ASRock X399 TAICHI sTR4 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1/3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Product Information

Designed for the growing community that defines the gaming scene, the Strix X399-E channel’s ROG’s pedigree to help gaming PCs exceed expectations. It will be available in late August in the US and Canada with pricing to be announced closer to its release.

Supports AMD 2 nd Generation Ryzen™ Threadripper™ and 1 st Generation Ryzen™ Threadripper™ Processors This is a powerful step up from the previous X399 GIGABYTE Aorus 7 motherboard to make up for its shortcomings with a more beefy VRM set up of 10+3 with a load of features increased to a certain degree compared to its predecessor. There are four PCI-e slots, a bunch of M.2 drives, 8 DIMM slots, integrated WiFi, RGB, and many more. It would have been better if they boarded the latest WiFi on it, still, it is not a fatal blow to the worth. On the upside, it has a pair of Gigabit Intel NICs and a 10 gigabit LAN Aquantia, it improves your internal networking for your router and whatnot, which comes pretty costly if you buy it separately

Drivers and Software

As part of the launch, AMD is wanting to promote the different ways in which an X399 motherboard could be arranged depending on the workload requirements. X399 Potential Configurations

The silicon is lithographed using the advanced 14 nm FinFET manufacturing process with stapled transistors (also known as 3D transistors). The striking scale reduction has resulted in more space becoming available on the CPU die, and the size of the Threadripper CPU enables the integration of a total of 8 MB L2 Cache and a full 32 MB Level 3 Cache at the heart of the processor. Due to the smart control of the cache buffer and "Smart Prefetch" algorithms for highly-efficient jump predictions, Ryzen is a byword for fast and smooth data processing under all usage scenarios - ranging from gaming and virtual reality to cloud computing and virtualisation. It has the new BIOS which is pretty much similar to the previous one with few additional features. You can now switch between simple and advanced interface to tweak up the system per your expertise. We observed mouse lag while using the BIOS, but it was still usable. Two RGB headers prime the X399-A to illuminate up to four meters of lighting at optimal brightness. The lighting on the board itself is discreet, with a gentle glow emanating from below the chipset heatsink. Even with the lights turned off, the interplay of angular lines and bare metal makes the Prime stand out. When PCIe is the game, it becomes time to play with controllers and ports to see what fits. It all starts with the underlying diagram for Threadripper and X399: Ready for cooling in any form, the diverse collection of liquid and fan headers lets you run everything from off-the-shelf AiOs to custom loops. With eight 4-pin headers in total, there’s enough capacity to cover an entire build.If you’re interested in other chipsets, don’t miss our motherboard guide for Intel’s similarly extreme X299 platform. We also have guides for standard desktops, including the Intel Z270 and AMD AM4 platforms. Ryzen gets ripped AMD X399 Ultra Durable motherboard with Dual Intel GbE LAN, Triple M.2 with Thermal Guard, 120dB SNR ALC1220, Front & Rear USB 3.1 Type-C, RGB FUSION 2.0, Intel Dual Band 802.11ac WiFi+BT4.2, Base Plated & I/O Shield Armor From the chipset there are eight PCIe lanes, which AMD here has suggested reserving two for gigabit Ethernet, four for a PCIe x4 slot, one for a PCIe x1 slot, and one for a WiFi module. Alongside the PCIe lanes are eight SATA ports, six USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports, one USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) Type-C port and two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports with appropriate redrivers. In a change to what we normally see on Intel motherboards, AMD lists SPI and Audio features as coming from the CPU rather than the chipset. AMD Suggests Variants

AMD X399 AORUS Motherboard with 10+3 IR Digital PWM, Dual Intel ® GbE LAN + AQUANTIA ® 10GbE BASE-T LAN, Triple M.2 with Triple Thermal Guard, ALC1220-VB + ESS 9118 Audio, Intel ® Dual Band 802.11ac WIFI, NanoCarbon Base Plated and I/O Shield Armor, RGB FUSION 2.0 The diagram shows the two hubs for everything to connect to: the CPU and the chipset. The CPU has 60 PCIe lanes, provided in 3 or 4 PCIe root complexes at x16 each (the diagram above suggests x16/x8/x16/x8). These will often go towards the main PCIe slots to support add-in cards like GPUs, or they could be partitioned off for RAID controllers or fast ethernet if required. In total, AMD has stated that the platform can support six GPUs maximum. The CPU also supports eight USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports, quad channel DDR4, and support for up to three PCIe 3.0 x4 storage drives for 3-way NVMe.

