ASUS today rolled out its second socket LGA2066 motherboard in its extra-durable TUF (The Ultimate Force) series, the TUF X299 Mark 2. The company had shown off this board at the 2017 Computex. A slimmer variant of the TUF X299 Mark 1, the Mark 2 lacks innovations such as the add-on card reinforcement brace the company introduced with the Mark 1. It does retain most of the durability-enhancing component loadout which makes for the TUF moniker.

Built in the ATX form-factor, the TUF X299 Mark 2 draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and 4-pin ATX power connectors. It conditions power for the CPU using an 8-phase VRM made of durable, high-current chokes and driverMOSFETs. The CPU socket is wired to eight DDR4 DIMM slots, and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, from which two are full x16 capable and feature reinforcement braces, and a third slot is x8 capable subject to a 44-lane CPU. An open-ended x4 slot and two x1 slots make for the rest of the expansion area.Storage connectivity on the TUF X299 Mark 2 includes two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, from which one is a vertical slot; and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (both type-A and on the rear panel), eight USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, four by headers), and a number of USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel. You also get a legacy mouse/keyboard PS/2 port. The lone network connectivity option is a gigabit Ethernet port driven by Intel i219-V controller. The 8-channel onboard audio combines a Realtek ALC1220A CODEC (120 dBA SNR) with a headphones amp, ground-layer isolation, and audio-grade electrolytic capacitors. The board also features an RGB LED strip along its sides, along with two RGB headers, controlled by ASUS Aura Sync RGB software.

Available now, the TUF X299 Mark 2 is priced at USD $249.99.