ASUS' Entry Level X99-A LGA2011v3 Motherboard Starts Selling

[btarunr]

ASUS' entry-level socket LGA2011-v3 motherboard, the X99-A, began selling. Although announced along with ASUS' mainline flagship, the X99-Deluxe, the X99-A, along with mid-range X99-Pro, weren't available immediately, as the company decided to go in with three flagship LGA2011-v3 products, the ROG Rampage V Extreme and X99-WS being the other two. The X99-A appears to be based on a slightly watered down version of a PCB it shares with the X99-Pro; different from that of the X99-Deluxe. It's targeted at high-end gaming PC and mid-range content-creation builds.

To begin with, the X99-A is built in the standard ATX form-factor. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors. An 8-phase VRM conditions power for the CPU, with a 2+2 phase VRM for the eight DDR4 DIMM slots flanking the CPU socket on either sides. The CPU socket is wired to three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/x16/NC or x16/x8/x8 on i7-5960X and i7-5930K; and x16/NC/NC or x8/x8/NC or x8/x4/x4 on i7-5820K), and a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, which features a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 physical layer. Other expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), and two PCI-Express 2.0 x1. The board supports 3-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX.



Storage connectivity on the X99-A includes one 10 Gb/s SATA-Express, a 32 Gb/s M.2 (physical-layer PCI-Express 3.0 x4), and ten SATA 6 Gb/s. The board offers ten USB 3.0 ports, six on the rear panel, and four by headers. Connectivity includes ASUS CrystalSound 2 audio, which combines a 115 dBA SNR CODEC with audio-grade electrolytic capacitors, a headphones amp, and ground-layer isolation; one gigabit Ethernet connection, driven by Intel i218V controller; four USB 2.0/1.1 ports on the rear panel, and PS/2 mouse/keyboard combo connector. The board is driven by AMI UEFI BIOS.

Enthusiast features include ASUS OC Socket (special CPU socket with off-spec power pins), six 4-pin fan headers, two-stage Turbo-V Processing Unit (automated trial-and-error overclocking), MemOK (memory failsafe button), USB BIOS Flashback (BIOS recovery from USB flash drives), and XMP Switch (enable XMP profile at the flick of a switch). Expect this board to be priced around the US $250 mark. It will be joined by the $300-ish X99-Pro later this month.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[the54thvoid]

Does it feature the Asus OC socket as well as the Deluxe and RVE?

 

[erixx]

as per the photo: YES

nice board....

 

[btarunr]

Thanks for reminding, guys.

 

[the54thvoid]

as per the photo: YES

nice board....

Couldn't see any reference on photo? Still can't - I must be blind.

Thanks for adding the clarification Btarunr

 

[RealNeil]

I hate to sit this out, but no funds to play with. I really like the looks of these new boards.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I hate to sit this out, but no funds to play with. I really like the looks of these new boards.

Just like in strip clubs...

 

[MakeDeluxe]

Entry-level X99 board...

It just sounds so wrong

 

[RealNeil]

Just like in strip clubs...

Ha-Ha! Not quite the same,.................but maybe a little.
Let's face it, it takes massively cubic money to keep up with all of the latest/greatest hardware that comes out multiple times per year.
I'm on a retirement income that never goes up, no matter what happens with inflation or other rising costs. So I have to live it through some of you guys. I really enjoy seeing the successes that you have with these new platforms.

So more power to you.

 

[shhnedo]

Does it feature the Asus OC socket as well as the Deluxe and RVE?

Absolutely all Asus X99 boards feature their OC Socket.
Scroll down.

 

[erixx]

Couldn't see any reference on photo? Still can't - I must be blind.

If you compare pics of standard and this OC socket (also used by Gigabyte now in their LN2 board): the standard has some less pins left and right, wereas the non standard is a pure rectangular square of pins. It's best to just look because it is very obvious. : )

 

[Octavean]

I want the Asus X99-Deluxe but this X99-A is much more economical. A compromise would be something like the X99-Pro though.

I've been looking at some other manufacturers X99 boards and interestingly enough it seems many of them if not all of them have a Thunderbolt header for an add-in Thunderbolt card. So Thunderbolt add-in looks like an Intel standard or standardized option now rather then an Asus proprietary option. I guess this explains why Asus changed the pin out / connector of their proprietary "TB_Header" and all new photos of the ThunderboltEX II cards have a transition cable connected to the cable that connects to the card / board.

 

[Jakusonfire]

Ha! Silly me, I thought the white colour of the deluxe model was a special version but it seems it might be across the regular Asus X99 range. I'm really hoping the finally woke up to how phenomenally ugly the gold Z97 boards are.
I really hope the white spreads even further across the Asus boards.

 

[Deadlyraver]

I'm convinced I will be enjoying the same experience with ASUS's new entry-series of motherboards. I own the P6T and it's six years have never gone in ruin.

 

[Octavean]

Newegg has the ASUS X99-A for ~$274.99 USD. That's a bit higher then the estimated ~$250 by about ~$25 but sometimes retailers like to jack up the price on newly available products even if the manufacturer's intended appeal for the product was to be more economical.

So maybe the price will go down soon when more retailers / e-tailers have it for sale.