X399 Aorus Xtreme Threadripper Motherboard Review

Peter Donnell / 5 years ago

Final Thoughts

How Much Does it Cost?

When it comes to extreme motherboards, few are as feature packed as the X399 range. However, the Aorus Xtreme X399 from Gigabyte is also one of their most exceptional models to date. It packs in every high-end feature you’re likely to need, and then some. That does mean the price tag is equally well endowed. Clocking in at £436.98 it’s a wallet buster, but then again, if you’re dropping £1000-1500 on the CPU alone, it’s all relative really.

Overview

I continue to be blown away by the Aorus Xtreme range of products. So far, they’ve been some of the best products in their respective product classes. From GPUs, to motherboard, and beyond. The X399 range is no exception though, and a lot of thought has gone into making this one of the best build motherboards… well, ever! ASUS and MSI have got their own ultra-high-end solutions in this price range too, but the Aorus motherboard will go head-to-head with any of them easily enough, they’re all ridiculously well equipped.

Gaming Performance

Without a doubt, the performance of the motherboard is superb. While it may seem like it’s a bit sluggish when it comes to games, that’s got more to do with the single-core performance of the CPU used than it does with the motherboard. How you build your system, what components you use, and what you’re using it for, will change how you feel about that. For example, for a 1080p standard gaming rig, you would be wasting your money. If you’re running in 4K, playing in VR, which capturing the content, editing it, rendering it, streaming, adding overlays, and more. Then that’s where X399 really starts to shine.

Extreme Configurations

Of course, it’s not all just about the CPU, as there are 8 DIMM slots, four full-size PCIe slots, three M.2 mounts, six SATA 6 Gbps ports and more. This means you can build a pretty robust rendering and editing rig, with banks of storage and memory to fully unleash applications like Unity, Unreal Engine, Premiere, and other design applications. With both Gigabit and 10Gbe, and WiFi built-in, connectivity isn’t an issue. Even then, you’ll find USB 3.0, 3.1, Type-C, and Gen 2 for additional devices. A workstation needs rapid data transfers, and you’ll clearly find that here.

Should I Buy One?

It takes a special kind of user to drop over £400 on the motherboard alone. For the standard consumer, this motherboard is complete overkill. However, if you’re fully intent on using it for content creation, using all those M.2 mounts, having loads of peripheral devices, multiple expansion cards and more, then the real performance and time/money saving advantages of Threadripper and the X399 Xtreme motherboards will really start to pay off for you.