ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE

[cadaveca]

ASRock's updated X299 boards are here! First up we've got the ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE motherboard built with a beefy power section ready for pushing Intel's HCC (High Core Count) i9 CPUs, including the i9-7980XE. Aquantia 10G LAN and 5G Wi-Fi are both here too.

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[Assimilator]

"Introduction" page says 3 fan headers but "Fan Control" page says 5?

 

[dj-electric]

"Just how many high-end HEDT users are there?"

There are DOZENS of us! dozens!

 

[Norton]

Nice review!

FYI- There's an error with the specs- Form Factor on the intro page- not a mini ITX board

 

[BadFrog]

"Just how many high-end HEDT users are there?"

There are DOZENS of us! dozens!

nope, HUNDREDS of us

 

[xkm1948]

X299 or X399 should really orientate themselves away from gaming. These are prosumer segments. I mean gaming will be more of a side thing. They really should emphasis on build quality, longevity, stability beyond the regular overclocking features. TBH that VRM heatsink looks pretty good.

 

[ShockG]

Why do people accept such reviews?
There's zero here you couldn't have read on the box actually.
No memory testing, no scaling, the overclocking is just claimed but never proved.
Why is this board specifically good or capable of overclocking the 7980XE where others couldn't and what was the issue. Show it, or at least explain it in a meaningful way.
Where are the performance results and how does one know that 4.4GHz OC is working, because a big part of the initial boards was that you could set a high CPU frequency, but performance would not scale or sometimes go backwards. Synthetic benchmarks (some) would report the right result, while game performance and productivity tests would go backwards.
This is quality and is exactly why written reviews have become pointless. There's nothing here at all that you can't gather from reading the specifications and looking at the pictures.

As usual there will be ones who defend this, saying it's for XYZ audience as if they deserve an empty review.
It's not wonder INTEL stopped seeding so many review sites review samples, the review quality barring Anandtech and the like is quite poor.
The motherboard and memory reviews here are the laziest and when put next to the PSU and even the VGA card reviews, pale by comparison.

Quite unfortunate as there are some really neat boards for some upcoming platforms that will get this same treatment.
Worst thing is Cadeveca is very much capable of better, but keeps getting away with this level of review that keeps getting worse and it culminates in this. I know because I've written reviews myself for over a decade and I know what lazy reviewing practices are and this is a spectacular example.

8.8/10 having tested what exactly?

 

[efikkan]

Just how many high-end HEDT users are there?

It depends on what you mean, normal X299 boards in general or expensive overkill features? (like overkill VRM, etc.)

When it comes to reviews of Intel X299 and AMD X399, the reviews still seem to focus on overclocking. Don't get me wrong, there still are some overclocking fans out there, but the vast number of people considering these platforms will be workstation/power users. I wish reviews in this category also considered "workstation" usage. Most of these users will be doing editing, modeling or development, and gaming as well, but as a secondary priority.

Some features which may be relevant for "workstations":
- Networking (10 Gb/s Ethernet is a huge plus)
- Memory capacity and bandwidth
- Storage expansion
- Reliability
- Acceptable noise levels
etc.

Irrelevant features for "workstations":
- Overclocking
- WLAN (who runs WLAN on a $3000-5000 workstation?!)
- "overkill" audio. (Those who want good audio use an external DAC anyway.)
etc.

The reason why this board has an additional dedicated 10 Gb/s Ethernet plug is for hooking it up directly to a NAS, etc. It's not for Internet

 

[TheGuruStud]

Anyone around you suffer a brownout? Cops may be making a visit in the near future from the power spike. Utility company called you in for growing drugs.

Ok, I'll stop, now.

 

[ShurikN]

"Just how many high-end HEDT users are there?"

Redundant? High-end is already in the name HEDT...
Its like saying LED diode...

 

[cadaveca]

Why do people accept such reviews?

This is the re-release of a an updated board that I already reviewed here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASRock/X299_Gaming_i9/

What's different? The VRM?

As to the lack of benchmarks, there is a reason behind it. Can't see the forest for the trees, eh?

