Motherboards - Page 15

With the official announcement and release of the new Comet Lake CPU's, we can now showcase all of the new Z490 boards made for the new up to 10 Core mainstream processors from Intel. Today we look at the offerings from ASUS and what they have to offer.

First up is the Maximus series, which signifies the peak of engineering and performance form ASUS. If you are looking for an ASUS board with the latest and greatest features, the Maximus lineup is where you should start.

The Maximus XII Extreme is the peak top of the top-end series of boards for ASUS. While the Extreme used to be the top XOC board (That title now rests with the APEX models), it now has become the board with everything including the kitchen sink included and is well-targeted for extreme enthusiasts.

AMD rocked the CPU world with its Ryzen Threadripper 3990X processor, packing an insane 64 cores and 128 threads of Zen 2 goodness -- but it took ASRock's awesome TRX40 Taichi motherboard to crank that CPU right up to the now world record 5748.66MHz.

It wasn't just the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X frequency world record that ASRock bagged with its TRX40 Taichi motherboard, but instead a total of 5 world records. The wPrime-1024M new record is 11sec 541ms by SPLAVE using the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X processor, while also setting the GPUPI for CPU 1B record with 21 sec 622ms.

SPLAVE also smashed the Cinebench R20 benchmark record using AMD's flagship Ryzen Threadripper 3990X processor and ASRock TRX40 Taichi motherboard with 39,518 marks. Geekbench 3's multi-core benchmark didn't have any relief from SPLAVE's domination with the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X pushing a huge 293,771 points while finishing off his benchmark domination smashing the HWBOT x265 benchmark record at 1080p with 384.389FPS.

ASUS has just taken the wraps off of its beyond-enthusiast flagship TRX40 motherboard, introducing the new ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha which packs just about everything apart from the kitchen sink.

The new ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha motherboard has been designed to house the ridiculous AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X processor, packing an equally insane 64 cores and 128 threads of CPU power. The board has some crazy amounts of power coursing through its veins (or is that PCB) with ASUS packing in 3 x power connectors: 8+8+6-pin PCIe power connectors are required on the ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha motherboard.

ASUS supports up to 256GB of RAM on the board with up to 4733MHz supported, 4 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and a huge 5 x Gen 4 M.2 slots for mass amounts of ridiculously fast storage.

Intel will be launching its new Comet Lake-S processors in April 2020 according to the latest rumors, a new CPU family that will launch alongside the Z490 chipset and a slew of new motherboards.

The new Z490 chipset will reportedly be joined by the W480, B460, and H410 which will be destined for the workstation, business, and entry-level markets, respectively. The new flagship Z490 chipset would go hand-in-hand with the new Comet Lake-S processors which will arrive with up to 10C/20T, yet it'll still only offer PCIe 3.0 versus PCIe 4.0 offered on AMD's new X570 chipset.

Intel will be introducing a new socket with Comet Lake-S, with the new LGA 1200 socket offering 49 additional pins over the LGA 1151 socket. The new LGA 1200 socket will NOT be backwards compatible with previous-gen CPUs. But, previous-gen coolers should work, something we'll know more about next year.

Now that AMD's new third-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs are official, motherboards makers are unveiling their boards -- one of the first is ASRock and two new TRX40-based motherboards in the Creator and Taichi families.

ASRock's new TRX40 Creator motherboard is made for content creators that want a super-smooth, and ridiculously fast third-gen Ryzen Threadripper system. ASRock is positioning the new TRX40 Creator motherboard at creators who want to throw in crazy-fast NVIDIA Quadro RTX graphics cards and super-fast PCIe 4.0-based storage.

Included in ASRock's new TRX40 Creator motherboard is 10GbE networking courtesy of AQUANTIA's AQtion 10Gbps BASE-T Ethernet controller, which will offer incredibly fast network transfers. Pair this board up with a crazy-core-count third-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPU, some Quadro RTX graphics cards, PCIe 4.0 storage and 10GbE networking and you have quite the content powerhouse.

