ASUS and MSI have each put out lists of their motherboards and compatible processors that meet the Windows 11 requirement of a TPM 2.0 spec-compliant trusted platform module, without needing an add-on TPM. ASUS says that its motherboards dating back to the Intel 300-series, and AMD 300-series, and processors compatible with them, meet the requirement, which would mean Intel "Coffee Lake" and forward; and AMD "Zen" and forward. MSI, on the other hand, extends support all the way back to Intel 100-series (when paired with "Kaby Lake" or forward); and AMD 300-series ("Zen" and forward).

For HEDT platforms, both companies support TPM 2.0 on Intel X299, AMD X399, and AMD TRX40. Server- and workstation chipsets from processor generations corresponding to these platforms, will also support Windows 11. Intel and AMD began integrating a firmware TPM with these platforms that met TPM 2.0 specification. Older platforms will require an add-on TPM, which scalpers are selling for upward or $100 these days (normally under $20). The firmware TPM, although present, is usually disabled, and needs to be enabled in the UEFI setup program. In addition, the firmware must be configured for UEFI boot, with Secure Boot enabled, to meet Windows 11 requirements.

Hot on the heels of the Mono Block for ROG Maximus XII Hero, Bitspower unveiled another, smarter Mono Block product, this time tailor-made for the ASRock X299E-ITX/ac, one of the only few full-featured socket LGA2066 motherboards in the Mini-ITX form-factor. The Mono Block uses nickel-plated copper with mirror-finish as its primary material, an acrylic top as its secondary material, and a metal top-plate over the top.

The top is studded with addressable RGB LEDs that take in standard 3-pin ARGB input. The top also features an OLED display that can display things such as coolant temperature. The Mono Block provides active cooling for both the LGA2066 CPU socket, and the CPU VRM area of the X299E-ITX/ac. A TouchAqua D-RGB multi-function controller module is included, which lets you control lighting and the OLED. The block measures 105 mm x 117 mm x 32 mm. Available now, the Bitspower Mono Block for ASRock X299E-ITX/ac is priced at USD $260.

EK, the European premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing a new Intel X299 socket based monoblock belonging to the Quantum Line of products, the EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Rampage VI Encore D-RGB. This monoblock is engineered specifically for the ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore motherboard from ASUS.

EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Rampage VI Encore D-RGB
This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Intel Socket 2066 Core X-Series Processors and the monoblock is covering the entire VRM section of the ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore motherboard.

The Designare brand of motherboards by GIGABYTE target content creators, and the company is extending the brand to memory, with the new Designare Memory series. It debuts with a high-capacity 64 GB dual-channel memory kit using two 32 GB modules. The rationale behind these densities is that creators may need them to deal with large data-sets. These are not off-spec "double height" modules, but are common dual-rank modules that stick to JEDEC compatibility spec, and pack XMP profiles that can run them at DDR4-3200 with 16-18-18-38 timings at 1.35 V.

GIGABYTE has tested these modules to work on all of its AMD X570, AMD B450, AMD TRX40, Intel X299, and Intel Z390 motherboards. For X570 and B450, however, the company states that only 3rd generation "Matisse" processors can handle this memory density. In its compatibility testing, GIGABYTE used 18-19-19-39 timings. Physically, the Designare modules have regular 32 mm height, a black PCB, and aluminium heatspreaders. GIGABYTE is backing the modules with lifetime warranty. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Way back in June 2018, when the first Threadrippers made landfall, it was reported that Intel was working on a new 22-core "Skylake-X" silicon that sat in between the 18-core HCC (high core-count) die, and the 28-core XCC (extreme core-count) die. The roughly 700 mm² XCC die, with its 6 memory channels, couldn't be integrated with the LGA2066 package, and was reserved for the enterprise LGA3647 package that made a workstation/quasi-client debut with the 28-core Xeon W-3175X. It was hence rumored that an in-between 22-core silicon was under development that could be integrated with LGA2066. Fast forward to 2020, and Intel's client HEDT processor lineup doesn't look much different from its 2017 one. The 18-core i9-10980XE leads the pack, and despite its $1,000 price, has received largely lukewarm reviews. If screenshots surfacing on Chinese tech forums are to be believed, Intel is toying with the idea of the 22-core die meant for LGA2066 once again.

