The ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE is where I personally start to lose my mind. I mean, I do understand what ASRock is trying to do, which is high-end HEDT gaming. Yet to me, such ultra high-end desktop gaming is a bit redundant.

Once you get over that side of things, what ASRock has on offer with their X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE is quite exceptional, and has a level of quality we really want to expect from a motherboard that starts to break that US$400 mark. Every single bit of capability and connectivity you could want is here, there can be no doubt. With the bundled Wi-Fi and not just dual Intel LAN, but also AQUANTIA 10G LAN, you've got every angle covered when it comes to plugging into the Internet, and with a good number of USB ports available and decent overclocking options both in the BIOS and right on the board itself, the ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE has it all, or does it?

Fan control, cooling, drive support; that's all covered for sure, but what's missing? Unfortunately, the audio side of things, while excellent in its own right, is simply just too plain. With every ASRock motherboard for the X299 platform offering superb audio reproduction, there might not seem to be anything to really complain about here, but I truly feel that a board of this level needs to offer more and not just what you can find on every other product. Every other area has been blessed with a high-end treatment except for audio, and simply adding a software package just doesn't cut it.

Reviewing motherboards is more difficult than it might seem. To go from a board that might be stuffed into a $500 computer and scaling up to boards that fit into systems that cost $5000 and skyward, it can be easy to forget about looking at boards from the perspective of the user who is really going to use such a product. Taking a $80 motherboard and putting the best CPU possible into it just doesn't make any sense to me. The ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE, on the other hand, claims to be able to push that real high-end CPU, the core-crazy 36-thread Intel i9-7980XE. So when testing this board, I didn't use the i9-7900X I've used to test other motherboards; that just doesn't make sense. If you can afford that CPU, you're not going to skimp on drives or memory; you are a true high-end PC user. That type of user demands the absolute best, and while the ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING i9 XE comes close, and it will make its way into my own personal rig, it could offer more yet.