ASUS X99-A Motherboard Review
by Ian Cutress on December 22, 2014 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Asus
- Haswell-E
- LGA2011-3
ASUS X99-A Conclusion
The term 'budget build' means many different things depending on who you speak to. For a HTPC user, it will involve a small motherboard with integrated graphics. For a gamer it might be an i3 paired with a graphics card that doesn't require extra power, such as an R7 240. For an X99 user, the term is not so clear cut because there is no truly budget board in this market. The chipset has a lot of IO to play with, which manufacturers add on the basis that when a user buys the chipset, they have essentially already paid for it. This means buying enough connectors for 10 SATA ports, PCIe storage, multiple GPUs and so on.
The end result is that 'budget' for X99 means under $300 for the motherboard, paired with a $390 i7-5820K and some DDR4. In that sub-$300 range each manufacturer has least a single model to aim at this crowd (some more than one), and for ASUS this is the X99-A.
Off the top, the X99-A brings in 10 SATA ports, 10 USB 3.0 ports (5 from the PCH, 3 from a hub and 2 from a controller), three-way PCIe via x16/x16/x8, an M.2 x4 running at PCIe Gen 3.0 and SATA Express. Add in to the mix an Intel I218-V network port, an upgraded ALC1150 audio solution via Crystal Sound 2 and an EZ XMP button for good measure. ASUS' strengths also lie in the BIOS and software packages, offering an easy to use system.
Looking at the performance numbers, the X99-A hits the midfield across most of the system benchmarks, excelling in our audio tests and being very reasonable for power consumption. The lack of MultiCore Turbo affects it at stock speeds but a quick switch to position one of the TPU gives a 3.9 GHz overclock, and makes this less of an issue.
For users going budget, the X99-A is worth a look, especially when it is on offer. But ultimately I think that the X99-A creates the contrast to the X99-Deluxe. By comparison, the X99-Deluxe comes with tri-stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi, dual M.2 x4 Gen 3.0 possibilities, and add in fan controller card, dual SATA Express, 10 rear USB 3.0 ports, a styled rear panel and audio design as well as more SATA ports, another NIC and better box contents. Is that worth the $125 difference? As a budget build, the X99-A could be paired with an i7-5820K but a user would still require almost $1000 for a full system. It is hard to say if the price difference to other motherboards is worth it, depending on what the user ultimately wants to integrate (M.2, WiFi) into their experience.
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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 heatR3MF - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 - link
agreed, what i did with the MSI X99 SLI-pluspaesan - 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?