AMD is still in the kitchen cooking up its next-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs based on the exciting and kick-ass Zen 2 architecture, but what about motherboards to support them? We know about the new sockets in TRX40/TRX80/WRX80 that will support 24C/32C/48C/64C next-gen chips from AMD.

VideoCardz has the scoop here of a next-gen AORUS TRX40 motherboard on the E-ATX standard (i.e. it's chunky AF) and packs 4 x PCIe 4.0 x16 ports, and 8 x DDR4 DIMM slots for quad-channel memory goodness. There's a chipset fan to keep it cool, and a debug LED that can be spotted from this single, mysterious image.

You can see there is a bunch of fin arrays near the CPU socket, which would point to the third-gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs chewing through copious amounts of power. Given that the new Zen 2-based Ryzen Threadripper CPUs will have up to 64C/128T and up to 280W TDPs, this is no surprise.

If you thought the prospect of China getting spy chips into major US companies and their systems and networks through Supermicro motherboards seeing the company reportedly being infiltrated by members of China's People's Liberation Army was bad, well you ain't seen nothing yet.

A new story is emerging that this entire spy chip game can be done much cheaper, according to Monta Elkins who works with Foxguard as a "hacker-in-chief". Elkins will be presenting his discovery and work at the CS3sthlm security conference later this month, where using a $2 chip found on a Digismark Arduino he could hack and take over a Cisco ASA 5505 firewall server.

Elkins explained to Wired: "We think this stuff is so magical, but it's not really that hard. By showing people the hardware, I wanted to make it much more real. It's not magical. It's not impossible. I could do this in my basement. And there are lots of people smarter than me, and they can do it for almost nothing".

Intel has caught a lot of heat for the tactic of refresh after refresh of virtually similar CPUs. Just to making minuscule changes such as TIM to solder change and minor clock speed bumps as demonstrated by the initial X299 CPUs 7XXX to 9XXX series parts. Users have scoffed at the 14nm+++++++++++++++++++ as many have put it due to Intel struggling for years with the 10nm node.

Well, today, Intel's complacency and practices may have come along to bite them in the ass thoroughly. As seen on Intel's own support article page the inclusion of the new microcode for support of the new Cascade Lake-X parts will remove compatibility for the dual channel X299 based bretheren, the Kaby Lake-X.

Kaby Lake-X has moved to EOL awhile back, but it's worth putting out a PSA about this as many users have them in hand. If users are judicious about their BIOS updates, they could be met with a machine that no longer posts if they were to flash this firmware without knowing.

The internet has been ablaze with the recent update from AMD in regards to both the 3950X and the upcoming third-gen Threadripper, or Threadripper 3000. We know that the top end AM4 CPU consisting of 16 cores and 32 threads, along with the HEDT platform of Ryzen 3000 Threadripper reaching an unknown, but potentially 64 cores on a single package will see the official light of day coming in November which is a mere month away.

The eagle-eyed among enthusiasts such as the team from Videocardz noticed an update from MSI on their promotional review program page. It has been recently updated to list a new model in the register for eligible products for the promotion, the Creator TRX40.

One takeaway from this listing is that the "Creation" moniker which was applied to Z390, X570, X399, and X299 seems to be going away. It looks like the "Creation" label will be pitched aside as the new Creator X299 and TRX40 show that they may be trying to clear up the marketing and targeting message to ensure users understand these boards are made for content creators.

Intel's recent announcement of Cascade Lake-X processors and the coming massive price drop, you can bet there will be a much higher HEDT demand this time around. With the 18 core unit dropping from $2000 to sub $1000, you can bet that the X299 platform just became far more obtainable for a large part of the enthusiasts market.

GIGABYTE has released the newest in their X299 lineup, labeled the X299X series. Don't let the name fool you; all of the same parts are still in place with the chipset backbone being X299. Beyond that, GIGABYTE worked to improve connectivity and capability of their X299 based parts in the new X299X offerings.

