The ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 is a wonderful example of a limited edition board. The white and silver color scheme of the ASUS Prime family already stands out from the dark colors favored by most product lines, and the attention to detail takes the look to new heights. The RGB LEDs are as good as I have seen on any board. That is, before accounting for the OLED display, which, while not as colorful as the one I praised on the Zenith Extreme II, is integrated absolutely seamlessly into the mirror finish of the cover surrounding it. While boards of this caliber garner certain expectations of quality and attention to detail, the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 goes above and beyond. ASUS pulled out all the stops when designing this tribute to 30 years of design innovation.

Performance and overclocking are the real backbone of the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30. Performance out of the box was good, on par with my other TRX40 sample. Memory overclocking was great as well as I reached 3800 MHz CL16 stable with my Trident Z Neo quad-channel kit. For CPU overclocking, I was able to achieve 4.6 GHz on all cores. The capability of the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 far outclasses my own or that of my test bench. To see what the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 is really designed for, LN2 would need to be involved. Thermal performance on the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 was good considering how hard I was pushing my top-end (if a bit dated) Intel Core i9-7980XE.

The ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 boasts 5 Gb/s LAN as well as WiFi 6, offering excellent networking options. The USB options are excellent, but port selection is a little strange. With two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, there is no shortage of expandability options for the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30. However, I am not sure how many users are going to make use of the two DisplayPort IN ports on the rear I/O. I wonder if some standard USB Type-A ports would have appealed to a wider audience.

The ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 comes in at US$749.99, a high price even for the already expensive X299 platform. The ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 features some genuine innovation; the OLED display is a large step forward with improved post-code functionality and easy hardware monitoring. The Smart Control Console is another step in the right direction, but I would like to see it utilized as an external post-code display as well as a hardware monitor. The convenience of Windows Hello facial recognition does bring it solidly out of the "gimmick" category, and while I am dubious about the gesture control, I am glad ASUS is thinking outside the box.

Like the ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme, the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 is more than an expensive fashion statement, it's a declaration of what ASUS is capable of. While the price tag makes it hard to recommend outright, I like the direction ASUS is taking. If you are in the market for an ultra-high-end X299 motherboard with a unique style and money is no object, the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 is a good place to start.