Being a high performance model from ROG, The E has quite a few accessories included. Here they are:

4 x SATA 6Gb/s cables
1 x ROG HYPER M.2 CARD
1 x ROG HYPER M.2 CARD
1 x ASUS 2x2 Dual-Band Wi-Fi moving antennas
1 x M.2 Q-Latch package
1 x M.2 Q-Latch package for M.2 backplate
1 x M.2 Rubber Packages
2 x M.2 Screw Packages
1 x ROG Graphics card holder
1 x ROG key chain
1 x cable tie
1 x ROG STRIX stickers
1 x ROG STRIX thank you card
1 x Support DVD
1 x User manual


E conforms to the ATX form factor and follows a traditional layout. The overall look and feel to E is superb. It’s a great looking board which adopts a monochrome theme and has been carefully crafted to look appealing to the eye.

Being a Z690 motherboard, the socket is LGA 1700 and has support for Intel 12th Gen. Processors (Alder Lake). E comes in with a 18 + 1 digital phase design with alloy chokes and black solid caps throughout. Two large heatsinks cover the mosfets – the effectiveness of this thermal solution can be found in our thermal tests later in the review. Behind the heatsinks there are two 8pin CPU power connectors which utilise “Pro Cool II” – steel pins and reinforcement.

There are 8x 4-pin fan headers spread out at the top, side, bottom and middle of the board with designated compatibility for water pumps. 4 RGB LED headers are also present for lighting strips and other devices. This pairs up with ASUS Aura Sync tech.

Memory support sees us able to use up to 128GB of DDR5 and up to 6400MHz. In the memory region there is also Debug LED panel which is a handy diagnostic feature identifying any problems on bootup. Q-Code is also present which is a simple LED pinpointing if there is a problem area.


Connectivity for your computer case comes in the form of 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 header and 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header for the front panel. In terms of storage, there are up to 6 SATA 6GB/s ports and 3x PCIe M.2 slots – which is surprising given that most boards now have 4x – though we do receive a PCIe add-in card for extending the M.2 storage. Two of these are PCIe 4.0 x4 ready (the two upper slots) while the remaining is PCIe 5.0 x4. The two lower slots are situated side-by-side, allowing space for an additional slot. All M.2 slots feature a corresponding heatsink to control temperatures – the upper PCIe 5.0 even has a dedicated heatpipe and additional heatspreader.

For graphics delivery there is are 2x PCIe 4.0 X16 slots and 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots. The upper slot is Gen5 and should be used if a single graphics card is operating – ROG has even equipped this slot to use a push-release button which is an extremely handy feature to have, making it less troublesome to detach the graphics card. So the uppermost X16 is wired for the full 16 lanes and should be used for a single GPU configuration. While the other slots are wired for 8 and 4.

For audio, E uses the Realtec ALC 4080 processor, which is one of the latest from Realtec. The audio package itself includes:

- SupremeFX Shielding Technology
- ALC4080 + Savitech SV3H712 AMP
- Gold-plated audio jacks
- Rear optical S/PDIF out port
- Premium audio capacitors
- Audio cover

The RGB lighting on E is fairly subdued with just the rear IO shield featuring active lighting. This lighting can of course tap into Aura Sync.


The back panel of E is loaded with a plethora of connectivity – enough to satisfy the needs of most users. On offer here we have:

1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port (1 x USB Type-C®)
3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 port(s) (2 x Type-A, 1 x USB Type-C® )
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port(s) (4 x Type-A)
2 x USB 2.0 port(s) (2 x Type-A)
1 x HDMI™ port
1 x DisplayPort
1 x Intel® Wi-Fi 6E
2 x Intel® I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet
5 x Gold-plated audio jacks
1 x Optical S/PDIF out port
1 x BIOS FlashBack™ button
1 x Clear CMOS button