ASUS has announced a pair of new ATX gaming motherboards based upon Intel's B150 chipset. The ASUS B150 Pro Gaming/Aura and B150 Pro Gaming are aimed at gamers trying to shave some $£s off their budget to spend on other key performance components. The two new motherboards feature plenty of modern frills, such as support for the newest 6th-generation Intel processors, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and reversible Type-C, plus NVM Express (NVMe) M.2. However the B150 chipset ('B' stands for business) doesn't cater for CPU and memory OC/tuning, and cuts down on PCI-e lanes, among other things.
The key features of the new B150 Pro Gaming/Aura and B150 Pro Gaming motherboards are, according to ASUS:
- Gaming aesthetics: Gorgeous LED illumination casts an endless spectrum of colors across B150 Pro Gaming/Aura builds, with fascinating and fun effects.
- Gaming-grade audio and networking: SupremeFX and Sonic Radar II, plus Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet, LANGuard and GameFirst technologies
- Gaming-grade cooling: Dedicated water-pump header for instant liquid cooling, plus intuitive control with Fan Xpert 3
- Gaming-grade transfers and protection: USB 3.1 Type-A and C, M.2, RAMCache acceleration, Gamer's Guardian durability, plus easy DIY features
The two boards are identical except that the 'Aura' suffixed board features 'Aura' LED lighting and effects. If you choose the ASUS B150 Pro Gaming/Aura you will have access to multi-colour breathing effects, colour-strobe or colour-cycle effects. You will also be able to configure lighting to respond to CPU temperature or even pulse in time to your music, game or movie sounds.
As bullet pointed above, these value targeted gaming motherboards still feature a plethora of ASUS technologies to increase your gaming thrills. ASUS SupremeFX uses the Realtek ALC1150 codec in a shielded area of the motherboard. Sonic Radar II is present to tweak your sounds. Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet with LANGuard and GameFirst technologies help you enjoy smooth online gaming.
Just like with its more premium priced gaming motherboards ASUS has included advanced fan and water-pump controls, coupled to onboard thermal sensors and hardware-level 4-pin/3-pin PWM/DC mode detection, controlled via Fan Xpert 3. The boards are fused for protection and feature 2x resilient ASUS ESD Guards, durable capacitors, and corrosion-resistant stainless-steel input/output (I/O). Many of these features do seem a bit out of place on a board offering little if any tweaking capabilities.
ASUS hasn't released pricing and availability details for these new motherboards as yet. Full specs are tabulated below.
|
ASUS B150 Pro Gaming/Aura |
|
|
Processor/CPU socket |
LGA1151 socket for 6th-generation Intel® Core™ i7 / i5 / i3 / Pentium® / Celeron® processors |
|
Chipset |
Intel B150 Express |
|
LED illumination |
ASUS Aura, with the following modes: Static; Breathing; Strobing; Color Cycle; Music Effect; CPU Temperature |
|
Memory |
4 x DIMMs, up to a maximum of 64GB DDR4 2133MHz |
|
Expansion slots |
1 x PCI Express® 3.0 x16 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 (maximum at x4 mode) 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 2 x PCI |
|
Graphics (VGA) |
Integrated Intel HD Graphics processor HDMI with maximum resolution of 4096 x 2160 at 24Hz D-sub with max. resolution of 1920 x 1200 at 60Hz Intel InTru™ 3D / Quick Sync Video / Clear Video HD Technology / Insider™ |
|
Multi-GPU support |
Two-way/quad-GPU AMD® CrossFireX™ |
|
Audio |
SupremeFX eight-channel high-definition audio codec |
|
Storage |
6 x SATA 6.0Gbit/s 1 x M.2 Socket 3 with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices supports (both SATA and PCIe 3.0 x2 modes) |
|
Networking/LAN |
Intel Gigabit Ethernet, anti-surge LANGuard, GameFirst technology |
|
USB |
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A port 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports |
|
Dimensions / form factor |
ATX 12-inch x 9.6-inch (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
