Closer Look / Product Photos
The package of the C9X299-PG300 is not any unusual. It’s a flat box similar to any other motherboard boxes. It also has general motherboard description, package contents, and some more data which can be helpful.
What I can also add is that the package looks great. It’s mostly black and a bit glossy what suggests that inside is something exceptional.
Inside the box, we will find everything required for installation except maybe SLI bridge. There are 4 SATA data cables, I/O shield, driver’s CD, SuperO metal badge, SuperO cable stickers and quick installation guide.
Heatsinks, which are covering M.2 sockets are probably the first thing which you have noticed. It’s simply hard to miss them. Both large heatsinks are connected to the chipset heatsink and are equipped with quite thick thermal pads. On our NVMe drives, the temperature went down by about 15°C.
Another thing which is hard to miss are steel “shields” on all memory slots and PCIe slots. It protects slots from mechanical damage and reduces interference. We don’t see that often. Most manufacturers use it on single PCIe slots or decide to use it only on memory slots. Here we have everything well protected.
Since I mentioned PCIe slots, the C9X299-PG300 has four PCIe 3.0 x16 slots which work in x16 or x8 mode, depends on graphics card configuration. We can install up to four graphics cards when 44 PCIe lane CPU is in use. It’s one of the best options on the market. Of course, PCIe x1 or x4 cards will work in these slots too.
Like any top overclocking motherboard, the C9X299-PG300 has power and reset buttons, clear CMOS button and LED display which is showing us BIOS codes. All that is really handy and saves a lot of time during longer overclocking sessions.
I can also see Intel VROC header. After checking BIOS and user’s manual, I found info that RAID on NVMe SSD works but only on SSD connected to U.2 ports. Since I don’t have any drives like that then I won’t be able to perform tests in RAID. It’s one of the server features of the C9X299-PG300 but I guess that some users who are looking for workstation solution will be happy to see it.
RGB LED stripe is on the back of the PCB, next to transparent part of the PCB, but also under the IO cover with the SuperO logo. We are able to change settings of RGB lighting in the SuperO Booster software.