Referenced as Core i9-10990XE in straight-up CPU-Z screenshots, the processor is based on the "Cascade Lake-X" microarchitecture, and has the same I/O as the i9-10980XE, looking at the instruction sets featured. It has 22 cores and HyperThreading enables 44 threads. Cache hierarchy and balance are characteristic of "Cascade Lake," with 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache per core, and 30.25 MB of shared L3 cache. The I/O is likely identical to the i9-10980XE as that's a function of the platform and the socket. What's more interesting are the clock-speeds. The name-string of the engineering sample references a nominal clock-speed of 4.00 GHz, and in the screenshot, the chip is shown running at 5.00 GHz (at least on one core). There's also a performance benchmark to go with the leak, possibly CineBench R20 nT. Here, the i9-10990XE is shown scoring 14,005 points, which is in the same ballpark as the 24-core Ryzen Threadripper 3960X.

EK, the European premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing a new Intel X299 socket based monoblock belonging to the Quantum Line of products, the EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II D-RGB. This monoblock is engineered specifically for the ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II motherboard from ASUS. The addressable D-RGB LED in the monoblock is compatible with ASUS Aura Sync RGB control and offering a full lighting customization experience for every single diode at any given time.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Intel Socket 2066 Core X-Series Processors and the monoblock is covering the entire VRM section of the ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II motherboard.

ASUS today rolled out the Pro WS X299 SAGE II, a redesign and refresh of its WS X299 SAGE series quasi-workstation motherboards, designed for those who want to use Intel's 10th generation Core XE "Cascade Lake-X" HEDT processors in a workstation-like environment (CEB form-factor) and can make do without ECC memory. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS power connectors, along with an optional 6-pin PCIe power input to stabilize add-on card power delivery. An 8-phase VRM conditions power for the socket LGA2066 processor. The board employs PLX PEX8747 bridge chips to convert two x16 PCIe gen 3.0 links from the LGA2066 processor to four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots with full bandwidth, or seven slots with x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 wiring.

Storage options on the ASUS Pro WS X299 SAGE II include three U.2 ports, two M.2 slots (one right below the PCH heatsink, and the other vertical); and eight SATA 6 Gbps ports. Network connectivity includes two 2.5 GbE interfaces driven by a pair of Intel i225-LM controllers. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports driven by an ASMedia controller (from which one is type-C), a second such controller driving an internal port, and eight USB 3.2 gen 1 ports from the X299 PCH. A high-grade onboard audio solution featuring Realtek S1220A HDA codec, headphones amp, ground-layer isolation, and audio-grade capacitors, make for the rest of this board. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Intel is readying a microcode update specially for its X299 Express chipset, to enhance the overclocking capabilities of its 10th generation Core i9 XE "Cascade Lake-X" processors. News of the update was put out in an MSI press release that speaks of the company encapsulating the new microcode in BIOS updates for its entire socket LGA2066 motherboard lineup.

"To enhance the overclocking capability for the newly launched Intel Core X-series Processors (Intel Core i9-10980XE, 10940X, 10920X, 10900X), Intel will provide a new microcode update," the statement from MSI reads. Besides "overclocking capability," the new microcode also helps to "maximize the overall performance" of "Cascade Lake-X" processors," says MSI. The company does not describe what specifically these changes are. The microcode update will be released to end-users as BIOS updates by motherboard manufacturers, so be on the lookout for one, if you're using "Cascade Lake-X."

ASRock is proud to announce the sequel to its popular X299 line of motherboards by updating not one but three models which includes the X299 Creator which is targeted at content creators, the X299 Steel Legend for mainstream users, and the X299 Taichi CLX which has all the bells and whistles of a high-end desktop motherboard. These new motherboards are set to enter the peak of an Intel-based market and provide uncompromised power and specs for every user.

In recent years, MSI aims at motherboards in content creation market for the ever-increasing number of creators and the popularity. Together with the new launch of Intel Core X-Series processors, we are proud to introduce three new motherboards to anticipate every creator's need from high loading operation to general graphic design. For the high-end processors and X299 platform, MSI all aluminium design ensures CPU to run at full speed for the best performance. Larger heatsinks contains more surface for heat dissipation to cool down CPU while high-loading operation.

