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Intel Core i9-7980XE Motherboard Compatibility?

UltraNEO_
Level 11
Hey guys.

I've not been on these forums for several years but I'm back!

For a while now I've been speculating, waiting for benchmarks to appear on the various chip offerings from the likes of AMD ThreadRipper and the more extreme end of Intel's Core i9 line up. My current system is over five years old, even though it's still a very capable system for most things. It's becoming long in the tooth, especially when it comes to rendering high resolution content.. it does what I need but takes far too long compared to other systems - I can't stress how much of an upgrade it really needs.

For me, my main system serves dual purpose. I like to play games but I use it for work and I work outta my home. So for this reason I'm interested in the extreme high-end of the range. My objective is to waste less time on work and have more fun!! And For the last few months, everyone been telling me to hold off for a while. Some have even been trying to sway me towards AMD's offerings and well the 1950X is nice, it's only really on par with a 7900X.

Truth of the matter is, the processor I'm considering hasn't yet been announce yet, at least at the time of writing this post. So there's nothing I can do but wait.

From my understanding, the forthcoming behemoth monster is meant to be using the same x299 platform as the current Core i9 processors? But I'm curious. How of those boards will actually be compatible? More importantly, which of the Asus boards is expected to be fully compatible with 18 cores/36 threads? Considering it's a processor that Intel didn't initially planned to produce when the original Skylake-E platform was announced. Do I wait for a conformation that xyz board will be completely compatible or do manufacturers believe that all x299 boards should work?

What's your opinion?

Nikita.
ASUS ROG RVIE Encore| i9-10940x | Dominator Platinum 128GB 3333 MHz | EVGA RTX 2080 Ti SLI | Samsung 970 Pro 1TB NVMe (x3)
WD Black 4TB | WD Black 6TB x2 | EVGA 1600 P2 | CaseLabs SMA8 | Custom Water Cooling | HWLabs Black Ice Nemesis GTX 560
XSPC RX 480 v3 | XSPC D5 Vario x2 | EK Blocks | EK-RES X3 400 | BitsPower Fittings | GentleTypoon 1850 x12 | Corsair SP140 x8 | Lamptron CM615

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11 REPLIES 11

Raja
Level 13
From a firmware perspective, all ASUS X299 boards will be compatible. What you buy depends on how much overclocking you wish to do. The Rampage Apex and Rampage Extreme models are the best if you're looking at pushing the platform.

Raja@ASUS wrote:
From a firmware perspective, all ASUS X299 boards will be compatible. What you buy depends on how much overclocking you wish to do. The Rampage Apex and Rampage Extreme models are the best if you're looking at pushing the platform.


Thanks Raja.

I'm happy to push the hardware as far as possible. Stability is key though.
I'm planning to custom water-cool the system. Does EK make a block(s) for the APEX board?
ASUS ROG RVIE Encore| i9-10940x | Dominator Platinum 128GB 3333 MHz | EVGA RTX 2080 Ti SLI | Samsung 970 Pro 1TB NVMe (x3)
WD Black 4TB | WD Black 6TB x2 | EVGA 1600 P2 | CaseLabs SMA8 | Custom Water Cooling | HWLabs Black Ice Nemesis GTX 560
XSPC RX 480 v3 | XSPC D5 Vario x2 | EK Blocks | EK-RES X3 400 | BitsPower Fittings | GentleTypoon 1850 x12 | Corsair SP140 x8 | Lamptron CM615

Twitch.tv/MsNikita | Twitter.com/MsNikitaTV | Instagram.com/MsNikitaTV | Reddit.com/r/MsNikitaTV

UltraNEO* wrote:
Thanks Raja.

I'm happy to push the hardware as far as possible. Stability is key though.
I'm planning to custom water-cool the system. Does EK make a block(s) for the APEX board?


Yes, EK have blocks ready to undergo validation - pending physical board samples from us.

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Yes, EK have blocks ready to undergo validation - pending physical board samples from us.


Thanks Raja.

