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Asus Prime X299-Deluxe Motherboard Review

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How We Test

Since the Prime X299-Deluxe was tested at the same time as MSI's sample, it gets the same extra hardware for today's comparison. The Core i7-7800X becomes the extra CPU for validating proper CPU scaling and will take a back seat to the more power hungry Core i9-7900X in future tests. The legacy platform, Asus's own Rampage V Extreme/U3.1 with Core i7-6950X, sets the baseline.

Test Hardware

SoundIntegrated HD Audio
NetworkIntegrated Gigabit Networking
Software
OSWindows 10 64-bit
GraphicsGeForce Game Ready 382.53

Due to the tremendous heat of modern six and ten-core processors, I was forced to upgrade from my previous Big Air cooler to our award-winning Fractal Design S24 liquid system. We could call that “putting our money where our words went.”

I needed something to hold the cooler and that would point air towards the hot voltage regulators of each motherboard, yet I wasn’t prepared to cut open the restrictive fan grills of our previous Lian-Li platform. I found what I needed in an old review sample of Cooler Master’s HAF-XB.

Comparison Products

Asus Rampage V Extreme

MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

Benchmark Suite

Benchmark Settings
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
PCMark 8Version 2.7.613 Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft)
3DMark 13Version 4.47.597.0 Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets
SiSoftware SandraVersion 2016.03.22.21 CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth
DiskSPD4k Random Read, 4k Random Write 128k Sequential Read, 128k Sequential Write
Cinebench R15Build RC83328DEMO OpenGL Benchmark
CompuBenchVersion 1.5.8 Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing
Application Tests and Settings
LAME MP3Version 3.98.3 Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.9.9 Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19 GB 4k mkv to x265 mp4
BlenderVersion 2.68a BMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark
7-ZipVersion 16.02 THG-Workload (7.6 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9"
Adobe After Effects CCRelease 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144 PCMark driven routine
Adobe Photoshop CCRelease 2015.5.0. 20160603.r.88 x64 PCMark driven routine (light and heavy)
Adobe InDesign CCRelease 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64 PCMark driven routine
Adobe IllustratorRelease 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit) PCMark driven routine
Game Tests and Settings
Ashes of SingularityVersion 1.31.21360, DirectX 12, GPU-Focused High Preset Crazy Preset
F1 20152015 Season, Abu Dhabi Track, Rain Medium Preset Ultra High Preset
Metro Last Light ReduxVersion 3.00 64-bit High Quality Very High Quality
The Talos PrincipleVersion 267252, 64-Bit, DirectX11 High Preset, Max Render 1920x1080 Ultra Preset, Max Render 1920x1080


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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.
22 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 489 dollars? lol
    Reply
  • Crashman
    19843269 said:
    489 dollars? lol
    I expect it to drop quickly to $459 if that means anything to you :D

    Reply
  • the nerd 389
    If the state of Skylake-X is any indication, I'd expect it to drop quite a bit lower than $459. Intel seems to be turning disappointing product releases into an art form.

    Can you imagine trying to fit one of these CPUs into a 2U chassis? It would be a nightmare.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    19843785 said:
    If the state of Skylake-X is any indication, I'd expect it to drop quite a bit lower than $459. Intel seems to be turning disappointing product releases into an art form.

    Can you imagine trying to fit one of these CPUs into a 2U chassis? It would be a nightmare.
    I don't expect anyone to be shoving this board into a 2U chassis :D It's a premium board, you pay an extra $120 for all the stuff that comes with it.

    Now that whole Kaby Lake X nonsense makes even less sense, right?

    Reply
  • Tom Griffin
    This might be able to replace my ASUS X79 Pro and I7-3960x paid a grand for that proc with six cores etc; this 10 core beast might just fill the bill for my development workstation. Will have to wait and see about AMD and infinity fabric and Intel's mesh and firmware updates.
    Reply
  • drwho1
    I don't get this SATA sharing, In this motherboard as an example we end up with 4 usable SATA ports... I need a lot more SATA ports available for JBOD drives. At minimum 10 SATA ports, I wish I could find a board with 18 SATA ports to be honest.

