The AMD TRX40 Motherboard Overview: 12 New Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on November 28, 2019 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- TRX40
- Threadripper 3000
- Castle Peak
MSI TRX40 Pro 10G & TRX40 Pro WIFI
Slightly down the pecking order and below the MSI Creator TRX40 are the MSI TRX40 Pro 10G and TRX40 Pro WIFI motherboards. Both with identical aesthetics and core feature sets, the differences between both models come down to networking support. Both motherboards come with dual Intel I211-AT Gigabit Ethernet controllers on the rear panel, but the TRX40 Pro 10G comes with an Aquantia AQC107 10 Gigabit Ethernet add-in card, while the TRX40 Pro WIFI includes an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface.
The design of the MSI TRX40 Pro 10G and TRX40 Pro WIFI follow the same black and grey design which stretches across the heatsinks and the PCB for a professional and uniformed look. The TRX40 chipset heatsink features active cooling, while just to the right hand of this is a two-digit LED debugger. Dotted around the edge of the PCB is six 4-pin headers with one designated for a CPU fan, one for a water pump, and four designed for chassis fans. The power delivery for both the MSI TRX40 Pro WIFI and TRX40 Pro 10G the CPU consists of a 12-phase design with 12 Intersil ISL99390 90 A power stages with 6 ISL6617 doublers and is controlled by an Intersil ISL69247 PWM controller. Providing power to the CPU is a pair of 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power connectors.
Both models contain the exact same core feature set which includes four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which run at x16/x8/x16+x8, with a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot also included. There are two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 with heatsinks on the board itself, while an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 add-on card allows users to install up to two more PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives into a full-length PCIe 4.0 slot. Also present is eight SATA ports which support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. Memory support is exactly the same as the MSI Creator TRX40 with up to DDR4-4666 1DPC 1R, and up to DDR4-3866 2DPC 2R, with up to 256 GB supported across the eight memory slots.
MSI TRX40 Pro WIFI rear panel (Pro 10G is exactly the same, minus the Intel AX200 Wi-Fi)
The only differences between both models are the rear panel; the Pro 10G has no Wi-Fi, while the Pro WIFI includes an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface which includes BT 5.0 connectivity. On the USB side is three USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.1 G1 Type-A, and one USB 3.2 G2 20 Gbps Type-C port. Both rear panels have two Intel I211-AT Gigabit Ethernet controllers, while the 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output are powered by a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec; a secondary Realtek ALC4050H audio codec powers the 3.5 mm microphone input and the front panel audio. The MSI TRX40 Pro 10G comes with an Aquantia AQC107 Ethernet controller add-on
The MSI TRX40 Pro 10 GbE has an MSRP of $500., while the MSI TRX40 Pro WIFI has a cost $470. Both models do feature identical features aside from networking. The M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot add-on card comes with both models and is a nice touch for users looking to add extra M.2 drives, at the expense of one of the full-length PCIe 4.0 slots. Both models are aimed at professionals with the design and feature set, but both models will appeal to gamers looking to build a system with the high-core count advantage of the Threadripper 3000 series, and on AMD's latest HEDT platform.
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amb9800 - Saturday, November 30, 2019 - link
TB3 has not been open sourced. It's been royalty-free from the start, but any TB3 device still needs to be certified by Intel. Thus far the only TB3 devices that exist integrate Intel TB3 controllers, and very few non-Intel platforms have integrated TB3 (basically just a couple of X570 ASRock boards).Chaitanya - Friday, November 29, 2019 - link
In order to integrate Thuberbolt, Intel needs access to microcode which is why very few boards even on AM4 come with it and even those solutions are iffy at best.eek2121 - Friday, November 29, 2019 - link
Untrue, TB has been open sourced and will be a part of the USB 4.0 standard. The real answer is likely one I provided earlier: Intel CPUs have dedicated bandwidth for TB3, AMD CPUs hang it off the PCIE bus.amb9800 - Saturday, November 30, 2019 - link
TB3 being incorporated into USB 4.0 definitely does not mean it has been "open sourced." Every TB3 device must still be certified by Intel.ender8282 - Saturday, November 30, 2019 - link
I love the TB3 port on my laptop and docking station. It's way convenient. Honestly though I've never understood the use case on a desktop. If you've got an ATX motherboard and a decent sized case what need does it really solve?TechKnowbabble - Friday, December 20, 2019 - link
According to this video the GIGABYTE TRX40 AORUS XTREME has a Thunderbolt 3 header called THB_C, but on the site the only mention to this i can find is a "GIGABYTE add-in card connector" which the AORUS Master and Wifi Pro have mention of also. I dont know why it is listed differently from the Designare or not mentioned in this article but it appears that all the Gigabyte TRX40 boards support thunderbolt 3 with add in card.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o21xINJF1tE&fe...
NelsonK - Saturday, January 18, 2020 - link
It might as well be -BetaMax-. Thunderbolt is Intel's baby, and you gotta dance to their tune to get the engineering specs -- Intel doesn't publish 'em. Only well-resourced (i.e., volume) manufacturers can feasibly spend to design and incorporate it, then produce to a scale that justifies the investment. Sure, that's not precisely a licensing fee, but it's one heckuva barrier to entry.These firms can all afford it, but, since VHS (USB) is good enough, why bother? USB "3.2" is pretty darn close and even uses the same Type-C port. In fact, you can even play your VHS tapes on this BetaMax -- USB devices will run at their native speeds when connected to Thunderbolt.
And with USB 4, there will be no difference in speed. Is there even a practical difference in speed now? Do ya really need more than 10 Gbps? A few of you might, but not enough to pay the piper.
This is a no-brainer for the board makers: USB 3.1 Gen 2 ("3.2") Type-C offers a lot more speed than most devices can hope to keep up with internally. In the instances where somebody wants to daisy-chain video, they're either mining (which just needs the chain, not so much the speed), or they're using a laptop and don't have space for a video card. Well, these are mainboards, folks. You've got a bunch of fat-pipe PCIe 4.0 16-lane slots that your graphics cards won't even make full use of 99.99% of the time they're running, as they throttle down to 2.0 or 1.0.
BetaMax was better, but it died even before S-VHS was a real thing. ThunderBolt just got similarly voted down (massively) by pretty much all of big name manufacturers users trust enough and -might- have paid extra to get a board that has it.
Looks like we're goin' with VHS once again, boys and girls... ;-)
wilsonkf - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
Check your last page. Do you really mean "ASUS X570" Product Stack? Also other brands...gavbon - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
Good spot Wilson, I really appreciate it. I've been neck-deep in X570, I must have been in AM4 mode!tamalero - Thursday, November 28, 2019 - link
hey Anana, any chance you could build a full comparison table between number of ports, pci-e slots, wifi, ethernet..etc..?