Asus Shows Massive X599 Dominus Extreme Motherboard

By Paul Alcorn
published

Asus jumped at the chance to show off its X599 Dominus Extreme motherboard here at CES 2019. This massive motherboard, which measures 14" x 14" and uses the Super ETX form factor, is designed to accommodate Intel's forthcoming 28-core Xeon W-3175X. That's the chip that Intel debuted running overclocked at 5.0 GHz to take the shine off of AMD's Computex announcement of a 32-core Threadripper chip.

Intel announced that the W-3175X should be available in December 2018, but we've yet to see the processors available at retail.

The W-3175X comes with a 255W TDP rating, but it should suck down plenty of power during overclocking. We expect the board to pull in excess of 1000W, but Asus designed it with an ample power delivery subsystem. The board has two 24-pin ATX power connectors and a whopping four 8-pin and two 6-pin power inputs that feed a 32-phase VRM arrangement. The company also equipped the power delivery subsystem with an active cooling system that consists of four fans hidden under the aluminum heatsink cover.

The board comes with plenty of connectivity options, too. Networking comes courtesy of a 10G Aquantia AQC-107 LAN chip and Intel's I219-LM gigabit connection complemented by an Intel wireless AC-9260 chip that supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The board also exposes five USB 3.1 Gen 2, twelve USB 3.1 Gen 1, and four USB 2.0 connections.

The massive LGA 3647 socket comes with, you guessed it, 3,647 pins. Intel also uses this socket for its server products, so it has a unique cooler mounting system, but we have yet to see any specialized cooling solutions from vendors. Asus says the board is designed to accommodate custom watercooling solutions, which is evident from the two water pump PWM connectors and the additional 12 PWM fan headers. The board also uses the enterprise-class C621 chipset.

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The socket is flanked by 12 DIMM slots that support the six-channel W-3175X and can accommodate up to 192GB of DDR4 clocked up to DDR4-4200. As with all Xeon-class products, ECC memory is supported. The board also supports two of Asus's ROG DIMM.2 (a riser card that supports M.2 SSDs), but it also sports four M.2, two U.2, and eight SATA connectors, meaning you can load this board up with plenty of storage.

What extreme motherboard is complete without some bling, though? The Dominus Extreme comes with the AURA Sync RGB lighting system and also has a 1.77" color LiveDash OLED screen. Finally, the board comes equipped with a SupremeFX audio chip.

The motherboard is rumored to cost roughly $1,500, but that pricing hasn't been confirmed. That seems appropriate for the W-3175X, which could come to retail anywhere between $4,000 to $8,000. Asus says the board will be available "this year."

Paul Alcorn
Paul Alcorn
Deputy Managing Editor

Paul Alcorn is the Deputy Managing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage and enterprise hardware.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TCA_ChinChin
    Yikes, that's actually gigantic. Price will probably reflect that.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    What a joke...
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    I wonder if they will actually sale one of those mother boards? I mean the Xeon W-3175X will cost around 8K. I really don't see these selling at all. You are spending that much you are building a server and if you don't want to spend that much you just pick up a Threadripper for similar performance.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    21657324 said:
    I wonder if they will actually sale one of those mother boards? I mean the Xeon W-3175X will cost around 8K. I really don't see these selling at all. You are spending that much you are building a server and if you don't want to spend that much you just pick up a Threadripper for similar performance.

    There has been no confirmation from retail channels on the price yet nor from Intel on the MSRP. The closest we have is this:

    https://www.kikatek.com/Product/1100513-BX80673W3175X-INTEL-SERVER-CPU-XEON-W3175X-310GHZ-SKTFCLGA2018P-385MB-CACHE

    That translates to $5000 +/- USD but is not official.

    That said, the market this is targeting might not even compete with TR. This is a actual server class Xeon after all and not just a HEDT CPU.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    21657904 said:
    21657324 said:
    I wonder if they will actually sale one of those mother boards? I mean the Xeon W-3175X will cost around 8K. I really don't see these selling at all. You are spending that much you are building a server and if you don't want to spend that much you just pick up a Threadripper for similar performance.

