ASUS’ New Intel Motherboards For X299 Including Prime, TUF, And ROG

To coincide with Intel’s new X-Series CPUs, motherboard manufacturers are preparing the next wave of boards, fitted out with the new X299 chipsets and supporting Skylake-X CPUs. The boards need to be built with the top-end chips in mind, and as such, are configured with all the DIMM slots and PCIe lanes they can muster.

At the moment, ASUS’ press materials only indicates support for up to the 12-core CPUs from Intel, even though they will go up to 18 cores, but this could be down to timing of the information. In any case, support for the full Skylake-X range was confirmed, complete with 44 PCIe lanes and support for 128GB of DDR4 RAM.

The three different series of boards from ASUS cater to different market segments, as each board is tuned for the desires of each market. ROG is the gamers’ choice, Prime boards are for those that want the best of the core features without unnecessary extras, and the TUF series are the ‘military grade’ boards with unique styling and thermal solutions built for longevity.

"ROG has three models expertly tailored for different priorities: the Rampage VI Extreme lives up to its name for drool-worthy dream machines with custom liquid cooling and ultra-fast networking, the Rampage VI Apex unabashedly targets peak game performance and record-breaking overclocking, and the Strix X299-E provides gamers the powerful tuning, cooling, and personalization options they need to get the most from their rigs."

The ROG range is best known for its Strix boards and aggressive gamer aesthetic, complete with RGB lighting and synchronizing with other ASUS RGB-based products. There is also lots of overclocking tools to tune rigs. The SupremeFX audio solution with dedicated software control to enhance game audio. Onboard Intel wireless and Ethernet chipsets keep them Internet bits ticking over reliably too. The boards are expected to be released sometime late June, with MSRP being listed in just a couple weeks.

"The Prime and TUF models are designed for differing audiences: new Prime X299-Deluxe is for high-end builders who want it all, the Prime X299-A eschews certain extras in favor of a straightforward approach that gets back to basics, the TUF X299 Mark 1 stands out from its competitors with protective armor and advanced cooling options, while the TUF X299 Mark 2 strips down to the essentials for X299 builders who want to deviate from the conventional formula."

Traditionally, the Prime boards have been the best bang-per-buck as it were, for those interested in those core features only; the muted styling also helps too. You can still fit RGB LEDs with the provided headers, so you can go flashy if you want. The TUF boards forgo most of the RGB stuff in favor of something built to last. Both the Prime and TUF boards will have availability announced later in the coming weeks, just like the ROG boards.