Intel X299 Motherboard Roundup

[IInuyasha74]

This roundup of Intel X299 Skylake-X & Kaby Lake-X motherboards pulls from our reviews, and includes recommendations for gaming, value & performance.


Intel X299 Motherboard Roundup : Read more

 

[bit_user]

ASRock X299 Taichi

I still can't help but picture old people in a park, whenever I see this name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi

 

[BugariaM]

You definitely have an error
"Extremely basic RGB" - this definitely should be in the PROS section
Is not it? =)

 

[jasonelmore]

I don't know if I can give any credibility to this article without the author mentioning the Asus Rampage VI Extreme Motherboard, the best x299 board known to man. Asus intentionally delayed this board and waited for the 12c-18c CPU's to drop before they released it. Whats known as "Wave 2", The Rampage VI Extreme ditches Kabylake-X support in favor of full Skylake-X support, with upgraded mosfets and VRM's to handle everything from a 6c to the 18c with overclocking. Whats more, it has 10g networking at full 1 Gbps speeds and full Wi-GIG ad networking at the full 1 Gbps, yet its not mentioned anywhere. 3 M.2's as well.

 

[JonDol]

@jasonelmore: I'm not sure you are aware that the new Asus MB was released like a week or two ago and was not yet reviewed in-house. Thus if you wish to blame someone I'd suggest you to direct your blames to Asus in order to send sooner a review sample to THW ;-)

 

[jasonelmore]

I've had the motherboard for 2 months, i know when it was released. That's why i took offense to it not even being listed. The boards are selling out as soon as they are posted. You are probably gonna have to just buy one if you want to review it.

 

[jasonelmore]

@Jondol the R6E has been out for 2 months.

 

[bit_user]

@Jondol the R6E has been out for 2 months.

You might both be right - I think @JonDol is not US-based. Availability of that product might be somewhat region-dependent.

In any case, while it's fair to complain about its absence, try not to be too offended. Most buyers of such high-end products will probably look at the highly-rated models on Newegg & Amazon, then search out reviews of them. That's what I do, at least. I would never assume a roundup would include everything, as some products are late to market or are subsequent revisions or refinements to existing ones.

 

[jasonelmore]

@Jondol the R6E has been out for 2 months.

You might both be right - I think @JonDol is not US-based. Availability of that product might be somewhat region-dependent.

In any case, while it's fair to complain about its absence, try not to be too offended. Most buyers of such high-end products will probably look at the highly-rated models on Newegg & Amazon, then search out reviews of them. That's what I do, at least. I would never assume a roundup would include everything, as some products are late to market or are subsequent revisions or refinements to existing ones.

to be honest, i think tomshardware is just mad at Asus over something. Look at their x370 roundup. They didn't mention the Zenith Extreme either. Not only that, but they didn't list one single Asus board on the x370 article. They managed to include 1 x299 Asus board in this article but its at the very end of the slides.

Considering Asus has something like 40% of the PC motherboard market, you'd think they'd have more boards featured. They have rog boards for all price ranges. I haven't bought a Biostar or Asrock for decades. They aren't exactly known for quality nor updating their bios's for 5 years like Asus does for almost all their boards. Read the x370 roundup and count how many asrock and biostar they got listed.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-amd-x370-motherboard-roundup,5219.html

 

[Crashman]

You definitely have an error
"Extremely basic RGB" - this definitely should be in the PROS section
Is not it? =)

Maybe, but not when it's a feature someone else is paying to have

I don't know if I can give any credibility to this article without the author mentioning the Asus Rampage VI Extreme Motherboard, the best x299 board known to man. Asus intentionally delayed this board and waited for the 12c-18c CPU's to drop before they released it. Whats known as "Wave 2", The Rampage VI Extreme ditches Kabylake-X support in favor of full Skylake-X support, with upgraded mosfets and VRM's to handle everything from a 6c to the 18c with overclocking. Whats more, it has 10g networking at full 1 Gbps speeds and full Wi-GIG ad networking at the full 1 Gbps, yet its not mentioned anywhere. 3 M.2's as well.

I don't know if I can give that comment any credibility given that Asus wouldn't back up those claims with a review sample.