Do you know, will it be a Mono block or a traditional split, two part block?
Are there any performance gains from using a combines mono block?
ASUS ROG RVIE Encore| i9-10940x | Dominator Platinum 128GB 3333 MHz | EVGA RTX 2080 Ti SLI | Samsung 970 Pro 1TB NVMe (x3)
WD Black 4TB | WD Black 6TB x2 | EVGA 1600 P2 | CaseLabs SMA8 | Custom Water Cooling | HWLabs Black Ice Nemesis GTX 560
XSPC RX 480 v3 | XSPC D5 Vario x2 | EK Blocks | EK-RES X3 400 | BitsPower Fittings | GentleTypoon 1850 x12 | Corsair SP140 x8 | Lamptron CM615

Twitch.tv/MsNikita | Twitter.com/MsNikitaTV | Instagram.com/MsNikitaTV | Reddit.com/r/MsNikitaTV

davemon50
Level 11
UltraNEO* wrote:
Hey guys.

I've not been on these forums for several years but I'm back!

...My objective is to waste less time on work and have more fun!! ...



Welcome back. As for your objective, this is the best quote of the day. God I admire you.

I'm also interested in the 7980XE, but will be waiting for all the unforseen issues to get sifted out of the new wave of great systems that will be built over the next year, and then for the solutions to be out there.
Davemon50

tistou77
Level 13
It's only monoblock for EK (CPU and VRM) 😉
Sorry for my english 😄


Case: Lian Li A77F
MB: Rampage VI Extreme Encore
CPU: i9 10980XE
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB Royal 4x8Gb @4000 C16
GPU: EVGA RTX 2080ti XC Ultra
PSU: Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 1000W
OS: Intel Optane 905P PCIe
DATA: Samsung 980 Pro
SOUND: Asus Xonar Phoebus

UltraNEO* wrote:
Thanks Raja.

Do you know, will it be a Mono block or a traditional split, two part block?
Are there any performance gains from using a combines mono block?

tistou77 wrote:
It's only monoblock for EK (CPU and VRM) 😉

:rolleyes:
Sorry for my english 😄


Case: Lian Li A77F
MB: Rampage VI Extreme Encore
CPU: i9 10980XE
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB Royal 4x8Gb @4000 C16
GPU: EVGA RTX 2080ti XC Ultra
PSU: Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 1000W
OS: Intel Optane 905P PCIe
DATA: Samsung 980 Pro
SOUND: Asus Xonar Phoebus

UltraNEO_
Level 11
Soo.. There will still be two blocks with a mono block, assuming there's one for the CPH + CPU/VRM?
Do they offer better performance or just cheaper to manufacture?
ASUS ROG RVIE Encore| i9-10940x | Dominator Platinum 128GB 3333 MHz | EVGA RTX 2080 Ti SLI | Samsung 970 Pro 1TB NVMe (x3)
WD Black 4TB | WD Black 6TB x2 | EVGA 1600 P2 | CaseLabs SMA8 | Custom Water Cooling | HWLabs Black Ice Nemesis GTX 560
XSPC RX 480 v3 | XSPC D5 Vario x2 | EK Blocks | EK-RES X3 400 | BitsPower Fittings | GentleTypoon 1850 x12 | Corsair SP140 x8 | Lamptron CM615

Twitch.tv/MsNikita | Twitter.com/MsNikitaTV | Instagram.com/MsNikitaTV | Reddit.com/r/MsNikitaTV

UltraNEO* wrote:
Soo.. There will still be two blocks with a mono block, assuming there's one for the CPH + CPU/VRM?
Do they offer better performance or just cheaper to manufacture?



EK will make a monoblock. Whether they will offer separate VRM blocks for X299 boards I do not know. Performance of single blocks is better, (assuming separate loops). Monoblocks look nicer, are easier to work with from a loop plumbing/space/cost perspective, so the market for them is growing. No clear answer to this.

Showcase builds do look nice with monoblocks. My current system uses one. For the next, if someone makes nice separate blocks, I may go separate loop for the VRM. I have the space for one more rad.

For separate VRM/CPU blocks, I'm keeping an eye on the Watercool guys (of Heatkiller fame). Some of their stuff looks ace.