Review: MSI MEG X399 Creation Threadripper motherboard

#5581691 Posted on: 09/05/2018 08:41 PM

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you have very very strange results

#5581700 Posted on: 09/05/2018 08:58 PM

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Hey, yours is bigger than mine! Interestingly my scores match up on two systems(mobos.) Do you have the perf regulator option for CB benchmarks active in the BIOS or something?

Likely you do. I always disable weird 'Turbo' and Specific Benchmark performance enhancing features for my testing for the sake of objectivity:

34 35

#5581704 Posted on: 09/05/2018 09:17 PM

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Yes , cheat turn on, but its influence is less than 1-2% .This cheat also affects all the caches and results in the games
This processor has special "holes" for voltage , which can significantly change the result (for example, 1.33 may have a worse performance than 1.32, this all depends individually on the specimen ) + phase switching frequency is required more than 600khz + Spread spectrum enabled (EMP will seriously affect the stability of the system, because we have 4 crystals and 16 phases)

maybe you need a new BIOS, it's 1.22, it's not yet published, but it works well
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fR3T8e21AKOCpTmfgTm151XzRX8bv8Qr

what's your processor's batch?

#5581774 Posted on: 09/06/2018 07:20 AM

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Awesome review Hilbert, thanks for all the hard work! That mobo is rad and the mega 2990WX is insane(Ultra Comboooooooooooooo!)! I have it's smaller brother the 1950x and love it, it has been a rock same with my mobo the MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC. Makes me wonder what will X499(or what ever the next tech will be called) and 7nm update be like!!!? What a time to be alive lets just hope the 17th will be amazing as well then it will all be one for the books.

#5581803 Posted on: 09/06/2018 08:56 AM

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quick question:
what is the practical use/purpose of the odd looking metal USB 3.1 onboard connector next to the motherboards powers connector...?
what can you connect to that thing...?
(my 8700k motherboard also has one but i have zero clue what it is made/used for...)

#5581816 Posted on: 09/06/2018 09:33 AM

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quick question:
what is the practical use/purpose of the odd looking metal USB 3.1 onboard connector next to the motherboards powers connector...?
what can you connect to that thing...?
(my 8700k motherboard also has one but i have zero clue what it is made/used for...)


It is the internal USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C connector, some chassis have a Type-C (mini USB) connector in it, here is where you connect that to.

#5581832 Posted on: 09/06/2018 10:51 AM

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so the only thing it is made for is connecting the front Type-C (mini USB) connector of a computer case and nothing else...?
if so, it seems kind of odd and narrow envisioned by the people who designed/implemented it.

i've just read somewhere there is a theoretical 10 gbps bandwith on that connector...
that got me thinking along these lines: could this connector not be used as a sata3 replacement/upgrade since sata 3 is "only" 6gbps and this new one has 10gbps?

also can you boot from the Type-C (mini USB) connector with a samsung T5 for example... could be fun to be able to swap operating systems with multiple usb C ssd's

#5581840 Posted on: 09/06/2018 11:34 AM

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That would be Intel who designed it. And yes that is possible, a bit of an expensive proposition though

#5581969 Posted on: 09/06/2018 06:20 PM

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this mobo is sex-on-wheels.
but at almost $500... i rarely buy the super premium boards (and never for Intel) as i never do liquid nitrogen or try to out-do benchmarks. typically i save $100-$150 at the HEDT range and $75-$100 for standard mobos.
just got an Asrock x399 Taichi-M(m-atx) and it's good enough for me.
i just no longer "get" the need for e-atx or even atx mobos, unless you have a bunch of pcie storage.
people don't need sound cards or SLI (doesn't mean they don't want them), or network cards. every time i see an ATX with one gpu and no other aib's i cringe.
guess it's just me.

#5582032 Posted on: 09/06/2018 09:47 PM

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Righto--it's definitely an Intel design--no sense using a standardized tech if OEMs customize it all over the place with non-standard connectors, etc., eh? Nothing kills a tech faster than that.

Great review, HH--hit the high spots--great stuff! Nicely done. We may not all buy Ferraris for a number of reasons--but just about everyone enjoys peeping at them and drooling over them when we *can*! So, thanks again for this look at Raw Power Unleashed, and so on...

This review made me think that just a few years ago, the only way to get the max performance of the hardware that we paid for on anything approaching a consistent, daily basis, was to run demanding games--demanding 3d games, to dot our i's and cross our t's...! If we wanted to get our money's worth from our carefully selected purchases--booting into 3d accelerated games was the *only* way to do it! For those of us so bitten by the bug that we spent every dime we could lay our greedy little mitts on to buy that hardware we had been dreaming and drooling over for a long while--running a demanding 3d game was the only way possible to use that hardware to anything close to its max performance potential! That was true for so many years! Running paint programs, browsers, word processors, and, yawn...--whatever--you could do on a pocket calculator, comparatively...! It used to be that running a 3d game at a decent resolution was the only way to see the performance we'd paid for--and we all knew it, too, pretty much, as a given.

