Tag: Motherboard

MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge Motherboard $20 Off at B&H

As we get closer to Black Friday, vendors are dropping deals on our favorite hardware. We’re doing our best to sift through them all, organizing them into a huge list of the best deals on tech that we update every day.

Finding a good motherboard deal is often harder compared to other components. Balancing budget and performance is critical when building a desktop, and you definitely don’t want to skimp on your motherboard. Check out our list of best motherboards for 2020 to see what’s leading the motherboard market today.

Today we’re highlighting a discount on the MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge Wi-Fi motherboard. It’s usually listed at $179 but is available today for just $159.

This motherboard from MSI is designed with an ATX form factor. It uses an AMD B550 Chipset and supports processors using an AM4 socket.

This edition can support four modules of DDR4 with speeds up to 4866MHz. You can add the ambiance of custom RGB lighting using the Mystic Light Extension. 

Visit the MSI B550 Gaming Edge Wi-Fi motherboard product page on the B&H website for checkout options on this deal. It’s currently listed without an expiration. 

ASUS Unveils All-White Concept Strix X570 Motherboard

Amid a plethora of ASUS announcements and product showcases at CES 2020, one of the more interesting pieces of hardware on display came on the motherboard side. In what ASUS is currently calling a concept, it had a full system with white components on display, including an X570 Strix motherboard dressed to the nines in white heatsinks and covers.

While ASUS hasn’t given much away about which model it’s based on. the specifications list include support for DDR4-4400 memory with a capacity of up to 128 GB, with an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface, and a Realtek RTL8125-AG 2.5 G Ethernet controller. A SupremeFX S1220A HD audio codec handles the onboard audio, while the rear panel features plenty of USB 3.2 Gen2 connectivity. The PCB, controller layout and overall PCB layout not only resemble the ASUS ROG Strix X570 E Gaming motherboard, but it has identical specifications match between the two boards.

On the rear panel cover is the typical Strix branding with an illuminated Strix RGB logo, while the M.2 heatsinks and chipset heatsink have the Strix inspired graffiti etching. A two-digit LED debugger is located at the bottom, with plenty of headers and connectors for superior connectivity; again, resemblant of the ASUS ROG Strix X570 E-Gaming. As with all other ASUS X570 models, the X570 is actively cooled. 

At present, the all-white ROG Strix X570 motherboard is just a concept, but we’ve seen ASUS release white themed models before including the Prime series, as well as limited-edition versions of its Sabertooths (now TUF). This could be one ASUS concept that makes it to retail, but it still remains to be seen. 

EVGA announces mammoth SR-3 DARK Xeon motherboard

American hardware maker EVGA recently unveiled the exclusive (and extremely expensive) SR-3 Dark motherboard, currently available for pre-order.

The SR-3 Dark supports the Xeon LGA 3647 socket and is one of just a handful of boards capable of handling the 28-core Intel Xeon W-3175X CPU. Priced at $1800, this massive E-ATX board offers a multitude of high-end features: a 24 Phase Digital VRM delivers clean power. Six DIMM slots provide ample room for memory and can be run in an ultra-fast hexa-channel configuration. Meanwhile, six PCIe slots provide plenty of space for peripherals. Four of these run at x16 speeds.

If you truly have cash to burn, this makes 1080 Ti quad SLI a possibility on this board (Turing cards only support two-way SLI). You’ll be in for some truly eye-opening benchmark scores and power bills.

The SR-3 DARK also features onboard temperature and voltage monitoring, and a triple BIOS switch for redundancy. All of this is backed by a 3-year warranty.

With that $1800 price tag, the SR-3 DARK is definitely not targeted towards a mainstream audience. Workstation users who need the W-3175X’s processing grunt and high-end enthusiasts are the SR-3 DARK’s target market.

Overclocker Gets 1TB of RAM Running on X299 Motherboard Limited to 256GB

ASRock announced this week that renown overclocker Nick Shih has filled ASRock’s X299 Taichi CLX workstation-grade motherboard with 1TB of memory when the motherboard only officially supports up to 256GB.

