An AMD Threadripper X399 Motherboard Overview: A Quick Look at Seven Products
by Ian Cutress & Joe Shields on September 15, 2017 9:00 AM ESTAdded 9/19: GIGABYTE X399 Designare-EX
One of the first things one may notice on this board is lack of RGB LEDs compared with the AORUS Gaming 7. On the Gaming 7, where RGB LEDs are just about everywhere, the Designare EX on the other hand only has a few under the PCH heatsink. Aside from that, design aesthetics are remarkably similar, with only the color scheme changed from black colored heatsinks and shrouds (with the AORUS name) to all silver, and the GIGABYTE name on the shrouds instead. The PCH heatsink is the same shape with a different accent plate for the Designare, marking a not to GIGABYTE's aimed market for this product: design professionals. Also included is an integrated I/O shield giving it a more high-end feel.
Outside of what has been listed above, the specifications for the Designare are very similar to the Gaming 7, as it uses the same base PCB. Keeping on the platform trend, the Designare EX supports quad channel memory at two DIMMs per channel, for eight total supporting up to 128GB. What looks like an 8-phase VRM uses the same style main heatsink connected to a secondary heatsink via a heat pipe located behind the rear I/O. Being the same PCB, the power delivery is also listed as ‘server class’ like the Gaming 7, using fourth generation International Rectifier (IR) PWM controllers and third generation PowIRstage chokes. EPS power is found in its normal location in the top left corner of the board, with one 8-pin and one 4-pin.
In the top right corner of the board are five 4-pin fan headers along with an RGBW header for LEDs. Two other RGB headers are found across the bottom of the board, including another RGBW header. USB connectivity uses an onboard USB 3.1 (10Gbps) header from the chipset close to the eight SATA ports. There is a USB 3.0 header on the bottom of the board, two USB 2.0 headers near the power buttons, and a TPM header at the bottom of the board.
Like the AORUS Gaming 7, the Designare EX supports three M.2 drives. The two locations between the PCIe slots support up to 110mm long drives, while the third below the PCH heatsink can fit up to 80mm drives. All locations come with additional heatsinks to keep the drives underneath cool. The Designare EX uses the three M.2 slots instead of a separate U.2 connector. For other storage, GIGABYTE has equipped the board with eight SATA ports. The 5-pin Thunderbolt 3 header, required for add-in Thunderbolt 3 cards and unique for X399 to this specific GIGABYTE X399 board, is located just above the SATA ports. We are asking GIGABYTE if they plan to bundle a Thunderbolt 3 add-in card with this model, and are awaiting a response.
The rear of the motherboard, like some other designs on the market, uses a rear backplate to assist with motherboard rigidity. The thinking here is that these motherboards are often used in systems with multiple heavy graphics cards or PCIe coprocessors, such that if a motherboard screw is incorrectly tightened, the motherboard might be required to take the load and eventually warp. With the back-plate in place, this is designed to distribute that potential extra torque throughout the PCB, minimising any negative effects.
The PCIe slots are the same as the Gaming 7 also, with four of the five sourcing its lanes directly from the CPU. The slots used for GPUs are double-spaced and support an x16/x8/x16/x8 arrangement. The middle slot supports PCIe 3.0 x4 connection fed from the chipset. The middle slot can be used for additional add-in cards, such as a Thunderbolt 3 card.
Next to the PCIe slots is GIGABYTE’s audio solution, using a Realtek ALC1220 codec and using an EMI shield, PCB separation for the digital and analog audio signals, filter caps (both WIMA and Nichicon), and has headphone hack detection. GIGABYTE also uses DAC-UP, which delivers a more consistent USB power supply for USB connected audio devices.
Rear IO connectivity on the Designare EX is also like the AORUS Gaming 7. The only difference will be the additional Ethernet port as this model uses dual Intel NICs. Because of the USB 3.0 support from the CPU, the rear IO has eight USB ports, in yellow, blue, and white. There are also two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports from the chipset, one USB Type-C. Network connectivity differs here with the Designare EX using two Intel NICs (we imagine some mixture of I219V or I211AT) and does away with the Rivet Networks Killer E2500 found on its little brother. Last, are a set of audio jacks including SPDIF.
Pricing was not listed, however, if it is slated to be the flagship of the X399 lineup, pricing is expected to be a higher than the already released X399 AORUS Gaming 7 at $389.99 on Amazon. GIGABYTE says the Designare EX will be available come Mid-October.
