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- Date:
- Monday , December 08, 2014
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:
ASUS X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard Review
Today we review the basic no-frills ASUS X99-A motherboard and see just what ASUS has sacrificed, if anything, in order to keep the price in the $250 range. While Haswell-E CPU systems are not exactly for the budget conscious, saving cash on the motherboard gets you a lot closer to a budget-minded system build.
Introduction
ASUS was founded in 1989 and over the years has grown into one of the world’s largest and most influential PC hardware vendors. While the ASUS legacy began with motherboards the company quickly branched out into other areas. Today ASUS’ product lines encompass a wide range of products including monitors, desktops, laptops, networking equipment, and peripherals. Despite the company’s versatility it remains best known for motherboard manufacturing.
ASUS’ commitment to quality and a wide range of markets has made it a favorite amongst general computer users and enthusiasts alike. The X99-A represents a product that bridges the gap between the super high end X99 Deluxe and the more mainstream Z97 Express chipset based systems. This motherboard would seem to be a great option for use with Intel’s Core i7-5820 CPU, another product which bridges the gap between LGA1150 and LGA2011 v3 based systems. While the CPU itself is the entry level in the Haswell-E lineup, it does offer more CPU cores, more PCI-Express lanes and more memory bandwidth than Intel’s Core i7-47xx series CPUs. For some users the Core i7-5820K gives that perfect balance of connectivity, memory bandwidth and the extra cores for the most demanding multithreaded applications. The X99-A as ASUS’ budget X99 based offering, it’s a natural companion to the Core i7-5820K.
The ASUS X99-A is based on Intel’s X99 Express chipset and represents the lower end offering in the X99 product family. While the X99-A lacks some of the features found on the X99 Deluxe it is by no means "stripped down." The ASUS X99-A features enhanced ESD protection, DRAM over current protection, and the usual compliment of ASUS specific features such as DIGI+Power control, Fan XPert3, TPU, EPU, Easy XMP switch, MemOK, and more.
The ASUS X99-A looks much like the X99-Deluxe at a glance. It lacks the beefier cooling hardware and white shroud of the Deluxe model. You give up the second M.2 slot, SATA Express support, fan extension card, and the fourth PCI-Express lane. There are some core features that are retained leaving the base foundation of the motherboard basically the same. Like the higher end model, the X99-A features an 8-phase power design, 4-phase memory power design, and 5k capacitors.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
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Board Layout
The layout of the ASUS X99-A is exemplary. There are still a couple minor complaints I had working with the X99-A. First is the location of the power and reset switches. I just prefer these to be in the lower right hand corner or the lower left hand corner. If you load up all your expansion slots the location effectively makes these buttons useless and unreachable. Granted that would be the case in a chassis anyway so it is a minor complaint. My second issue is with the location of the two lone SATA ports which are next to the ATX-24 pin power connector. I do not like this location. I prefer all my SATA connections to be next to one another in order to facilitate cleaner cable management. Again this is a minor issue as most people probably won’t use all of these anyway.
The CPU socket features ASUS OC socket technology which is designed with extra pins to increase memory frequencies and enable lower latencies with increased stability thanks to lower voltage fluctuations. The CPU area is generally clear of obstructions save for the DIMM slots. You can see the 8-phase power hardware to the right hand side of the CPU socket. The socket area is clear enough to allow for most cooling hardware to be used but you may have to utilize low clearance memory modules with some cooling hardware.
The DDR4 DIMM slots are color coded gray and black to denote proper dual and quad-channel memory mode operations. These use ASUS’ standard single sided retention tabs which are necessary to allow for easy removal and installation of memory modules with larger graphics cards installed. ASUS uses a 4-phase power design for its memory circuitry as well as its T-topology design allowing for higher overclocks due to reductions in crosstalk and signal deflection. The memory trace paths are all the same length ensuring the best possible compatibility and performance.
The X99 Express chipset has a flat heat sink adorned in white. It lacks the heat pipe and larger footprint of the cooling hardware found on the ASUS X99 Deluxe, but the X99 Express chipset isn’t exactly a space heater making the one on the X99 Deluxe a bit of overkill comparatively. You’ll naturally find the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA Express ports in front of the chipset. The M.2 slot flanks the chipset on the left. Switches for the EPU, TPU and Easy XMP modes are just to the left of the M.2 slot.
The expansion slot area is well designed with plenty of space for multi-GPU configurations. 2 and 3-Way graphics card configurations are supported. Configurations of x16, x16/x16, x16/x16/x8 are possible with a 40-lane CPU.
The I/O panel actually looks barren compared to ASUS’ other X99 based motherboards. A standard PS/2 mouse or keyboard port is there along with 2x USB 2.0 ports, 6x USB 3.0 ports, 1x RJ-45 LAN port, 1x optical output and 5x mini-stereo jacks for audio. The BIOS flashback button is also present here should you ever need it.