ASUS ROG Strix X99 mobo review: Built for gamers
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A closer look
Built with gamers in mind
Even though it is a Republic of Gamers board, the ROG Strix X99 Gaming doesn’t actually sit on top of ASUS’ product stack. Instead, it’s intended to plug the gap between the premium X99-Deluxe II and the X99-A II. To that end, it offers a good mix of gaming-oriented and overclocking features, without quite requiring you to sell a kidney to buy it at S$599.
The board uses an 8-phase power design, complete with what ASUS calls its OC Socket, which is really a CPU socket with extra pins that provides more stable voltage to the CPU for better overclocking performance. Still, it’s worth noting that some variant of the latter feature has made its way to boards from other brands as well, so it’s really par for the course at this point in time, just like RGB LEDs.
Eight DDR4 DIMM slots flank the LGA 2011-v3 CPU socket, and the board can take up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM. It officially supports memory up to speeds of 3,333MHz, although you should technically be able to achieve faster speeds with one of the many high-speed kits that have made their way to market. And if you install one of the new Broadwell-E CPUs, they will actually support faster DDR4-2400 memory, up from DDR4-2133 on Haswell-E.
However, ASUS has helpfully included an additional 4-pin CPU header for extra power during overclocking. The board will run fine with just the standard 8-pin connector hooked up, but enthusiasts looking to achieve more extreme clock speeds, and those who dabble in LN2 overclocking, will probably want to take advantage of the additional connector.
Then there’s the array of gaming-oriented features, like SupremeFX Audio and ROG GameFirst IV utility. The beefed-up onboard audio solution is a familiar presence on ASUS’ ROG boards. It builds on the Realtek ALC1150 audio codec, and you get goodies like dual TI R4580 op-amps to drive audiophile-grade high-impedance headphones up to 300Ω and Japanese-made Nichicon audio capacitors. And because of just how many components there are on the board, there’s also the requisite EMI cover and electromagnetic shielding that protects audio signal path from unwanted interference.
Networking is handled by the Intel I218-V controller, and there’s just a single Gigabit LAN port at the rear. Intel’s controller is traditionally regarded as more reliable than some other competing solutions, and ASUS has generally favored it over other solutions like the Killer E2400 controller. The GameFirst IV utility is a nice bonus – it’s essentially a QoS software that lets you monitor and manage your network connections and prioritize games that require lower latencies.
The board supports wireless connections as well, and it comes with a 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi module. MU-MIMO is also supported (in a nutshell, this technology improves wireless performance by allowing data to be transmitted to multiple devices simultaneously), so you’ll get to take advantage of the newest routers that support the technology. But while there may not be dual LAN ports, ASUS actually allows you to team your wired and wireless connections for greater bandwidth, so that should satisfy those of you looking for some sort of teaming feature.
When it comes to expansion card options, you get a total of three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. The board officially supports up to 3-way SLI and CrossFire setups, although NVIDIA’s recent moves suggest that enthusiasts won’t have much use for the third PCIe 3.0 slot if they upgrade to the new Pascal cards. Don't forget that graphics cards aren't the only ones to benefit from dedicated PCIe slots as you'll increasingly find a need for speedy PCIe based SSD storage. So there's still plenty of use for spare PCIe slots.
The PCIe 3.0 slots draw lanes from the CPU itself, and this can be either 28 or 40 lanes, depending on your chip. For three-way configurations, the cards will run in x8/x16/x8 mode with a 40-lane CPU, and x8/x8/x8 with a 28-lane CPU.
The topmost PCIe slot has also been reinforced with metal. ASUS calls this design SafeSlot, and it’s similar to MSI’s Steel Armor and Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable Metal Shielding. In a nutshell, metal was integrated with the slot during the manufacturing process, and the slot is then more firmly anchored to the PCB with additional solder points. This should help the board withstand the weight of heavy cards, and reduce the risk of accidental damage to the slots when adding or removing cards.
When it comes to storage options, the onboard U.2 and M.2 connectors get their share of four PCIe lanes from the CPU, but because the bandwidth is shared, you won’t be able to populate both connectors at the same time. In addition, the M.2 socket actually only supports PCIe drives, so SATA drives will not work.
With that said, we like how ASUS has positioned the M.2 socket to the bottom right, away from heat-generating components like the graphics card. The compact size of M.2 drives means they are sometimes more susceptible to throttling due to high temperatures, and it’s nice to see that ASUS has attempted to account for that.
Finally, here’s a look at the available SATA and rear I/O ports. You’ll find a total of eight SATA 6Gb/s ports and one SATA Express port, which is compatible with two further SATA 6Gb/s ports. One advantage of the Intel X99 chipset over Z170 is the number of SATA ports available through the PCH, and all of these are exposed through the chipset without the need for any third-party controllers.
On the rear I/O, there are four USB 2.0 (black), four USB 3.0 (blue), a USB 3.1 Type-A port (red), and a USB 3.1 Type-C port. In addition, you get things like a legacy PS/2 port, screw ports for the Wi-Fi module, and 7.1-channel analog audio connectors. Note also the BIOS flashback button, which will let you easily update the BIOS without having to boot into the BIOS or operating system. However, the BIOS flashback port doesn't have any identifying markers, and we had to refer to the manual to learn that it was the blue USB port to the left of the USB-C connector.
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