Kaby Lake-X
Motherboard firmware is a fickle thing: in order to support as many CPUs as possible, especially in the multi-core and turbo era, each processor has to have its own entry in the support table in the BIOS. With luck, some processor variants can share entries, but ultimately the more processors a platform supports, the larger the BIOS firmware tends to be. As we have moved from basic BIOS implementations to complex UEFI interfaces, the amount of free space inside BIOS firmware has reduced drastically. As a result, in recent generations, we’re seeing motherboards drop support for certain ranges of processors. Recently, a range of AMD AM4 motherboards have dropped support for the earliest A-series processors that were supported on the platform, mostly because these parts...
Intel Announces EOL Plan for Kaby Lake-X Processors
Intel this week revealed plans to discontinue its Kaby Lake-X processors. The chips will not be supported by the company’s upcoming X399 platform for high-end desktops, so initialization of...
40 by Anton Shilov on 5/1/2018The MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK Motherboard Review: Light up the Night
What happens when a vendor adds 802.11ac to Killer networking? You get an ACK - specifically, the MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK. This motherboard includes 3-way SLI and Crossfire...
34 by Joe Shields on 3/5/2018The ASUS Prime X299-Deluxe Motherboard Review: Onboard OLED and WiGig
Sitting at the top of ASUS' consumer-focused motherboard line for X299 is the ASUS Prime X299-Deluxe. In the past, ASUS' 'Deluxe' line-up has attempted to emulate the status of...
11 by Joe Shields on 2/16/2018The EVGA X299 Micro Motherboard Review: A Smaller Take on X299
The EVGA X299 Micro Motherboard is mid-range microATX offering aiming to please a wide range of users but isn't marketed towards any one function in particular. It supports 2-way...
23 by Joe Shields on 2/9/2018The EVGA X299 FTW K Motherboard Review: Dual U.2 Ports
The EVGA X299 FTW K is our first X299 motherboard from EVGA. The FTW K aims to bring users a solid power delivery, three-way multi-GPU capabilities, two M.2 slots...
23 by Joe Shields on 1/29/2018The ASUS ROG Strix X299-XE Gaming Motherboard Review: Strix Refined
Today we have a chance to dig down on the ASUS ROG Strix X299-XE Gaming. The XE Gaming differs from the non-XE by adding a larger VRM heatsink and...
27 by Joe Shields on 12/11/2017The ASUS TUF X299 Mark I Motherboard Review: TUF Refined
Today we have a chance to look at our first ASUS motherboard, the TUF X299 Mark 1. The Mark 1 is listed as a durable and reliable motherboard for...
16 by Joe Shields on 12/6/2017The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac Motherboard Review: An 18-core No-Compromise Mini-ITX
Our next X299 motherboard review shrinks down from the large ATX and E-ATX sized motherboards to the sole Mini-ITX offering for the X299 platform. The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac is a...
24 by Joe Shields on 12/4/2017The MSI X299 SLI Plus Motherboard Review: $232 with U.2
Today we had an opportunity to look at another motherboard in the MSI lineup. Instead of coming from the Enthusiast, Performance, or Arsenal line of products, the MSI X299...
21 by Joe Shields on 11/29/2017ASRock Releases X299 Taichi XE and X299 Gaming i9 XE: Big Boy Heatsinks
This week ASRock has released “XE” editions of two of its popular X299 motherboards: the X299 Taichi XE and the flagship X299 Professional Gaming i9 XE. Buy ASRock X299...
8 by Joe Shields on 11/9/2017ASUS Releases the WS X299 Pro Motherboard
ASUS has now released the WS X299 Pro, a motherboard designed to be a workstation level platform for X299 processors. None of the features seem to stand out as...
7 by Joe Shields on 10/31/2017The ASRock X299 Taichi Motherboard Review
Next up on the test bench is the X299 Taichi, sitting in the middle of the range. ASRock is looking to touch more of the market with the Taichi...
18 by Joe Shields on 10/31/2017The ASRock Fatal1ty X299 Professional Gaming i9 Motherboard Review
All of the main motherboard vendors have launched a long list of X299 motherboards, aiming from budget to premium users. ASRock has been involved in the melee, with all...
24 by Joe Shields on 9/26/2017The MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC Motherboard Review
Intel's HEDT platform in recent times has always had a two CPU generation cadence. The last change was in August 2014, catering for Haswell-E and Broadwell-E, so with the...
24 by Patrick MacMillan on 9/21/2017Corsair Announces 16GB DDR4-4600 Vengeance LPX DRAM Kits
Corsair on Thursday announced two fresh Vengeance LPX memory kits that set new performance records for the product family. The new dual-channel memory kits are intended for Intel’s Kaby...
16 by Anton Shilov on 9/15/2017ASRock Announces the X299 OC Formula Motherboard
Back in May of this year, we saw our first glimpse of the X299 OC Formula, ASRock’s to-be high-end overclocking focused motherboard. In the past couple of generations, the...
13 by Joe Shields on 9/11/2017G.Skill Ups the Ante on Memory Speed and Voltage: 16 GB DDR4-4600 1.5v Kit for Kaby Lake-X
G.Skill on Friday introduced its fastest dual-channel memory kit designed specifically for Intel’s Kaby Lake-X processors and Intel’s X299 HEDT platforms. The new Trident Z DDR4-4600 DIMMs not only...
14 by Anton Shilov on 9/8/2017MSI Launches the X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC: Going Micro-ATX
MSI has announced a new Micro ATX motherboard added to the X299 lineup in the X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC. Based on the ATX sized X299 Gaming Pro Carbon...
15 by Joe Shields on 8/17/2017The Intel Kaby Lake-X i7 7740X and i5 7640X Review: The New Single-Threaded Champion, OC to 5GHz
Intel’s direction for the high-end desktop space has taken an interesting turn. After several years of iterative updates, slowly increasing core counts and increasing IPC, we have gotten used...
177 by Ian Cutress on 7/24/2017