Don't forget that the lanes from the chipset to the CPU are PCIe 4.0. If you plug in a v3 x8 card, it'll (just) be able to keep up. If you plug in a v2 card, it'll have plenty of room to spare.
Exactly. Unless it is stupidly overpriced, or lacks good power distribution and overclocking features, I plan on getting one of these and a Ryzen 3850x. I plan on using the first slot for my GPU in x16, leaving the second slot empty, and sticking my dual port 10gig fiber Intel x520 NIC in the 8x chipset port.
A single 2GB Phison E16 (when they launch) should go in the m.2 slot. Then depending on how decent that Realtek audio chip is, I'll either use it (output via optical to my DAC) or pop in my trusty old Creative X-Fi Titanium HD in that 1x slot.
Then I'll just disable all the on board features (NIC's Audio, SATA, etc.)
I was planning on getting whatever ASRock Taichi motherboard would be announced for X570, but that one was full of cosmetic gimmicks.
But in the end I decided to skip the X570 generation due to the chipset fan, already had the lovely experience of the Nvidia Nforce 2 buzz, I don't want to live through that again, however Zalman released a couple of great chipset heatsinks, that I of course got. But looking at the X570 motherboards, an aftermarket solution doesn't seem likely.
Hopefully for X670/X770 or so, AMD will improve the process and silicon of the chipset to remove the need of a a fan, but due to PCIe 4.0/5.0 bandwidth and NVMe... seems unlikely, isn't it?
YES. I love that they are focusing more on the WS / pro range. But I FUCKING HATE that they can't give these cards 10GbE! Now I have to waste a pci-e slot on a nic. Argh!
Well, you could use a M.2 to PCIe adapter and drive a 2 port card installed either on the other side of the GPU backwards or vertically, a bit of a kluge but it ought to work... honestly the BIOs should be providing a 10GBE controller at this point with SFP as the industry standard for the port.
The higher end ASUS X570 board actually has a multigigabit 2.5Gb ethernet port, based on the 802.3bz standard. A 10GBE controller would make the board cost $75 more dollars and since most normal consumers don't even have 10GBe NAS or other 10GBe hardware, they don't have a use for it. It would be too niche of a motherboard to sell.
It's already a niche motherboard. It is marketed as a "workstation"-board after all, and I too think they should have a variant with 10 GbE. Clearly it isn't for "most normal consumer[s]".
That said, while missing 10 GbE (or at least 5 GbE) sucks, this is still pretty much a board I've been waiting for since Ryzens release.
This was the board I was going for ...until I realized that it, too, had active chipset cooling. That's just a no-no in my book. Not only because of the potential noise, but because these tiny, proprietary fans are bound to fail. And probably at the most inopportune moment.
It's the unfortunate side effect of PCIe Gen 4. Higher signaling means more power hungry chipsets.
But like CB mentioned, unless you are hammering it, it won't be an issue to keep the chip cool. X570 has support for multiple M.2 slots, and lots of PCIe lanes, so that little chipset has the potential to work extremely hard. But if you're careful, it won't work hard enough to be a problem.
I have to agree. ASUS does a lot right in this boards layout: all passive cooling elements are oriented in the airflow direction, have reasonable clearance and an appropriate size and are largely obstruction-free.
This is pretty much how a board should be laid out and comes close to the layout of actual professional boards. Increasing the height of the chipset cooler slightly should be far more effective in a well-ventilated case than the puny fan.
I like the overall design a lot, and I especially like the official support for ECC. There are only two drawbacks: no 10GbE support (which can be fixed with an add-on card), and that blasted fan. Would it really have been too hard for them to use a passive heatsink like the one Gigabyte put on the Aorus?
God, if this website's comment section was anything to go by, x570 will be a giant flop for the sole reason that most of the x570 motherboards using a tiny fan.
Also for everyone griping about the lack of an integrated 10GbE don't forget that would mean the motherboard would cost another $100 minimum to include a feature most people won't use. This board is not targeted at that high of a price segment. If there is a demand in that price segment Asus can always come out with a version that has 10GbE you can be sure other manufacturers already have boards out that check that box.
