Gigabyte's Beefy X299-WU8 Motherboard Boasts up to 7 PCIe x16 Slots

By Nathaniel Mott
published

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Gigabyte has revealed the new X299-WU8 server motherboard for use with Intel's 7th and 9th generation processors. Unlike the company's gaming motherboards, which often feature elaborate designs and increasing numbers of RGB LEDs, the X299-WU8 features a standard design suitable for professional environments. And, of course, it has some of the features—including two PLX8747 chips—for a solid foundation.

The use of two PLX8747 chips allows the X299-WU8 to increase the number of available PCIe lanes. Two configurations are available. The first uses four x16 slots, while the second uses one x16 slot and six x8 slots. Gigabyte also highlighted the board's ability to set up four-way CrossFire and SLI configurations with compatible graphics cards.

The X299-WU8 also boasts eight DDR4 DIMM sockets that support up to 128GB of DDR4-2667/2400/2133 memory modules. It boasts just one M.2 connector, along with eight SATA 6Gb/s connectors that support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 to handle the storage side of things. And, this being an X299 motherboard from Gigabyte, the new X299-WU8 also supports Intel Optane products to help speed things along.

Gigabyte equipped the X299-WU8 with one USB Type-C, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A, 10 USB 3.1 Gen 1 and two USB 2.0 ports. The board also offers dual Intel GbE LAN connections. And just in case the lack of RGB LEDs got you excited, know that the X299-WU8 is still more than capable of bringing some color with its two RGBW headers supporting the typical string of multicolored lights, as well as RGBW and UV LED light strips.

The usual hardware protections (temperature detection, fan speed control, etc.) are available with the X299-WU8. Also included are Gigabyte mainstays like RGB Fusion and Game Boost. Interestingly, the board comes with a 12-month license for XSplit Gamecaster + Broadcaster, which is used to stream games. Combine that with the support for multi-GPU configurations and RGB lighting, and maybe gamers will be intrigued after all.

Gigabyte didn't reveal pricing information for the X299-WU8. However, the board leaked a day early via the company's page on a Chinese marketplace called JingDong, where it was priced at ¥4999 CNY (roughly $719/ €632). The company has not confirmed if the board will be made available in the U.S,  though, its presence on the English website implies as much. We'll update this article if the company offers more details.

Nathaniel Mott
Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • drtweak
    I think "Lanes" Needs to be changed to "Slots". I mean I'd love to run 7 GPU's at 1x each! NOT XD
    Reply
  • JeffreyQC
    "Gigabyte's Beefy X299-WU8 Motherboard Boasts up to 7 PCIe Lanes"

    Hmmm Nathaniel, "7 PCIe Lanes", i think it's not right.... ;)
    Reply
  • Snipergod87
    By this logic a highway with 4 north and 4 south lanes would actually be 2 lanes.
    Reply
  • stdragon
    Just to get 44 PCIe lanes will cost you at least a grand for the CPU.
    Reply
  • Slesreth
    All other title concerns aside, mine is with the current one (on the article's URL not the forum's URL):
    "Gigabyte's Beefy X299-WU8 Motherboard Boasts up to 7 PCIe x16 Slots"

    Then the article says:
    21447031 said:
    "The first uses four x16 slots, while the second uses one x16 slot and six x8 slots."
    Which is at its best, four PCIe x16 lanes, not seven. At its worst than, only one. With six PCIe at x8.

    Running all slots at x16 as the title suggests would require at least 112 lanes. On the X299-WU8 motherboard's page showing its, "Key Features", Gigabyte says it supports 64. Also, on the X299-WU8 motherboard's, "Specification", page Gigabyte tells us Core X only supports 44 lanes at the most. Which puts us at a maximum of two active x16 slots for this platform. Providing merely 12 lanes for all the other slots. Which makes having the other four x16 size slots perfectly useless, from a strictly FPS gaming perspective. Considering the Core X is going to be short by at least 20 lanes just to support the motherboard alone.

    In retrospect one could say, "Gigabyte's Beefy X299-WU8 Motherboard Boasts it has 7 PCIe x16 Size Slots" Because, neither the title or the article said whether they are talking about slot size or the number of active lanes in the slot.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    Would have been a nice mobo for mining... if only they were two slots large.
    Reply