USB 3.2 Gen 2x2: Super Speed USB 20G: For all types of designers, large data and files transfer is always troublesome as it takes plenty of waiting time. All new MSI X299 motherboards support the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Super Speed USB 20G solution powered by ASMedia to meet creators' requirement. Transfer speed enhances to incredibly 4 times faster than USB 3.2 Gen1 solution so that designers can save time on backup and other essential data transfer processes. "We are pleased to have a strong and close relationship with MSI. ASMedia Technology Inc. offers the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Super Speed USB 20G solution to the market and continues working closely with top motherboard vendor MSI," said Chewei Lin, President of ASMedia.

EVGA X299 motherboards immediately set the bar for performance, cooling and stability. Since then, EVGA has improved the cooling, reinvented the modern motherboard BIOS, and continued to shock the enthusiast world with the EVGA X299 DARK. And these boards are only just getting started. With the release of Intel's Core X-Series 10000 Processor Family, EVGA X299 Motherboards are ready and waiting for them. Current owners need only update the motherboard BIOS for full compatibility; new owners can boot into the motherboard BIOS and update the BIOS with their brand-new CPUs.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched the X299X Series Motherboards based on the newly upgraded X299 chipset. With up to a 16-phase digital power design, GIGABYTE X299X motherboards raise the bar for performance on enthusiast grade Intel Core X processors. Coupled with an 8-DIMM Quad Channel DDR4 design with up to 256 GB memory support, the motherboards enable users to easily handle memory intensive tasks such as file conversion, video editing, and more. The new X299X stack features a trio of high-end models, the X299X DESIGNARE 10G, X299 AORUS XTREME WATERFORCE, and the X299X AORUS MASTER, presenting users the most advanced tools for content creation, 3D modeling, audio/visual editing, and projects that require large-scale system resources, while also scratching that gaming itch for users who want to kick back and relax.

The GIGABYTE X299X lineup stands out with all-new power designs, thermal solutions, ultra-efficient data transmission for storage devices, and workstation graphics card certification. Features such as the lightning-quick Intel Thunderbolt 3 transmission interface, 5 Gbps or 10 Gbps network connectivity, multi-display configuration, M.2 Thermal Guard, PCIe slot armor, Smart Fan 5 and other GIGABYTE exclusive technology, enable users to put together their dream build so they can focus on sharpening their craft.

Our readers spotted an interesting visual detail that missed us during our coverage of GIGABYTE's three new socket LGA2066 motherboards unveiled at Computex 2019. One of the three boards, the X299S Designare 10G, has the hard-marking "X499" on its CPU VRM heatsink. Another detail that strikes us is that none of the three new boards we pictured has "X299" printed on the PCB anywhere. The Designare 10G has a sticker below the printed GIGABYTE logo that reads "X299G Designare 10G." The purported X299G Aorus Master has another interesting detail: right above the "Aorus Master" print, there's a tiny sticker marked "X299G," positioned as if it's covering up a printed marking on the PCB itself.

All these details lead us to wonder if GIGABYTE tried to cover up that these boards are in fact based on the unannounced X499 Express chipset, and made to appear like they are X299. We only have paper stickers and the booth placards that indicate "X299," while a metal embossing on the Designare 10G's VRM heatsink reads X499. Intel in its Computex 2019 keynote announced that it will introduce new Core X HEDT processors. It's been over 2 years since the first Core X "Skylake-X" processors launched in Q2-2017. Intel refreshed the lineup in 2018 with 9th generation branding and soldered TIM, with a few specification improvements across the product-stack, but a largely unchanged silicon. It's likely that the Fall 2019 release could see new chips with increased core counts, perhaps even the fabled 22-core die, and some hardware mitigation against recent security vulnerabilities.

At Computex 2019, we spotted three new socket LGA2066 motherboards from GIGABYTE, and several other manufacturers. At its Computex 2019 keynote, Intel announced that in Q3 2019, the company is launching new Core X series HEDT processor models "for creators." When combined with the handful new LGA2066 motherboard models we've spotted, it becomes highly likely that the processors Intel is launching this Fall could be LGA2066-compatible. Without further ado, the X299G Aorus Master, the X299G Aorus Xtreme Waterforce, and the X299G Designare 10G.

The X299G Aorus Master is different from the X299 Aorus Master launched last November, and the X299G Designare 10G is different from the X299 Designare EX launched way back in 2017. The X299G Aorus Xtreme Waterforce is the first "Xtreme" sub-branded LGA2066 product. What's common to these three boards is out-of-the-box support for the upcoming HEDT processor models, besides 9th generation "Skylake-X" Refresh processors, and the original "Skylake-X" chips.