Agreed. For years I hear jonesing for a more powerful chipset w/ 8 lane pcie 3 type bandwidth to share, but now the world has ended cos it uses a lousy 15W and needs active cooling or they wouldnt ~all do it. What a whiney lot we are.
If you have a good CPU cooler and a decently-designed video card, this 40mm fan is going to be the loudest component in your system - and probably the most failure prone. The bearings will dry out and it will start rattling in a year or two.
That's BS... dual SFP ports would add about $10-15 to the board adding the controller to the chipset would be trivial for another $5 worth of silicon or there about. A single transceiver for 10GBE-SR is $30. That's a total of only $50 not $100. A used 10GBe-SR transciever is $10 on ebay (with over 2k sold).
Sure, SFP+ for 10 Gbit/s via multimode fiber are cheap and a SFP-port would certainly be appreciated. But people here are talking about 10 GBase-T, and the SFP+ for that start at about USD 100.
I'm not saying a fiber port couldn't be useful, but most people just don't have fiber infrastructure in their home or offices, while Cat 6a spec cabling is quite common.
Why OH WHY can't they make 10GbE nics default on WS/pro boards in 2019? I have to waste a pci-e (4.0!!!!) slot for a "¤#¤% NIC. It's nice they focus more on WS/pro boards ... but come on. 10GbE should be -law- by this point.
Why? 90% of people will never touch anything above a gigabit speed, and those who do can fork the extra for a PCIe add-in card if they really need it. Do you also have a whole 10gb network at your house (routers, switches, firewalls, internet connection)? If so, you can afford another PCIe card or another board with the feature. Gigabit Ethernet is fine.
Hm, I'm a bit mixed on this. I've been looking to replace my home server's hardware, and the ASRock Rack X470D4U has been catching my eye lately. I'm fond of IPMI, which also helps as I don't have to waste a slot on a graphics card due to Ryzen not having one on a CPU above four cores.
On the other hand, for me, the huge downside of the X470D4U is that it's mATX. I already use two SAS RAID cards that I've modded to add fans (i.e. adding width), and the lack of 10G on either of these boards means that I'd have to add a card to them. It's possible with the ASUS board, but it would require some extensions to easily do on the ASRock Rack board.
From what I can see, the ASUS remote solution is... a bit different than I'd expect. According to the manual, it's a VirtualBox Appliance. On the other hand, the ASRock solution is your standard AST2500-based IPMI serviced through a web interface. Not sure how I feel about the VM appliance solution.
I'm extremely interested in this motherboard. I was just going to keep using my Prime x370-Pro, but an actual workstation board looks really nice....
Or I could spend that money on swapping my Vega 64 for a Vega Frontier edition instead, which would make more sense when it comes to improving SolidWorks performance. Though the lanes look like they would crowd my IoDrive2 a lot less...
I'm exactly in the same boat. I got the PRIME X370-PRO because it was basically the only little-nonsense but full-spec board. The WS Ace was however what I was actually looking for back then.
I'm contemplating waiting for the Threadripper-successor, to see if they finally come up with an actual workstation board for Zen.
In addition to what others have said (no 10GbE, a fan) I would have liked to see the DIMM-Sockets oriented horizontally to have proper air flow.
I'm still hoping for ASUS or Supermicro to finally make a Ryzen or Threadripper board that has actual workstation Specs; I can't believe this just doesn't exist yet.
This board comes closest however, and I might just have to replace my PRIME X370-Pro. Official ECC-support is appreciated.
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36 Comments
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Fabel - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
I miss more MB like this one, I wanted it badly for my next build but the lack of 10Gb is a deal breaker for me.damianrobertjones - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
You could always bridge the ports. At least that's something.DanNeely - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Isn't x8 from the chipset just a waste of PCIe lanes since it the chipset only has x4 to the CPU?Daeros - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Don't forget that the lanes from the chipset to the CPU are PCIe 4.0. If you plug in a v3 x8 card, it'll (just) be able to keep up. If you plug in a v2 card, it'll have plenty of room to spare.DanNeely - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
good point.mattlach - Friday, June 21, 2019 - link
Exactly. Unless it is stupidly overpriced, or lacks good power distribution and overclocking features, I plan on getting one of these and a Ryzen 3850x. I plan on using the first slot for my GPU in x16, leaving the second slot empty, and sticking my dual port 10gig fiber Intel x520 NIC in the 8x chipset port.A single 2GB Phison E16 (when they launch) should go in the m.2 slot. Then depending on how decent that Realtek audio chip is, I'll either use it (output via optical to my DAC) or pop in my trusty old Creative X-Fi Titanium HD in that 1x slot.
