Asus PRIME X399-A

Big size — big possibilities

Motherboards for AMD Threadripper processors turned out to be extremely expensive — from $350. That's even more expensive than Intel's competing professional platform Basin Falls.

Like other motherboards with eight RAM slots (four to the left and four to the right of the processor), ASUS Prime X399-A is made in the E-ATX format, that is, it is not only long, but also wide. Because of this, it may not fit in some cheap or old MidiTower cases.

Jewelry work

You need to be extremely careful when installing the Threadripper processor in the TR4 socket. This is the first platform in the history of AMD, when the contact legs migrated from the processor to the motherboard. In addition, the pins have become thinner, and their number is greater (4094 versus 1331 for socket AM4). ASUS engineers announced support for overclocking the RAM to a frequency of 3600 MHz, but this bar will most likely be taken only if one memory module (maximum 16 GB) is installed. Whereas Threadripper-based PCs are most often assembled for the sake of a large amount of RAM (64+ GB, that is, at least four modules). You can install three video cards according to the x16 + x16 + x8 scheme, that is, the third one will work at half strength.

cold drives

The large chipset heatsink performs two additional functions at once: it cools the M.2 drive and glows with all the colours of the rainbow (Aura Sync RGB technology). The second M.2 SSD is mounted vertically and comes with a metal support. Perhaps, over time, more affordable models of TR4 motherboards will appear, but for now, ASUS Prime X399-A is the minimum “ticket” to the world of Threadripper multi-core processors.