Gigabyte Designaire X399 Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

At the time of writing, I couldn’t find retail stock of this item at our preferred retailers, but we are expecting it to hit the market and be available to consumers very soon. Obviously, this is one of the flagship motherboards of an extreme platform that is packed full of features for the enthusiast user, and as such, it’s going to come with a hefty price tag. Right now, we’re expecting the board to be around the $400 mark, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that were around £400 here in the UK too. Is it expensive? Yes, but when you look at the build quality and the features on offer, it is competitive with other X399 solutions on the market today; at least when you’re looking at the higher end of the range.

Update: We’ve now found stock at CCL Computers, and I’m happy to report the motherboard is cheaper than I anticipated. That’s always a good thing to hear. You can pick up this motherboard for just £343.65.

Overview

As one of the flagship motherboards from the Gigabyte range, we would expect this to be an impressive motherboard, and it certainly is. It is tailored towards a particular part of the market, and it’s not going to appeal to everybody, particularly at this price range, and given the cost of the Threadripper CPU and all the other hardware it would take to do a motherboard like this just this justice.

Great Connectivity

If you’re building a high-end workstation around the Threadripper processor, then this is going to be a great place to start. With such extensive connectivity and storage options particularly the three armored M.2 slots it’s going to be easy to build a huge raid array of storage that delivers the power and speed required for demanding tasks such as 4K video editing and rendering. Of course, this could also be beneficial to game development, music production, and even for YouTube content creators.

Build Quality

In terms of features, the motherboard has more than I care to list again. But what really defines this motherboard from the rest of the market is how well those elements are presented and integrated to the motherboard’s design. The build quality is truly next level and easily one of the best made concerning aesthetics and the physical quality, that I have ever seen. The titanium brushed metal finish, is going to look great inside any chassis. While it’s only a minor detail, features like the integrated rear I/O guard and that crazy heavy-duty motherboard backplate, the heavy-duty VRM heatsinks, and armored PCIe slots all add up to create a premium product.

Should I Buy One?

This is an extremely expensive motherboard, and it’s going to be fairly expensive to buy all the surrounding hardware for a build like this. You’ll only wince when you swipe your credit card as once you’ve actually got this motherboard in your hands, all will be forgiven. Highly recommended for anyone planning to build a powerful gaming and workstation system with no compromise on features.

Pros

• Competitive performance
• 3 x M.2 Mounts with Shield
• Armoured PCIe Slots
• Armoured DDR4 DIMMS
• High-end Audio Hardware
• Superb rear I/O design
• Motherboard backplate
• Multi-GPU support
• Extensive feature set

Cons

• None