ASUS X99-A Software

The software stack comes under the AI Suite 3 naming convention, where ASUS’ main play in this area comes from the Dual Intelligent Processors 5 (DIP5) interface. The dual intelligent processors part refers to the onboard EPU and TPU ICs which are an ASUS custom designed IC for monitoring and adjusting both the energy and turbo parts of the system. The 5 at the end of the name refers to both the version and the number of sub-apps within the DIP5 interface.

The five sub-apps are the TPU, Fan Xpert, DIGI+ Power Control, EPU and Turbo App. Alongside these is the 5-Way Optimization option that provides a series of settings to help users perform automatic overclocking.

The TPU part of DIP5 offers the CPU overclock settings for ratios, base frequencies, and voltages in terms of offsets and base values. The graphs showing how the voltage adjusts with the CPU ratio are nice touches as they provide direct feedback to the user based on what they are changing.

The fan settings allow users to apply a bulk fan mode to all the fans or go in and adjust them manually. The Fan Tuning button on the left provides a way for the system to analyze the characteristics of each fan attached by applying different fan power levels and measuring the RPM.

The digital power controls are for enthusiasts willing to push the system a little further. The automatic overclock options also adjust these settings slightly, giving extra CPU load-line calibration or placing the power phases into extreme performance mode. There are digital power options for both the CPU and the DRAM on hand.

The EPU part of AI Suite allows the user to adjust what is enabled when the system is in a low power mode. This includes a target power consumption for the CPU by reducing clocks and voltage, but also by disabling fast-charging USB ports and turning down CPU fan speeds.

The final part of 5WO is Turbo App, which is the newest addition to the interface. This allows the user to adjust overclocks and settings depending on what software is currently loaded. This means for a linear workload, a user can have the fans turned down but the single thread speed high, or when a game is played we have a full-core overclock with fast fans and LAN priority for the game in question:

The interface allows each program to be adjusted for importance, so if two software packages are opened and both have a Turbo App profile, the settings of the more important one will take precedence.

The rest of AI Suite is similar to previous generations on the mainstream platform:

Ai Charger: Gives USB 3.0 charging to BC1.1 compliant devices.
USB 3.0 Boost: Gives a Turbo mode to compatible USB devices.
EZ Update: Online updating software, although still has issues.
System Information
USB BIOS Flashback:
Arrange a USB for BIOS Flashback.
USB Charger: Allows charging from certain USB ports in sleep, hibernate or shutdown mode.
Push Notice: Synchronize a tablet or smartphone to receive notifications if system parameters (temperature, fan controls) go beyond a specified range.

One element of the software is TurboLAN, which is a reskinned version of cFos that implements software priority over the network:

ASUS has preinstalled settings for VoIP, Media, Games or File Sharing, although users can adjust these as required.

One point I would like to request from ASUS is for the Update software to receive an update. As far as it has been part of the ASUS software ecosystem, from the UK it has only ever worked once for me. This is a system that MSI had solved a while ago, with ASRock and GIGABYTE implementing their own systems that work. ASUS is still far behind in this regard.

The software package also comes with CPU-Z in order to identify the system:

As well as Boot Setting to allow for easy entry into the BIOS or enabling Fast Boot modes:

ASUS X99-A BIOS In The Box, Test Setup and Overclocking
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  • Samus - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link

    Probably an awesome board for $200, but I agree with the conclusion: just not worth it for $250+ when $300-$350 gets you a way nicer board. We're already talking supercar-class with the X99 platform as it is so why penny pinch when building a $1000+ PC. If you're building a Ferrari, build a Ferrari.
  • ziphnor - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link

    Just did a built with an X99-A myself. With the prices available to me the X99 Deluxe is ~60% more expensive than the X99-A and seems to only offer a lot of crap that i dont need in comparison? How does it make my desktop PC more "Ferrari" by having WiFi, extra ethernet ports or more storage options, especially when i have no need of them?
  • SuperVeloce - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link

    I agree. This is a spot on board for something like 5820k and single gpu setup.
  • dcoca - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link

    I disagree, it supports X16 X16 for sli and plus X8 for tri and solution: I have this board and with the Asus app it overclocked my cpu to 4.6 all cores stable.. and it had x4 for m.2 so that's great in the future... I picked it overs cause of the Asus name and features that I needed..
  • dcoca - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link

    That should of read AMD solution...
  • ziphnor - Friday, December 26, 2014 - link

    Out of curiosity, could you provide some details on that 4.6 OC? Is it "stable" or Prime95 stable, and what voltage did you need? I am on air, and have only managed 4.3@1.175V with my 5820k, and only in combination with setting a Turbo Boost TDP limit (otherwise i cannot run Prime95 succesfully)
  • dcoca - Friday, January 9, 2015 - link

    Sup sir, well the application did it's thing and increase the vcore to 1.3 and I ran prime95.. with that said I took it back to 4.4 cause the antech 650 wasn't cooling it to the level I want... I run simulations for a hobby of the universe so can't have the pc crash on me cause of heat
  • R3MF - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link

    agreed, what i did with the MSI X99 SLI-plus
  • paesan - Wednesday, December 24, 2014 - link

    I did a build with this board for my brother and was able to overclock the 5820K to 4700 using the 5 way optimization. I used the Corsair H100i for cooling the cpu. This board is the best price point for those that do not need wifi, extra lan port and other extra features that are in the deluxe version. I agree with you that the deluxe version adds more features that a lot of people have no need for. I have a z87-pro board and never use the wifi.
  • R3fug388 - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link

    The bottom of the first page, where you mention the 4 USB 2.0 on the back panel. Is that a typo? Is it supposed to be USB 3.0?

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