First Looks: ASUS X99-Deluxe motherboard
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More features and its bundled accessories
More features of the board
To the right of the switches mentioned on the earlier page (at the bottom corner of the board), there's the stack of SATA connectors. The SATA Express connector marked with the red frame is driven by the third-party ASMedia ASM106SE controller. The SATA Express connector supports up to a pair of SATA devices, or a single SATA Express one. The other SATA Express above, and the eight SATA 6Gbps connectors, are connected to the Intel X99 PCH of the board.
As we move along this edge of the board, we see the M.2 socket, the 24-pin power connector, and the MemOK! button that allows you to automatically tune the memory settings for compatibility.
The board's rear I/O ports consists of 10 USB 3.0 ports that are powered by an ASMedia USB 3.0 controller, a pair of black USB 2.0 ports, which is connected to the board's PCH, and a pair of Gigabit LAN ports. At the left corner, there is a BIOS Flashback button. Next to this stack of audio connectors (five analog audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF port), there is the Wi-Fi GO! module that supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth v4.0 standards.
There is a bundled 3T3R dual-band Wi-Fi moving antenna that ASUS claims to be able to support a throughput of up to 1300Mbps.
The last accessory, which is worthy of mention, is the fan extension card. This optional accessory allows you to plug in up to three additional cooling fans. This is on top of the two CPU fan headers and seven system fan headers that are available on the board. Each fan can be controlled independently from the UEFI BIOS utility or the Windows-based AI Suite 3 software. There aren't any clear installation instructions; however, there are two mounting holes on the card, so our best guess is to locate a spare drive bay slot and attach the card to the base of the slot.
Overall, the ASUS X99-Deluxe board is one that is focused on performance. There are two marquee features; the OC Socket and the T-Topology circuitry behind its quad-channel DDR4 DIMM slots, are touted to offer "better" overclocking capabilities. There are also some well-thought board layout features, most likely to overcome the limited PCB space. They include the CMOS battery that is inserted in a vertical position, and the M.2 bracket, which allows for the vertical installation of supported M.2 SSDs. Note that in our review unit, the optional accessories like the fan extension card and the Hyper M.2 x4 add-in card were provided. We feel that as a deluxe package, these accessories should be bundled all together in the full retail package.
It also doesn't hurt that the board has an alluring appearance, mainly due to its plastic sheath that came in the same hues as its heatsinks. The stark white color contrasts sharply against its jet black PCB, giving the entire motherboard, a sharp and clean appearance. So it seems we have a nifty-looking board that has strong overclocking potential!
Stay tuned for our performance review of the board as we put it through its paces.
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