Friday, September 12th 2014
ASUS Announces the X99-E WS Workstation Motherboard
ASUS today announced X99-E WS, a new Compact Electronics Bay (CEB) workstation motherboard based on the Intel X99 chipset and with support for four-way multi-GPU setups at full PCI Express 3.0 x16 speed for extreme graphics power. X99-E WS is engineered with premium components for premium efficiency, including an integrated Driver-MOSFET (Dr. MOS), exclusive Beat Thermal Chokes II, ultra-durable 12K capacitors and ProCool power connector. X99-E WS offers industry-leading storage opportunities with onboard M.2 x4 and support for the exclusive ASUS PIKE II (Proprietary I/O Kit Expansion) and ThunderboltEX II expansion cards. It also has many simple, efficient and ASUS-exclusive easy-maintenance tools, including Q-Code Logger and Dr. Power.
Ultimate PCI Express 3.0 four-way graphics power
X99-E WS is equipped with seven PCI Express 3.0 slots and is able to accommodate up to four dual-slot graphics cards at x16 speed. Both four-way (quad-GPU) NVIDIA GeForce SLI and AMD CrossFireX. are supported, making X99-E WS an excellent choice for graphics professionals who depend on powerful graphics in areas such as design and modeling, or medical research. It is also ideal for processing-intensive simulation and rendering applications. X99-E WS also has ample room for RAID cards, PCI Express-based solid-state drives (SSDs), video-capture cards and other components.
Premium components for premium efficiency
X99-E WS benefits from premium components hand-chosen and carefully arranged by ASUS engineers to provide premium efficiency. These include an integrated Dr. MOS to save space and reduce operating temperatures for more efficient operation, and ASUS-exclusive Beat Thermal Chokes II. The new-design Beat Thermal Chokes II deliver greater durability and up to 94% power efficiency under normal operation. A special fin design results in up to 5°C-lower choke temperatures for added stability, further bolstered by use of a highly-conductive gold coating. This translates into minimal-loss power delivery.
ASUS is the world's first server manufacturer to introduce 12K solid capacitors - X99-E WS has these ultra-resilient components on board. These Japanese-made capacitors are able to withstand up to 12,000 hours of temperatures as high as 105°C, far exceeding everyday demands. At a typical operating temperature of 65°C, our 12K capacitors have an expected lifespan of 1.2m hours - or well over a century of real-world use.
X99-E WS also employs ProCool, the ASUS-exclusive reinvented power connector. ProCool eliminates the hollow areas associated with traditional power connectors, ensuring an exceptionally close and secure connection with the motherboard. This design is much stronger, and it also benefits power efficiency: the flush connection enables lower impedance and better heat dissipation, allowing cooler operating temperatures.
Flexible storage and quick and easy troubleshooting
X99-E WS has superb storage flexibility, with onboard M.2 x4 and support for both ASUS PIKE II and ThunderboltEX II cards. M.2 is an increasingly popular choice for operating system drives, with M.2 solid-state drives (SSDs) able to get a system up and running in just moments - and X99-E WS's M.2 x4 connector supports 2260 (60mm) and 2280 (80mm) devices. The new motherboard also has two SATA Express ports, for data-transfer speeds of up to 6Gbit/s.
With PIKE II fitted, X99-E WS becomes high-performance, high-reliability enterprise 12Gbit/s SAS solution, with multiple host bus adapters (HBAs) on a single board for performance-driven applications. X99-E WS is also compatible with ThunderboltEX II, the first Intel-certified Thunderbolt 2 add-on card from ASUS, which offers the flexibility to upgrade to Thunderbolt 2 at any time for bi-directional transfer speeds up to 20Gbit/s - that's four times (4X) faster than USB 3.0.
X99-E WS also benefits from ASUS Q-Code Logger, an easy-maintenance button that records four-digit port 80 code logs to a flash drive with one touch, so administrators can diagnose problems quickly and easily. Similarly, the conveniently-located Dr. Power LED displays messages to clearly indicate any unusual power statuses.
For more information, visit the product page.
X99-E WS is equipped with seven PCI Express 3.0 slots and is able to accommodate up to four dual-slot graphics cards at x16 speed. Both four-way (quad-GPU) NVIDIA GeForce SLI and AMD CrossFireX. are supported, making X99-E WS an excellent choice for graphics professionals who depend on powerful graphics in areas such as design and modeling, or medical research. It is also ideal for processing-intensive simulation and rendering applications. X99-E WS also has ample room for RAID cards, PCI Express-based solid-state drives (SSDs), video-capture cards and other components.