@jasonelmore: I'm not sure you are aware that the new Asus MB was released like a week or two ago and was not yet reviewed in-house. Thus if you wish to blame someone I'd suggest you to direct your blames to Asus in order to send sooner a review sample to THW ;-)

Well yeh

I've had the motherboard for 2 months, i know when it was released. That's why i took offense to it not even being listed. The boards are selling out as soon as they are posted. You are probably gonna have to just buy one if you want to review it.

So you're offended with Asus? We're a little more lenient. If they choose not to participate, it's their choice. As for purchasing samples, we could buy a Prime X299-A and a Strix X299-E Gaming for that price, thereby providing useful information to a far greater number of readers.

to be honest, i think tomshardware is just mad at Asus over something. Look at their x370 roundup. They didn't mention the Zenith Extreme either. Not only that, but they didn't list one single Asus board on the x370 article. They managed to include 1 x299 Asus board in this article but its at the very end of the slides.

Who's mad at whom? Have you such strong feelings for the company that you'd find everyone else at fault for its decisions?

 

[jasonelmore]

You definitely have an error
"Extremely basic RGB" - this definitely should be in the PROS section
Is not it? =)

Maybe, but not when it's a feature someone else is paying to have

I don't know if I can give any credibility to this article without the author mentioning the Asus Rampage VI Extreme Motherboard, the best x299 board known to man. Asus intentionally delayed this board and waited for the 12c-18c CPU's to drop before they released it. Whats known as "Wave 2", The Rampage VI Extreme ditches Kabylake-X support in favor of full Skylake-X support, with upgraded mosfets and VRM's to handle everything from a 6c to the 18c with overclocking. Whats more, it has 10g networking at full 1 Gbps speeds and full Wi-GIG ad networking at the full 1 Gbps, yet its not mentioned anywhere. 3 M.2's as well.

I don't know if I can give that comment any credibility given that Asus wouldn't back up those claims with a review sample.

@jasonelmore: I'm not sure you are aware that the new Asus MB was released like a week or two ago and was not yet reviewed in-house. Thus if you wish to blame someone I'd suggest you to direct your blames to Asus in order to send sooner a review sample to THW ;-)

Well yeh

I've had the motherboard for 2 months, i know when it was released. That's why i took offense to it not even being listed. The boards are selling out as soon as they are posted. You are probably gonna have to just buy one if you want to review it.

So you're offended with Asus? We're a little more lenient. If they choose not to participate, it's their choice. As for purchasing samples, we could buy a Prime X299-A and a Strix X299-E Gaming for that price, thereby providing useful information to a far greater number of readers.

to be honest, i think tomshardware is just mad at Asus over something. Look at their x370 roundup. They didn't mention the Zenith Extreme either. Not only that, but they didn't list one single Asus board on the x370 article. They managed to include 1 x299 Asus board in this article but its at the very end of the slides.

Who's mad at whom? Have you such strong feelings for the company that you'd find everyone else at fault for its decisions?

So if they don't give you a free sample you won't review it? It seems I was partially right about Tom's and Asus having a falling out. You just confirmed to me that your one of the only review sites that did not get a sample. (gamersnex, guru, bit-tech,tweaktwn, pcper etc.. all got one)

At the very least I would think Purch would be interested in having this board as a test bed for all HEDT reviews on toms or anandtech. You could also buy the board and sell it once you've reviewed it like all of us reviewers in the trenches do. This is not just any board, it's the Rampage, the line that put asus on the map. It's like not reviewing a Cosmos case from Coolermaster or a iPhone X from Apple. These are flagship products that are highly sought after and despite not being able to afford it, many people will be interested in reading about Asus's latest and greatest.

The only strong feelings I have for asus are customer support and product support related. As i said, they will keep updating the bios's for all of their boards for 5-7 years.

PS: the board has been out for almost 2 months: Came out on 09/03/2017 | Review samples were sent out in the middle of August.

 

[bit_user]

You could also buy the board and sell it once you've reviewed it like all of us reviewers in the trenches do.

