ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30 Motherboard Review

[Brent_Justice]

Introduction



ASUS is one of the most well known and influential technology companies on the planet in the realm of personal computing. The company has been around since the late 1980s and has been offering a wide range of motherboards and other products since that time. ASUS’s product portfolio includes motherboards, graphics cards, monitors, peripherals and even smartphones.



To celebrate ASUS’ 30th anniversary, ASUS has built a special motherboard called the ASUS Prime X299 Edition 30. It might seem odd to many that the only motherboard that ASUS produced for this occasion would be an Intel processor compatible motherboard, much less one for Intel’s HEDT platform. However, there is something special about this as ASUS’s initial rise to prominence is tied with Intel. When the company was new, ASUS’ engineers managed to create an Intel processor compatible motherboard before Intel...

Continue reading...

 

[Grimlakin]

For a 750 dollar board I am also surprised by the BIOS. Space isn't cheap in that arena and they could have designed a nice color pallet in the Bios to resemble the motherboard.

It's especially damning when my 170 dollar motherboard has twice the size bios storage.

 

[nEo717]

I'd love a HEDT board with excellent VRM's (and cooling), but forgo all RGB and built-in NIC(s), Audio, Video, etc... a basic quality (8+ layers) board with PS2 and USB plus M.2 port or two - even memory slots limited to 4 slots and surface mounted - nothing else other than direct cpu connected slots for add-in cards. Asus was almost there with Apex x299 - That's a board I'd pay extra for.

 

[Space_Ranger]

No Power and Temp measurements? Nice review, and if I had the money and a nuclear reactor, would be something I'd like to build one of these days..

 

[Dan_D]

We've never actually had power measurements in our motherboard reviews. That even goes back to the HardOCP days. Largely, it's dependent on the CPU and figuring out exactly what the motherboard does is a bit tricky. That said, power is the same as it was in the 10980XE review. 617w when overclocked.

As for temperatures, I normally cover what the VRM heat sink reads at. An oversight on my part. These reviews are getting more complex and its easy to miss something like that. However, I did note it and the VRM heat sink was a mere 102F.

 

[Dogsofjune]

Hell of a pricetag, but a nice mobo nontheless.

 

[Dan_D]

It's one of the nicest motherboards I've ever reviewed. That's saying something given that I've been doing this for over 14 years.

 

[Space_Ranger]

We've never actually had power measurements in our motherboard reviews. That even goes back to the HardOCP days. Largely, it's dependent on the CPU and figuring out exactly what the motherboard does is a bit tricky. That said, power is the same as it was in the 10980XE review. 617w when overclocked.

As for temperatures, I normally cover what the VRM heat sink reads at. An oversight on my part. These reviews are getting more complex and its easy to miss something like that. However, I did note it and the VRM heat sink was a mere 102F.

Thank you Dan!

 

[Brian_B]

It's one of the nicest motherboards I've ever reviewed. That's saying something given that I've been doing this for over 14 years.

For the price I would be surprised if it were anything other than top notch.

I can understand the history with Intel. Still odd that they chose this route, given that X299 is due to be overhauled... Then again, when all that's on the horizon is Skylake ++++ and you aren't jumping to PCI 4.0, I guess there is no real ~need~ to overhaul it (not that that has ever stopped Intel in the past).

 

[Dan_D]

For the price I would be surprised if it were anything other than top notch.

I can understand the history with Intel. Still odd that they chose this route, given that X299 is due to be overhauled... Then again, when all that's on the horizon is Skylake ++++ and you aren't jumping to PCI 4.0, I guess there is no real ~need~ to overhaul it (not that that has ever stopped Intel in the past).

For that price, you do expect a great board. However, GIGABYTE's X58-UD9 was $700 back in the day and I hated it. It was one of the quirkiest boards I'd worked with at the time. As for Intel, they cycle through the mainstream chipsets too quickly and not fast enough on the HEDT side.