ASUS ROG Zenith X399 Extreme review - Conclusion

Final Words 

There is no denying it that ASUS did an impressive job with the ROG Zenith Extreme. We had little to no issues with the board other then some re-adjusting of the cooling fan configuration (noisy) that we had to address. That's fixed in seconds really. But from day one of usage, the Threadripper performance was spot on and the tweaking experience as expected. The same goes for the memory, the G.Skill memory 8GB 3200 CL 14  (which can be found under SKU code F4-3200C14D-16GTZR) was running perfect, just flick your XMP mode in the BIOS and you boot at that 3200 MHz CL14 with nice tight timings into Windows problem free. While Threadripper is all about having many CPU cores and threads, obviously the X399 platform is all about features and diversity. ASUS simply delivers, they make as good of use as they can from the many available PCIe 3.0 and 2.0 lanes and made sure that every hip and trendy feature is available. This includes 10 Gbps USB 3.1, Ethernet, even 10 Gbps Ethernet with the extra board. Then the abundance of storage options ranging from SATA3 towards triple M2 and U2. And then there is stuff like the many x16 PCIe slots and WIFI in the form of AC and even AD. Then they included a small OLED status screen and a really nice RGB lighting system. It is all subtle yet extreme. 

Performance

You have seen the results. Funny story: tests and benchmarks that normally take 5 minutes to finish do that in half or even less the time it usually takes. Many threaded applications will fly in terms of relative performance. And make no mistake, single threaded performance as well is really good as Threadripper can boost towards 4.0 GHz with an extra 200 MHZ XFR allowance as well. You can clock and thus tweak all cores on this proc to 4 GHz as well. Albeit you do need to wonder if that is fair in terms of extra heat levels and power consumption. But sure, if yo want to, you could. Make no mistake, you do not need a 16-core processor, I have stated it many times already, I feel that we all need to move to 6 and 8-core processors as these simply offer a snappier and faster PC eco system with all the things we do simultaneously on a PC these days. But long term a platform like this might last your many MANY years. You have the performance, the threads and let's not forget the connectivity with the many PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes available.
 

 
The Experience

I am also happy to report that, with the ASUS launch BIOS and motherboard we really did not run into any significant issues if at all. The memory compatibility and stability is good. If you pick your memory right, you will not have any issues as the Initial Ryzen releases already has removed the launch issues. In the BIOS simply enable the XMP SPD profile and you'll boot straight into Windows with your new timings and frequency. I've mentioned it a couple of times already, but please read up in this article for some good memory recommendations. These memories work on Ryzen, and will work just as well on Threadripper as well. Game performance then, it's fine. Yes you'll be able to perhaps gain 10% more perf at 1080p in a CPU bound situation from a faster clocked Intel counter-part. How important that is to you is totally up-to you. My advise, take the money you save on the AMD platform and invest that in a faster GPU. That's what call a double whammy. Think about it. Stability then, no problems whatsoever. The PC boots at XMP into windows instantly, we didn't have a single crash or weird instability whatsoever.

The Memory

The new AGESA 1006 based BIOSes have improved a lot, Threadripper is starting at AGESA 2006 at launch, the same stuff. 3200 MHz is a non-issue with the right memory, we recommend 2933 MHz or better when you build a gaming rig. Obviously with quad-channel you could go a little slower as you gain more bandwidth. All previously AGESA 1006 and newer firmware approved memories as we have tested should be fine to us. It is however a new platform and chipset, hence please do give AMD and their motherboard partners a little time to iron out any inevitable bugs and launch issues (but we haven't ran into anything significant enough really).

The Power

This processor now fabbed at 14 nm FinFET the TDP sticks to roughly 180 Watts. A full PC at idle will sit in the 92~95 Watt range with a dedicated graphics card installed (GeForce GTX 1080 / 16 GB memory / SSD and the motherboard). When we stressed the processors with a Prime 1024M run we reached roughly 250 Watts, that's low enough for what it needs to be. Overall though, this is impressive to see with sixteen CPU cores, especially compared to what we have seen from Intel more recently. When we game we hover at ~320 Watts which is higher then we are used to, but that's the 2nd CPU die, also and obviously that factor is dependant on the type of graphics card you use of course as well as how many CPU cores the game utilizes. So yeah, these are a notch higher, but overall good enough values with this mega-core Threadripper product series. 