ASUS is commemorating its 30th year in the motherboard industry with the Prime X299 Edition 30 motherboard and Prime Utopia reference desktop platform. The Prime X299 Edition 30 is a premium LGA2066 motherboard with support for Core i9-9000X series processors out of the box. It is based on a familiar-looking PCB layout, mated to a new mostly-white composite heatsink/shroud over the rear I/O, the M.2 slots, and the chipset heatsink. The VRM heatsink is active and has a concealed 40 mm spinner ventilating the metal. Three each of PCI-Express 3.0 x16 and M.2 NVMe slots, an integrated rear I/O shield, premium connectivity that includes 802.11ac WLAN, and a high-end onboard audio solution, make for the rest of it.

The Prime Utopia is something else. It's a concept high-end desktop built around a motherboard that has slots, headers, ports, and connectors on both sides of the PCB. Its "obverse side," if you can call it that, has a shroud that conceals the memory slots, most controllers, chipset, and a 7-inch USB display that puts out real-time system monitoring data, or pretty much anything you want it to display. The CPU socket is on the other side of the PCB, and the processor and CPU VRM are liquid-cooled. An angled PCI-Express slot holds the graphics card along the plane of the motherboard. It all comes together on a CM Cosmos-like chassis frame that lets you show the innards off.

The World's Most Powerful Dual System Computer, Featuring a Triple Stack of NVIDIA's Flagship TITAN RTX Graphics Cards and Three Custom Acrylic Water-cooling Loops.

A pioneer in innovation, system customisation and world-record breaking Overclocks. 8Pack has been creating revolutionary gaming systems for the last decade. Working directly with NVIDIA, Intel and ASUS ROG he's proud to present the Orion X2, a dual system configuration that not only features the most premium selection of enthusiast grade hardware, but offers something that's completely game changing in terms of raw performance.

To go with their monitors and laptops Gigabyte also had multiple high-end motherboards and numerous graphics cards on display at CES 2019. Two of the motherboards that caught are attention were enthusiast offerings including the Z390 AORUS Xtreme which offered a 16 phase IR Digital VRM solution with Pow/Rstage. To go with the beefy VRM, they used a new cutting edge thermal design which uses a fins-array heatsink with a direct touch heat pipe and a NanoCarbon baseplate. Wireless networking has been included via an onboard Intel CNVI 802.11ac 2x2 Wave 2 Wi-Fi with AORUS Antenna. Meanwhile, standard networking is handled by an AQUANTIA 10 GbE BASE-T LAN and Intel Gigabit LAN with cFosSpeed. Other additions include Intel Thunderbolt 3, exclusive RGB Fan Commander and OC Touch. Finally rounding out its features is the 127dB SNR AMP-UP audio with high-end ESS SABRE 9018K2M DAC, LME 49720 and OPA1622 OP-AMP, and WIMA audio capacitors. Just be prepared to pay the price of entry as this motherboard comes with a $599 price tag.

Taking things a step further, Gigabyte also had the AORUS Z390 Xtreme Waterforce motherboard on hand as well. It offers many of the same features as the Z390 AORUS Xtreme but adds in an AORUS all-in-one monoblock for both the CPU and PCH area. It also has Triple Ultra-Fast M.2 slots with PCIe Gen3 x4 interfaces along with their Triple Thermal Guards. To afford this high-end board unless you are an extreme enthusiast you might need to sell a kidney considering its eye-watering $899 price tag. Other motherboards on hand included both the X299 AORUS Master and Z390 AORUS Master which are already available at retail.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is excited to announce two world-class extreme speed high capacity memory kits - DDR4-4266 64GB (8x8GB) and DDR4-4000 128GB (8x16GB) for the latest Intel Core X-series processors and X299 motherboards. Both kits are equipped with high performance Samsung B-die ICs and are validated on the ASUS PRIME X299-DELUXE II motherboard with the Intel Core i9-9920X and Core i7-9800X processors, respectively.

