ASUS X99 Deluxe Motherboard Review - Product Showcase Motherboard

Product Showcase

The ASUS X99 Deluxe AC follows a standard ATX form factor, that would be 12 in. x 9.6 in. (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm). The motherboard is located in the somewhat more mainstream 'affordable' series and is the entry level product within this range. The uber flagship product will be the ROG series, which we'll review soon as well.
 

Included with the motherboard are the regulars including; manuals, driver CDs, SATA cables and a rear IO plate. 

• CPU support: Haswell-E class Intel Core processors
• Chipset: Intel X99 Express Chipset
• Intel Gigabit Ethernet
• Intel 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (1300 Mbit/s), BT 4.0, Intel Wi-Di
• Storage: 8x SATA 6Gb/s, 1x M.2, PCIe 32 Gb/s and a SATA Express port
• Connectivity: 5x PCI-E 3.0 x16 and one x2 PCIe 2.0 (40 lanes available)
• 4x USB 3.0 / 6x USB 
• 8-channel Audio ALC1150 Realtek

Well look at that; small and good looking. And really, as powerful as an enthusiast setup. Included in the bundle is one mighty fine motherboard and gear like SATA cables, SLI connectors, WIFI Antenna. Oh ASUS a brown SLI connector ? Eeuhw.

Fun extras: X99-DELUXE is bundled with an alternative one-to-three fan hub to expand the onboard chassis fan to 7 and thermal sensor sources to 8, utilizing the 4-pin Molex connector to power up these three extended fans, while each one of them can either be controlled specifically as three different fans through on-board EXT_FAN header to EXT_FAN_IN on the extension card, or can be set to run in unison by connecting with FAN_IN. In other words, all fans are capable of being controlled under UEFI or through Fan Xpert3 under OS to fulfill your needs in either DC mode or PWM mode. All extension fans can be set to look up to specific T-Sensors EXT_TS1/EXT_TS2/EXT_TS3, authorizing you a total control solution on this build.

Though there is a M.2. slot present on the motherboard; ASUS will also deliver an ASUS HYPER M.2 X4 PCIe based M.2 interface - supporting M.2 specifications in PCIe mode. The expansion card can operate in both PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 2.0 standards, in standard M key type form factor, from 2230 to 22110. PCIE 3.0 x4 is so far the highest storage spec on the Intel roadmap, user can utilizes the ASUS HYPER M.2 X4 at any PCIe slot that’s bandwidth advantaged without needing to sacrifice any flexibility usage on the PCIe slot. 

You will notice that the Deluxe has a massive white rear IO shield for cool looks. The I/O back panel reveals 10 USB 3.0 ports. A Realtek ALC1150 high definition audio codec is the source for audio.The integrated audio comes from Realtek ALC1150 combined with a DTS software suite. The audio unit has special capacitors and also has an added audio headphone amplifier. We spot two 10/100/1000 fast Ethernet jack (Intel I128-V / i2111-at). This motherboard comes with an exclusive IEEE802.11ac Wi-Fi module that supports up to 1.3 Gbps wireless networks and Bluetooth 4.0. Bundled 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band, 3T3R Wi-Fi module is capable of supporting 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, gives you REALLY FAST onboard Wi-Fi.

A bit of a miss is a lacking PS/2 combo port that could have been used for either a keyboard or a mouse. The small grey button roughly a cm away from the lower left is a BIOS flashback button.

Check that, 5 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. a whopping five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 with as 2nd slot an extra x2 PCI 2.0 slot. The x16 slots are PCI Express Gen 3.0 configurations ready, that's just more than plenty. Mind you that the Core i7 5960X and 5930K processors have 40 PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes while the Core i7 5820K 'only' has 28 PCIe lanes.