Thursday, August 18th 2016
ASUS Unveils the X99-E 10G WS Workstation Board
ASUS today unveiled the X99-E 10G WS workstation motherboard. Although based on the X99 Express chipset, this board supports Intel Xeon E5-1600 and E5-2600 (v3 and v4) processors, besides Core i7 "Haswell-E" and "Broadwell-E" processors in the LGA2011v3 package. The board's eight DDR4 DIMM slots support up to 128 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory. The board is built in the SSI-CEB form-factor (305 mm x 267 mm). The board features seven PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, and uses PLX PEX-8747 x48 bridge chips to provide either two x16 slots with direct wiring to the CPU, or four x16 slots running at full x16 bandwidth, or seven x16 slots in x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 configuration.
Storage connectivity includes one 32 Gb/s U.2 port, a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, and a total of ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The board derives its name from support for 10 Gbps Ethernet, and features a pair of 10 Gbps connections driven by an Intel X550-AT2 controller. Other modern connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (of which one is type-C), eight USB 3.0 ports, and 8-channel HD audio with a 115 dBA SNR CODEC. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX, a 6-pin PCIe, and two 8-pin EPS connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to condition power for the CPU. ASUS didn't reveal pricing.
Storage connectivity includes one 32 Gb/s U.2 port, a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, and a total of ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The board derives its name from support for 10 Gbps Ethernet, and features a pair of 10 Gbps connections driven by an Intel X550-AT2 controller. Other modern connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (of which one is type-C), eight USB 3.0 ports, and 8-channel HD audio with a 115 dBA SNR CODEC. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX, a 6-pin PCIe, and two 8-pin EPS connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to condition power for the CPU. ASUS didn't reveal pricing.
12 Comments on ASUS Unveils the X99-E 10G WS Workstation Board
looking at these pics this board looks like business. too bad I can't afford one of these
(I know, lots of reasons to have many PCIe cards, but still!)
Also like how Asus dropped the SATA-Express from this model and went with the M.2 and U.2. The X99-WS and X99-E WS came with that stillborn port.
www.asus.com/Motherboards/X99-E-10G-WS/specifications/
Unfortunately they went with 2x 10GBase-T ports instead of the usual 1GBase-T for compatibility reasons and dual-SFP+ for 10GBase-SR transceivers.
Anyway, this is a great board and it is good to see 10GigE finally finding its way into consumer grade hardware.
I hope this time around EKWB will do a full-cover MB block for this unlike with the last X99-WS boards which they passed on.