    Anyway, I passed on this... We need a way for M.2, U.2 and PCI-E to NOT share SATA ports, same for any new tech... should find something else to make useless...
    Reply
  • Crashman
    19844684 said:
    I don't get this SATA sharing, In this motherboard as an example we end up with 4 usable SATA ports... I need a lot more SATA ports available for JBOD drives. At minimum 10 SATA ports, I wish I could find a board with 18 SATA ports to be honest.

    Anyway, I passed on this... We need a way for M.2, U.2 and PCI-E to NOT share SATA ports, same for any new tech... should find something else to make useless...
    Welcome to the world of Kaby Lake X. These are the workarounds Asus put into the board to support it. If you want a bunch of drives, you have to use an adapter card and give up 3-way SLI (on 44-lane CPUs) or SLI (on 28 or 16 lane CPUs).

    Reply
  • Dill3377
    Hopefully the FPS issues get worked out with the ASUS X299 deluxe board, was looking at getting a 7820X for gaming and light video editing for friends (yes I know it's crazy overkill, whole system is lol, it's a hobby), but that MSI board is killing it and I'm avoiding MSI if at all possible for mobo...
    Reply
  • the nerd 389
    19845970 said:
    Hopefully the FPS issues get worked out with the ASUS X299 deluxe board, was looking at getting a 7820X for gaming and light video editing for friends (yes I know it's crazy overkill, whole system is lol, it's a hobby), but that MSI board is killing it and I'm avoiding MSI if at all possible for mobo...

    It's not that it's overkill. It's actually not overkill at all. It's just very expensive, an epic pain to cool, and offers a dizzying array of incompatibilities and caveats for the price.

    Save your money for ThreadRipper, or stick to Broadwell-E. Skylake-X isn't worth the effort, confusion, noise, or cost that comes with the 2066 socket. If you really need the performance, grab a dual socket E5 setup before considering the X299 platform. It's easier to cool, makes system design simpler, and you'll end up with a quieter machine.
    Reply
  • Dill3377
    19846251 said:
    19845970 said:
    Hopefully the FPS issues get worked out with the ASUS X299 deluxe board, was looking at getting a 7820X for gaming and light video editing for friends (yes I know it's crazy overkill, whole system is lol, it's a hobby), but that MSI board is killing it and I'm avoiding MSI if at all possible for mobo...

    It's not that it's overkill. It's actually not overkill at all. It's just very expensive, an epic pain to cool, and offers a dizzying array of incompatibilities and caveats for the price.

    Save your money for ThreadRipper, or stick to Broadwell-E. Skylake-X isn't worth the effort, confusion, noise, or cost that comes with the 2066 socket. If you really need the performance, grab a dual socket E5 setup before considering the X299 platform. It's easier to cool, makes system design simpler, and you'll end up with a quieter machine.

    Yeah man I appreciate the advice and understand. Spent too many hours looking into all my options. To be frank, I don't think AMD will release an 8 core TR chip that's faster than the Ryzen 1700/1800 so as not to cannibalize their own product and the 7820x is performing 10-15% above the Ryzen chips for games. Money is not a factor for the most part, If I was interested in a single one of the other X299 chips I'd at least wait for TR4/Coffeelake, but the 7820x has no direct competitor, outside of Ryzen, and I don't think it will for a while. As for cooling, running custom water with a fairly beefy setup, not crazy worried about noise/heat (although I'm really unimpressed with how Intel has handled the heat..). OC3d is showing a 7820X running at 4.8Ghz at 1.22V with roughly 70 degrees under load. Even if he won the silicon lottery, I'd be fine with 4.5GHz at a similar voltage/temerpature. My 3570k runs at 4.6 at 1.2V and hits 65 under custom.

    As for purchasing it, I will definitely wait for more reviews and maturation before I do. To add, the anti-consumer things intel does, albeit a dick move, don't affect me. I don't RAID, I'll never SLI, I'm only going to be running 1 NVMe drive. This truly is just an overkill gaming rig and I won't 'upgrade' my 3570k to another 4 core option, so 8 it is.

    One last note: I am not trying to defend Intel at all and quite frankly, I want to give my money to team red, but I'm in a very specific boat and thus, not a lot of option left imo. I unfortunately/fortunately game at 144Hz and that 10% difference actually makes a difference lol, it's a vicious world. My 3570k is starting to hold my 1080ti in some games, so I've had to upgrade for a bit now.
    Reply