GIGABYTE X399 Designare EX | |
Warranty Period | 3 Years |
Product Page | N/A |
Price | TBD |
Size | ATX |
CPU Interface | TR4 |
Chipset | AMD X399 |
Memory Slots (DDR4) | Eight DDR4 Supporting 128GB Quad Channel Support DDR4 3600+ Support for ECC UDIMM (in non-ECC mode) |
Network Connectivity | 2 x Intel LAN 1 x Intel 2x2 802.11ac |
Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 |
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) |
2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots @ x16 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots @ x8 |
PCIe Slots for Other (from Chipset) |
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x4 |
Onboard SATA | 8 x Supporting RAID 0/1/10 |
Onboard SATA Express | None |
Onboard M.2 | 3 x PCIe 3.0 x4 - NVMe or SATA |
Onboard U.2 | None |
USB 3.1 | 1 x Type-C (ASMedia) 1 x Type-A (ASMedia) |
USB 3.0 | 8 x Back Panel 1 x Header |
USB 2.0 | 2 x Headers |
Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin EATX 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V |
Fan Headers | 1 x CPU 1 x Watercooling CPU 4 x System Fan headers 2 x System Fan/ Water Pump headers |
IO Panel | 1 x PS.2 keyboard/mouse port 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 8 x USB 3.0 2 x RJ-45 LAN Port 1 x Optical S/PDIF out 5 x Audio Jacks Antenna connectors |
Additional News (9/20):
After speaking with GIGABYTE, it seems that Thunderbolt 3 support will perhaps still be in limbo:
Thunderbolt 3 certification requires a few things from the CPU side like graphical output which we haven't been able to do. We expect this will be developed upon through Raven Ridge and possibly get more groundwork down to activate TB3 on the X399 Designare EX.
The header will remain, though TB3 use / full TB3 enablement will be at a later date. It seems like GIGABYTE has taken note that users are interested in TB3 on AMD.
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Holliday75 - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Where is this magical land?ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Actually, many people in the developed world call a technician for even trivial things like changing a fuse. Building a computer, as simple as it is, is out of this world achievement in their eyes.mapesdhs - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
Weird, normally such a person wouldn't even ask a relevant question. My gf doesn't care what my HTPC has inside, as long as it runs YT and plays DVDs, etc. ok, and she can use the wifi link to find stuff for her Kindle.mapesdhs - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
NB: I was replying to ddriver saying, "So a dumb wife having to approve your purchases is a realistic scenario? :D".Vatharian - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
No anything that has more than 2 HDDs is a server. I also have gaming PC that has 10 HDDs. They are low capacity, and connected to low-end HBA, but this way I won't ever lose any data. And I just can't think of a reason to pay well over $1000 for 10 disk-capable NAS.ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
You really must love noise then, and waste power. Besides, the more drives, the more drives, the higher the odds some of them die. You can get a couple of large HGST drives, huge capacity, excellent reliability. The odds of both drives failing is minuscule, and would require the entire system burning up, which would be just as devastating regardless of many drives you have. You don't require 10 drives for the sake of the number. 10 TB HGST HE10 are like 350$.Besides, TR doesn't fall neither in the "budget", nor in the "gaming" category. That's a workstation CPU, and it actually does pretty bad in gaming, considering its price. Paying that much money for a product you are not gonna use for the job it is best at and complaining the mobo doesn't fit your senseless and wrong usage scenario - that's kinda dumb.
It is a new high end product, you are gonna put new high end components in it, not 10 poor old tiny HDDs.
Guwapo77 - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
It's not bad at gaming, however, it is not wise to use this solely for gaming. A workstation that you can use to handling your day to day workload that just happens to be fairly decent for gaming when you have time.Anyone building a gaming rig that chooses to buy a TR fails at life.
cyberguyz - Thursday, December 28, 2017 - link
It has 2x M.2 slots not 3x. You need an add-in card to get the 3rd with this onefazalmajid - Sunday, September 17, 2017 - link
Annoying, but a LSI add-in HBA will generally outperform integrated SATA by a wide margin.karatekid430 - Thursday, October 26, 2017 - link
Ask the manufacturers to make M.2 PCIe cards with a SATA controller and a heap of SATA ports on board. I want them to provide these, and exclude SATA from motherboards, to save space and reduce complexity and cost. That way, the motherboards are cleaner for people who only require NVMe, and allow for people who need SATA to sacrifice M.2 slots for SATA.