First AMD Threadripper Motherboards Pictured - They Look Glorious

[btarunr]

Here are some of the first pictures of AMD socket SP3r2 (LGA 4094) motherboards for Ryzen Threadripper HEDT processors. The socket is visibly bigger than Intel LGA2066, and is flanked by eight DDR4 DIMM slots. The other characteristic feature of these boards is that they feature up to three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots with full x16 wiring, taking advantage of the 64-lane PCIe root complex, with the fourth slot splitting away x8 lanes from the third slot. This is unlike Intel, where after you've spend $999 on their 10-core processor, you can only run up to two slots at x16.

The first motherboard on our tour is an ASRock X399 Fatal1ty Gaming 9. This board is loaded for bear with four x16 slots (all of which are wired to the CPU), eight DDR4 DIMM slots for the quad-channel memory interface, 32 Gb/s M.2 and U.2 storage connectivity, and at least four of the eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports that come directly from the CPU for the least latency. An interesting observation here is that all three boards we've seen draw power from just a single 8-pin EPS connector besides 24-pin ATX, unlike several LGA2066 boards that over a second EPS or 4-pin ATX input for the CPU VRM. Could this mean that AMD also beat Intel with HEDT energy-efficiency?



Next up is the ASRock X399 Taichi, which appears to be based on the same PCB as the Fatal1ty Gaming 9, but with white+black color scheme, and different heatsink designs. Both boards from ASRock feature 802.11ac+BT4.1 WLAN, in addition to three wired networking interfaces, one of which is 10 GbE.

Lastly, there's the GIGABYTE X399 Aorus Gaming 7. This board has a more restrained design scheme than ASRock, and gives you reinforced DDR4 and PCIe slots, besides three 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, and two wired network interfaces, 802.11ac WLAN, and GIGABYTE's highest-grade onboard audio solution, featuring ESS Sabre DAC, and the highest grade audio capacitors.

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[noel_fs]

And how are you going to cool that? I mean, seems too big.

 

[btarunr]

And how are you going to cool that? I mean, seems too big.

AMD is working on a Wraith AIO liquid-cooling solution for Threadripper. You purchase it separately.

 

[semantics]

Man those socket sizes are hilarious. Hope mobos are reinforced because you know 3rd parties are going to make bricks of cpu coolers that will rip that socket right out of the board

 

[Jism]

And how are you going to cool that? I mean, seems too big.

If it's big it means it's a better sollution to cool. If it was small and putting out huge amount of heat it will be a more problem to cool.

Twice the size of a normal Ryzen chip is normal considering how Opterons where made. These are CPU's that have things in the double.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

its a shame they didnt talk pricing during the live stream.

I see a whole new slew of air cooling designs and waterblocks coming.

 

[RejZoR]

Man those socket sizes are hilarious. Hope mobos are reinforced because you know 3rd parties are going to make bricks of cpu coolers that will rip that socket right out of the board

The socket is a reinforcement by itself. The larger socket is, the more force applied to it is spread across larger motherboard PCB surface, meaning it actually makes less of a strain on PCB than with tiny sockets (basically pressure per cm2 is smaller with larger sockets)... It's physics 101.

 

[silentbogo]

And how are you going to cool that? I mean, seems too big.

It's not as scary as it looks. The socket is big, but look at LGA2011 and an upcoming 2066.
Heat-wise we already saw, that the speculated max TDP for an announced lineup is in 125-155W range, so assuming there is no crazy OC involved, you can cool it with any existing hi-end solution.
Even something as trivial as AC Freezer 7 Pro($20 retail) is rated at 150W. Wraith was adequate enough for 125W FX-series, so it will also work for 16-core Ryzen parts.
If AMD also finishes an AIO solution, then you will have even more options to cool this monster.

 

[AsRock]

The socket with all the pins looks crazy as hell.

It's not as scary as it looks. The socket is big, but look at LGA2011 and an upcoming 2066.
Heat-wise we already saw, that the speculated max TDP for an announced lineup is in 125-155W range, so assuming there is no crazy OC involved, you can cool it with any existing hi-end solution.
Even something as trivial as AC Freezer 7 Pro($20 retail) is rated at 150W. Wraith was adequate enough for 125W FX-series, so it will also work for 16-core Ryzen parts.
If AMD also finishes an AIO solution, then you will have even more options to cool this monster.

Looks much more crazier than LGA2011, 4094 pins is a hell lot of pins lol.

