ASUS Reveals Trio of New X299 Motherboards

KEY POINTS

• ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore: 16 power stages, 1.77" LiveDash OLED, DIMM.2 slot for extra NVMe drives, 10Gbps Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, USB 3.2 Gen 2
• ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II: 12 power stages, 1.3” LiveDash OLED, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, USB 3.2 Gen 2
• Prime X299-A II: 12 power stages, support for 256GB of RAM, Intel VROC support, Thunderbolt 3 header, USB 3.2 Gen 2

Cologne, Germany (August 19, 2019) - ASUS today announced three new X299 motherboards to support upcoming Intel® Core™ X-series processors. Many computing itches can only be scratched by processors with that magical combination of plenty of cores and sizable amounts of cache and memory bandwidth. The latest refresh of Intel’s high-end desktop platform upgrades maximum RAM capacities to 256GB and adds support for more PCIe connectivity directly from the CPU — just the ticket for multi-GPU rigs and massive NVMe solid-state drive arrays.

Baseline features for the upgraded boards include improved power circuitry with additional power stages, support for faster RAM, Intel Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC) support, and better networking and USB connectivity. All three models also include our AI Overclocking intelligence for automatically turning the knobs on the CPU to find the optimum frequency and voltage settings for the system.

ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore

ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore is one sharply dressed board in the EATX form factor. Right from the get-go, Infinity Lighting holographic accents dazzle and impress atop stylish aluminum ROG Armor. We fortify the primary M.2 slots, I/O shield, and audio signal components with the same material. A 1.77-inch LiveDash OLED display can present POST codes, system information or custom graphics. For those who prefer a stealthy look, the display and onboard lighting can be shut off entirely. Around the back, a single-piece backplate covering most of the board allows for extra heat dissipation and structural reinforcement. All the main PCIe® slots are clad in SafeSlot metal reinforcement, so heavier graphics cards can be plugged in without worry.

Extreme Encore has the ability to handle and overclock the most powerful chips in the Intel Core X-series family. That’s where its humongous 16 power stages come in. Since Intel Core X-series processors can draw a lot of power when overclocked, we used ProCool II auxiliary power connectors with solid pins to maximize current capacity and minimize conduction loss. The VRM sits underneath heatsinks connected by a heat pipe and cooled by two compact fans that will only spin up when needed. Our space-saving DIMM.2 module employs a heatsink to chill NVMe devices also installed there.

One of the reasons to acquire a high-end desktop chip is the copious amount of memory bandwidth it can tap. Extreme Encore lets users take advantage of 256GB of RAM across the quad-channel controller, clocked at blistering speeds as high as 4266MT/s. Our exclusive OptiMem III enhancements help extreme overclockers find the limits of their RAM.

The extra lanes available in the upcoming Intel Core X-series enabled us to increase the onboard NVMe storage device support to four, meaning it’s possible to run massive NVMe RAID arrays with optional Intel VROC technology and push gigabyte-per-second transfers to double digits.