Today, we’ll be taking a look at the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme Motherboard. It utilizes the latest X399 chipset from AMD for their new TR4 platform, and is suitable for all Ryzen Threadripper processors. It’s designed for the extreme high-end enthusiast and content creators who require high multi-core/multi-thread performance. It comes absolutely packed with features which includes their Areion 10G card, Supreme FX audio, LiveDash OLED, 2 x USB 3.1, 8 x USB 3.0, 6 x SATA ports, 1 x U.2, Gigbit LAN, onboard wifi, onboard power and reset buttons, DIMM.2 slot for M.2/PCIE SSDs and much much more!
Furthermore, it also supports NVIDIA 4-Way SLI, AMD 4-Way CrossFireX, as well as DDR4 memory in quad channel up to 3600+(OC).
Please note that this motherboard and all X399 chipset based motherboards, do not support and is not compatible with Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 3 (AM4) processors.
Over the past several years, AMD have been lagging behind both Intel for their CPUs, and Nvidia for their GPUs. It’s a 2-way battle and they’ve been losing on both fronts. We’ll leave the AMD vs Nvidia debate for another day, but for now let’s talk about Intel vs AMD. This year AMD surprised the us with the release of their new Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 processor on the AM4 platform… they’ve regained some ground among gamers and enthusiasts alike. But it’s not over … they’ve still got a long way to go yet.
To keep the momentum going, AMD have now released their new series of flagship HEDT processor … the Ryzen Threadripper. The top end Threadripper 1950X features a massive 40Mb cache with 16-cores and 32 threads, as awell as 64 PCIE 3.0 lanes. Tests already conducted by other hardware websites have shown that this CPU, can easily knock the socks of Intel’s flagship Core i9-7900X, and even the i9-7920X. Yes, these Intel CPUs do have less cores/threads, but the thing you have to realize is that, the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X (with more cores/threads) cost about the same as the Core i9-7900X (less cores/ threads).
At this point, you’re probably thinking … what the hell are cores and threads. I don’t really care! It’s just a numbers game. Yes it is. But in terms of performance, and especially for content creators, the more cores and threads you have, the faster and better the system will be for rendering and video work.
Currently there are only 3 Threadipper CPUs on the market … the 1950X, 1920X and the 1900X. All have 64 PCIE lanes, and all are compatible with TR4 socket boards only. Their highest-end CPU cost under $1,000, which is a major winner in the never-ending Intel vs AMD battle. Take a look at the table below …
I’m pretty happy for AMD, and what they’ve done recently. I just hope that these Threadripper CPUs can really help AMD establish themselves on the enthusiast map. OK enough talk … let’s see what the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme is all about.
We’ll start by saying a big thanks to Asus ROG for providing the review sample. This is a snippet from what ROG has to say about themselves on their website:
For years since its establishment, ASUS aimed to put an ever-greater emphasis on PC gaming. This process resulted in the 2006 founding of the Republic of Gamers brand (ROG), formed for the sole purpose of delivering the most innovative hardcore hardware for truly dedicated gamers.
Since then, the efforts of the ROG team have led to a constant flow of PC gaming technology that has become legendary among enthusiasts for its performance. ROG is more than just hardware, though – we take an active part in the global gaming community, helping develop the industry by sponsoring events such as PAX and Dreamhack. Worldwide media have recognized ROG as a leader in PC gaming and overclocking performance, with many of our products winning awards and gaining very positive feedback from hardware pros.
With this great response from gamers and the industry, ROG has all the resources it needs to keep working on enabling even better experiences – technology never sleeps, nor should the action!
From my first initial impressions, the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme does looks like one hell of a board. It’s packed with some great features and everything about it creams “extreme”!! It’s definitely a board for the extreme enthusiast.
This is our first time testing a X399 motherboard along with a Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, so I’m pretty excited to see what kind of scores we’ll get during our benchmarks. I’m not expecting any real improvements during gaming benchmarks, however I am interested to see the Cinebench score and what rendering speed we’ll get in Blender.
OK, now let’s first take a look at the features and specification of the AMD X399 chipset, then will move on to the Asus Zenith Extreme motherboard itself.
- Buy the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme
Motherboard from Amazon – http://amzn.to/2xrXXOi
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