The AMD TRX40 Motherboard Overview: 12 New Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on November 28, 2019 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- TRX40
- Threadripper 3000
- Castle Peak
ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming
Moving onto the ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming and it's the only TRX40 model currently to include the gaming tag line in its model naming. Cut from a similar cloth to the ROG Zenith II Extreme with its blend of black aluminium inspired design, ASUS has also included its LiveDash OLED into the rear panel cover, with support for DDR4-4666 and 256 GB across eight memory slots also featured. The ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming is ATX in size and is designed for the gamer in mind, with plenty of features found on most HEDT boards making it a solid all-rounder.
The design of the ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming is similar to its other gaming branded Strix models with its holographic digital colorful insignia on the rear panel cover and heatsinks; these areas are also customizable due to the integrated RGB LEDs. The power delivery consists of a 16-phase setup with 16 Infineon TDA21472 70 A power stages which are operating in teamed mode. Its heatsink includes active cooling with fans hidden between the grill and the heatsink, while the TRX40 chipset heatsink also includes a cooling fan. There are three full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, with the inclusion of a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot for good measure.
On the storage front, ASUS includes three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, with eight SATA ports supporting RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. Memory compatibility on the ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming is competitive with support for DDR4-4666, with up to 256 GB supported across eight memory slots. Located around the edge of the board is seven 4-pin headers with two for CPU cooling fans, one for a water pump, one for an AIO pump, and three designated for chassis fans.
Looking at the rear panel and ASUS has included a whopping seven USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, and four USB 2.0 ports. Also present are five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output driven by a SupremeFX S1220 HD audio codec with dual OP amplifiers, a pair of Ethernet ports powered by a Realtek RTL8125-CG 2.5 GbE and Intel I211-AT Gigabit controller pairing. The ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming also includes an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface with support for BT 5.0 devices.
The ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming isn't the only gaming-focused board, and while AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 3000 processors will almost certainly be capable, the real advantages are had in multi-core optimized applications. With a price tag of $450, it combines a solid controller set with the usual ROG Strix aesthetics we come to expect from ASUS, as well as plenty of networking capability for uses outside of gaming.
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Memo.Ray - Sunday, December 8, 2019 - link
Three tables on page 14 have headers that refer to X570 instead of TRX40.heimo - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
passthough audio in the chipet.passthrough audio in the chipset.
mzo - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
Although the Designare TRX40 is the only Gigabyte mobo that supports TB3 out of the box, I noticed the Auros WiFi has a THB-C port, same as the designare which uses to connect to the titan ridge. Does anybody know of the titan ridge card works with the Auros WiFi as well?PopinFRESH007 - Sunday, December 29, 2019 - link
REF: Page 4 ASRock TRX40 Taichi, last paragraph, first sentence"The ASRock TRX40 Taichi is the premier board for enthusiasts in its line-up with each of the four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots supporting x16 across the board"
The ASRock TRX40 Taichi only has three (3) full-length x16 slots.
PopinFRESH007 - Sunday, December 29, 2019 - link
@gavbon could you check if you guys have access to a block diagram for the ASRock TRX40 Taichi? Now that the CPUs are slowly becoming available and should be in-stock shortly I've been considering this board to upgrade. My use case is for 2x 2080Ti NVLINK with an Quad x4 NVMe SSD AIB so the Taichi is one of the only boards that can actually support this with its PCIe slot configuration.I also have 2x U.2 NVMe SSDs and I'm trying to figure out if the two on-board M.2 KeyM sockets are coming from the CPU or the chipset and the ASRock manual doesn't include a block diagram.
oc3ddesign - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
has anyone had an issue with the XL size of this trx40 Designare board fitting into atx cases. There doesn't seem to be to many out there and they are all terribly bland or built for custom loops. I plan to use a aio and would love to put it all in a Lancool 2 when they ship later this month. Any Case recommendations here?PopinFRESH007 - Saturday, January 18, 2020 - link
There will definitely be compatibility issues with the length of it. Most cases designed for E-ATX should be ok for the width. I have an Enthoo Evolv X case that I would absolutely recommend, however, the TRX40 Designare board definitely wouldn't fit as I have an SSI-CEB spec'd board and it is a sliver away from the bottom case shroud. Based on the dimensions and spec of the Lancool 2 I'd say you'd have the same issue with the TRX40 Designare fitting in that case, e.g. it won't "vertically" fit. Something like the older HAF-X case would fit itaCuria - Thursday, January 30, 2020 - link
There is an error: "ASRock TRX40 Taichi ... four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots"... This board only has 3 full length PCIe 4.0 slots, not 4jangray - Friday, February 14, 2020 - link
Will any of these TRX40 motherboards permit bifurcation of one of the gen4x16 slots into gen4 x8x8? Based on current motherboard users guides, some allow gen4x16 -> gen4 x4x4x4x4 but none seem to do gen4 x8x8 (unlike the Aorus X570 for example). Thanks for any pointers.