Review

ASUS X99 Deluxe Motherboard Review

With the launch of the Intel's new X99 platform many high end motherboards started appearing in the market with promising features and great performance. And today we have the opportunity to review one such board from ASUS or better to say my first X99 board from ASUS, the ASUS X99-DELUXE board.

ASUS X99-DELUXE is a top mid-range motherboard based on the new LGA2011-v3 socket supporting the Intel high-end Haswell-E processors with great feature like five PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, 12 SATA-600 ports , 14 USB 3.0 ports, high-end audio , and an integrated Wi-Fi 802.11ac interface.

Now let's see what ASUS X99-DELUXE board have for us.

Features

• Dual Intelligent Processors 5 with 5-Way Optimization - motherboard is equipped with two smart chips: energy processor (Energy Processing Unit - EPU) and TurboV-processor (TurboV Processing Unit - TPU). The fifth generation of the chips work with a digital power system DIGI+ VRM and technologies Fan Xpert 3 and TurboAPP, that lets you fine-optimization of the system depending on the current needs of the user.
• TurboLAN - using the bundled software you can monitor the network activity of your PC in real time, as well as set each program the priority access to network resources.
• TurboAPP - allows you to select the required level of performance for each individual application. Firmware ASUS AI Suite 3 allows you to customize not only performance, but also to choose your audio profile of each application, as well as configure the prioritization of network traffic.
• Crystal Sound 2 - pre-installed audio codec Realtek ALC1150, which uses a special amplifier TI R4580I, offers the support of eight-channel sound. In order to avoid interference caused by electromagnetic interference, a special screening technology Audio Shielding is applied. To ensure maximum audio quality there are Japanese audio capacitors of company Nichicon. In addition, the left and right audio channels are formed on different layers of the PCB that accompanies minimize crosstalk. Also here is the support of the technologies DTS CONNECT Users and DTS Ultra PC II, as well as the presence of the port S/PDIF out on the interface panel.
• USB BIOS Flashback – provides the updating of firmware BIOS from the flash drive by a simple pressing of the appropriate button on the interface panel.
• USB 3.0 Boost – to increase the rat eof USB 3.0 operation there is a support of protocol UASP.
• AI Suite 3 – the set of delivery includes proprietary software which provides a fine tuning of system parameters in BIOS.
• Wi-Fi Go! – integrated dual band wireless module Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0 can reach the speed up to 1300 Mb/s. This will allow you to connect to wireless networks and use the PC as an access point for other multimedia devices. Additionally here is a support of the PC control using a smart phone, transfer files between PC and portable devices, synchronization of information between the various cloud storage, as well as the function Media Streamer (play multimedia files over the wireless network.) In this case the support of two frequency bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) allows you to use the first for web browsing, and the second - to download HD-quality video.
• O.C. Socket - a proprietary feature of ASUS motherboards on chipset Intel X99. In contrast to the standard CPU socket Socket LGA2011-v3, ASUS OC Socket has a large number of contact legs. As we know, on the new processors Intel Haswell-E have more contact pad than the legs in the slot. ASUS has finalized the CPU socket for them. In combination with a proprietary UEFI BIOS it can provide more stable voltage on the CPU and memory under heavy load during acceleration and achieve better results.
• Fan Extension Hub is a complete module, allowing you to connect four fans and three thermal sensors, will be particularly useful for the organization of a powerful cooling within the case.
• PCIe M.2 x4, Two Ways - expansion card with interface PCI Express, which is equipped with a connector M.2 x4 PCIe 3.0 (carrying capacity up to 32 Gb / s), supports drives formats M.2 2230, 2242, M.2 2260, M .2 2280 and 22110 M.2.

Specifications

Package

Board comes in a nice black cardboard box with model number, image of the board and details about supporting technology and features.

Inside the box

ASUS X99-DELUXE comes with very nice set of accessories:

• DVD with drivers and utilities
• User Guide
• 8 SATA cables
• ASUS Q-Connectors
• ASUS Q-Shield
• 3-Way NVIDIA SLI Bridge
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna
• Temperature sensor
• HYPER M.2 x4 expansion card
• Fan Extension Hub board
• Connection Cable Fan Extension Hub
• M.2 Racket
• Asus OC Adrenaline Sticker

Looks

Board made with a black PCB of size ATX (30.5 X 24.4 cm). A white piano key colour plastic shield covers the back I/O connectors and audio section. Same while colour metal sheets covers the heatsinks giving whole board a rich white and black theme.

Layout

Detailed layout of board.

1. ASUS custom LGA 2011-V3 socket (OC Socket)

2. ASUS X99 Deluxe is equipped with eight DIMM DDR4 memory slots supporting max. 64GB at 2133MHz in normal and up to 3200MHz when OC.

3. ATX Power connector (24-pin EATXPWR)

4. ATX CPU Power Connector 8-pin ATX12V_2x4.

5. Back I/O Ports 2 x LAN (RJ45) port(s), 10 x USB 3.0 (blue), 2 x USB 2.0 , 1 x Optical S/PDIF out, 5 x Audio jack(s), 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s), 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi GO! module (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth v4.0

6. 7. 10.1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), 4 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (4 x 4 -pin)

8.MemOK! Button when pressed automatically pick up the necessary parameters of the memory for a successful system boot.