"Just how many high-end HEDT users are there?"

Redundant? High-end is already in the name HEDT...
Its like saying LED diode...

I'm aware. It was done on purpose.

It depends on what you mean, normal X299 boards in general or expensive overkill features? (like overkill VRM, etc.)

When it comes to reviews of Intel X299 and AMD X399, the reviews still seem to focus on overclocking. Don't get me wrong, there still are some overclocking fans out there, but the vast number of people considering these platforms will be workstation/power users. I wish reviews in this category also considered "workstation" usage. Most of these users will be doing editing, modeling or development, and gaming as well, but as a secondary priority.

Some features which may be relevant for "workstations":
- Networking (10 Gb/s Ethernet is a huge plus)
- Memory capacity and bandwidth
- Storage expansion
- Reliability
- Acceptable noise levels
etc.

Irrelevant features for "workstations":
- Overclocking
- WLAN (who runs WLAN on a $3000-5000 workstation?!)
- "overkill" audio. (Those who want good audio use an external DAC anyway.)
etc.

The reason why this board has an additional dedicated 10 Gb/s Ethernet plug is for hooking it up directly to a NAS, etc. It's not for Internet

This is great feedback. I completely agree with you, however, I think we need to bring more users into this specific segment, and to do so, we need those "irrelevant" features.

 

[vega22]

This is the re-release of a an updated board that I already reviewed here:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASRock/X299_Gaming_i9/

What's different? The VRM?

As to the lack of benchmarks, there is a reason behind it. Can't see the forest for the trees, eh?

Along the lines of getting the most out of your ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE, make sure you update to BIOS 1.10, which includes the multicore enhancement option. This option pushes up the core speeds of your CPU without much fuss as you might otherwise find the default Turbo profiling a bit restrictive on performance. This BIOS does also have a bit better memory compatibility, so you can push up those memory speeds and lower overall latency by as much as possible.

it would of been nice, and informative, had you redone them to show what (if any) impact the multi core and extended ram frequency range had on the scores.

i mean the extra clock speeds must have an impact, or has intel got them to lock that down in the bios so much due to the power input limitations?

 

[cadaveca]

it would of been nice, and informative, had you redone them to show what (if any) impact the multi core and extended ram frequency range had on the scores.

i mean the extra clock speeds must have an impact, or has intel got them to lock that down in the bios so much due to the power input limitations?

I see what you are getting at. I do try to eliminate things that are dependent on how your CPU overclocks, usually. See, the first series of boards could clock fine, but the VRMs area bit underpowered for all-out OC'ing 24/7 under air. These re-released boards improve the VRM robustness, add in a second 8-pin to help with PSU compatibility under OC, and feature refined BIOSes with things learned from the earlier boards. That said, overall, they really aren't that different at all, unless you have an XE chip, and want to OC. the comment was made earlier that maybe WS boards shouldn't have all these features, and I agree, but this isn't exactly a WS board anyway. This board is very specifically targeting a certain user type, and at that, it does it very well.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

nope, HUNDREDS of us

MY internet's faster than yours, why you bragging?

 

[EarthDog]

What's different? The VRM?

Isnt the only difference the heatsink? Its the same VRM found on the non XE..

Edit: just read through it...
The non XE received MCE updates as well IIRC. AFAIK, there is literally no difference outside of the heatsink size and that 8 pin. Same with the asus XE... no vrm changes outside of the heatsink.

 

[ShockG]

Isnt the only difference the heatsink? Its the same VRM found on the non XE..

Edit: just read through it...
The non XE received MCE updates as well IIRC. AFAIK, there is literally no difference outside of the heatsink size and that 8 pin. Same with the asus XE... no vrm changes outside of the heatsink.

You're missing the point.
Why were those heatsink changes made and what do they affect in terms of the VRM and in turn - the performance in particular of the 7980XE.
Do not just assume,that it's just a single change that is meaningless or has no affect.
Put the 7980XE on the original board then on this one as well. Set 4.2GHz and the same voltage. Measure not only the VRM temps, but look at the performance figures of the CPU, consider the power draw as well. You know, like the actual testing.