But now? Oh, Lordy, times have changed with a vengeance! Just think--taking the top off-the-shelf consumer computer hardware today--such as the brilliant hardware you have been reviewing for us all so splendidly here--we have to *slow it the f*** down*--knock it back to 8/16 "measley" *choke* cores ("measley"????)--to even get the most demanding 3d games available for sale with the most demanding 3d accelerators available at any price to even run! While the various image processors, video compilers, and etc. that can use such incredible power and pull the performance of a TR32/64 Magnificent Beast right out in the open where we can see it (I still pause at that--32/64 number--and momentarily query myself--"Is that right??? ... )! It's something for me to think that the fastest consumer-grade, off-the-shelf hardware demands a lot more than a 3d game these days before it really begins to even stretch its legs!

I don't believe that particular thought had crossed my mind in just that way prior to reading your review, here, HH. I think, not to put too fine a point on it, that we *all* stand at the doors of the shape of things to come! The past is in the rear-view, the fascinating future is dead ahead. All aboard! Tickets, please...!

#5582034 Posted on: 09/06/2018 09:56 PM

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this mobo is sex-on-wheels.
but at almost $500... i rarely buy the super premium boards (and never for Intel) as i never do liquid nitrogen or try to out-do benchmarks. typically i save $100-$150 at the HEDT range and $75-$100 for standard mobos.
just got an Asrock x399 Taichi-M(m-atx) and it's good enough for me.
i just no longer "get" the need for e-atx or even atx mobos, unless you have a bunch of pcie storage.
people don't need sound cards or SLI (doesn't mean they don't want them), or network cards. every time i see an ATX with one gpu and no other aib's i cringe.
guess it's just me.

No fair--an obvious telepath is haunting these forums! You have read my mind, sir--out of there, pronto...

Talk about my own thoughts...regardless of the cpu initially chosen nothing just makes as much sense as a x399 board--lots more PCIe expansion room, dual-to-quad channel system ram support, and so much more it's just crazy insane. Talk about a mboard to last you through the ages--these badboys are *it*. You replace the cpus or ram and peripherals as you see fit, as the years tic by, you are *solid*. Quantum leaps like these products manifest only every decade usually...so even if it only lasts a decade--what a decade it will have been, eh?

#5582122 Posted on: 09/07/2018 08:21 AM

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this mobo is sex-on-wheels.
but at almost $500... i rarely buy the super premium boards (and never for Intel) as i never do liquid nitrogen or try to out-do benchmarks. typically i save $100-$150 at the HEDT range and $75-$100 for standard mobos.
just got an Asrock x399 Taichi-M(m-atx) and it's good enough for me.
i just no longer "get" the need for e-atx or even atx mobos, unless you have a bunch of pcie storage.
people don't need sound cards or SLI (doesn't mean they don't want them), or network cards. every time i see an ATX with one gpu and no other aib's i cringe.
guess it's just me.

About same I do not understand people buing highend ITX/mATX mobos unless they realy need that small factor for small HTPC builds and you loose A LOT of stuff on them.

- there is very little seletions for ITX/mATX mobos
- most of them cut out too much stuff to my liking to be able fit to formfactore and also quality is often lower
- What's sense in getting 64 Pci-e lanes and having only 1 PCI-e slot ???
- PCI-e slots sometime fails and on full size mobos you have more of them to try
- M.2 PCI-e card is quite usefull for coppyingor cloning data
- testing cards from another PC
- adding new NIC if onboard fail

Can probably find dozen more resons why to go with full size board rather than small, if we are talking about expensive mobos and especialy mosters like TR4 socket ones.

#5582321 Posted on: 09/07/2018 04:30 PM

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Xrodney... ITX is impossible with the TR4 socket for Threadripper.
m-ATX on the other hand is perfect for most use case scenarios. you can even SLI/Crossfire.
there are 5 slots on a m-ATX board.
so you can SLI and have a sound or RAID card.
for me, i'm going solo 1080ti with 1 PCI-e M.2 RAID card.
not using soundcard, using outboard dac, but i still could've added a soundcard.

#5582323 Posted on: 09/07/2018 04:33 PM

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Xrodney... ITX is impossible with the TR4 socket for Threadripper.
m-ATX on the other hand is perfect for most use case scenarios. you can even SLI/Crossfire.
there are 5 slots on a m-ATX board.
so you can SLI and have a sound or RAID card.
for me, i'm going solo 1080ti with 1 PCI-e M.2 RAID card.
not using soundcard, using outboard dac, but i still could've added a soundcard.
also... M.2 storage changes everything...i have 2 onboard M.2's AND my M.2 pcie card
spinners and their need for SATA are so...yesterday