ASUS TUF GAMING B450M-PRO II (AMD B450) (AM4) micro ATX gaming motherboard with dual M.2, PCIe 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C and Aura Sync RGB

ASUS claims their TUF Gaming Motherboards provide ultimate gaming experiences, but as for my now after experiencing this un-expected failure of another B450M motherboard replacement purchased just back in December of 2023, I now question the quality and expected longevity of their TUF B450 chipset equipped motherboards.And may be due to their employ of "non-OEM" original suppliers, or if not the case, maybe due to these suppliers usage of inferior, and "non-OEM" components, which many companies do once the product has matured in it expected "product marketing cycle".For like happens to many industrial suppliers of computer technology, they have to continue to provide support for aftermarket sales. Like personally experienced in my past engineering career, a guarantee of 10 years aftermarket support of original equipment delivered on a project,So, with today's gaming PC builds, its apparent that no sooner a new technology is out there, like "next generation chipsets", and so-equipped motherboards, one finds that with a typical aftermarket cycle of say 18-36 months, the todays rapid market development cycles may also see two or more "next generation" upgrades. And consequently, todays builders of gamer PC's are faced with costly rapid obsolescence replacements, as well as inflation making upgrades too costly.And for a "mid-performance", third generation RYZEN 5, mounted on a B450M motherboard, desktop gamer build back in 2020, I experienced three years of trouble free performance, with only two surge-protected AC power strip upgrades as "cheap insurance" against power utility brownouts.But, last August 2023, and without getting into the details, during the first few seconds of a typical start-up, it "failed to complete its POST, and subsequent "boot-up", and never able to resolve the problem And after multiple sessions of troubleshooting, it was apparent, as suspected from the start, to be a failed motherboard.So, as not un-expected, back in the early fall of last year, found that the original ASUS TUF B450M GAMING PRO, was no longer available from them, nor through reputable sources, leaving me with the appealing "PRO II" replacement. And with no rush to get it installed, opted to include a new Fracta Pop Silent, and expensive G-Skill 16 Gt/sec DRAM pair, which as DRAM manufacturers go, G-Skill will forever be my "brand of choice", regardless of added cost.And so, around mid January, and using the same Samsung M2.1 SSD, and with the miracles of Microsoft software, got up and running, plus made available ASUS driver updates, and GPU updates for my MSI 3600 Ti GPU.But come half an hour into my second week in February Thursday nite session, its operation suddenly ceased, and the graphics display went black. And in subsequent attempts that night, and to date, am frustrated to find like the previous B450M motherboard, it now fails to boot-up. And in powering up the power supply, the motherboard RGB backlight comes on. And after depressing the Power-On switch, the case cooling fans, as well as the CPU cooling fan, come on, and then the RGB lighting of the DRAM pair come on, but that's it, exactly like the original motherboard. And a week prior, after weeks of my insistent rejections, Microsoft overrode me on start up and forced me to do a Windows 11 upgrade.And since then, in searching gamer reports of problems with B450 chipset equipped motherboards have revealed, this "failed to boot" problem has occurred to others, and some not resolved. But for me, and this purchase from "amazon", as ASUS did not offer it at the time, their now "allowed-sourcing" of their apparent "end of market cycle" B450 AM4, DDR4 replacement boards is annoyingly questionable. And to make things worse, found only a few suppliers of this B450-PRO II, one of which amazon.And perhaps the supplier of this motherboard, is based in mainland China, as ASUS reveals on their website that their TUF gaming motherboards are currently being manufactured there, are allowed to use "non-OEM" components, like I suspect is the case for the metal "soup can" encased TUF capacitors touted by ASUS.And as found on one of the TUF-related websites, the Japanese generally make their caps to higher and stricter quality standards, like TS16949 or ISO9001 standards for their TUF capacitors, and are audited under QC inspection regulations. But also found a statement that in competing, many Chinese companies say they follow these same standards as well, but in reality do not.So, that's my immediate of these TUF B450 motherboards, and in response, will no longer buy any future motherboards specifically equipped with the touted Japanese TUF capacitors. And perhaps ASUS in Taiwan is aware of it, but of no major concern, as their are other motherboard models they offer that do not.

Beast b450

Rien a redire tout est bon

I bought this in March 2022 for £70 and it has worked flawlessly until recently when one of the fan headers stopped working, I've connected a fan hub splitter(£7 Amazon) to the other header so problem solved. The problem now is the price, it was decent vfm when I bought it, but not now.

I was never able to get the 2nd M.2 slot to work on the board; any ssd would not show up or if did, it would crash often I've even ordered a replacement, however the issue persisted. ASUS support tried helping me at first, though eventually gave up and suggested to send it back. People have similar issues with M.2_2 slot on ASUS boards, which forces me to suggest you stay clear of this board if you plan to use multiple M.2 SSDs on it. Apart from that large issue, the board is great.