ASRock TRX40 Creator Motherboard Review

Rating: 8.5.

ASRock’s TRX40 Creator motherboard is firmly positioned in the market to appeal to prosumer users looking to adopt the latest Threadripper platform. A few ways in which ASRock achieves that aim is by omitting onboard RGBs and fancy aesthetic shrouds in favour of 10Gb Ethernet and a quad-GPU slot layout.

Arguably most prominent for ASRock’s TRX40 Creator is the notable provision for quad graphics card slot spacing. Despite the TRX40 platform’s healthy PCIe lane allocation, ASRock’s offering is one of the few options that makes installation of four graphics cards a possibility. And it does so while sticking to the standard ATX form factor, which is a significant positive for chassis compatibility.

Of course, professional freelancers and content creators demand more than just preferential slot spacing. That’s where ASRock throws in 10Gb Ethernet via an Aquantia NIC and a 2.5Gb partner from Realtek. High-speed connectivity doesn’t end there, with the inclusion of 2.4Gbps WiFi and a 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port.

Priced at just under £450 in the UK, which is particularly reasonable for a sTRX4 offering, ASRock is not asking potential buyers to break the bank for the luxury of workstation-geared design choices and included features. Let’s take a closer look.

Features (information taken from the ASRock webpage):

• Supports 3^rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ Processors
• 8 Power Phase Design, 90A Dr. MOS & Power Choke
• XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink & Heatpipe Design
• Supports DDR4 4666+(OC)
• 4 PCIe 4.0 x16
• NVIDIA^® NVLINK™, 4-Way SLI™, AMD 4-Way CrossFireX™
• 8 SATA3, 2 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4), 1 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4 & SATA3)
• 1 Rear USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 20Gb/s Type-C
• 3 USB 3.2 Gen2 (1 Front Type-C, 2 Rear)
• 8 USB 3.2 Gen1 (4 Front, 4 Rear)
• 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC4050H+ALC1220), Supports Purity Sound™ 4 & DTS Connect
• AQUANTIA^® 10G LAN, Realtek 2.5G LAN
• Intel^® Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax (2.4Gbps) + BT 5.0

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