ASUS works quite intimately with Intel.

I expect ASUS will offer the usual plethora of X299 motherboards when Intel launches the platform - X299-A, X299-Deluxe, X299-WS, a "flagship" Rampage VI Extreme, etc. Then some better X299 motherboards (X299 Sabertooth, X299 Strix, Rampage VI Extreme Madness Edition, etc) across the following 20-24 months.

ASUS *always* has the very first motherboards on market for each new Intel platform. And (after Intel's shrink/refinement/refresh "tock", new processors, faster memory, etc) ASUS *always* has the most elite ultimate "last word" motherboard for each Intel platform (for those who want the final evolution of the existing platform even after Intel has declared it is "being phased out" or "approaching EOL" on their "leaked" Roadmaps.

I expect the R6E will be the finest X299 motherboard available for at least half a year. Before the competition starts to seriously compete with their own "godlike" offerings.

Thanks for the info guys. I think this makes me lean in favor of waiting jsut 1 month for the x299 to come out and get that. 🙂

Wait for X299. It's worth it. 🙂

Wait for X299. its going to blow the x99 out of the water , not to mention x99 is now nearly 3 years old.

"X299 ... going to blow the X99 out of the water"

Yes and no. A few more PCIe3 lanes. Faster DDR4. More Cores/Threads at the top and faster Cores/Threads in the middle. More USB, more SATA, more LAN. More "native" support for Intel technologies (HD Audio, Optane, etc) of dubious merit. Also more SPI/eSPI, LPC, SMBus, etc - not directly useful to end-users, but indirectly awesome because these interfaces allow mobo makers to hardwire more toys and features into their implementations of the platform.

So yes X299 > X99, equal or better in every technical capacity, extended and refined and generally superior. Moreso sometime next year when Intel releases their second wave LGA2066 ("Skylake-X2" or whatever) parts.

But not overwhelmingly superior. And full-spec X299 will cost more than full-spec X99 did, lol.