TOPICS

AMD's marketing on the left is set out to explain that each product in the Threadripper and X399 line will be 'fully enabled' - none of the chips will be limited in PCIe lane counts or DRAM for the sake of segmentation. AMD is happy at this point to keep segmentation limited to cores, frequency, and L3 cache. The days when PCs looked dull and boring are long behind us. Today’s best DIY rigs are works of functional art in their own right, and our trendsetting styling continues to evolve with the times. The ROG and Prime interpretations of X399 present distinctive monochromatic themes that combine clean lines with a neutral canvas for customizable lighting. Third is the updated Realtek ALC1150 audio codec, known as the ALC1220. The ALC1220 improves peak SNR while adding new functionality. ASUS run a customized version known as the ALC1220A, which removes some of the excess function for a stripped down version unique to them but configured in a partnership with Realtek. The Motherboards

With each of these motherboard overviews, we like to cover a few of the newer controllers to hit the market that motherboard manufacturers might take advantage of. Given the recent X299 launch on the Intel side, not much has changed since. The big parts to enter the consumer space are Aquantia's multi-gigabit ethernet controllers. Each of these potential configurations would run into several thousand dollars a piece for a full build - the M.2 drives were suggested at 512GB minimum, with the SATA drives in RAID configurations as well. AMD is making no joke; they want to be the premium platform. New Controllers for X399 All-new for this generation, the Zenith Extreme is the flagship of ROG’s AMD motherboard lineup. It comes with all of our latest features, including innovations available only on a select group of top-of-the-line models. With support for three double-wide graphics cards and three NVMe SSDs, the Strix X399-E Gaming can easily scale up or down to meet your needs. There’s enough breathing room to run dual 2.5-slot cards like our Strix GTX 1080 Ti–and at a full 16 PCIe lanes per card. Primary M.2 drives get cooling from the chipset heatsink, while secondary SSDs poke out of a vertical slot with that can benefit from chassis airflow.With so much bandwidth inside the platform, we had to give our X399 motherboards lots of ultra-fast connectivity to reach outside the box. For external devices, USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports provide 10Gbps links in all the flavors: Type-A, Type-C, and front panel. The Gigabit networking uses reliable Intel controllers, and that’s just the start. The ROG Zenith Extreme takes networking up a notch with not only a wired 10G Ethernet card, but also a wireless 802.11ad module. Bandwidth is a huge part of Threadripper’s appeal. The mother lode of PCI Express lanes stands ready for the multiple high-end graphics cards required for truly cutting-edge gaming and VR experiences. All of our X399 motherboards support three-way SLI and CrossFireX setups, and the Zenith Extreme can call upon a fourth card for record-setting benchmark attempts or an extra jolt of compute power. To protect your investment, SafeSlot reinforces the graphics slots against damage from increasingly heavy GPU coolers. The secondary heat sink is connected to the MOSFETs heatsink via a heat pipe to help their cooling. When we take a look at the fan headers, there are a moderate number of them but not something to be called “so many”. With the family tree sorted, it’s time for a closer look at each board. The top is as good a place as any to start. A big takeawayfrom our AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1950X review is the increase in CPU connected PCIe 3.0 lanes. A full 60 lanes are available to the PCIe slots and M.2 drives, while 4 lanes head off to the chipset where it's muxed for USB, SATA, low-level I/O, and other features. The increase in CPU PCIe lanes is set up to allowfor a lot more flexibilityconnecting devices usingPCIe bandwidth.