Did anyone ever review the Realtek 2.5G chip on the X299 PRO board? I've seen it on many boards, but don't recall any tests of it. The X299 PRO would otherwise make a nice board. Well, depending on how much more they would charge for the 10G add-in card, which I don't necessarily need, as 2.5G would be fine for now. I would prefer a 5G aquantia chip personally. Gigabytes X299X series has one, but I still feel iffy even considering Gigabyte with all their shenanigans.

nevcairiel:

Did anyone ever review the Realtek 2.5G chip on the X299 PRO board? I've seen it on many boards, but don't recall any tests of it. The X299 PRO would otherwise make a nice board. Well, depending on how much more they would charge for the 10G add-in card, which I don't necessarily need, as 2.5G would be fine for now. I would prefer a 5G aquantia chip personally. Gigabytes X299X series has one, but I still feel iffy even considering Gigabyte with all their shenanigans.

To be honest X299 Pro looks rather bare, its like X299 Creator with stripped reinforcements for Dimm and PCIe slots, stripped sata/m.2/USB ports and what I would consider terrible idea is removed post LED and probably flashback (unless that unmarked button on back is for flashback)? If you looking for good 10Gbe ethernet you can get dual or quad port server grade OEM Intel 10GB cards from as low as $100 from china.

nevcairiel:

Did anyone ever review the Realtek 2.5G chip on the X299 PRO board? I've seen it on many boards, but don't recall any tests of it. The X299 PRO would otherwise make a nice board. Well, depending on how much more they would charge for the 10G add-in card, which I don't necessarily need, as 2.5G would be fine for now. I would prefer a 5G aquantia chip personally. Gigabytes X299X series has one, but I still feel iffy even considering Gigabyte with all their shenanigans.

Aquantia has/had offical store on Amazon.com and sell for under 100USD their official card, 5G, 10G gamer, 10G I checked right now and since they were sold to Marvell all their products are out of stock You can get 10G ASUS card for 96USD https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-XG-C100C-Network-Adapter-Single/dp/B072N84DG6 BTW i have 5G aquantia [PCIe x1] and its yours for 50USD + 10$ shipping if you want, I dont have any use for it

xrodney:

To be honest X299 Pro looks rather bare, its like X299 Creator with stripped reinforcements for Dimm and PCIe slots, stripped sata/m.2/USB ports and what I would consider terrible idea is removed post LED and probably flashback (unless that unmarked button on back is for flashback)? If you looking for good 10Gbe Ethernet you can get dual or quad port server grade OEM Intel 10GB cards from as low as $100 from china.

Im also eyeing the MSI Creator or the new X299X AORUS MASTER is not bad, looks like it has the best VRM cooling right now, with heatpipe going to Chipset and from chipset another one to the side and its all proper heatsinks, not just aluminium blocks Its missing U.2 connector but i can live with it https://static.gigabyte.com/Product/2/7044/2019100210201634e271b508a21e434b973af985ab11fd55_big.png https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/product_6_20190925112944_5d8adf282c8e1.png

I for one don't mind a few small LED lights here or there to see, but honestly, without a window in the case, they're useless at all. If there is a windowed side-panel or front on the case (like on my last case, hence why I didn't get one is explained), the light ends up blinding me as I leave the tower on the desk where I can work on it (because my back is bad). All those disco-lights get to blinding proportions and can just be a bugger when it lights up the room as you try to get some shut-eye. Thanks Gigabyte, if I was in the market for an x299 board, this would be my first choice. For the record my first go-to was SuperMicro for the classic green board (I originally wanted to paint my case beige for old-times sake this build), but they only had AMD boards for Epyc, not for Ryzen (what a missed opportunity). I am just sick and tired of paying through the nose for this gamer-this fancy-that features I DO NOT NEED, and that actually would be a pest. To ASUS's credit, I could turn their motherboard's LEDs off, for what it's worth. I ended up getting the cheapest x570 motherboard this time around - which was an AsRock model just to not have to worry about pesty LEDs. Good to know Gigabyte realizes not everyone wants a glow-in-the-dark motherboard (and that not every content creator needs one, either, especially when saving that extra cash means more RAM or a better CPU in-stead, which actually helps the cause for building an entirely new PC).

can they have less usbs ? is that a joke ? X570 offers up to 12 usb 3.1 or thunderbolts or whatever but 2x or 3x those X299 IOs wth the rear shields look like the cheapest motherboards you can buy in China they have no idea what "creators" need obviously, unlike Ryzen based motherboards which gets it right just for reference the already existing x299 https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_meg_x299_creation_motherboard_review,3.html x570 one https://storage-asset.msi.com/global/picture/news/2019/mb/x570-creation-20190726-13.jpg

kakiharaFRS:

can they have less usbs ? is that a joke ? X570 offers up to 12 usb 3.1 or thunderbolts or whatever but 2x or 3x those X299 IOs wth the rear shields look like the cheapest motherboards you can buy in China they have no idea what "creators" need obviously, unlike Ryzen based motherboards which gets it right just for reference the already existing x299 https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_meg_x299_creation_motherboard_review,3.html x570 one

You dont need USB on Intel, you get 48 CPU attached PCIe lanes, if you need USB, just get USB add on card, if you need USB for data-less devices [meaning Control only], you can get PCIe x1 x7 port cards for under 50USD, if you need USB ports for HDD then Intels PCIe is blessing you can install 10GBPS USB cards whatever you want. The only thing positive about x570 is the abundance of USB and not on every board, when i wanted to buy x3950 i checked every board and most have 5GBPS USB ports ackchyually, MSI Creator X299 board has tons of USB and comes with dual Thunderborld card and 20Gbps USB 2x2 [the latest one], you missed them https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/product_0_20190925112955_5d8adf33e393d-740x593.png https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/product_4_20190925112941_5d8adf255b701-740x593.png https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/product_0_20190925112938_5d8adf222723d-740x593.png