ASUS Strix H270F Gaming

Outshining its stablemate... and the rest.

This one nails it. It’s that simple. The H270F has hit the nail on the head, and with just a $10 increase over the H270 competition in this roundup, the price premium is easily justified.

In the lab performance tests, the Strix H270F Gaming carved out a constant presence on the podium. For any Formula 1 fans among our readers, this was like Mercedes performance from recent championships.

However, there appeared to be one chink within the armour of this unit, that being NVMe performance when using BIOS 0607. We experienced boot issues with the platform acknowledging the SATA drives — regardless of port used — when the NVMe device was installed in port M.2_2, the very port required for full PCIe x4 bandwidth. Placing the device in M.2_1 returned SATA devices but then neutered performance due to PCIe x2 bandwidth. Rolling back to the previous BIOS, 0308, delivered the expected functionality and performance for port M.2_2. For anyone wanting to run a PCIe x4 NVMe drive, be mindful of this, and if issues arise, roll back to BIOS 0308, then performance and functionality is as it should be. Beside this issue, BIOS 0607 was all good.

Delivering the same muted aesthetics of the rest of the Strix Intel 200-series chipset motherboards and with a dash of RGB lighting beneath the top right-hand corner of the PCB, the Strix H270F Gaming is pleasant to the eyes.

Though the priciest ‘ board within the roundup, if it sits within your budget, go for it and enjoy leading performance.