If you're a reviewer for a competing publication (or even your own blog, if you get any revenue from it), it seems like you should disclose that as a footnote to any critiques made in a public forum.

 

[Crashman]

to be honest, i think tomshardware is just mad at Asus over something. Look at their x370 roundup. They didn't mention the Zenith Extreme either. Not only that, but they didn't list one single Asus board on the x370 article. They managed to include 1 x299 Asus board in this article but its at the very end of the slides.

Who's mad at whom? Have you such strong feelings for the company that you'd find everyone else at fault for its decisions?

So if they don't give you a free sample you won't review it? It seems I was partially right about Tom's and Asus having a falling out. You just confirmed to me that your one of the only review sites that did not get a sample. (gamersnex, guru, bit-tech,tweaktwn, pcper etc.. all got one)

At the very least I would think Purch would be interested in having this board as a test bed for all HEDT reviews on toms or anandtech. You could also buy the board and sell it once you've reviewed it like all of us reviewers in the trenches do.

The only strong feelings I have for asus are customer support and product support related. As i said, they will keep updating the bios's for all of their boards for 5-7 years.

PS: the board has been out for almost 2 months: Came out on 09/03/2017 | Review samples were sent out late july early august.

As I alluded above, we'll occasionally buy the boards that will help us reach the most readers per dollar spent. Those are usually priced around $300 for the X299.

 

[jasonelmore]

You could also buy the board and sell it once you've reviewed it like all of us reviewers in the trenches do.

If you're a reviewer for a competing publication (or even your own blog, if you get any revenue from it), it seems like you should disclose that as a footnote to any critiques made in a public forum.

That would be self promotion and advertising on a competing platform as well. It goes both ways.

@Crashman I would disagree that x299 users are primarily looking at $300 boards. this is HEDT afterall.

Thanks for your reply

 

[bit_user]

You could also buy the board and sell it once you've reviewed it like all of us reviewers in the trenches do.

If you're a reviewer for a competing publication (or even your own blog, if you get any revenue from it), it seems like you should disclose that as a footnote to any critiques made in a public forum.

That would be self promotion and advertising on a competing platform as well.

That's weak.

You can do it without specifying exactly where, if you're that concerned about avoiding any self-promotion. Plus, I didn't say it should be in all your posts - just routine full disclosure as part of any public criticism.

The main point is that it's a conflict of interests that should be disclosed.

 

[jasonelmore]

You could also buy the board and sell it once you've reviewed it like all of us reviewers in the trenches do.

If you're a reviewer for a competing publication (or even your own blog, if you get any revenue from it), it seems like you should disclose that as a footnote to any critiques made in a public forum.

That would be self promotion and advertising on a competing platform as well.

That's weak.

You can do it without specifying exactly where, if you're that concerned about avoiding any self-promotion. Plus, I didn't say it should be in all your posts - just routine full disclosure as part of any public criticism.

The main point is that it's a conflict of interests that should be disclosed.

If I was a pc component reviewer I might agree, but I review electronics in general. Drones, phones, tablets, etc.. My point still applies. Many times i've bought things because I lacked internal channels and then sold them once I was done. That way I got the content I wanted to write about -- all at minimal costs. It was just a suggestion.

 

[bit_user]

If I was a pc component reviewer I might agree, but I review electronics in general. Drones, phones, tablets, etc..

Thanks for clarifying that.

 

[Crashman]

@Crashman I would disagree that x299 users are primarily looking at $300 boards. this is HEDT afterall.

Thanks for your reply

Yes, but the choice wouldn't be to review a $660 or a $330 board, it would be a $660 or TWO $330 boards.

But if my boss asked me right now I'd probably pick a $300 X299, a $180 X370, and a $180 Z370

 

[FritzEiv]

As it happens, @Crashman's boss did ask him, and @Crashman gave his boss a list of Asus boards to purchase. We first try to get samples directly from the companies. In this case, we'll be buying some for review. For the record, we do not have any bias against Asus. In fact, you'll see @Crashman's preference for them for use in his memory reviews for overclocking purposes. We'd like more Asus boards to review and to include in these roundups. We continue to discuss this with Asus on a regular basis, and we continue to buy select boards when the budget allows.