9. M.2 Socket 3 with vertical M Key design, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (Support PCIE SSD only)

11. 2 x SATA Express connector: gray, 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)

12. Expansion Slots 40-Lane CPU- 5 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16, x16/x16, x16/x16/x8, x8/x8/x16/x8, x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 mode) 1 x PCIe 2.0 x4 (max at x4 mode). 28-Lane CPU - 3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16, x16/x8, x8/x8/x8), 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x1 mode), 1 x PCIe 2.0 x4 (max at x4 mode)

13. Front panel Audio connector and SPDIF out port

14. Power-on button, Reset button, Q-Code display and Chassis Intrusion connector(s)

15. 16. Clear CMOS button(s), TPM connector(s) and 5-pin EXT_FAN(Extension Fan) connector

17. 2 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 3.0 port(s) (19-pin)

18. USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)

19. System Front panel(s) (Q-Connector)

20. SLI/CFX switch (2/3-WAY adjustments) with three positions and used to switch off modes of technologies NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX., TPU switch has three positions: "Off", "I" - automatic overclocking system by increasing the multiplier and "II" - automatic overclocking by increasing the FSB frequency and CPU multiplier, EPU switch to on/off the power saving function (EPU)., EZ XMP switch to activate the corresponding XMP-profile of RAM

Removing Heat-sinks

Heatsinks are made up of dense aluminum and heat pipes with thermal pad installed, giving great passive cooling to VRM MOSFETs and x99 chipset.

Component Layout

Let's now see what all components ASUS have planned for this board.

1. Digital 8-phase CPU Power VRM Section with International Rectifiers IR3550 Integrated PowIRstage is a synchronous buck gate driver IC with co-packed control and synchronous MOSFETs and Schottky diode with up to 60A of output current capability each, 60A Ferrite Chokes, and 10K Black Metallic Capacitors.

2. Asus DIGI+ VRM Asp 1257 voltage controller chip.

3. 4. Two separate DRAM Power section using pair of IR 3553M MOSFETs and PWM controller is DIGI + VRM ASP1250 chip

5. 6. Two GB LAN-controllers are Intel WGI218V and Intel WGI211AT

7. 13. 14. Ten USB 3.0 ports on back panel uses one ASMedia ASM1042AE controller and two ASMedia ASM1074 controllers.

8. Asmedia ASM1480 PCIe bus switch chip and THA 1422 controller used to switch buses for M.2 slot.

9. Four ASmedia ASM1467 is a one lane (Dual-channel) high speed interface redriver chip used for PCIe or SATA mode selection

10. Intel X99 Express Chipset.

11. 12. The ICS 9DB633 is a PCI-E 3.0 six output differential buffer, clock generator alongside AsMedia ASM1187e chip which is a PCI express packet switch, 1 PCIe x1 Gen2 upstream port to 7 PCIe x 1 Gen2 downstream ports using Asmedia ASM1480 PCIe bus switch chips

15. Multi I/O capabilities are based on NUVOTON NCT6791D chip which controls the operation of the system fans, as well as provides the monitors.

16. ASUS X99 Deluxe audio subsystem is based on Realtek ALC1150 that supports 2/4/5.1/7.1 sound systems with 115dB Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) playback (DAC) quality and 104dB SNR recording (ADC) quality.

A semi-transparent line on motherboard separates the whole audio section from the rest of the board in order to minimize interference. Audio section is having premium Nichicon Gold Capacitors for audio filtration. In addition ASUS used TI R4580I Op-amp for rear audio amplification.

RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) suite is used for testing test ASUS X99 Deluxe audio against Asus Xonar DX Sound card. You can see clearly the difference between Noise level, dynamic rang and Total harmonic distortion percentage produced by on-board audio.

RMAA Asus Xonar DX

RMAA ASUS Audio

17. UEFI BIOS is stored in a Winbond 25Q128fV 128MB 8-Pin DIP Package chip, installed in a DIP socket 8-Pin for easy user replacement.

18. 20. ASUS X99 Deluxe uses two custom TPC chips

19. AsMedia ASM106SE for additional SATA Express port.

21. Tantalum-Polymer Capacitors are used for better power stability on back USB3.0 ports

Testing

Test system configuration - Intel i7-5960X, Corsair DDR4 RAM, Corsair H100i cooler, Samsung 830 SSD 256GB, Corsair RM1000 PSU, Asus HD-7750, Asus Xonar DX Sond Card, WD 1TB Green, HP DVD RW Drive.

BIOS

Bundled Softwares

Benchmarks

Overclocking

Power Consumption

Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.

Pros

• Dual LAN
• Great performance and stability
• Two slots M.2
• WLAN 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0

Cons

• High power consumption under load

Conclusion

First we like to thanks ASUS for providing ASUS X99 Deluxe board for review. Asus have always impressed me with the build quality and design of their products. Whether for Gamer, for Overclocker, or for the enthusiast, one feature packed board for all the ASUS X99 Deluxe. Features like ASUS custom LGA 2011-V3 socket (OC Socket) for Overclockers, Dual Gigabit Network intended for workstations and home servers, M.2 slots and multi GPU support for Gamers. Then we have the addition of good quality audio, Japanese capacitors, and OP AMP to listen the smallest detail in music or game play. And we cannot forget the auxiliary fan module, which is quite useful for those with watercooling and modding.

Finally, considering its looks or design or features or all, the ASUS X99 Deluxe is really impressive motherboard. ASUS really managed to make a top line motherboard that is able to catch the attention in the enthusiasts and in Gaming community, worthy of our PC TeK REVIEWS CHOICE Award.

Manufacturers Info

Site Link

Thanks.

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