ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte Unveil AMD X399 Motherboards For 2nd-Gen Ryzen Threadripper 2000 WX CPUs
Top tier motherboard makers have started rolling out new products based on AMD's X399 chipset, presumably in anticipation for second-generation Ryzen Threadripper chips that are right around the corner. That includes the beastly slice of silicon with 32 cores and 64 threads that AMD has been teasing since Computex.
Starting with ASUS, the company did not announce any new motherboards, but did introduce a cooling kit for its existing ROG Zenith Extreme. The cooling kit consist of a small fan, bracket, SOC heatsink, and set of screws. It is intended to keep vital parts of the motherboard from overheating when running a second generation Threadripper chip, and will probably help with overclocking.
This is not something that ASUS plans to bundle with its motherboards, and instead will "be provided separately, upon request." It is not clear if that means ASUS will give it away for free to users who ask for one or if these kits will be sold as an accessory.
We also do not know if the cooling kit will be compatible with the company's two other existing X399 motherboards, the ROG Strix X399-E Gaming and Prime X399-A. Like the ROG Zenith Extreme, both are extended ATX (E-ATX) socket TR4 motherboards.
Moving on, Gigabyte is rolling out a new X399 Aorus Xtreme motherboard, also in the E-ATX form factor. The X399 Aorus Xtreme looks to be Gigabyte's most ambitious board yet—it has eight reinforced DDR4 DIMM slots, four reinforced PCI Express x16 slots, three M.2 ports (each with its own heatspreader), two GbE LAN connectors and one 10Gb LAN connector, and a 10-phase VRM.
Gigabyte will rolling this bad boy out on August 8 for around 58,000 yen (~$520 in US currency).
Lastly, MSI is readying its Meg X399 Creation, a high-end X399 motherboard with a 19-phase digital power design, dual 8-pin power connectors, 10 PWM fan headers, and three dedicated thermal sensors. Cooling looks to be a high priority here.
The board also features reinforced PCI Express x16 slots (four of them) and has seven Turbo M.2 slots, eight SATA 6Gbps slots, 15 USB 3.1 Gen1 and Gen2 ports, dual Intel LAN ports, onboard Wi-Fi, gold-plated audio jacks, and a bunch of other amenities.
There is no word yet on when it will release or how much it will cost.