    There has been no confirmation from retail channels on the price yet nor from Intel on the MSRP. The closest we have is this:

    https://www.kikatek.com/Product/1100513-BX80673W3175X-INTEL-SERVER-CPU-XEON-W3175X-310GHZ-SKTFCLGA2018P-385MB-CACHE

    That translates to $5000 +/- USD but is not official.

    That said, the market this is targeting might not even compete with TR. This is a actual server class Xeon after all and not just a HEDT CPU.

    I agree that the market this is focused on is more server class which is what made me ask will Asus actualy sale any of these motherboards as they are obviously not targeted at the server market.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    21658012 said:
    21657904 said:
    21657324 said:
    I wonder if they will actually sale one of those mother boards? I mean the Xeon W-3175X will cost around 8K. I really don't see these selling at all. You are spending that much you are building a server and if you don't want to spend that much you just pick up a Threadripper for similar performance.

    There has been no confirmation from retail channels on the price yet nor from Intel on the MSRP. The closest we have is this:

    https://www.kikatek.com/Product/1100513-BX80673W3175X-INTEL-SERVER-CPU-XEON-W3175X-310GHZ-SKTFCLGA2018P-385MB-CACHE

    That translates to $5000 +/- USD but is not official.

    That said, the market this is targeting might not even compete with TR. This is a actual server class Xeon after all and not just a HEDT CPU.

    I agree that the market this is focused on is more server class which is what made me ask will Asus actualy sale any of these motherboards as they are obviously not targeted at the server market.

    A few I am sure. People will buy it for a single CPU server for a small business or the like. A shop I worked at we built our own from desktop class parts. Not the best but since we didn't need an insane server it was vastly cheaper.
    Reply
  • Lucky_SLS
    This setup would probably go for benchmarks wars. I can already picture Derbauer and Kingpin working with LN2 pots on these when they are available. Especially Derbauer, Asus sponsoring him for overclocking records and all...

    Also, which company designed that custom waterblock for the vrm? That looks sick! Wish they would make one for the Meg X399 creation board. 2 loops, 1 for the vrm and 1 for the cpu, lol! Sad that the ROG matrix 2080ti in there doesn't have water cooling ports like the ROG poseidon does :(

    Any idea which case is that? Looks like a cross between coolermaster design language and the lian li pc v3000...
    Reply
  • AugurWolf
    reminds me of the evga super record 2 years back, just all out and no compromises
    Reply
  • TCA_ChinChin
    21658145 said:
    A few I am sure. People will buy it for a single CPU server for a small business or the like. A shop I worked at we built our own from desktop class parts. Not the best but since we didn't need an insane server it was vastly cheaper.

    Wouldn't people in that use case just buy a cheaper single CPU from either Intel or AMD? This CPU will most definitely be more expensive than the non-overclockable 28 core Intel chip that its based on and definitely more expensive than many of the Epyc chips, so why not just buy those instead?

    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    21663830 said:
    21658145 said:
    A few I am sure. People will buy it for a single CPU server for a small business or the like. A shop I worked at we built our own from desktop class parts. Not the best but since we didn't need an insane server it was vastly cheaper.

    Wouldn't people in that use case just buy a cheaper single CPU from either Intel or AMD? This CPU will most definitely be more expensive than the non-overclockable 28 core Intel chip that its based on and definitely more expensive than many of the Epyc chips, so why not just buy those instead?

    First, this chip is overclockable. They were showing it off. It iwll take a lot of cooling but it is.

    Second why would a person buy a $140K Audi or Mercedes when a $30K Ford/Chevy etc do the same thing for way less? Because there are people who have nothing but money to throw around and just buy whatever.

    However there is one caveat. While AMD does have more cores Intel does, for the time being, have better IPC and higher clocks per core. In the server space Intel still does well against AMD even with less cores.

    Then there are the hard core fanboys who will buy just one brand no matter what.
    Reply