Asus has four X99 motherboards to announce, and for now just three will be available immediately. All four motherboards feature the LGA2011-3 socket, and all of them have support for the new Haswell-E processors. The three productivity-oriented boards are the X99-Deluxe, the X99-Pro, and the X99-A, while the gaming- and overclocking-oriented board is the ROG Rampage V Extreme. No other boards were revealed at this time, although there will surely be more on the way.
The X99-Deluxe has its own distinct feature set, while the X99-Pro and the X99-A are identical to one another, with the exception being that the X99-Pro has wireless AC connectivity. All three motherboards will have eight DDR4 memory slots along with 12-phase VRM circuitry, eight phases of which are for the CPU.
The Crystal Sound 2 takes care of the audio on the trio. Overall, what sets the X99-Deluxe apart is the more expansive connectivity, as it has more USB 3.0 ports, more SATA3 (6 Gb/s) ports, and an additional PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. It also has dual gigabit Ethernet. Regarding performance, these three boards should be mostly identical; choosing between them is a matter of figuring out which connectivity options you need and which you can live without in order to keep a bit of cash in your pocket.
The X99-Deluxe also ships with a large number of accessories, including a fan extension card for additional fan headers. There's also a Hyper M.2 x4 adapter, which can be used to install a second M.2 SSD.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Rampage V Extreme | X99-Deluxe | X99-Pro | X99-A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCI-Express x16 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Gigabit Ethernet | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11ac, 1300 Mbps | 802.11ac, 1300 Mbps | 802.11ac, 867 Mbps | n/a |
| SATA3 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| SATA-Express | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| USB 3.0 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 10 |
Regarding connectivity, the Rampage V Extreme quite resembles the X99-Deluxe, although it's more geared toward gamers and overclockers. It has the SupremeFX audio hardware, along with a more gamer-oriented appearance with its familiar ROG red-and-black color scheme. Included with the unit is the ROG OC Panel, which can be used to monitor and tweak the system clocks in real-time without the need for in-OS software.
The X99-Deluxe is available immediately for $399, while the Rampage V Extreme and the X99-A will be available in September for $499 and $279, respectively. The X99-Pro is expected to hit shelves in October, with no word on pricing yet.
Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
High-end Intel Z890 motherboards will support up to DDR5-9200 RAM — 64% higher than the rumored Arrow Lake native support for DDR5-5600
MSI's X870 boards get GPU power boost for PCIe slots with new power connector — ATX 3.1-ready motherboards have an extra connector to feed power-hungry GPUs and multi-GPU setups
