ASUS X99 Deluxe Motherboard Review - Product Showcase

X99 will bring a whopping 8-ports SATA 6 Gb/s storage supporting RAID RST and SRT and SSD TRIM on RAID 0 configurations. SATA Express is supported with two connectors as well. Interesting to see is a vertically mounted M.2. PCI Express slot, this received an upgrade from 1x PCI Express lane towards x4, giving the port not 10 GB/sec but 32 GB/sec performance. The Intel chipset delivers 10x SATA3 and another ASMedia controller steers the SATA Express controllers.

You will receive a WIFI module in this kit. This unit will offer you support of 802.11 ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and even Intel WiDi (Wireless Display) and by using a WiDi receiver (not included) you can watch movies on your TV without the need for any cables. 

The 802.11ac Wi-Fi module supports up to 1.3 Gbps wireless networks and 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac in general gives you REALLY FAST onboard Wi-Fi. Make note of all the USB lovin you will receive. There are 10x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0 ports available through internal connectors motherboard connectors delivered by the Intel chipset. Then an Asmedia ASM 1042AE controller adds more USB 3.0 ports to the back panel as well. 

ASUS also installed power and reset buttons on the board. Close by is a diagnostic LED and clear CMOS button. To the far left you can see quality audio capacitors to immerse your audio experience a bit better.

 You will get eight DIMM slots offering support for quad-channel DDR4 memory up 2800 MHz (OC). You can install a maximum of 128 GB in total. XMP 2.0 must be supported, we'll show you this petite setup running at 2133 and even 3000 MHz.

There are multiple switches on-board as well, once you determine to go for 2-way or 3-way graphics you can dis/enable the SLI/CFX Switch and follow the light up LEDs and assign more PCI lanes to the graphics slot. EZ XMP switch can help you enable the highest XMP profile level quick and easy.

In the middle you can see a Diagnostic post LED, it will display the status/post code. Unfortunately once booted into Windows it displays AA (OK), other manufacturers choose to display the processor package temperature on it.