ASUS Prime B650M-A AX II AMD B650 AM5 Ryzen™ Desktop 9000 8000 & 7000 Micro-ATX mATX Motherboard, DDR5, PCIe 5.0 M.2, 2.5Gb LAN, Wi-Fi 6, DisplayPort, HDMI®, USB 3.2, USB 3.2 Type-C®, BIOS Flashback™

As I have said in the headline, it didn't work and I sent it back. I found it hard work initially registering it on the ASUS website so I could get technical support. Without registration ASUS make it impossible to get technical support. I ended up complaining on the ASUS YouTube channel but the registration problems then fixed themselves. ASUS tech support were asking me questions I had already given them information about. Then the video stopped working. To me it was clearly a motherboard failure. I had seen quite a few warnings about ASUS quality not being what it once was but I have always bought ASUS. With the failings in the motherboard together with the underwhelming technical support I decided to send it back. It is going to take some convincing for me to buy ASUS again.

This was an upgrade from a previous ASUS PRIME micro-ATX board that served me well for almost a decade. It's still pretty much the only game in town for a decent quantity of SATA ports in the mATX form factor. The I/O shield is cheap and flimsy, but most are, so I won't dock a star for that. Built-in WiFi and Bluetooth are a nice addition over my old model. Build quality is great as expected. No complaints.

Good

I first having truouble getting it to post so flash the BIOS newest update. Got it posted finally but couldn't install Win 11 due to continuous crashes during intallations b/c the memory issue. So I returned to BIOS setting lowered the memory frequency of my Corsair DDR5 5600 to 4600 MHz (Auto frequency by default could only go up to 4800 MHz). Win 11 was successfully installed. Returned to BIOS again, changed to DOCP 1 setting which DRAM's VDD and VDDQ voltage now is 1.25V. The frequency is at 5600 MHz stable with idle CPU temperature around 41-45 C.I like the 8 SATA and VGA port in this mATX board and couldn't find other brand with similar layout.

I engaged ASUS support when their board fried my chip + Motherboard, and they had the worst support I have ever recieved.They told me to ship the board back, at my own cost, 80$. Then because it had a tiny superficial plastic damage on the board, unrelated to the electrical issues. (Damaged while disassembling) they would not RMA and quoted 200$ for "repair". When I has asked only to repair the electrical issue, they said they don't repair, and their policy states i have to pay the money to get a replacement board.They have designed thousands of reasons not to provide support and will provide a bad product and even worse support.I'll never buy ASUS again.

The MB has "a faulty power connectors on it," (every time when PSU gets plugged in, the MB starts up automatically). It was confirmed by ASUS chat tech support rep and the fact that ASUS company accepted my return with full refund back to my account. But: I want to say that my 2nd MB (exactly the same as the returned one, but purchased from Amazon.com) has the same problem! Both of them were produced in Vietnam with 1 month difference - the returned one in 2024-07, and a new one in 2024-06. There is something wrong with ASUS production line over there. However, I really like this MB with all its advanced features. I managed to deal with this annoying nuisance problem: I think there is always a certain tiny amount of charge left in the MB circuit even after I shut down the OS and turn off completely my PSU. How did I manage to deal with it? I do the following every time BEFORE I switch my PSU on - I push and hold my PC's "Start" button. I believe it kinda discharges the MB completely. And then I turn ON my PSU. As a result, after that my PC works like a charm, as it is supposed to be, ie. pushing the start button and then the OS starts up. I hope my info helps any person to deal with this, I repeat, annoying problem.