Man those socket sizes are hilarious. Hope mobos are reinforced because you know 3rd parties are going to make bricks of cpu coolers that will rip that socket right out of the board

Not at all, in fact it might actually help and be able to support more.

 

[ShockG]

An interesting observation here is that all three boards we've seen draw power from just a single 8-pin EPS connector besides 24-pin ATX, unlike several LGA2066 boards that over a second EPS or 4-pin ATX input for the CPU VRM. Could this mean that AMD also beat Intel with HEDT energy-efficiency?

The connector has nothing to do with energy efficiency. AMD CPUs on this platform do not OC anywhere near what the INTEL parts offer so the power consumption isn't remotely comparable at a point where you need this amount of power. Under normal, i.e none LN2 conditions having one or two or three EPS connectors would make zero difference.
Of course this is obvious to you, but what is being taken away from the ones who aren't as well versed is that the number of EPS connectors has something to do with energy efficiency, which isn't remotely true. SP3r2 board with a single 8 or 4 pin connector can max out the CPUs on AIR/AIO cooling with no issue. You'll actually see boards with this configuration soon enough - so those with PSU's that don't' necessarily have two such connectors can still use the platform.

 

[springs113]

That Zenith Extreme or Taichi...decisions, decisions. I can wait...but come on AMD, show us some pricing details cpus and all.

 

[Keullo-e]

The socket with all the pins looks crazy as hell.



Looks much more crazier than LGA2011, 4094 pins is a hell lot of pins lol.

Not at all, in fact it might actually help and be able to support more.

Yup, saw that socket on LTT's video and I was like "damn, looks more like a dual 2011 to me"

And ~20 years ago the Socket 8 for Pentium Pro was huge.

 

[ypsylon]

Compared to Intel X399 shapes to be really something ground breaking when we look at the architecture.

They only low-point for all X399 so far is limited storage connectivity. It's my personal requirement of at least 10 SATA ports. Sadly even with all the PCIe lanes and all that goodness AMD also stuck with 8.

Hoping for at least one WS board surfacing here or there. Just ditch RGB for it, got it Asus? Good. Glad we understand each other.

 

[LordAlu]

An interesting observation here is that all three boards we've seen draw power from just a single 8-pin EPS connector besides 24-pin ATX, unlike several LGA2066 boards that over a second EPS or 4-pin ATX input for the CPU VRM.

Both the ASRock boards look to have a 4-pin ATX input in the top right corner (above the 24-pin, right next to the end of the DIMM slots). I can't tell if there's one on the Gigabyte board though.

 

[mohammed2006]

i thought it will be a dual socket motherboard

 

[Frick]

i thought it will be a dual socket motherboard

Yes. Yes, please yes. I will never own anything modern and mutli socket, but I want those things to exist.

 

[AsRock]

Yup, saw that socket on LTT's video and I was like "damn, looks more like a dual 2011 to me"

And ~20 years ago the Socket 8 for Pentium Pro was huge.

Yeah, the one with the gold colored ( like a stretched out IBM \ AMD chip of the passed), heat spreader if i remember right. And yes they look pretty awesome today and i think AMD has just surpassed that 3 fold .

 

[Keullo-e]

Yeah, the one with the gold colored ( like a stretched out IBM \ AMD chip of the passed), heat spreader if i remember right. And yes they look pretty awesome today and i think AMD has just surpassed that 3 fold .

Exactly those chips! They're pretty rare these days, would be a cool keychain otherwise. a quick search from eBay seems that the cheapest ones were ~17eur

 

[phanbuey]

I love the intel logo on the IO shield cover.

 

[GhostRyder]

Wow...Thats a heck of alot of pins.

 

[ERazer]

hmm prolly gonna need bigger base plate for AIO

 

[_larry]

How much RAM do these support? LOOK AT ALL THE SLOTS

 

[Keullo-e]

How much RAM do these support? LOOK AT ALL THE SLOTS

I don't see anything special about that, since LGA2011/2011-3 has 8 slots also on the most boards.

 

[Caring1]

i thought it will be a dual socket motherboard

That is clearly a server board, most likely Naples, or a consumer iteration W.S. board.

 

[IanHagen]

Oh my. All that memory banks. I don't need much more than 16GB, but empty slots makes my skin crawl. I'd have to go the 8x 2GB route. Oh, but there are no such a thing such as an 2GB DDR4 RAM stick.