There's a reason why they re-issued the board. Doing a board re-spin has cost implications and it was not just to place a different heat sink and add an additional 12V 8-pin for fun. This is precisely why the review is meaningless as it doesn't get to the very reason why this board exists in the first place and the older model is EOL.
For the sake of actually finding out why this board exists, try the old board and this one with the same 7980 XE where the differences would be obvious. This requires empirical testing

Reason vendors just stick lights all over anything is precisely because we seem incapable of appreciating anything else and are literally swayed by the lights and not technical merit, the sales numbers prove this.

 

[cadaveca]

You're missing the point.

Perhaps Earthdog has, but I have not.

For the sake of actually finding out why this board exists, try the old board and this one with the same 7980 XE where the differences would be obvious. This requires empirical testing

While the performance data is not present, what is present is the power use and OC testing. I saw no performance differences, or those results would have been included. You'll note that I managed a higher OC with this board (4.6 GHz on all 18 cores), and I mentioned it as such within the review. This is what I found different AND NOTHING ELSE.

Reason vendors just stick lights all over anything is precisely because we seem incapable of appreciating anything else and are literally swayed by the lights and not technical merit, the sales numbers prove this.

I think you are blowing this out of proportion. You see, as I have posted before in comment threads for my reviews, I do far more testing than is reported in a review. ALWAYS. But this time, I'm not posting a screenshot of the nearly 200 benchmarks I run. You'll see I post a board review at about one a month these days. That's because I am actually using the product for that month period. This is far more than most reviewers do.


So yeah, you may make these claims that this is what has changed, but I did not see these differences you are claiming. However, it is very possible that I have a really good set of CPUs here, and that's why I do not see these differences. It is more than possible that a lesser quality CPU may present problems, but what I hear here is the same shit I heard at launch about boards needing better power delivery, which, when investigated, turned out to be a problem with a PSU. It turns out that PSU only allowed so much current down the 8-pin connector. With further investigation, it seems that many PSUs have this problem, even PSUs that have a single 12V rail.

That seems to be a PSU problem, not a board problem. However, PSUs act this way for a reason, so some board makers have released new products to overcome this issue, but not all. ASRock has been very proactive at making changes to address such issues, as have another brand or two, but what this really does is save them from RMAs from unknowing users that think the board is a problem, rather than the PSU. You see, I have killed quite a few X299 boards. I know why they died. Have you had this experience?

BTW, I did that exact testing you are looking for. I found no meaningful data about it other than the PSU thing and OC results, and a slightly better level of drive performance. You do not understand, seemingly, how easy it is for me to add such data to a review since I've already done the testing. However, the fact remains that the results show me very little in my test environment. I'm not about to throw up meaningless data for no reason other than to confound people.

 

[coonbro]

I think anymore its all about hype and crap over quality and service . hype and LED lighting sells real specs don't . like guys only see led lighting and FPS on Vid cards and not much over that .

I also need to add anything that strands you to that malware service called win - 10 a bit more each day / release ...lol... use to build a computer for you to use now its more you build for there use and what they feel you will be using it with and for . I just cant see doing a build anymore . you know folks back in the win-xp days use to bash Microsoft for proprietary . today that's more like opensourse compared to 10 today . then look how hardware just about dropped any support for anything less then 10 if it not win-10 it not supported [fully if at all ] . its too one way today for me to spend good money on .

poor old AMD 990fx here rus abd supports it all xp -vista -7 -8 - and 10 [gosh forbid I ever do ] and Linux 's may not be the best or fastes but its got all the support you need for yesterdays stuff and todays in one build .

now sad you cant use todays nwr vid card cause there stranding you to 10 with some 7 support 900 series from NVidia was the last to run down to xp on them cant on the newer 10 series and AMD is no better . why I had to go back to NVidia when AMD just cant run anything anymore like a lot of games you have to have driver 12.6 or its not supported on later drivers even with a older card . pretty bad to buy a vid card to find they no longer support your games under there drivers anymore .

like I say , you now build for there needs not yours .