The TUF B350M-Plus Gaming from ASUS is a mid-range motherboard that comes with a few interesting features. Compared to the Prime B350M-Plus, which ASUS unveiled a few months ago, the new model belongs to a higher-end series and packs a few more goodies. Like the name suggests, this new model is based on a micro-ATX form factor.

The TUF B350M-Plus Gaming is based on a micro-ATX form factor with four DIMM slots. There is a yellow backlight underneath the audio chip and furthermore there is steel reinforcement on one of the two full-sized PCIe slot. In general the layout is quite simple. There are two full-sized PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 slot and one x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. In the storage department there are six SATA ports but only two of them have been angled. Apart from that you get one M.2 slot allowing the installation of differently sized SSDs. The M.2 slot is placed in the middle of the motherboard and it’s compatible with 2280 units.

Looking at the external connectors placed directly at the I/O-panel, ASUS equipped the TUF B350M-Plus Gaming motherboard with a P/S2 connector, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port as well as an analogue audio panel with optical out. Since this model is also compatible with APUs, there is one HDMI and one DVI-D port. Unfortunately there is no CMOS reset button.

In terms of pricing this particular board is placed somewhere between the entry-level and mid-range market segment. In the case of the B350 we generally believe that there are some interesting boards based on this chipset. In order to keep the price low, ASUS has changed the gigabit Ethernet chip with a model from Realtek. The ASUS TUF B350M-Plus Gaming will become available soon for a price of about USD $100.



Source: Techreport