Probably the biggest officially sanctioned tech story this week for PC enthusiasts was AMD's announcement of its 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs. Four new Threadripper processors were revealed on Monday but their availability will be staggered; with the 2990WX on-shelf and shipping on 13th August, the 2950X on 31st August, and the 2970WX and 2920X slated for October. As AMD readies its CPU releases, motherboard making partners are lining up new and updated products that offer upgraded power circuitry, cooling and a few more attractive extras to tempt new and upgrading AMD Threadripper customers.
Gigabyte X399 Aorus XTREME motherboard
Earlier this week Gigabyte announced its "top of the line" X399 Aorus XTREME motherboard, designed for AMD's 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper processors with up to 32 cores. As indicated in the intro, the key upgrade with this motherboard, compared with previous X399 TR4 boards is an upgraded power section. Gigabyte says that the X399 Aorus XTREME motherboard comes with a "10+3 power design using all digital PWM from IR accompanied by power connectors with solid pins allowing energy sensitive components to enjoy a precise and reliable power delivery".
Where there's a concentration of power cooling is increasingly important and Gigabyte has implemented an upgraded thermal design across the board. Direct Touch Heatpipe tech is used in the VRM area in addition to a Fins-Array heatsink. If the passive cooling comes under pressure there is a pair of 30 mm fans located under the I/O armour. Last but not least a NanoCarbon base plate is said to reduce the temperature of components mounted on PCB backside of the PCB.
Key features:
- Supports AMD 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper and 1st Generation Ryzen Threadripper Processors
- Quad Channel ECC/ Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4, 8 DIMMs, Up to 3600MHz+(OC)/ 3466MHz+(OC)
- Server-Class Digital Power PWM Design & Ultra Durable Solid Pin Power Connectors
- Cutting-edge Thermal Design with Fins-Array Heatsink and Direct Touch Heatpipe
- 4-Way Graphics Support with Dual Armour and Ultra Durable™ Design
- Triple Ultra-Fast NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 with Triple Thermal Guard
- Dual Intel GbE LAN with cFosSpeed Internet Accelerator + AQUANTIA® 10GbE BASE-T LAN
- ALC1220-VB Enhance 114dB(Rear)/ 110dB(Front) SNR in Microphone with ESS 9118 SABRE HiFi DAC
- Intel Dual Band 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2
- RGB FUSION with Multi-Zone Digital LED Light Show Design, Supports Addressable LED & RGB LED Strips
- Smart Fan 5 Features Multiple Temperature Sensors and Hybrid Fan Headers with FAN STOP
- Precise Digital USB Fuse Design for Stronger Protection
- Ultra Durable NanoCarbon Base Plate & I/O Shield Armor
- Rear Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Buttons
- APP Centre Including EasyTune and Cloud Station Utilities
MSI MEG X399 Creation motherboard
HEXUS made a feature video of the MSI MEG X399 Creation motherboard at the Computex 2018 show in Taipei in June. You can check out that overview here. Today MSI has officially announced the product, reports TechPowerUp, as we near launch for the 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs.
The official product page for the MSI MEG X399 Creation motherboard is available online now. You can dive on over there to check out the overview, specs, and even a gallery. However the story is pretty much the same as with Gigabyte's new product. It is designed for delivering maximum stable power to the new generation CPUs and provides bolstered cooling technology as well as some nice extras.
MSI employs a 19 phase digital power design with heat-pipe heatsink, plenty of temperature sensors and fan headers distributed across the board. Described as a content creators board this product nevertheless, just like the Aorus board, fills out its feature list with RGB lighting (MSI Mystic Light) and aggressively styled armour.
Key features:
- Supports 1st and 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper Series Processors
- Support 8 DIMMs, Quad Channel DDR4 3600+ (OC)
- Maximum Power: 19 phases digital power with heat-pipe heatsink design
- Maximum Temperature Control: Full fan control with 10 PWM fan headers and 3 dedicated thermal sensors
- Maximum Storage: 7 x Turbo M.2 with M.2 Xpander-Aero and AMD StoreMI technology
- Maximum Data Transfer: Dual Gigabit LAN with Dual-band Wireless-AC and bandwidth management
- M.2 Shield FROZR: Strengthened built-in M.2 thermal solution. Keeps M.2 safer and faster
- Core Boost: With premium layout and full digital power design to support more cores and provide better performance
- Dual 8 Pin Power Supply: By providing dual 8 pin connectors to ensure adequate power supply to unleash ultimate multi-core CPU performance
- Mystic Light: 16.8 million colours / 17 effects controlled in one click. Mystic Light Extension support both RGB and RAINBOW LED strip
- Lightning Fast Transfer Experience: 3x TURBO M.2 with Shield FROZR, AMD Turbo USB 3.1
- Audio Boost 4 with NAHIMIC: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality
- DDR4 Boost with Steel Armour: Fully isolated, shielded and optimized DDR4 PCB design to give your DDR4 memory a performance boost
- MULTI-GPU: With Steel Armour PCI-E slots. Supports 3-Way Nvidia SLI & 3-Way AMD Crossfire
- WHQL certified for Windows 10
