ASUS X690E Workstation Motherboard SKUs Listed in ECC Registration

[T0@st]

Everyone's favorite PC hardware tipster, momomo_us, has spotted a bunch of interesting SKUs registrations—the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) portal is normally a good source of pre-release information. ASUS appears to have submitted (on January 30) a wide range of AMD and Intel chipsetted mainboards with the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The presence of Pro WS X690E-SAGE SE and Pro WS X690E-SAGE SE WIFI models attracted the most attention—fellow tipster HXL/@9550pro proposed that AMD's incoming X690 tech could be an X670 offshoot. They made reference to an AORUS BIOS screenshot showing a "common options" setting for AM4 generation X570 and X590 chipsets. The latter was a workstation solution that never reached finalized retail form.

Team Red has not officially announced the X690 chipset, so we know little else beyond this week's SKU filings. ASUS has produced a number of Pro Workstation Series for AMD platforms—the most recent examples being very fancy WRX90 and TRX50 motherboards for the mighty "Storm Peak" Threadripper 7000 processor family. VideoCardz reminds us that ASUS has not updated its Ryzen and Ryzen PRO "consumer and business" mainboard product range since the X570 days, so it is encouraging to see some potential new AM5 options on the horizon. On occasion, EEC SKU registrations do not lead to finalized retail products, so plans are subject to change.



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[Assimilator]

This is guaranteed to be a pointless refresh of X670 purely so that AMD can claim to have a new chipset for the launch of their Zen 4 APUs. AM5 is not and never will be a "workstation" socket despite the branding ASUS is trying to put on it, for the simple reason that workstation = PCIe lanes and AM5 CPUs are deliberately crippled in that regard, because AMD likes screwing consumers almost as much as Intel now: "Oh you want two PCIe x16 slots so you can use a GPU and a £50 4x4 M.2 card? Sorry, you'll have to step up to an HEDT system that costs over £1,000 for that privilege, also fuck you, peon."

 

[Random_User]

This is guaranteed to be a pointless refresh of X670 purely so that AMD can claim to have a new chipset for the launch of their Zen 4 APUs. AM5 is not and never will be a "workstation" socket despite the branding ASUS is trying to put on it, for the simple reason that workstation = PCIe lanes and AM5 CPUs are deliberately crippled in that regard, because AMD likes screwing consumers almost as much as Intel now: "Oh you want two PCIe x16 slots so you can use a GPU and a £50 4x4 M.2 card? Sorry, you'll have to step up to an HEDT system that costs over £1,000 for that privilege, also fuck you, peon."

Exactly. Probably the same 2xB650, maybe with slightly unlocked feature and inflated fancy numbers. And even in case it will exist for real, AMD won't even put a single effort to make a new separate SKU/silicon. And I completely agree about limited capabilities and connectivity of latest AMD chipsets. Even if there are plenty of outputs, they easily can be sharing the bandwidth wit PCIE devices, and hinder their performance. I doubt X690 would make any positive change in this context, or if it will, it will cost much more than already delusionary priced X670.

As for example my old motherboards had 32 PCIE lanes (it was about 40x PCIE lanes in total), that were solely dedicated to PCI slots, and didnt even hamper either USB, SATA, etc, as the rest lanes were dedicated to these connectivity. And that was back in 2006/2008. Yes, I know, that the PCIE 2.0 was not as demanding as e.g PCIE 4.0, or 5.0. But still. And that was possible, because AMD was fighting their place in the chipset market, against intel, nVidia, VIA, SYS, etc. These AMD/ATi chipsets were best I've used, and the were cool enough, with only small Alu/Copper heatsinks.
Now... just gauging, as there's no chipset competition for AMD CPUs and platforms. Just like intel got rid of nVidia chipsets for their platforms, back in the day.
That's why there are the consumer motherboards with price of $700-$1200, and barely any features that were available for X570 counterparts.