Then I'll just disable all the on board features (NIC's Audio, SATA, etc.)
yeeeeman - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
No fan?bubblyboo - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Look at the third image.rozquilla - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Finally! A motherboard for adults.I was planning on getting whatever ASRock Taichi motherboard would be announced for X570, but that one was full of cosmetic gimmicks.
But in the end I decided to skip the X570 generation due to the chipset fan, already had the lovely experience of the Nvidia Nforce 2 buzz, I don't want to live through that again, however Zalman released a couple of great chipset heatsinks, that I of course got. But looking at the X570 motherboards, an aftermarket solution doesn't seem likely.
Hopefully for X670/X770 or so, AMD will improve the process and silicon of the chipset to remove the need of a a fan, but due to PCIe 4.0/5.0 bandwidth and NVMe... seems unlikely, isn't it?
althaz - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
FYI: Gigabyte have two motherboards with passive chipset cooling (and also completely awesome/over the top 14-16 phase VRM).They aren't cheap, but they look good (obviously with the caveat that Gigabyte's bios is a UX nightmare) and don't have that worrying chipset fan.
mjz_5 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
whats the cost of this MB? I wish they made some more models without all the bling!JKJK - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
YES. I love that they are focusing more on the WS / pro range.But I FUCKING HATE that they can't give these cards 10GbE! Now I have to waste a pci-e slot on a nic. Argh!
cb88 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Well, you could use a M.2 to PCIe adapter and drive a 2 port card installed either on the other side of the GPU backwards or vertically, a bit of a kluge but it ought to work... honestly the BIOs should be providing a 10GBE controller at this point with SFP as the industry standard for the port.gggplaya - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
The higher end ASUS X570 board actually has a multigigabit 2.5Gb ethernet port, based on the 802.3bz standard. A 10GBE controller would make the board cost $75 more dollars and since most normal consumers don't even have 10GBe NAS or other 10GBe hardware, they don't have a use for it. It would be too niche of a motherboard to sell.thomasg - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
It's already a niche motherboard.It is marketed as a "workstation"-board after all, and I too think they should have a variant with 10 GbE.
Clearly it isn't for "most normal consumer[s]".
That said, while missing 10 GbE (or at least 5 GbE) sucks, this is still pretty much a board I've been waiting for since Ryzens release.
azrael- - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
This was the board I was going for ...until I realized that it, too, had active chipset cooling. That's just a no-no in my book. Not only because of the potential noise, but because these tiny, proprietary fans are bound to fail. And probably at the most inopportune moment.cb88 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Unless you are hammering the IO on the board constantly... the fan isn't even going to turn on.Xyler94 - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
It's the unfortunate side effect of PCIe Gen 4. Higher signaling means more power hungry chipsets.But like CB mentioned, unless you are hammering it, it won't be an issue to keep the chip cool. X570 has support for multiple M.2 slots, and lots of PCIe lanes, so that little chipset has the potential to work extremely hard. But if you're careful, it won't work hard enough to be a problem.
thomasg - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
I have to agree.ASUS does a lot right in this boards layout: all passive cooling elements are oriented in the airflow direction, have reasonable clearance and an appropriate size and are largely obstruction-free.
This is pretty much how a board should be laid out and comes close to the layout of actual professional boards.
Increasing the height of the chipset cooler slightly should be far more effective in a well-ventilated case than the puny fan.
