Asus ROG Strix X299-E Gaming ATX Motherboard Review: 44-Lane CPU Ready

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Asus' Aura software now controls a variety of things, from onboard lights to LED strips to RGB memory. It's known for its nearly universal support of anything that would connect to its motherboards' RGB interfaces.

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • newsonline5000000
    Actually we need Three x8 Slots not for three ways SLI , but for 2 x SLI AND an x8 Card (NVME cards or Raid cards)

    you need to stop focusing on SLI and think about more cards to add. With today GPU power , we dont need more than Two GPUs of High end cards.
    Reply
  • derekullo
    21206294 said:
    Actually we need Three x8 Slots not for three ways SLI , but for 2 x SLI AND an x8 Card (NVME cards or Raid cards)

    you need to stop focusing on SLI and think about more cards to add. With today GPU power , we dont need more than Two GPUs of High end cards.

    To be fair, Gaming is in the name of the "Asus ROG Strix X299-E Gaming" in regards to SLI.

    If you wanted to install a raid or NVME card in this motherboard you very well could.

    But this isn't a workstation motherboard and isn't marketed as such.

    For your needs you would be much better suited to the ASUS ROG ZENITH EXTREME which supports 4 pci-e slots in a x16/x8/x16/x8 configuration, ECC ram, 3 - m.2 drives and a Threadripper cpu to make all those lanes possible.




    Reply
  • Crashman
    21206294 said:
    Actually we need Three x8 Slots not for three ways SLI , but for 2 x SLI AND an x8 Card (NVME cards or Raid cards)

    you need to stop focusing on SLI and think about more cards to add. With today GPU power , we dont need more than Two GPUs of High end cards.
    Right, so you put two cards in the first and second slot and a PCIe x8 NVMe adapter with two M.2 drives on the bottom slot. And then you use a 28-lane CPU and find that only 1 of your drives is seen, and only in x1 mode. Same complaint then?

    Reply
  • Baumy15
    867gb/s wi-fi eyy? i think you mean 867mbps wifi
    Reply
  • papality
    only 8 phases on the VRMs on a board that needs the highest end x299 processors to be worthwhile? what
    Reply
  • Crashman
    21208236 said:
    only 8 phases on the VRMs on a board that needs the highest end x299 processors to be worthwhile? what
    8 60's is worth 16 30's? Putting memory on both sides of the processor doesn't leave a great deal of room for extra power components, companies have almost universally went with higher ampacity components for there X299 models instead.

    Reply
  • robert.sandru
    Is anyone seriously considering X299 for gaming?

    I mean it's a ROG board but as a platform the X299 is pressured on both performance and cost by better Intel and AMD solutions...
    Reply
  • newsonline5000000
    21206736 said:
    21206294 said:
    Actually we need Three x8 Slots not for three ways SLI , but for 2 x SLI AND an x8 Card (NVME cards or Raid cards)

    you need to stop focusing on SLI and think about more cards to add. With today GPU power , we dont need more than Two GPUs of High end cards.
    Right, so you put two cards in the first and second slot and a PCIe x8 NVMe adapter with two M.2 drives on the bottom slot. And then you use a 28-lane CPU and find that only 1 of your drives is seen, and only in x1 mode. Same complaint then?

    Why not see it if the bios is designed to see the split lanes between three slots ? I dont get your x1 mode at all , and I dont get it why only one SSD will be shown ..





    Reply
  • Crashman
    21211737 said:
    21206736 said:
    21206294 said:
    Actually we need Three x8 Slots not for three ways SLI , but for 2 x SLI AND an x8 Card (NVME cards or Raid cards)

    you need to stop focusing on SLI and think about more cards to add. With today GPU power , we dont need more than Two GPUs of High end cards.
    Right, so you put two cards in the first and second slot and a PCIe x8 NVMe adapter with two M.2 drives on the bottom slot. And then you use a 28-lane CPU and find that only 1 of your drives is seen, and only in x1 mode. Same complaint then?

    Why not see it if the bios is designed to see the split lanes between three slots ? I dont get your x1 mode at all , and I dont get it why only one SSD will be shown ..

    Per Asus, PCIe x16 slot configuration is:
    44-lane CPU: x16/x16/x8
    28-lane CPU: x16/x8/x1
    16-lane CPU: x16/x0/x1, x8/x8/x1

    So there's your x1. Now if you're running a passive x8 adapter card, the first four lanes go to the first M.2 drive, the second four lanes go to the second M.2 drive. But, there's only one lane on the third slot with a 28-lane CPU, so if you put your passive adapter there, the first M.2 drive gets one lane and the second M.2 drive gets no lanes.
    Reply