Spoiler

The other problem is that PCIE for desktop/gaming is moot,. Nobody needs it. The PCI 5.0 storage is hot as furnace in the summer day. And there's no good solely PCIE 4.0 motherboards with quality and feature set of X670/670E. As PCIE4 mobos are cut down, limited in every way. It's either top one grand overpriced nonesense, or chopped garbage, with barely any lanes, and connectivity (no seven segment display, without debug leds, and bios reset/flash)

However, I still think, the chipsets for desktop Ryzen can have much more lanes without any isues whatsoever. Firstly, because the Threadripper (TRX50) motherboards cost not much more, than top X670/E ones, while having way more functinality and features. The gap is huge. And the CPUs themselves could also had much more lanes. The artificial segmentation is too obvious, ridiculous and annoying. There should be some middle ground, between X670 44 lanes, and 128 of WRX90, for the same X670 prices.
Secondly, I think the AM5 (LGA 1700), is capable of much more, it's just purely greed and marketing decision, to limit chipsets/platform that way. I also think, if AMD would have asked ASmedia to make some better and more capable ones, they would do it, for reasonable price.

Consumer boards can be much better, and their prices can be much cheaper either. There's no way, the vendors cant do this. This is only due to them telling consumers what is "enough" for them, and that they should cope with, that they don't need that much connectivity. And make the stupid trends along with Youtubers, with ridiculous pointless build, where people occupy all the PCI slots with just single verticle VGA mount. So the people like me, who want to put other PCIE expansion cards, will have to cope indeed.

Sorry, just some random thoughts.

 

[trsttte]

This is guaranteed to be a pointless refresh of X670 purely so that AMD can claim to have a new chipset for the launch of their Zen 4 APUs. AM5 is not and never will be a "workstation" socket despite the branding ASUS is trying to put on it, for the simple reason that workstation = PCIe lanes and AM5 CPUs are deliberately crippled in that regard, because AMD likes screwing consumers almost as much as Intel now: "Oh you want two PCIe x16 slots so you can use a GPU and a £50 4x4 M.2 card? Sorry, you'll have to step up to an HEDT system that costs over £1,000 for that privilege, also fuck you, peon."

I share the sentiment but I think that's not entirely true, I mean at least it doesn't need to be. Obviously you won't get the ~40 lanes of yesteryear but if - big if - manufacturers bothered doing interesting layouts AM5 could be very serviceable just like AM4 was with a couple boards. IRC other than one of the biostar boards, pretty much every AM5 is dog shit with a single x16 and then the available lanes wasted away with not even the common x8/x8 available, even some b550 had that and AM5 has more lanes available to play with that AM4 just didn't have. And let's not forget ECC, at least it's an option with amd but very few boards bother to implement it, will this supposedly workstation board from ASUS?

 

[Chaitanya]

I share the sentiment but I think that's not entirely true, I mean at least it doesn't need to be. Obviously you won't get the ~40 lanes of yesteryear but if - big if - manufacturers bothered doing interesting layouts AM5 could be very serviceable just like AM4 was with a couple boards. IRC other than one of the biostar boards, pretty much every AM5 is dog shit with a single x16 and then the available lanes wasted away with not even the common x8/x8 available, even some b550 had that and AM5 has more lanes available to play with that AM4 just didn't have. And let's not forget ECC, at least it's an option with amd but very few boards bother to implement it, will this supposedly workstation board from ASUS?

Most MSI and Asus upper mid range to high end have dual x16 slots(for x8x8 config) while Gigabyte has fully dropped support for dual x16 slots even on their flagship motherboard. Given the latest Samsung SSD runs on PCI-e 2x bus these boards with bifucation support can be a good way to add 4 SSDs in single x8 slot(PCI-e 5.0 speeds) while leaving slot for GPU usable.

 

[Random_User]

I share the sentiment but I think that's not entirely true, I mean at least it doesn't need to be. Obviously you won't get the ~40 lanes of yesteryear but if - big if - manufacturers bothered doing interesting layouts AM5 could be very serviceable just like AM4 was with a couple boards. IRC other than one of the biostar boards, pretty much every AM5 is dog shit with a single x16 and then the available lanes wasted away with not even the common x8/x8 available, even some b550 had that and AM5 has more lanes available to play with that AM4 just didn't have. And let's not forget ECC, at least it's an option with amd but very few boards bother to implement it, will this supposedly workstation board from ASUS?

