The ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme Motherboard Review: Top Tier Threadripper
by E. Fylladitakis on July 17, 2018 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gaming
- Asus
- ROG
- Overclocking
- ThreadRipper
- X399
Board Features
ASUS designed the ROG Zenith Extreme to be the most feature-packed AMD X399 motherboard for Ryzen Threadripper processors available. The company's engineers had to use an E-ATX motherboard layout to fit everything and even that was not enough, as they were forced to move two of the M.2 slots to a vertical daughterboard and reduce the SATA ports to six. Despite these sacrifices, the ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme is the most feature-packed motherboard that we have reviewed to this date.
| ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
| Price | Link |
| Size | E-ATX |
| CPU Interface | TR4 / SP3r2 |
| Chipset | AMD X399 |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Eight DDR4 Supporting 128GB Dual Channel Up to 3600+ MHz |
| Video Outputs | N/A |
| Network Connectivity | 1 × ASUS AREION 10Gbit 1 x Intel I211-V 1 x Atheros QCA9008 AC+AD |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek S1220 |
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) |
4 × PCIe 3.0 (×16 / ×8 / ×16 / ×8) |
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) |
1 × PCIe 2.0 (×4) 1 × PCIe 2.0 (×1) |
| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 |
| Onboard SATA Express | None |
| Onboard M.2 | 3 × PCIe 3.0 (×4) |
| Onboard U.2 | 1 × U.2 Connector (×4) |
| USB 3.1 Gen 2 | 1 × Type-C + 1 × Type-A (Rear panel) 1 × Type-C (via headers) |
| USB 3.1 Gen 1 | 8 × Type-A Rear Panel 4 × Type-A via headers |
| USB 2.0 | 2 × via headers |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU |
| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Pump/Aux (4-pin) 4 x System (4-pin) 3 x System (4-pin) on supplied Extension Card |
| IO Panel | 8 x USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 1 x Network RJ-45 3 x Antenna connectors 5 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 2 x Clear/Flashback CMOS button(s) |
Some of the features, such as the 802.11ad WiGig support and LN2-specific hardware options, are unique to this Ryzen Threadripper motherboard at the time of this review. The price tag of the ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme is hefty, retailing at over $500 at the time of this review, and yet it does not seem unreasonable with such a features list.
In The Box
We get the following:
- USB Flash Drive with Drivers & Software
- User's manual
- Sheet with numerous ROG stickers
- Sheet with 10 cable labels
- Metal ROG badge
- ROG coaster
- M.2 DIMM 2 vertical board
- ASUS AREION 10G PCIe ×4 LAN adapter
- Three black SATA cables
- WiGig 802.11ad antenna
- 2T2R dual-band Wi-Fi antennas
- ROG VGA Holder
- Three thermocouples
- Extension Cable for RGB strips (80 cm)
- Extension cable for Addressable LED
- SLI/Crossfire Bridge (2-3-4 Way)
- Fan Extension Card (3 x 4-pin fan out)
- Fan Extension card screw pack
- Fan Extension card cable
- Case connector quick plug
The bundle of the ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme is rich, as expected from a motherboard of this class. Besides the standard manual and a lot of stickers/cosmetic items that include even a (cardboard) drink coaster, we also found three SLI/Crossfire bridges for any possible (2-way, 3-way, or 4-way) SLI/Crossfire configuration, extension cables for RGB LED strips, a metallic support for PCIe cards, and antennas for the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/WiGig interfaces. ASUS supplies the drivers and software into a USB flash disk instead of an optical disk, which is a reasonable move nowadays that many users are not using optical drives at all. Furthermore, ASUS supplies a "fan extension card" that adds another three fan headers if the six onboard headers are not enough for someone, plus three thermocouples that can be placed anywhere.
