x399 Which Motherboard for TR4

[Recard159]

Hey, I'm trying to decide between the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme X399 and the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming. Could someone please give me a nice comparison between the two.

 

My main focus for my build is creating a system that will stream the internet with no bottlenecks, something great for photo editing, and the occasional game. I'd love to have some fast USB support since I will be transferring tons of files.

 

I'm looking to drop in a TR 2950X. I will be going with a custom water loop. Currently looking at two kits of G.Skill Trident Z 32 GB Ram and 2x1T MVME M.2 (haven't decided which type). I will be going with a GTX 1080 ti GPU. 

[SenKa]

I see no reason to not go for the Asus board.

 

More PCI-E slots, looks better (imo), more substantial heatsinks, higher amperage power delivery (obvious to see by the 2x8 Pin vs 8 Pin + 4 Pin on the ASRock), only obvious downside is you lose 2 SATA slots going for the Asus, but you gain U.2.

 

So, TL;DR I would pick the asus board. Any reason you're not waiting for Zen 2 based threadrippers?

[Recard159]

3 minutes ago, SenKa said:

I see no reason to not go for the Asus board.

 

More PCI-E slots, looks better (imo), more substantial heatsinks, higher amperage power delivery (obvious to see by the 2x8 Pin vs 8 Pin + 4 Pin on the ASRock), only obvious downside is you lose 2 SATA slots going for the Asus, but you gain U.2.

 

So, TL;DR I would pick the asus board. Any reason you're not waiting for Zen 2 based threadrippers?

Well the real reason I'm considering the ASRock is because of the additional ethernet port. 

 

As for the Zen 2, I am waiting for the Zen 2 to come out, but my hope is that it'll ultimately drop the price of the 2950X and make it slightly more reasonable since it'll be the old generation architecture at that point.

[SenKa]

2 minutes ago, Recard159 said:

Well the real reason I'm considering the ASRock is because of the additional ethernet port. 

 

As for the Zen 2, I am waiting for the Zen 2 to come out, but my hope is that it'll ultimately drop the price of the 2950X and make it slightly more reasonable since it'll be the old generation architecture at that point.

Well with that PCI-E 8x slot on the ROG you can put in a nice 10GB NIC!

[Recard159]

2 minutes ago, SenKa said:

Well with that PCI-E 8x slot on the ROG you can put in a nice 10GB NIC!

You make a very good point! I think you've helped me settle my mind. Extra PCI-E, extra power draw, better cooling, and that great look; can't go wrong with that. Thank you again for your help. 

[SenKa]

1 minute ago, Recard159 said:

You make a very good point! I think you've helped me settle my mind. Extra PCI-E, extra power draw, better cooling, and that great look; can't go wrong with that. Thank you again for your help. 

Not a problem. PCI-E 8X slots are quite rare on consumer boards, forcing you to waste a 16x slot that could be used with a separate GPU for folding, or quite literally anything else.

[Recard159]

2 minutes ago, SenKa said:

Not a problem. PCI-E 8X slots are quite rare on consumer boards, forcing you to waste a 16x slot that could be used with a separate GPU for folding, or quite literally anything else.

Yea, I really hate that feature on motherboards. I like that this board actually accounts for better spacing for the 16x slots. 

 

I really with I could throw a 2990X in this big boy, but sadly its not in the budget. I can't wait to see what the third gen TR4s do to the prices of these second gen CPUs.