Dedicated to developing faster overclocking memory, G.SKILL is bringing 128GB capacity kits to the speed class of DDR4-4000, while maintaining an ultra-efficient CL19-19-19-39 CAS latency and 1.35V low voltage. It is the ultimate memory solution for building a super performance computer combining the highest capacity and extreme speed. This kit will join the G.SKILL Trident Z RGB family and has been validated on the ASUS PRIME X299-DELUXE II motherboard and with the latest Intel Core i7-9800X processor. The following screenshot shows the stress test result: (Note: Please refer to the "Specification" field of the CPU tab for the correct CPU model name.)

GIGABYTE today announced its almost-flagship socket LGA2066 motherboard, the X299 Aorus Master. The Master brand-extension, if you'll recall, is positioned just a notch below the flagship Aorus Xtreme, which makes this board a successor to the X299 Aorus Gaming 7. The X299 Aorus Gaming 9 and Designare-EX remain the company's flagship LGA2066 products, until they're succeeded by a new Aorus Xtreme product. There's still plenty to go around with the new X299 Aorus Master, beginning with its updated design scheme that's in sync with the company's latest Z390 motherboard lineup. It ships with out-of-the-box support for Core X 9000-series processors. The board is wider than ATX, although not quite E-ATX. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and an optional 6-pin PCIe power. A 12-phase VRM powers the CPU, cooled by a 2-stage heatsink. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC/x16/NC or x16/NC/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8). The DIMM and PCIe slots feature metal reinforcement.

Storage connectivity on the GIGABYTE X299 Aorus Master includes three M.2 slots with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring, each with heatsinks; and eight SATA 6 Gbps ports. Networking includes a 2.5 GbE wired interface driven by Realtek Dragon 8125AG controller, a 1 GbE driven by Intel i219-V controller, and 802.11 ac + Bluetooth 5 interface driven by Intel 9260 WLAN card. USB connectivity includes four USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (two on the rear panel including a type-C, two by header), driven by a combination of ASMedia ASM1142 controller and the X299 PCH. The onboard audio solution is quite something. An ESS Sabre 9218 DAC (130 dBA SNR!) drives the main front + headphones channel with Ti Burr Brown OPA2111KP OPAMPs and WIMA capacitors; while a 120 dBA SNR Realtek ALC1220VB pulls the remaining channels. Manually-switchable dual-BIOS, 7-segment POST code readout, USB flash-back, and a boatload of other overclocker-friendly features complete the board. Expect it to be priced around USD $399.

GIGABYTE introduced the X299-WU8, a high-end desktop motherboard being sold as a quasi-workstation-class board, in the CEB form-factor (305 mm x 267 mm). Based on Intel X299 Express chipset, it features out-of-the-box support for Intel's socket LGA2066 Core X 9000-series processors, in addition to existing Core X 7000-series. A design focus with this board is on PCIe connectivity. The board employs two PLX PEX8747 PCIx gen 3.0 x48 bridge chips, which convert two gen 3.0 x16 links from the processor to four downstream x16 links, which can further be switched to x8. All seven expansion slots are PCI-Express 3.0 x16 physically, which are electrically "x16/NC/x16/NC/x16/NC/x16" or "x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8." The topmost slot stays x16, while the other six share three x16 links depending on how you populate them. The board has certifications for 4-way SLI and CrossFireX.

The GIGABYTE X299-WU8 draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS connectors, conditioning it for the CPU with an 8+1 phase VRM. An additional 6-pin PCIe power input, which is optional, stabilizes slot power delivery to the graphics cards. The CPU socket is flanked by eight DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 128 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory. Storage connectivity is surprisingly sparse, with just one M.2-2280 slot that has PCIe 3.0 x4 wiring, and eight SATA 6 Gbps ports. USB connectivity includes USB 3.1 gen 2 (including a type-C port), a number of USB 3.1 gen 1 ports, both on the rear panel and via headers; high-end onboard audio including an ALC1220 CODEC and headphones amp; and two 1 GbE networking interfaces. Expect this board to be priced around $600, given that the PEX8747 isn't cheap these days, and this board has two of it.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today announces a new line up of gaming hardware including the XPG SX8200 ProM.2 2280 SSD, GAMMIX S5 PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 SSD, and GAMMIX D30 DDR4 memory module.

