The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Motherboard Review: 10G For All
by E. Fylladitakis on July 5, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- 10GBase-T
- ThreadRipper
- X399
ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Board Features
The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is a motherboard designed to entice gamers and sports a host of features, yet some of these features will be of little to no interest to the motherboard's intended target group. For example, the motherboard has three NICs installed, one of them being AQUANTIA's AQC107 10Gbps, plus an Intel 3168NGW 1×1 AC card. Very few gamers will be interested on having three separate NICs but nearly all of them would prefer a single gaming-specific NIC to be present. ASRock's design choices increased the price tag of the X399 Professional Gaming up to $440, making it one of the most expensive AMD X399 motherboards currently available.
| ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
| Price | Link |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | TR4 / SP3r2 |
| Chipset | AMD X399 |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Eight DDR4 Supporting 128GB Quad Channel Up to 3600+ MHz |
| Video Outputs | N/A |
| Network Connectivity | 1 × AQUANTIA AQC107 10Gbit 2 x Intel I211-V 1 x Intel AC 3168NGW Wi-Fi |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220A |
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 4 × PCIe 3.0 (×16 / ×8 / ×16 / ×8) |
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 × PCIe 2.0 (×1) |
| Onboard SATA | Eight, RAID 0/1/5/10 |
| Onboard SATA Express | None |
| Onboard M.2 | 3 × PCIe 3.0 (x4) |
| Onboard U.2 | 1 × U.2 Connector (×4) |
| USB 3.1 Gen 2 | 1 × Type-C 1 × Type-A |
| USB 3.1 Gen 1 | 8 × Type-A Rear Panel 4 ×Type-A via headers |
| USB 2.0 | 4 × via headers |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU |
| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Pump/Aux (4-pin) 3 x System (4-pin), one supports liquid-cooling pumps |
| IO Panel | 8 x USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 2 x Network RJ-45 2 x Antenna connectors 1 x Combo PS/2 5 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port |
In The Box
We get the following:
- Driver Disk
- Quick Installation Guide
- User's manual
- Case Badge
- Four black SATA cables (two straight, two with a 90° connector)
- SLI/Crossfire bridges
- Wireless antennas
- I/O Shield
The bundle of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is relatively poor, taking into consideration the retail price of the motherboard, and the focus on gamers. Inside the box, we found a comprehensive manual and a quick installation guide, only four SATA cables, two simple wireless antennas without extension cords, the I/O shield, and three SLI bridges for two/three/four-way SLI configurations. Aside from the low number of SATA cables and the very basic wireless antennas, there were no cable straps, quick connectors, or any other useful accessories that are typically found accompanying top-tier motherboards.
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spuwho - Friday, July 6, 2018 - link
The problem isn't the 10G port on the board, its the cost of the 10G switches. Unless you want to build a 10G point to point ring, 10G switch ports still haven't come far below $100 per. The cheapest 10Gbe switch is a Buffalo unmanaged @ $63 per port. $80 per port for the managed. 1Gbe switches didn't take off until they got below $40 per unmanaged port.withextremeprejudice - Tuesday, July 10, 2018 - link
Correction needed. No RAID 5.In article: Onboard SATA Eight, RAID 0/1/5/10
On manufacturer spec page: 8 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
hoohoo - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
The on board 10GbE is very nice. 10GbE should be the standard in general.