The most depressing thing is, that motherboard manufacturers take the most obscure decisions in terms of feature set and connectivity (which seems to benefit only their BOM). And these decisions are beyond the consumer influence and power, as vendors just don't hear people needs. Instead, AMD let the partners to choose any silly option they like, without any supervision at all. At this point. even intel's Z690 mobos look much more attrative.

Spoiler

And that's the strange, because Intel mobos, are much better and complete for less pricy, than AMDs, which are somewhat inferior, and at same time have some weird premium tax. Is it intentional move by motherboard makers? If yes, I don't see any how X690 would not end as complete flop. As even X670 boards still mostly collect dust on shelves. What are the buyers of this. I'm sure, the price of X690 would begin well beyond one grand. For someone looking for workstation, TRX is a valid alternative. Since X690 looks like some crippled luxury, IMHO

As about ECC. There I've watched some efforts to run ECC RAM on X470. But, I've not following past that, since there honestly were zero movement on from the board vendors end. It would be great though, since even 5750G can be paired with ECC, if just MB companies would put some efforts. But given how they were cutting BIOS features, due to their 16MB chips... This is even bigger concern, in the wake of recent merciless cutdowns of motherboard features.
BTW, that AM4 X370/470 fiasco wouldn't happen at all, if the BIOS chips were socketed.

It's shame, because this would be really marketing advantage over intel's products. Even ancient AMD/ATi chipsets used to support ECC out of the box. And this is double shame, because the consumer Ryzen silicon still can do it. However I'm somewhat doubt that even X690 will get ECC support, as AMD reserved that feature solely for their HEDT and EPYC.

Spoiler: Some random thoughts

MEG X570 was pretty amazing motherboard. To be honest, I would like to get AM5 version of exactly the same board. Just 1-2 PCIE 4.0 X16, and a couple of same PCIE 4.0 M.2 slots. That's it. I would even be ok with the southbridge fan. But there's nothing like that.

Solid VRM, no RGB, no PCI 5.0, only 4.0 for all wiring. As result- more lanes, less stress, no need for ReDrivers/amplifiers. Cheaper tech, with even better functionality. Profit. I don't even need that many type C connection.

I personaly would easily exchange the Wi-Fi space on back I/O for single PS/2 and a pair of USB 2.0 headers for peronal purposes.
However MSI ignored Unify for this generation.

Most MSI and Asus upper mid range to high end have dual x16 slots(for x8x8 config) while Gigabyte has fully dropped support for dual x16 slots even on their flagship motherboard. Given the latest Samsung SSD runs on PCI-e 2x bus these boards with bifucation support can be a good way to add 4 SSDs in single x8 slot(PCI-e 5.0 speeds) while leaving slot for GPU usable.

Sadly, that bifurcation is suitable only to the higher PCIE revisions, like storage. What if someone wants to put some PCIE 3.0 X16 device. Will in this case be issues with them? This feels like cheaping out. The lanes might be tougher, but their amount is not really great for the absolute mass of stuff, which isn't PCIE 5. I'm not trying to pick on, just curious.

 

[azrael]

I immediately clicked on the article because it mentioned ECC, as I'm big on ECC memory and wouldn't willingly touch a PC without it. Imagine my disappointment when the subject turned out to be a simple typo and should've read EEC.

Apart from that, if there's one thing I laud AMD for is that they've included support for ECC memory on practically all of their processor lines since the Athlon 64 (regular Athlons didn't have a built-in memory controller AFAIR) and, even better, that they haven't actively disabled it on their "consumer" SKUs (looking very stern at you here, Intel).

 

[Assimilator]

I share the sentiment but I think that's not entirely true, I mean at least it doesn't need to be. Obviously you won't get the ~40 lanes of yesteryear but if - big if - manufacturers bothered doing interesting layouts AM5 could be very serviceable just like AM4 was with a couple boards. IRC other than one of the biostar boards, pretty much every AM5 is dog shit with a single x16 and then the available lanes wasted away with not even the common x8/x8 available, even some b550 had that and AM5 has more lanes available to play with that AM4 just didn't have. And let's not forget ECC, at least it's an option with amd but very few boards bother to implement it, will this supposedly workstation board from ASUS?