The SX8200 Pro M.2 2280 SSD is XPG's fastest SSD to date and is designed for avid PC enthusiasts, gamers, and overclockers. It features an ultra-fast PCIe Gen3x4 interface that offers sustained peak read/write speeds of 3500/3000MB/s, outpacing SATA 6Gb/s by a wide margin. Supporting NVMe 1.3, the SX8200 Pro delivers excellent random read/write performance of 390K/380K IOPS. With SLC caching, DRAM cache buffer, E2E Data Protection, and LDPC ECC, it maintains high speeds and data integrity, even during highly intensive applications such as gaming, rendering, and overclocking.

MSI drew more than a few eyeballs at Computex 2018 when it showcased the X399 MEG Creation motherboard for AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors. With the advent of "new" Skylake-X Refresh processors by Intel, the company has a new high-end motherboard with the X299 MEG Creation. MSI appears to have toned down on the design from its X399-based product, although you still see the metal waveform design along the chipset heatsink that's contiguous with M.2 SSD heatsinks, the VRM heatsink, and the rear I/O shroud. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, and two 8-pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it for the LGA2066 processor with a 14-phase VRM.

Expansion slots on the MSI X299 MEG Creation include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, from which three are wired to the CPU, and the fourth one to the PCH. Between them are three M.2-2280 slots with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring, each. You can add up to four more M.2-2280 SSDs with the included M.2-Xpander Aero accessory, which is a 4-slot M.2 riser with air-cooling, which made its debut with the X399 MEG Creation. Another star attraction with this board is Realtek 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, alongside an Intel i219-V powered 1 GbE interface, and an 802.11 ac + BT 5.0 WLAN. Another interesting accessory is the ThunderboltM3, a Thunderbolt 3.0 card with two type-C ports, and two DisplayPort connectors, for daisy chaining your displays. Storage connectivity, besides the seven M.2 slots, includes eight SATA 6 Gbps ports, and a U.2 port. This board could be priced around the $500-mark.

Intel's high-end desktop platform raises the stakes with updated Intel Core X-Series processors that boast a lot more of everything, including cores, cache, bandwidth, and more. The additional processing power plows through CPU-intensive tasks, while the extra bandwidth lets you add more GPUs and NVMe SSDs to accelerate a wider range of workloads.

Anchored by the X299 platform, this upper echelon scales up to 18 cores with the new Core i9-9980XE. It's now joined by an even more exclusive chip with 28 cores and an entirely separate platform that redefines extreme desktop PCs. We have new motherboards designed to exploit the strengths of each CPU. The Prime X299-Deluxe II gives professionals and power users a flexible foundation for serious work and it is not alone, ROG engineers are also working on a new Rampage motherboard geared toward hardcore gamers and overclockers, while the ROG Dominus Extreme shows what's possible when our engineers have the freedom to go beyond traditional boundaries

Intel could very soon fork its high-end desktop platform into two, with the introduction of the new Z399 socket LGA2066 chipset later this quarter; and the fabled X599 chipset powering LGA3647 processors. The move is probably triggered by AMD's introduction of new 24-core and 32-core Ryzen Threadripper processors that wipe out competitiveness of its existing "Basin Falls" X299 platform. The X599 could essentially be a C629 with the addition of some client-segment features (and the subtraction of some enterprise-segment ones), whereas the Z399 is a whole different beast.

With the introduction X599 and LGA3647, Intel could restore competitiveness at the >$1,500 market segment with new 24-core, 26-core, and 28-core "Skylake-X" XCC (extended/extreme core count) processors; whereas the introduction of Z399 could be necessitated with a that of a new 22-core chip for the LGA2066 socket, from which Intel can carve out new 20-core and 22-core SKUs. Existing Skylake-X LCC and HCC chips could be forwards-compatible with Z399, and X299 motherboards could still be eligible for supporting new 20-core and 22-core processors via BIOS updates. The Z399 could introduce a handful of new client-segment features Intel is introducing with the Z390.

The X299 MICRO ATX 2 is a reimagined mATX board designed to support the power, performance, and cooling necessary to power Intel's i5/i7/i9 CPU's for the X299 Chipset. With a 14 Phase power design, a thick VRM heatsink/fan, two 8 pin EPS power connectors, an additional 6 pin PCIe power connector, and external BCLK, this motherboard was born for the enthusiast desiring maximum power in a small form factor. The X299 MICRO ATX 2 supports current storage standards, including M.2 NVMe, Intel Optane, Intel VROC and SATA 6Gb/s to give you a blazing fast access to your data, while Intel Dual-Band WIFI/BT and an Intel i219V Gigabit NIC Keeps you connected.