your modifications. From my own experience, I can tell you that it supports Expo I and Expo II, and I recommend Expo I for learning purposes depending on how you work with your memory. I personally chose g.skill trident z5 neo because I wanted to prefer the brand, I wanted to get something that the motherboard datasheet confirms is compatible (in the past, am4 had issues with some RAM), and definitely a low cl, as much as possible, to stay within budget.

What I liked quite a bit was the number of ports for installing m.2. It is the first setup I have ever done in my life only with m.2 and all my HDDs are external for my important files. They provide coverage with heatsinks and thermal paste, so you don't need to do much for their cooling and housing on the motherboard. Also, you don't need the annoying small screw that other motherboards have, as this one has solved it with a rotating plastic pin that secures it from lifting. I found it clever. My Samsung Evo 980 (PCIe 4.0) is in PCIe 5.0 slot even though it doesn't have such connectivity, I placed it there. The second one I have, a Kingston A3000, I placed it in the 3.0 slot because it is of that standard, but also because it has coverage from above and cooling in that slot.

Another important reason why I chose this motherboard is the PCI port it has for installing a sound card in case the Realtek didn't satisfy me. I haven't found a reason to buy one yet, and it will show exactly what I will do. I have heard and read good things about the Realtek S1220A in relation to amplifiers. It provides good sound quality in 7.1, although it has some limitations in terms of settings for the high frequencies of the multichannel. You can see it before purchasing it, in the description of the official page to make sure.

It provides a variety of expansions for different types of cases, such as multiple ports in various locations for fans, a variety of USB ports on the front for all types, and the classic headphone ports. I don't like that in 2023, while the Gigabyte Z170X G1 Gaming 5 from 2016 provides a plastic piece that installs the operate, reset, and HDD LED buttons to pass them through it and then onto the slots, with this motherboard I have to do it one by one manually. Unfortunately, the Gigabyte plastic does not fit this motherboard. Also, a negative aspect is that even if I connect the speaker module, no motherboard has its own integrated one. If someone made a mistake during installation or something went wrong, you can't hear the sound that helps you find the issue. Trying and error is good, but sound is helpful.

Now, regarding the external ports, I found the material to be very rich. I should mention that it doesn't require a backplate installation, it is integrated. It has eight USB type A ports and two type C ports. Out of the 8, 3 are blue and 5 are teal. The teal ones are USB 3.2 gen 2 and the blue ones are 3.2 gen 1. While the type C ports are all 3.2 gen 2. It has a special port for flash BIOS without being in Windows and a special button below to activate it. It also has 7.1 audio support and unfortunately does not have an optical port. The 2.5Gb Ethernet port speed is good to have, you never know what will happen in the coming years.

The motherboard's LEDs turn on even after you shut down your computer. From the BIOS, you can go to the Aura settings by pressing F4, and choose Stealth Mode to turn them off.

Very good and cheap but there are 1-2 things worth mentioning. The one m.2 slot (the one not covered by a heatsink), when in use, "blocks" 2 out of the 4 sata ports. In order for them to work together, you may have to lower the speed of the m.2 through a BIOS setting, which renders the purchase of a 4th m.2 instead of 2 other ssd/hd pointless. Also (a detail that can be solved with a screwdriver), it is difficult to find the clip that locks the PCI card due to the m.2 heatsink.

Finally, as unfortunately happens very often with motherboard manufacturers, the software is garbage. After setting it up, I suggest deleting it (and the 5 applications...) and disabling their automatic installation from the BIOS.