All of the X299X offerings feature the same 70A power stages for power delivery to ensure you can push all of the new Cascade Lake-X CPU's to the limit of your cooling. These boards also enhance the memory capability and support in lockstep with the new CPU's supporting up to 256GB DDR4.

MSI has created some amazing boards over the past few chipset generations. Like most board manufacturers, MSI has also ramped up the RGB game in the process to ensure relevance with enthusiasts users and industry demands.

Until now, one of the few board models to go sans RGB has been the 'Dark Series' by EVGA. MSI noticed the desire by many enthusiasts to build custom rigs based on powerful overclocking friendly boards without the need or want for RGB.

Enter the MSI MEG X570 Unify which comes out of the gate sporting some powerful specs such as 2.5G wired LAN and 802.11 AX for equally speedy wireless networking. On top of this, MSI also employs a 14 phase power design (real or doubled phases is unknown at this time). For the most part, the MEG X570 Unify model board seems to closely parallel the popular MSI MEG X570 ACE motherboard.

We know it's coming -- but GIGABYTE, did you have to fire off the flares like this? Intel's next-gen Comet Lake (and still on 14nm) CPUs are on their way, and with it will come new 400-series motherboards.

GIGABYTE is preparing 8 new Z490 series motherboards, 10 different B460 motherboards, and 6 different H410 boards. We are to expect a bunch of them in full-sized ATX as well as right down to the micro-ATX offerings -- all supporting the first non-HEDT 10-core processors from Intel in the form of the new Comet Lake family of CPUs.

The new information is coming from GIGABYTE submitting its range of Z400-series motherboards to the Eurasian Economic Commission registration process.

ASRock has one of the highest-end motherboards its ever made about to launch, with its new X570 Aqua motherboard powered by AMD's new X570 chipset and ready for the Ryzen 3000 series CPUs.

The new ASRock X570 Aqua is "completely water cooled" apart from its DIMM slots, PCIe slots and a few other places on the board exposed. The company says the custom water block it has made is "skillfully designed to ensure the heat of the CPU, VRM, and chipset can be dissipated efficiently".

We have PCIe 4.0 connectivity courtesy of the X570 chipset, as well as a 14-phase power design that should allow for some great overclocking on the CPU. ASRock also includes 10GbE network connectivity, Wi-Fi 6, and Thunderbolt 3.

Biostar has just announced its new Racing X570GT motherboard, with the mATX board supporting both AMD's second- and third-gen Ryzen CPUs.

It has 4 x DDR4 DIMMs that will support up to 128GB of RAM, 1 x iron-reinforced PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, 1 x M.2-2280 slot for an SSD over PCIe 4.0 x4, 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots for add-in cards, and 4 x SATA connectors.

There's an active cooling fan keeping the X570 chipset cool, while for connectivity we have 1 x GbE, 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, a single PS/2 port, HDMI and D-sub video out, and 7.1 audio connectors (thanks to the Realtek ALC887 codec). Biostar also includes an RGB 12V LED header and Digital 5V LED header that can take control of your RGB LED goodness.

ASUS is reportedly preparing two new motherboards based on AMD's unannounced and so far unofficial X590 chipset.

The new rumor is from VideoCardz and their exclusive sources, which said the "PRIME X590-PRO and ROG STRIX X590-E are being mentioned in confidential documents that we have seen".

We don't know what to expect with the new X590 chipset, with previous rumors pegging it to have more PCIe 4.0 lanes than the current X570 boards. Another thing to remember is that AMD is soon launching its Ryzen 9 3950X, a beasty 16C/32T chip that would launch perfectly with the new X590 chipset.

ASUS has just unleashed some big fighting words against its motherboard competitors in GIGABYTE and MSI over the newly-released X570 range of motherboards. VideoCardz has the scoop with some very controversial marketing slides for the new X570 boards, and how ASUS dominates.

