Board Layout

While the Prime line of boards is not new, ASUS has worked to ensure that the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 feels like a special product. The black PCB is largely hidden by a white cover with brushed silver aluminium accents throughout.

The pride of the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 and the focal point at the center of the board is the mirrored OLED display. This display serves as a hardware monitor and improved post-code display, and can display logos and graphics.


As with many HEDT boards, the CPU socket area is quite crowded. Between the large CPU socket, eight DIMM slots, and the large VRM heatsink, there really isn't much more vendors can do to create more open space. There is a small fan over the Vcore section to provide active VRM cooling. For power delivery, there are two 8-pin ports encased in metal.


There are three M.2 slots on the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30; one below the first PCIe x16 slot and another between the second and third PCIe x16 slots. Both are covered by a single heatsink held in place by four captive (thank you, ASUS) screws. The last one is a vertical slot on the right side of the board.


The ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 offers three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, all encased in steel armor as well as a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The board has a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, all angled 90 degrees from the board.


The rear I/O on the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 is interesting, with not only two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, but two DisplayPort IN ports for Thunderbolt as well. The focus on Intel Thunderbolt connectivity does come at the cost of USB Type-A ports, of which there are only six.

The full list includes:

• 2x Antenna ports
• 4x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports
• 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• 2x Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports
• 2x DisplayPort IN ports
• 2x RJ-45 LAN port
• Optical SPDIF out port
• 5x 3.5 mm LED illuminated audio jacks

Networking on the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 is handled by an Intel I219V
and an Aquantia AQC-111C for 5 Gb/s LAN. WiFi 6 is provided by an Intel 802.11ax module.