To achieve this feat, Shih paired an Intel Core i9-7900X with eight SK Hynix 128GB LRDIMM (load-reduced DIMM) modules. This is quite fascinating, considering we were told that the X299 chipset doesn’t support EEC (error-correcting code) memory, much less LRDIMMs. It’s unknown what kind of magic Shih had to use to get the aforementioned memory to work on the ASRock X299 Taichi CLX.

SK Hynix already has a couple of 256GB LRDIMMs in its portfolio, but they max out at 2,666 MHz. The ones that Shih used seem to be unreleased. According to the screenshots shared, the LRDIMMs carry the HMABAGL7MBR4N-WM part number and come clocked at 2,933 MHz with CL21-21-21-47 timings and a 1.20V operating voltage. 

What makes Shih’s accomplishment even more spectacular is that fact he was able to push the LRDIMMs to 3,471.8 MHz with the memory timings configured to CL20-24-24-56. That Core i9-7900X must have one heck of an IMC (integrated memory controller) to support up 1TB of memory operating at those speeds.

Samsung revealed its 256GB LRDIMMs last year. It would certainly be mind-blowing to see 2TB of memory running on a consumer-grade motherboard. The tools are there ready for anyone to use. Now, we just need a daring overclocker to attempt it.

GA-PICO3350 is Gigabyte’s smallest motherboard to date (embedded CPU + RAM and storage slots)

Measuring just about 3.9″ x 2.8″, the new Gigabyte GA-PICO3350 motherboard is just a little larger than a Raspberry Pi Model B (3.4″ x 2.2″). But while the Raspberry Pi features an ARM-based processor and embedded memory, Gigabyte’s tiny board has a DDR3L SODIMM slot for laptop-type memory plus an mSATA/mini PCIe slot for storage.

That said, while you could theoretically use Gigabyte’s tiny new Pico ITX board for just about any computing task, its embedded 6 watt Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core “Apollo Lake” processor isn’t exactly a speed demon.

So I suspect this is the type of board that will appeal more to IoT developers than to home users. Still, it’s kind of nifty… mostly because it’s just so small.

In addition to the specs listed above, the board has the following features:

2 x USB 3.0

Gigabit Ethernet

HDMI 1.4a

SATA 6Gb/s connector + SATA power connector

USB 2.0, Serial port, GPIO, LVDS, and SMBus headers

Gigabyte says the system supports Windows 10 64-bit software as well as Linux (although the company suggests downloading “Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.”

There’s no word on the price for the GA-PICO3350, but the similarly-=sized MSI MS-98I6 sells for around $300 — although that model supports faster memory and features dual display outputs and dual Ethernet jacks, among other differences.

MSI’s pico-ITX board is also slightly larger, at 101mm x 73mm compared to 100mm x 72mm for the Gigabyte model.

MSI Creator TRX40 Motherboard For AMD’s 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs Leaks Out

AMD will be launching their 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper processors premiering with 24 cores next month. While there have been various rumors about the platform and socket support, it looks like MSI has leaked out one of their own motherboards, confirming a few theories for AMD’s 3rd HEDT lineup.

MSI Readies Creator TRX40 Motherboard For 3rd Gen ‘HEDT’ AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPUs

Spotted by Videocardz, the MSI Creator TRX40 was listed on a promo page by MSI which lets users redeem a $25 Steam gift card if they purchase an eligible product. One of those products as you might have guessed is the new Threadripper series motherboard and the naming convention more or less confirms that earlier reports were true. Previously, the MSI TRX40 PRO 10G motherboard was also registered at EEC which confirms that there will be not one but several models displayed by MSI for the new Threadripper lineup.

Motherboard makers are currently busy preparing a range of HEDT products for both Intel & AMD processors. We have already seen the Creator X299 which was announced yesterday and puts a lot of focus towards the creator market. Features such as more I/O, more capacity and higher power stability through the use of best-in-class VRMs (90A Power Stages) are just a few highlights of MSI’s Creator lineup.

