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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HStewart - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
You got to give some credit to AMD clever marketing teams by naming this x399 when Intel has x299 and then calling this the "The Most Advanced Desktop Motherboard in the World"But in reality there is no Thunderbolt 3.0 support and most likely be updated next year or later with PCIe 4.0 support.
Does it support DDR4-4600?
AMD sure likes to play numbers game and not just chipset name - but with number cores - just remember it mostly marketing - yes it still 16 cores - but 16 cores by one manufacturer does not mean 16 cores from completion.
sartwell - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Where is the high speed RAM? You cannot get it anywhere.HowardJones - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
If you're considering the ROG Zenith be aware that it's having tons of problems overclocking CPU and memory. Theres a huge thread on overclock dot net that is filled with people having problems with the bios. There WAS an Asus rep who was trying to help, but he's pretty much disappeared in the last few weeks.tamalero - Sunday, September 17, 2017 - link
Seems like your average typical Asus mainboard.Asus has really huge troubles in their software segment. I still remember they needed like 50 patches to get their high end routers stable. And yet they couldnt get all what they promised in a working condition and even disabled some stuff in later firmwares.
Same with bioses.
I still remember a time where you had to enable the "floppy" connector in a motherboard (even if you had no drive) if you wanted the bios to actually apply the overclocking settings.
mapesdhs - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
A note for those with older ASUS ROG and other ASUS X79 boards, etc.: there's a thread on the ASUS ROG forum site where a guy has provided modded BIOS files to support booting from NVMe devices, aswell as rolling in all the updates to the latest microcode, Intel RAID, etc. Very handy indeed, and he takes requests for other ASUS boards. SSDs like the 950 Pro have their own boot ROM, but a BIOS with boot support is perfect for the 960 EVO/Pro and other models which don't have their own boot ROM.I just bought two R4Es (one basically new), a 4930K, a 16GB/2400 DDR3 kit and a 120mm AIO for a total of 320 UKP. Who needs new stuff? :D My next new build will be TR or EPYC though I'm sure.
satai - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
Are any details on X399 AORUS Gaming 7 power delivery solution?The rumor was, that the used only 8 phase, but 8s this true for the final design?
danjw - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
The Asus Zenith Extreme claims to support 4-way SLI, but I thought Nvidia didn't support 4x slots for SLI? Am I wrong? Or is this a false claim?DanNeely - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
Cynically I'm going to guess that if you use several generation old cards that did support 4 way SLI you could combine all 4 together for an act of supreme WTFery.danjw - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
I looked at the manual for the Zenith Extreme. It claims the two that the block diagram of the board in this review indicates are 4x are 8x, with the lowest one on the board being 8x as long as you don't have a U.2 drive connected to the U.2 port. So, it is unclear which is correct the block diagram or the manual.danjw - Sunday, September 17, 2017 - link
Apparently, the block diagram wasn't clear. That last slot is 8x/4x depending on if you have a U.2 drive connected.