ASUS claims that both GIGABYTE and MSI have failed with their new boards in comparison to the superior products ASUS has across the board, and then AMD reportedly reached out to ASUS and "suggested" the slides be removed. Well, it seems both tech-focused companies forget how the internet works and that anything on the internet, is there forever.

Just like these slides.

ASRock has just unleashed its next generation X570 based motherboards that are ready for AMD's new Ryzen 3000 series CPUs and the unleashing of a totally next generation PCIe 4.0 connectivity.

We have new X570 motherboards from ASRock in their famous Taichi and Phantom Gaming families, with some boards rolling out with a huge full-coverage aluminum heat sink that keeps those next-gen PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs cool. Considering PCIe 4.0-capable NVMe SSDs can do up to 5GB/sec, you're going to need to keep those things cool.

It wouldn't be a new ASRock motherboard without some awesome RGB effects, so ASRock has included a bunch of RGBs and 3-pin addressable RGB headers joined by traditional 4-pin RGB LED headers that let you plug up other RGB lighting to your ASRock X570 motherboard.

AMD is about to usher in the PCIe 4.0 era with its new X570 chipset (and the purported even higher X590 chipset) alongside its next-gen Zen 2 CPU architecture and Navi-powered Radeon RX 5700/RX 5700 XT graphics cards, and now we're hearing about PCIe 6.0.

Yes, PCIe 6.0 - the successor to PCIe 5.0 which we should see Intel adopt in late-2020 and more 2021 and beyond, will roll out with an incredible amount of bandwidth. PCI-SIC, the group behind the PCIe standard said that PCIe 6.0 will have up to 64GT/s of bandwidth providing a PCIe 6.0 x16 slot up to an incredible 256GB/sec of bandwidth.

This is double PCIe 5.0 x16 with 128GB, and 4x the speed of PCIe 4.0 x16 which will provide 64GB/sec. PCIe 6.0 is a gigantic upgrade on our current-gen PCIe 3.0 x16 slot with just 32GB/sec of bandwidth in comparison, to the upcoming 256GB/sec on PCIe 6.0 x16. We most likely won't see consumer graphics cards taking advantage of this, but storage eats up a lot of those PCIe lands and future networking technology and AI accelerators will definitely chew it up.

There have been some new leaks on the next-gen X570 line up of motherboards from ASUS by Vietnamese site NguyenCongPC.vn which has some early reviews up on the ASUS TUF X570-Plus Wi-Fi and ASUS Pro WX X570-ACE motherboards.

ASUS will position its TUF Gaming and PRIME motherboards underneath the ROG Strix branding, whille ROG sits on top of the pyramid for the enthusiasts and AAA gamers... something we've learned from the early reviews.

Starting with the ASUS ROG X570-Plus Wi-Fi we have a nearly-packaged board with a slick design thanks to its black and yellow theme throughout. It's not too much, but it is enough. We have a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot while the other PCIe 4.0 slot is just x4 electrically, something found out in the review. Another note is that the VRMs on the board are "designed for a 12+2 circuitry but are actually being controlled by the ASP1106GGQW in a 4+2 configuration with 4 real phases, you'll find this controller on many B class motherboards".

AMD is at least 12-18 months ahead of Intel when it comes to having PCIe 4.0 connectivity on its new X570 chipset, but now we're hearing the first rumbles of the higher-end X590 chipset and it sounds like a monster.

DRAM Calculator for Ryzen creator '1usmus' shared the teaser of an upcoming ASUS ROG motherboard that teases "X590 Coming Soon". The tweet was removed, but we now know of the existence of the X590 chipset which has us excited, especially when we consider what it will bring to the table above the already great X570 chipset.

There are a few things that the purported X590 chipset could bring -- such as more PCIe 4.0 lanes, and higher-end motherboards that support even higher CPU clock speeds by default. This makes sense as we are looking at a world with the Ryzen 9 3950X (16C/32T) with huge clock speeds out of the box.