An AMD Threadripper X399 Motherboard Overview: A Quick Look at Seven Products
by Ian Cutress & Joe Shields on September 15, 2017 9:00 AM ESTThe MSI X399 SLI Plus
As with other X399 boards, the MSI X399 SLI Plus uses eight total memory slots, although these are not reinforced. This configuration allows for up to 128GB of RAM in a quad channel setup. MSI uses their DDR4 Boost technology on the SLI Plus and lists memory speed support up to DDR4-3600+.
Power delivery is handled by a fully digital 13 phase VRM which looks quite similar to the Gaming Pro Carbon AC. Per the Military Class VI specs, it uses Titanium chokes and 'dark' capacitors. We cannot confirm by the pictures, however, it is likely using the same DrMOS ICs found on the Pro Carbon. Power is fed to the VRMs by two 12V CPU leads (one is optional) located in the upper left-hand corner of the board. The SLI Plus has a full two character debug LED as well as a simplified four LED debug system with LED’s for Boot, VGA, DRAM, and CPU.
The SLI Plus has a total of six PCIe slots: two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots and four full-length PCIe 3.0 slots. The two main GPU slots, capable of running x16/x16 if they are the only ones populated, are reinforced with MSI’s Steel Armor to support heavy video cards and prevent potential damage to the slot. The motherboard supports 4-Way NVIDIA SLI and 4-Way AMD Crossfire technologies.
For storage, the SLI Plus has a total of eight SATA ports fed from the chipset, and has the same physical location and orientation of the Pro Carbon; six horizontal and two vertical. There are a total of three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots which get their lanes from the CPU. Two of the M.2 slots support up to 80mm drives, while the middle slot can handle up to 110mm modules. Only the top M.2 slot has a heatsink for cooling down the installed M.2 module. U.2 support does not make it to the SLI Plus.
The audio side of the house is managed by a Realtek ACL1220 codec working in conjunction with MSI’s Audio Boost 4 suite. While the Nahimic software package normally found on the gaming products does not make its way here, the SLI Plus uses separate audio layers for left and right channels, de-pop protection, Chemi-Con audio capacitors, EMI shielding and board separation, and a dedicated headphone amplifier which auto-detects impedance (use up to 600Ω).
As far as the overall aesthetic, MSI uses a black PCB and color scheme and lets the integrated RGB LEDs fit whatever theme a builder has in mind. LEDs make it on the back panel IO shroud, chipset heatsink, and a strip found on the back of the board under the SATA ports. Additional RGB LED strips can be added via the two onboard RGB headers. One is for a rainbow strip, while the other for general RGB; both are controlled by MSI’s Mystic Light software.
Pricing was not listed, but we do expect the SLI Plus to come in under the Gaming Pro Carbon. We should see these available for purchase soon.
| MSI X399 SLI PLUS | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
| Price | N/A |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | TR4 |
| Chipset | AMD X399 |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Eight DDR4 Supporting 128GB Quad Channel Up to 3600 MHz (OC) Supports ECC UDIMM (in non-ECC mode) |
| Network Connectivity | 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN controller |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 |
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 4 x PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| PCIe Slots for Other (from Chipset) | 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 |
| 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) 1 x Internal Header |
| USB 3.0 | 4 x USB 3.0 |
| USB 2.0 | 2 x Back Panel 2 x Headers |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 2 x 8-pin CPU |
| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Water Pump (4-pin) 4 x System Fan (4-pin) |
| IO Panel | 1 x Clear CMOS button 1 x BIOS FLASHBACK+ button 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports 8 x USB 3.0 Type-A ports 1 x LAN (RJ-45) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A port 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C port 5 x Audio Jacks 1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT connector |
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LordanSS - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
My money is on the latter.... =/vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
With CPU power approaching 150 Amps, all these MBs are brain dead right out the gate, for using 50y old 8+ phase Buck converter topology, where VRMs with multiple phases still have poor response settling times (not one cycle settling but 20 cycles), lowish efficiencies way below 98% needing substantial heat sinks; while being saddled with the vagaries of inductive energy storage which takes up a lot of space and cost much more. Instead they should be using hybrid-PWM switching eliminating hard switch of high currents, where fractional cycle resonance ensures zero current switching and almost no switching losses. Resonance frequency scaling of the inductor/capacitor eliminates the need for ferrite cores altogether, reducing both size and core losses.http://www.powerelectronics.com/power-management/s...
Rehashing the same old power technologies with only stepwise minuscule improvements at each iteration, is not going to bode well at all. These engineers need to join the rest of us in the 21st century, and stop rehashing inductive energy storage solutions in power supplies. These new power topologies have been available for 5y to 8y now. And further this will also reduce EMI noise.
vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I might add eliminating the multi-phase Buck converters for a solution based on PWM-resonance switching (hybrid switching), fractional cycle resonance (one cycle settling responses), and resonance scaling of resonance components, will likely permit a X399 mITX board to be made; with all that PSU space recovered for other purposes. Who will take up the challenge? AMD, ASROCK? Or will Intel beat AMD in the rush to high current capability at 99% efficiency? Or one of the other competitors out there! A clarion call to action this is to once and for all retire the Buck converter!ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I doubt they will even make a micro atx board, much less itx...It will be a waste, gigantic socket will take up most of the space, there won't be enough room for all 4 memory channels, the CPUs generous amount of PCIE lanes will be utterly wasted.
vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Yes, and yet ASROCK put the X99 on a mITX board. However cutting heat from the VRM's by 60% to 70% or more should be done anyway, not to mention the graphics cards that draw even more power. Why settle for 95/96% efficiency (or worse in some cases) when one could get 98.5% to 99% efficiency. But then again you might be right concerning Thread Ripper, although I would still buy it with M2 slots on the back. The power delivery could be moved entirely to the back of the board without heat sinks with a total height of only 1.5mm (possibly at the center of socket itself on the back). The challenge of course is just as applicable to the graphics cards.ddriver - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
Hm, it seems that they launched some lga2066 boards recently, an asrock itx and an msi matx. TR4 however is still atx and up only...DanNeely - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I agree about how little sense it would make; but there have been a few LGA2011 mITX boards for people who only needed the higher core count. One of the two currently listed on Newegg uses SoDIMMs and riser boards around the CPU socket to make everything fit. Doing it for Threadripper would definitely be harder on account of the bigger socket; but I won't say never.Xajel - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
mITX is very hard even with riser boards & only 4x SO-DIMMsbut mATX on the other hand is very plausible... lets hope for a mATX version of the ASRock Pro Gaming with it's 10GbE ( and at least one of it's Intel's 1GbE ), at least 2 of it's M.2's and 6+ SATA ports... and please ASRock, add a front USB 3.1g2 header...
ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Amps, or amperes, is a unit of current, not a unit of power. Power is measured in watts."Rehashing the same old power technologies with only stepwise minuscule improvements at each iteration, is not going to bode well at all." - this is unfortunately a fact, and the de-fact motto of the industry.
ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I mean it is kinda naive to assume several years old switching circuits will find their way into the mainstream just because they are a few percent better.We've had gas turbine engines for decades, but they are still only used in tanks, helicopters or naval ships, while mainstream vehicles are still stuck with the internal combustion engine, which is easier to break, harder to maintain and a whooping 60% less efficient.