AMD just launched their 3rd Gen Threadripper HEDT CPUs, giving us the 24-core 3960X, 32-core 3970X, and a sneak peak at the 64-core 3990X (with the obvious hole in their line-up for a potential 48-core 3980X). Threadripper is entering a whole new market landscape; one where AMD’s desktop CPUs, such as the 3900X and new 16-core 3950X already tie or out-perform even Intel’s just-launched 10th Gen HEDT CPUs. Threadripper 3000 ends up being in a class all its own, rivaled only by W-series Intel CPUs that cost twice as much and yet still only perform two-thirds as well.
Motherboard manufacturers have been approaching these Threadrippers with the best of the best, producing the most premium, feature-rich motherboards we’ve seen to-date. These CPUs are targeting a specific audience: professional content creators, and these motherboards step up to the challenge and provide platforms extremely packed with everything one would need to have a 24/7 workhorse of a machine.
GIGABYTE has released four motherboards for the TRX40 platform, which we briefly overviewed in our announcement article, and today we have in our lab the flagship GIGABYTE TRX40 AORUS XTREME, which is in my opinion the most featureful, and dare I say most elegant, motherboard of the bunch.
GIGABYTE takes their X570 AORUS XTREME design up a notch with a shroud adjustment and edge lighting that looks like a nice polished iteration with a subtlty that I can appreciate. If you’ve seen the X570 AORUS XTREME, you’ll see a lot of similar features here.
Specifications
Let’s start with what all the motherboard brings to the table, and then we can examine the big parts individually (it’s a long list):
| GIGABYTE TRX40 AORUS XTREME | |
| Price | $849.99 |
| Form Factor | XL-ATX Form Factor; 32.5cm x 27.5cm (Measured 12 3/4″ x 11″) |
| Chipset | AMD TRX40 |
| BIOS | 2 x 128 Mbit flash Support for DualBIOS |
| Memory | 8 x DDR4 DIMM slots (256GB max, 32GB single DIMM capacity) Quad Channel Supports 2133MHz through 4400MHz (O.C.) memory modules Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules |
| Audio | Realtek ALC4050H codec+Realtek ALC1220-VB codec (rear panel audio) Realtek ALC4050H codec+ESS SABRE HiFi 9218 DAC (front panel audio) Support for DTS:X Ultra High Definition Audio 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel S/PDIF Out |
| LAN | Intel 10GbE LAN chip (10 Gbit/5 Gbit/2.5 Gbit/1 Gbit/100 Mbit), supporting 2 RJ-45 ports |
| WiFi | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 – WiFi 11a/b/g/n/ac/ax supporting 2.4/5GHz Dual-Band – Blutooth 5.0 – Supports WiFi ax 160MHz up to 2.4Gbps data rate |
| Expansion Slots | 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2) 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1, PCIEX8_2) PCIe 4.0 |
| Multi-GPU | AMD Quad-GPU CrossFire 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire support NVIDIA Quad-GPU SLI 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way NVIDIA SLI support |
| Storage Interfaces | CPU provided: – 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2M) – 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2Q) Chipset: – 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2280/22110 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2P) – 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2280 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2C_SOCKET) – 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0-7) Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10 ASMedia SATA 6Gb/s Controller: – 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 8, 9), supporting AHCI mode only AORUS Gen4 AIC Adaptor: – 4 x PCIe 4.0 / 3.0 M.2 slots |
| USB | CPU provided: – 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel Chipset: – 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel – 1 x USB Type-C port with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support, available thorugh the internal USB header – 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports available through the internal USB headers Chipset+1 USB 2.0 Hub: – 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports available through the internal USB headers (with the included front USB header extension cable) Chipset+ASMedia USB 3.2 Gen 2 Controller: – 1 x USB Type-C port on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support – 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port (red) on the back panel |
| Additional Internal I/O Connectors | – 1 x OC_PEG power connector – 1 x CPU fan header – 1 x water cooling CPU fan header – 2 x system fan headers – 3 x system fan/water cooling pump headers – 2 x addressable LED strip headers – 2 x RGB LED strip headers – 1 x GIGABYTE add-in card connector – 1 x noise detection header – 2 x temperature sensor headers – 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header (2×6 pin, for the GC-TPM2.0_S module only) – 1 x power button – 1 x reset button – 2 x BIOS switches – Voltage Measurement Points |
| I/O Controller | iTE I/O Controller Chip |
In This Review