Premium components for premium efficiency
X99-E WS benefits from premium components hand-chosen and carefully arranged by ASUS engineers to provide premium efficiency. These include an integrated Dr. MOS to save space and reduce operating temperatures for more efficient operation, and ASUS-exclusive Beat Thermal Chokes II. The new-design Beat Thermal Chokes II deliver greater durability and up to 94% power efficiency under normal operation. A special fin design results in up to 5°C-lower choke temperatures for added stability, further bolstered by use of a highly-conductive gold coating. This translates into minimal-loss power delivery.
ASUS is the world's first server manufacturer to introduce 12K solid capacitors - X99-E WS has these ultra-resilient components on board. These Japanese-made capacitors are able to withstand up to 12,000 hours of temperatures as high as 105°C, far exceeding everyday demands. At a typical operating temperature of 65°C, our 12K capacitors have an expected lifespan of 1.2m hours - or well over a century of real-world use.
X99-E WS also employs ProCool, the ASUS-exclusive reinvented power connector. ProCool eliminates the hollow areas associated with traditional power connectors, ensuring an exceptionally close and secure connection with the motherboard. This design is much stronger, and it also benefits power efficiency: the flush connection enables lower impedance and better heat dissipation, allowing cooler operating temperatures.
Flexible storage and quick and easy troubleshooting
X99-E WS has superb storage flexibility, with onboard M.2 x4 and support for both ASUS PIKE II and ThunderboltEX II cards. M.2 is an increasingly popular choice for operating system drives, with M.2 solid-state drives (SSDs) able to get a system up and running in just moments - and X99-E WS's M.2 x4 connector supports 2260 (60mm) and 2280 (80mm) devices. The new motherboard also has two SATA Express ports, for data-transfer speeds of up to 6Gbit/s.
With PIKE II fitted, X99-E WS becomes high-performance, high-reliability enterprise 12Gbit/s SAS solution, with multiple host bus adapters (HBAs) on a single board for performance-driven applications. X99-E WS is also compatible with ThunderboltEX II, the first Intel-certified Thunderbolt 2 add-on card from ASUS, which offers the flexibility to upgrade to Thunderbolt 2 at any time for bi-directional transfer speeds up to 20Gbit/s - that's four times (4X) faster than USB 3.0.
X99-E WS also benefits from ASUS Q-Code Logger, an easy-maintenance button that records four-digit port 80 code logs to a flash drive with one touch, so administrators can diagnose problems quickly and easily. Similarly, the conveniently-located Dr. Power LED displays messages to clearly indicate any unusual power statuses.
For more information, visit the product page.
29 Comments on ASUS Announces the X99-E WS Workstation Motherboard
The Asrock X99 WS, for comparison, claims ECC DRAM support, so we'll probably end up using something like that. But the X99 WS has other limitations. It only includes one four-pin PWM chassis fan header (?!) and, perhaps reasonably, doesn't provide any enormous SATA Express ports.
People, like me, may have been confused by Asus' mixed messages about ECC support on the X99-E WS motherboard. Asus' current US specifications for the X99-E WS motherboard exclude Xeon and ECC support, but Asus' current global specifications for the X99-E WS motherboard include Xeon and ECC support. Beginning at 2:24 in the "ASUS X99-E WS Motherboard Interview" video on Newegg, an Asus representative states the X99-E WS motherboard does not support ECC DRAM.
I presume the X99-E WS supports Xeon CPUs and ECC DRAM, like the X79-based Asus P9X79 WS and P9X79-E WS motherboards. But considering Asus' contradictory claims, can anyone confirm ECC support on the X99-E WS? We'd like to use a bunch of these motherboards in new workstation builds, but ECC support is a requirement.
Personally I think this is a great improvement over its predecessor, especially the looks and rear IO connectors.
Regarding the Error Checking & Correction memory support, Asus states the following:Source: www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/X99E_WS/specifications/
Taking a look at the support site
www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/X99E_WS/HelpDesk_QVL/
in search of memory and Device support, leads the following memory Qualified Vendors List [PDF]:
dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/Socket2011-R3/X99-E_WS/Manual/X99-E_WS_MEMORY_DDR4_non_ECC_UDIMM_QVL_140911.pdf
Regarding the newly released Asus Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard,
www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/Z10PED8_WS/overview/
and its announcement on TPU
www.techpowerup.com/205146/asus-announces-the-z10pe-d8-ws-dual-socket-motherboard.html
I asked asus customer support about the state of ECC Ram support for this particular model.
A few hours later I got this response (quoted with explicit permission of all parties involved):Edit: The provided function has been used to make the links clickable.