There are no details mentioned for the Creator TRX40 but considering that it’s now listed by a manufacturer and the new 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPUs launch next month, an official introduction of these boards may not be that far away. Other TRX40 motherboards from Gigabyte and ASUS have also leaked out prior to this which include:

ASUS PRIME TRX40-PRO

ASUS ROG STRIX TRX40-E GAMING

TRX40 AORUS Xtreme Waterforce

TRX40 AORUS Xtreme

TRX40 AORUS Master

TRX40 AORUS Pro WIFI

TRX40 DESIGNARE

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Series CPUs – Here’s What To Expect In Terms of Price, Specs, and Performance

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series family is internally known as “Castle Peak” and is stated to bring dominant leadership in the HEDT market. The family will prove to be a new watermark in performance and overall efficiency while new platform features will be introduced on the new and enhanced motherboards to take them to the next level.

Currently, reports state that there will be two separate platforms for enthusiasts and workstation chips, the TRX40 and WRX80. The details of these platforms are listed below.

AMD TRX40 ‘Enthusiast’ Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Processors

The TRX4 HEDT platform would feature quad-channel memory, UDIMM memory support with 2 DIMMs per channel and up to 256 GB of capacity per channel. This means that the platform will support up to 1 TB of memory. There would also be support for 64 Gen 4 PCIe lanes with 16 lanes switchable with the SATA interface. There also seems to be info regarding TDPs and we can also notice the segmentation here too. The Group ‘A’ series processors, which are the HEDT lineup for the TRX40 platform with 280W TDP, Tcase Max temperature of 60C and Tctl Max of 100C.

AMD WRX80 ‘Workstation’ Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Processors

Now coming to the WRX80 series, we are looking at a pure workstation lineup. Even the processors built around this platform are spec’d similar to the EPYC 7002 variants, featuring 8-channel DDR4-3200 support in UDIMM, RDIMM, LRDIMM flavors. The platform would support 1 DIMM/channel featuring support for up to 2 TB of memory. There wouldn’t be any OC support like the TRX40 series but you get 96-128 Gen4 PCIe lanes with 32 switchable lanes to SATA. The Group ‘B’ series processors which are the workstation lineup for the WRX80 platform will also feature a 280W TDP but different temperature range of Tcase Max temperature of 81C and Tctl Max of 100C.

Considering that AMD would want to remain in a dominant position with the Threadripper 3000 series, we will be looking at some spectacular amounts of multi-threaded performance numbers which will only get better with the added clock speeds thanks to the 7nm process node. The CPUs will also be getting major core bumps, but AMD would like to keep prices close to current levels.

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su:

“You know. it’s very interesting, some of the things that circulate on the Internet—I don’t think we ever said that Threadripper was not going to continue—it somehow took on a life of its own on the Internet,” Su said, speaking to a small group of reporters following her keynote. “You will see more [Threadripper] from us; you will definitely see more.

If mainstream is moving up, then Threadripper will have to move up, up—and that’s what we’re working on.”

If we look at the trend with AMD’s jump from Ryzen Threadripper 1000 to Ryzen Threadripper 2000, we saw that the new processors with core parity of the previous generation were priced around the same with a $200-$300 shaved off from their previous price tag. The 1950X became 2950X and cost $200 US less. The higher core count parts were at a different market tier entirely, costing north of $1200 US but at the same time, much cheaper than their Core-X competitors.

In terms of raw performance output, the new die layout remains to be tested, but since it is more refined over the previous two generations with a stronger interconnect between them, the cache and latency performance may end up giving a bigger boost to total system responsiveness. AMD will definitely be aiming for both LGA 2066 and LGA 3647 lines with their new chips. Intel has said that their upcoming Core-X series will offer a much better value proposition with 2x better perf per dollar compared to Skylake-X, but that remains to be seen in real-world benchmarks and reviews.