JDG1980 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
I like the overall design a lot, and I especially like the official support for ECC. There are only two drawbacks: no 10GbE support (which can be fixed with an add-on card), and that blasted fan. Would it really have been too hard for them to use a passive heatsink like the one Gigabyte put on the Aorus?Oxford Guy - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link
Agreed.Skeptical123 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
God, if this website's comment section was anything to go by, x570 will be a giant flop for the sole reason that most of the x570 motherboards using a tiny fan.Also for everyone griping about the lack of an integrated 10GbE don't forget that would mean the motherboard would cost another $100 minimum to include a feature most people won't use. This board is not targeted at that high of a price segment. If there is a demand in that price segment Asus can always come out with a version that has 10GbE you can be sure other manufacturers already have boards out that check that box.
msroadkill612 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Agreed. For years I hear jonesing for a more powerful chipset w/ 8 lane pcie 3 type bandwidth to share, but now the world has ended cos it uses a lousy 15W and needs active cooling or they wouldnt ~all do it. What a whiney lot we are.JDG1980 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
If you have a good CPU cooler and a decently-designed video card, this 40mm fan is going to be the loudest component in your system - and probably the most failure prone. The bearings will dry out and it will start rattling in a year or two.Oxford Guy - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link
Yeah, I lived with tiny motherboard fans in the past for just long enough to buy 3rd-party replacement heatsinks.cb88 - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
That's BS... dual SFP ports would add about $10-15 to the board adding the controller to the chipset would be trivial for another $5 worth of silicon or there about. A single transceiver for 10GBE-SR is $30. That's a total of only $50 not $100. A used 10GBe-SR transciever is $10 on ebay (with over 2k sold).thomasg - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
Sure, SFP+ for 10 Gbit/s via multimode fiber are cheap and a SFP-port would certainly be appreciated.But people here are talking about 10 GBase-T, and the SFP+ for that start at about USD 100.
I'm not saying a fiber port couldn't be useful, but most people just don't have fiber infrastructure in their home or offices, while Cat 6a spec cabling is quite common.
JKJK - Thursday, June 6, 2019 - link
Why OH WHY can't they make 10GbE nics default on WS/pro boards in 2019? I have to waste a pci-e (4.0!!!!) slot for a "¤#¤% NIC.It's nice they focus more on WS/pro boards ... but come on. 10GbE should be -law- by this point.
Xyler94 - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
Why? 90% of people will never touch anything above a gigabit speed, and those who do can fork the extra for a PCIe add-in card if they really need it. Do you also have a whole 10gb network at your house (routers, switches, firewalls, internet connection)? If so, you can afford another PCIe card or another board with the feature. Gigabit Ethernet is fine.Slash3 - Saturday, June 8, 2019 - link
ASRock's X570 Creator should fit the bill.https://www.anandtech.com/show/14461/made-for-crea...
Aikouka - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
Hm, I'm a bit mixed on this. I've been looking to replace my home server's hardware, and the ASRock Rack X470D4U has been catching my eye lately. I'm fond of IPMI, which also helps as I don't have to waste a slot on a graphics card due to Ryzen not having one on a CPU above four cores.On the other hand, for me, the huge downside of the X470D4U is that it's mATX. I already use two SAS RAID cards that I've modded to add fans (i.e. adding width), and the lack of 10G on either of these boards means that I'd have to add a card to them. It's possible with the ASUS board, but it would require some extensions to easily do on the ASRock Rack board.
From what I can see, the ASUS remote solution is... a bit different than I'd expect. According to the manual, it's a VirtualBox Appliance. On the other hand, the ASRock solution is your standard AST2500-based IPMI serviced through a web interface. Not sure how I feel about the VM appliance solution.
Matthew McKellar - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
I'm extremely interested in this motherboard. I was just going to keep using my Prime x370-Pro, but an actual workstation board looks really nice....Or I could spend that money on swapping my Vega 64 for a Vega Frontier edition instead, which would make more sense when it comes to improving SolidWorks performance. Though the lanes look like they would crowd my IoDrive2 a lot less...
thomasg - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
I'm exactly in the same boat. I got the PRIME X370-PRO because it was basically the only little-nonsense but full-spec board.The WS Ace was however what I was actually looking for back then.
I'm contemplating waiting for the Threadripper-successor, to see if they finally come up with an actual workstation board for Zen.
thomasg - Friday, June 7, 2019 - link
In addition to what others have said (no 10GbE, a fan) I would have liked to see the DIMM-Sockets oriented horizontally to have proper air flow.I'm still hoping for ASUS or Supermicro to finally make a Ryzen or Threadripper board that has actual workstation Specs; I can't believe this just doesn't exist yet.
This board comes closest however, and I might just have to replace my PRIME X370-Pro.
Official ECC-support is appreciated.