A very noisy cover fan

You'll notice that once you startup your ROG Zenith based PC for the first time, you'll need to tweak your fan settings for cooling for more silence (just set them to lower RPM and balance thing out manually). However there is a bit of a disturbing factor. Located at the rear IO slash VRM area is a small active fan, at default it makes a lot of noise. For whatever reason that fan is not set at low RPM and whining and moaning like crazy. A silly implementation really, total fail. And unless you are tweaking with LN2 or something, we do not see reason for a loud fan whatsoever. In the BIOS just configure the COV fan as it is called to a manual mode with the lowest 200 RPM configuration, tie the sensor to something unused like shown below, T_Sensor_1. Once done, your motherboard is now silent. I assume that ASUS will address this with a future BIOS update though as at the current defaults the noise is just silly and annoying (yet easily fixed).

The Tweak

Anything Ryzen architecture based does to roughly a max of 4 GHz, but will also end there with an allcore tweak. This is the same for Threadripper. Apply a 40x multiplier. Use a voltage offset that gets you close or just at 1.35 volts and you should be able to rock and roll. Be advised though, tweaking creates more heat and thus make sure you have enough cooling. We surely recommend some form of liquid cooling. On the cooling-block / processor surface area coverage we said enough, it's not an issue. None whatsoever. Obviously tweaking also will increase your power consumption (when the PC is stressed), please do keep that in mind. One note here though, tweaking does remain to be a bit of a conundrum. You can achieve an allcore tweak to 4.0 GHz. Intel goes higher in their clocks and often can reach 4.5 to 5 GHz. That's where some residual games perf is found in CPU bound situations. It also would have been nice to see a per core or even per CCX (per 4 cores) tweak. Say four cores at 4200 MHz, four at 4000 MHz and the rest at 3700 MHz. That way you can balance heat and energy consumption better while getting more perf in your main and prioritized threads. The fact that you can clock 16 cores at 4.0 GHz stable at fairly low voltage however is pretty amazing stuff. And that's where we land in the following chapter.

The conclusion

In short, I think the X399 ROG Zenith Extreme is totally amazing. But I do not have any basis for comparison from other X399 boards just yet. ASUS went crazy and dropped everything they could on the PCB. And that means the fastest storage solutions in multitudes, crazy network configurations with the absolute fastest Wifi and even 1/5/10 Gbps Ethernet (yay!). And then there is the massive amount of connectivity available on your PCIe slots. Tweaking wise the sky is the limit, well let me rephrase that .. the processor is the limit :) The board can go way higher and will facilitate anything the Threadripper processors can do with up-to 3600 MHz clocked on that quad-channel memory as well. We like the small OLED status LCD and we really like that subtle RGB implementation (AURA SYNC) and on and on and on. The noisy little cover fan needs some tweaking (we do hope that ASUS will fix that noise with a BIOS update). If not, I explained you how you can fix that yourself in a  few seconds. Now there is one thing we need to discuss, it will be the biggest conundrum of this motherboard. The price of this luxurious beast is a bit nauseating 499 USD, and here in the EU you may expect it tagged at € 599,- depending on your country. Hey, that 10 Gbps Ethernet card alone is worth 150 bucks not to mention the WIFI AC/AD implementation. But sure, I have a hard time justifying such an amount of money of course, so I'll just leave the final judgment on that to you guys as you are the ones that decide whether or not you are willing to drop that much cash on a motherboard. And sure, there will be plenty X399 motherboards to choose from in all kinds of ranges and lines. This simply happens to be the most extreme SKU in the most enthusiast segmented levels. Now I can make the conclusion a mile long, but when I am impressed, then I am just that. You've seen the options, the aesthetics and you have seen what it can do. The X399 Zenith Extreme is a child of love and belong in the absolute highest rankings of your short-list (if you are going for that X399 / Threadripper platform). I'll give it our hard to earn Top Pick award, not based on price though. No purely based on the hardware, looks, tweaking experience and tremendous amount of high-end features. It has been a pleasure working on this platform from day one, but we also have to acknowledge that it is completely out of reach for many at this price level. 

ATH +++

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