ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme

[Black Haru]

ASUS aims to deliver the ultimate flagship Threadripper motherboard with the ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme. Every bit of their design expertise has been condensed into this E-ATX package. Twenty 70 A power stages? Check. Five M.2 slots, including two on a DIMM.2 expansion card? Check. Full color OLED display? Check. Performance? Let's find out!

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[xkm1948]

Great board!

 

[Noztra]

Will there at some point be an review of the CPU?

 

[W1zzard]

Will there at some point be an review of the CPU?

doesn't look like it, definitely haven't heard from AMD regarding those CPUs.
Not sure if I would send myself one for review, because instead of just drooling, at some point I would mention something like "are you sure you need that many threads? the price is high"

 

[Noztra]

doesn't look like it, definitely haven't heard from AMD regarding those CPUs.
Not sure if I would send myself one for review, because instead of just drooling, at some point I would mention something like "are you sure you need that many threads? the price is high"

Thank you the reply.

Well depending on the workload you could need that many cores/threads and the price is relative depending on what you do?

I have a buddy who works at company doing CGI for big movies. (Pacific Rim, Pirates of the Caribien, etc) and currently they are doing render on a Intel Xeon. 1 frame takes them about 6 hours to render. If they had Threadripper 3990X, they could cut their render time almost in half, which translates to HUGE savings.

So you could argue that Threadripper actually are better value and the price is decent compared to what you get/save.

 

[W1zzard]

Thank you the reply.

Well depending on the workload you could need that many cores/threads and the price is relative depending on what you do?

I have a buddy who works at company doing CGI for big movies. (Pacific Rim, Pirates of the Caribien, etc) and currently they are doing render on a Intel Xeon. 1 frame takes them about 6 hours to render. If they had Threadripper 3990X, they could cut their render time almost in half, which translates to HUGE savings.

So you could argue that Threadripper actually are better value and the price is decent compared to what you get/save.

Absolutely, but you also have to consider typical gamers/consumers who might not be aware and just think that 485748954 cores will make their Word or games run better

 

[Shatun_Bear]

OLED display on a mobo. That's premium alright

 

[Noztra]

Absolutely, but you also have to consider typical gamers/consumers who might not be aware and just think that 485748954 cores will make their Word or games run better

Well I don't think any normal consumer are gonna buy a 4000 USD CPU.

 

[gamefoo21]

Well I don't think any normal consumer are gonna buy a 4000 USD CPU.

You'd be amazed what people will do for the shiny baubles.

Also isn't this the motherboard that Asus had to rerelease with a new VRM section and slapped Alpha in the name?

 

[Black Haru]

You'd be amazed what people will do for the shiny baubles.

Also isn't this the motherboard that Asus had to rerelease with a new VRM section and slapped Alpha in the name?

Asus did release a revision with 90 Amp power stages with "Alpha" to differentiate.

However, I think this was a "because we can" move rather than "it was broke" one.

The 70 A power stages are more than enough in this configuration (16 stages just for V core). Given that the Extreme edition boards are targeting "the best of everything" it makes sense that Asus would push out a new version with "upgraded" hardware as fast as possible.

As to why the original version didn't use them, there are any number of reasons the new stages weren't chosen or weren't ready.

If you bought this version of the board, I wouldn't be worried.

 

[gamefoo21]

Asus did release a revision with 90 Amp power stages with "Alpha" to differentiate.

However, I think this was a "because we can" move rather than "it was broke" one.

The 70 A power stages are more than enough in this configuration (16 stages just for V core). Given that the Extreme edition boards are targeting "the best of everything" it makes sense that Asus would push out a new version with "upgraded" hardware as fast as possible.

As to why the original version didn't use them, there are any number of reasons the new stages weren't chosen or weren't ready.

If you bought this version of the board, I wouldn't be worried.

I'm wondering if the Asus style of having a few very wide phases style of VRM doesn't hold up under the 64 core Threadripper.

I really don't like how ASUS pitches a 3 or 4 or etc phase VRM, and tries to pitch it as some multiple of the parallel stages. They use cheap controllers, saves costs because no doublers, faster in certain situations but it can't scale for efficiency and the lack of balancing can produce issues as you stack parallel stages.

Anyways...

Either way, I think this is a solid board for what it is, if I had it already would be just fine. I'd rather have the real 16 phase version though if I was buying today.

 

[Black Haru]

I'm wondering if the Asus style of having a few very wide phases style of VRM doesn't hold up under the 64 core Threadripper.

I really don't like how ASUS pitches a 3 or 4 or etc phase VRM, and tries to pitch it as some multiple of the parallel stages.

It is what it is. Advertising related to phases has always been sketchy (from everyone, not just Asus). So much more goes into VRM design, but phases and power stages are easy to quantify, and so people latch onto it.

If they Asus style of forgoing doublers was in any way not up to the task, changing power stages would have no effect at all.

 

[gamefoo21]

It is what it is. Advertising related to phases has always been sketchy (from everyone, not just Asus). So much more goes into VRM design, but phases and power stages are easy to quantify, and so people latch onto it.

If they Asus style of forgoing doublers was in any way not up to the task, changing power stages would have no effect at all.

I agree, I will hammer any maker for pulling the same stunt and I have.

There's certain disadvantages of the Asus system.

If you only have 4 phases, you only have 4 phases of control. Removing the doublers basically turns those stages into parallel phases. Even if you have 4 stages under each phase, you only have 4 phases not 16.

The biggest issue besides scaling, or not being able to turn on/off phases to meet demand is the issue of balancing. You have 4 stages getting fed one signal. You have one draw point, and so because of mass production, you'll always be loading one stage harder.

It makes them faster at times but it also makes them wasteful. It also makes stuff cheaper because you don't need fancy controllers or smart doublers.

In order of preference...

1. 16 actual phases
2. 8x2 phases with 8 smart doublers or smart controller that can balance.
3. 8 big phases with redundant stages.

I really would like to know why Asus did a respin with the big fancy controller. I doubt Asus will fess up and it would be very expensive to do the testing of the power systems properly.

 

[Totally]

Well I don't think any normal consumer are gonna buy a 4000 USD CPU.

You'd be amazed what people will do for the shiny baubles.

Also isn't this the motherboard that Asus had to rerelease with a new VRM section and slapped Alpha in the name?

Yeah, I can't believe that was actually a comment with all the Titan X in SLI flex videos/threads on Youtube and Reddit. Not Ti's, nor the standard Titan but Xs or whatever is at the top.

They updated the VRM but I don't believe it was because they had do, the new VRM was a definite step up vs current/old one and presented an opportunity to sell more boards so they ran with it was my take.

 

[Rage Set]

I am actively selling this board and going with a different brand. Asus is slowly going downhill while maintaining high prices for their products. I don't feel confident overclocking on the Zenith II Extreme after having to get a replacement. I love Asus's BIOS but after seeing a revision of this board so soon and having the trouble I did with it, I am going with Asrock or Gigabyte when I get my 3990X.

 

[gamefoo21]

I think the board information at the front should be updated or it noted.

This board isn't 20 phases running the VRM. It's 10 phases, running with doubled stages.

I think the spec sheet should be updated with the honest representation. If this board used any kind of active balancing I'd be fine, but it's phases with passively coupled stages.

Hell the VRM overview even points this out...

This means there are two Infineon TDA21472 power stages running in parallel for each phase.

Don't buy the marketing fud.

I understand that the first spec sheet is often supplied by the manufacturer. But if it's so... Asus is almost lying, because it makes it sound like 24 phases, no mention of doubling or stages...

Power Design:
CPU Power: 20 phase
Memory Power: 4 phase

That's from the first page.