It is absolutely true.

Zen 4 AM5 CPUs provide 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes, of which 16 are reserved for a PCIe slot, 2x 4 are reserved for M.2 slots, and the remaining 4 are reserved for the CPU <=> chipset link. "Reserved" means "AMD decrees that you must use these lanes for this purpose and if you do not they will not allow you to sell that motherboard". This means that it is impossible to provide dual x16 slots; while x16 + x8 slots could be provides, AMD literally doesn't allow this.

The Prom21 chipset provides at most 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes per chipset, which means there's no way for it to offer an x16 slot except by using two of them, and there's no reason to believe that AMD would ever implement the kind of lane aggregation that would be necessary to make that work. Due to being connected to the second chipset some of those lanes would implicitly suffer from higher latency, and overcoming that is not a trivial task. That is on top of the fact that each chipset has a mere x4 link to its brethren or the CPU, which imposes additional latency penalties if you are trying to request more than 4 lanes worth of data at once.

In short, AMD dictates exactly what the CPU PCIe lanes may or may not be used for in a way that precludes any novel use of them, and the chipset links are simply insufficient for driving anything more than an x4 device. You got one thing right though: this is worse than AM4, and that's entirely due to AMD intentionally stripping choice from consumers to force them to pony up the big bucks for HEDT to get that choice back. Because AMD is nobody's friend but its shareholders'.

 

[trsttte]

"Reserved" means "AMD decrees that you must use these lanes for this purpose and if you do not they will not allow you to sell that motherboard". This means that it is impossible to provide dual x16 slots; while x16 + x8 slots could be provides, AMD literally doesn't allow this.

Oh wow, that's so fucking stupid. I stand corrected then

With AM4 it was possible to get creative, it didn't happen often but for example this board was interesting https://www.asus.com/pt/motherboards-components/motherboards/workstation/pro-ws-x570-ace/

 

[efikkan]

AM5 is not and never will be a "workstation" socket despite the branding ASUS is trying to put on it, for the simple reason that workstation = PCIe lanes and AM5 CPUs are deliberately crippled in that regard, because AMD likes screwing consumers almost as much as Intel now: "Oh you want two PCIe x16 slots so you can use a GPU and a £50 4x4 M.2 card? Sorry, you'll have to step up to an HEDT system that costs over £1,000 for that privilege, also fuck you, peon."

Intel have offered "entry-level" workstations for ages, which are basically specialized versions of their mainstream desktop platforms, with some features added (ECC, IPMI, etc.) and much more durable motherboard designs and validation, typically designed for 24-7 load, which a typical "gaming" motherboard isn't. These features certainly aren't gimmicks, but are absolutely overpriced from a consumer perspective. (on the plus side, "obsolete" workstation hardware makes amazing deals on the used market, as well as some with the right contacts might even get some for free and the hardware still have a lot of mileage in it)

As for the lack of PCIe lanes, or I would say all IO in general (including memory), it is something that's certainly annoying. I've long suggested that the upper models of mainstream sockets should be moved/duplicated to the HEDT platforms, like in the old Sandy-Bridge-E days, to solve this issue where professionals currently have to choose between a fast and responsive system and lots of IO.
But, this doesn't disqualify a platform from being workstation grade, as the wast majority of "professional" users who needs reliability doesn't actually need all that IO (even though I would want it).

If I were to set up a bunch of workstations for either developers, graphics designers, 3D-modellers/CAD, video editing, etc. in a business, I would certainly go for a "workstation" grade motherboard to avoid hassle and downtime (for a business, time matters). And for the mentioned workloads, faster CPU cores is usually preferred over a high-core HEDT CPU with slower cores.

 

[Assimilator]

With AM4 it was possible to get creative, it didn't happen often but for example this board was interesting https://www.asus.com/pt/motherboards-components/motherboards/workstation/pro-ws-x570-ace/

Yup, that board is much better, but you're still limited to x8 as soon as you want to use more than one expansion card. And no front USB-C which is just... WTF ASUS.