The ROG AREION 10G PCIe ×4 card is an interesting part of the bundle. Although it is based on the well-known AQUANTIA AQC107 chipset that other manufacturers are using as well, the PCIe card has a very large heatsink attached to it. Besides the AQC107 chipset, we only found a couple of clock generators and passive components on the AREION 10G card, components that do not warrant any kind of cooling. The AQC107 chipset on other motherboards that we have previously reviewed never had any additional cooling. We are unsure what drove ASUS's engineers to install a heatsink on the AREION 10G card, especially such a hefty one that is enough to keep cool a low-power CPU.
Despite the otherwise overwhelming bundle, ASUS does not supply any cable straps and only three SATA cables are included. There is no I/O shield pictured because it is permanently attached to the motherboard itself.
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jordanclock - Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - link
It's nice to have drivers available in situations where you either don't have immediate internet access or where you cannot access the internet because your OS install doesn't include necessary drivers, like for graphics or network adapters.twtech - Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - link
This is far from the worst example, but not having built a system in a few years - it seems like I've come back to find every motherboard now looks like some blinged-out kids toy from the dollar store. Lights, weirdly-shaped plastic shrouds with big gamer logos that have no functional purpose, etc.Yuriman - Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - link
The retail PC segment is in decline. Manufacturers are doing everything they can to attract a new generation of buyers.Awful - Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - link
I have no use case that requires 32 cores, 10Gb networking, or even wifi in a desktop so I wouldn't buy one of these. But I still waaannnt one!Alien959 - Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - link
I want to comment about m.2 cooling. According to numerous respected internet outfits and even the JEDEC specification and testing, nand flash lasts longer at higher temperatures and is recommended to be above 40c. The only part that needs cooling is the controller, but almost all cooling plates cool the nand.kazoOC - Thursday, July 19, 2018 - link
Notice one thing: most boards share the m2 heatsink with the PCH, which is responsible for pci and sata. It will always get relatively warm while still keeping the m2 drives away from throttling.Now, aftermarket m2 heatsink are another story but still a valid choice in poorly ventilated cases. Just take care to avoid contact with nand chips by peeling off portions of the thermal pad.
virpuain@gmail.com - Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - link
A quick glare suggests this VRM will be dissipating 30W at 1.4V@176A. That being said the 32 cores TR better come with a maximum TDP of 250W.For the pricetag this board is lacking alot in the VRM side of things, especially if you consider this a very premium board ( with AAA+++ premium pricetag ) with a VRM that is actually worse than what you have on a few AM4 boards like the X370 Taichi and C7H.
This VRM is pretty much like what you have with the X370 GT7, a $ 120 board for AM4.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, July 19, 2018 - link
ASUS and Gigabyte both sold hybrid air/water VRM cooling, beginning in 2013 with ASUS — for quad core CPUs. But, no — we don't need water cooling for VRMS on a board like this. Instead, we need tiny fans and LEDs.a351must2 - Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - link
I just have to comment on this ... I have this motherboard and would say the heatsink for the included 10GB card is necessary. I've actually been having problems with the 10GB network dropping offline randomly and traced it down to the card overheating. The heatsink is big, but it also needs some airflow near it (my case provides none). I now have an additional slot fan mounted that moves air across the 10GB card and my other addon cards (older intel dual GB nic and a 9211 sas controller).Also, if this review had been done 9 months ago when I built mine, there would've been some mention of the buggy bios and memory support. I made the mistake of buying unsupported DDR3200 ram (Corsair kit for Intel) and after reading a bit was feeling lucky I got it to run at 3000. A bios update in January got it to run at 3200 though and I believe most of the fan speed control issues have been resolved.
As for power, when messing with overclocking mine I've had the 1950X draw over 350 watts by itself using this board. That'll easily cover a 250Watt TDP 32 core processor ... I'm sure we'll see the limits when the new processors become available though.
Timur Born - Friday, July 20, 2018 - link
Thanks for the article.I find the DPC Latency section misleading. There is no mention what power profile and BIOS (C-states) settings were used and if the values reported are maximum or average values. Look at this example:
Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 354,514229
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 2,480283
Quite the difference. And 354 µs maximum still is not a problem even at lowest audio buffer settings.