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 Zenith II Extreme
Moving onto what ASUS has up its sleeve, and it has gone with a trio of new motherboards with each designed for a different target market. The first of the three is the ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme which is the premier model on TRX40 for the company. Following on from its ROG Zenith Extreme X399 model, the new ROG Zenith II Extreme for TRX40 builds upon it with an aluminium heatsink cover surrounding the PCIe 4.0 slots, an aluminium rear panel cover, and a solid steel backplate on the rear of the board. Some of the main features included are the LiveDash color OLED 1.77" screen integrated into the rear panel cover, support for up to five PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives, a Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface, and an Aquantia 10 GbE controller.
The ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme is an E-ATX model which sits at the top of the ASUS TRX40 product stack. Its design is very interesting with lashings of aluminium via the rear panel cover, the armor covering the PCIe slot area, and the actively cooled TRX40 chipset heatsink. The rear panel cover has an integrated LiveDash color OLED screen which measures in at 1.77", and can be customized with the LiveDash software in the included software suite. There is integrated RGB LEDs too which are located within the rear panel cover, the chipset heatsink, and on the underside of the right-hand side of the board. A total of four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which operate at x16/x8/x16+x8, and is accompanied by two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots on the front of the board, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot on the rear, and an additional two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 available through the ROG DIMM.2 module within the accessories bundle. There are also eight SATA ports with four controlled by the chipset, and four from a pair of ASMedia SATA controllers; only the four SATA ports from the TRX40 chipset support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays.
On the power delivery, ASUS is using a similar design to its X570 models with a 16-phase design with 16 Infineon TDA21472 70 A power stages operating in teamed mode. The large aluminium power delivery heatsink has two small Delta Superflo fans to aid cooling, which the finned heatsinks are designed to optimize surface area with low resistance for airflow. Providing power to the CPU is three inputs which consist of two 8-pin 12 V ATX, and one 6-pin 12 V ATX power connector. Cooling support is extensive with seven 4-pin headers which are split into two for CPU fans, two for water pumps, one for a high-amp fan, and two for standard chassis fans. The board also has an LN2 mode jumper for extreme overclockers, a safe boot button, an OC retry button, a dual BIOS selector switch, and power/reset buttons.
On the rear panel of the ROG Zenith II Extreme is five USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, four USB 3.1 G1 Type-A, and one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C 20 Gbps port. Networking support is strong with an Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE controller, and a second port powered by Intel I211-AT Gigabit controller. The Wi-Fi comes from an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface, and also adds BT 5.0 connectivity for users. On the left-hand side are a BIOS Flashback button and a clear CMOS switch, while on the other side is five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output which is powered by a SupremeFX S1220 HD audio codec; this includes an ESS Sabre ESS9018Q2C DAC.
The ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme has an MSRP of $850 at launch and sits as one of the most expensive TRX40 models, yet one of the most premium. One of the primary benefits is that enthusiasts and power users can use up to five PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives as the ROG DIMM.2 slot makes itself a prominent feature on ASUS's high-end models. There is a lot of enthusiast-level features with a lot going on for extreme overclockers including ASUS's teamed 16-phase power delivery for the CPU, with added LN2 mode and an overclocker's toolkit.
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Smell This - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
Still just a bit bummed .... that 1st/2nd Gen TRs have been left hangin'
As we roll into 2020, we gotta love where AMD is going BUT, here's hoping that Dr Su does not make the same mistakes on HEDTs that Chipzillah has been notorious in making in the past. With DDR5 on the horiZen, could sTRX4 be yet another *2 and Done* in the next 18 months?
I'm all for $800 mobos -- just as long as they don't become $50 moo-boards in January, 2021.
Spunjji - Friday, November 29, 2019 - link
Based on prior experience of AMD processors, it seems more likely that they'd have to offer new boards for DDR5 support but allow the new processors to run in older boards with DDR4.eek2121 - Friday, November 29, 2019 - link
Chances are that the TRX* series of boards will end in 2021 (or 2022 at the latest), when DDR5 is expected to roll out along with possibly Zen 5 (if 2022). That being said, I have an X399 board and a 1950X. I don't see a need to upgrade yet. I may eventually pick up a 2950X next year, but I'm hanging onto this platform. It games pretty much all current games at 4k, with the majority at maximum or high details (even on a 1080ti), and it's excellent for the development and content creation workloads that i do. Don't let the listed benchmarks fool you, the 1950X is capable of much more. Running Linux brings a rather large performance increase due to better thread scheduling among other things. I have no problems running GTA V or any other games that I play, at full 4k and maximum details.Llawehtdliub - Saturday, November 30, 2019 - link
At 30fpsscineram - Wednesday, December 4, 2019 - link
300.masmosmeaso - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
question,is the amount of phases important when it comes to performance or having more devices on the motherboard ? if so how many is overkill for these motherboards ?
Hul8 - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
Those power delivery components are only for the CPU package, and take all their power input from the auxiliary CPU power connectors (usually 8-pin, 8+4 or 8+8-pin these days).The rest of the motherboard get their power thru the 24-pin.
eek2121 - Friday, November 29, 2019 - link
More phases typically means better performance (thermals, quality of power, power limits) from the CPU, unless the vendor cheaps out on VRMs. I'd stay away from any board offering only a single 8-pin, as that can be a sign they are using lower quality VRMs, fewer phases, etc. Contrary to popular belief, phase doublers don't really hurt anything. A few in the youtube community have tested this, both with a CPU and also with a CPU 'emulator' that plugs into the socket and measures power output.Hul8 - Tuesday, December 10, 2019 - link
The question was about "devices on the motherboard", which I assume means things other than the CPU. That's why I pointed out that the phases are irrelevant to the question.Dragonstongue - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
just to say suchjust "cause" the box label as 280w TDP, this does not automatically mean it USES 280w (I am sure Intel or NVDA likely many many others) will lambast the crud out of AMD for this, without giving the "full story"
eg. Intel will say "our product X only is TDP of Y vs this massive 280w number, choose us, save the world" then when the user actually uses said "product X" they find out either A is much much slower than all review sites list it is and/or B, it shoots ACTUAL power use through the roof therefore not matching the "claims" of said product X TDP being "better" than TR gen 3 280w "listed" TDP
Intel, NVDA have far more proven themselves on "fibbing" their numbers to make the sales than AMD has "overall" over the many years I have been involved with (consumer or otherwise) in computing
............
Thanks for the review overall, at least it seems the various "partners" are not being overly foolish in terms of pricing and feature set, MSI IMO even "better" than some of the others (such as ASUS)
I truly hope these turn out to be the "cat's meow" for those whom can afford and use them, it helps AMD, helps their partners, the long run, helps us all
(^.^)