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With Intel's new range of Broadwell-E enthusiast grade CPUs now available, including the 10-core Core i7 6950X, it's only fitting that motherboard vendors have refreshed ageing X99 portfolios. ASUS was quick off the mark releasing the X99-A II, X99-DELUXE II, Rampage V Edition 10 and ROG STRIX X99 Gaming. The latter motherboard represents the first time ASUS has combined its Republic of Gamers and STRIX product lines in an effort to streamline it's gaming portfolio.
ASUS hasn't made it totally clear why STRIX is now being merged into ROG – the company had previously been vehement about dividing the two brands. STRIX, for the most part, had been pitched as the budget gaming brand of ASUS while ROG has always been about premium and pioneering products. Perhaps the company has finally seen the need to begin simplifying a complex range of brands and sub-brands – Channel (“standard” ASUS), Republic of Gamers (ROG), STRIX, Cerberus, Echelon and The Ultimate Force (TUF), to name the main ones.
For all intents and purposes the ASUS ROG STRIX X99 Gaming is about giving consumers another ROG option for an gaming motherboard with the X99 platform – that isn't as expensive as the Rampage V Extreme, or its new successor the Rampage V Edition 10, but still holds ROG-level credentials. Aside from supporting Broadwell-E CPUs out-of-the-box there are a number of other new features including USB 3.1, a better complement of PCI-e storage options, RGB lighting capability and some build quality improvements.
Features:
- Intel® Core™ i7 X-Series processors on LGA 2011-v3 socket
- Quad-channel DDR4 3333 (OC) support
- OC Socket, 5-Way Optimization and second-generation T-Topology: Easy and stable overclocking
- Aura RGB illumination, Aura 4-pin RGB-strip header and customizable color decals: True gaming aesthetics
- SupremeFX and Sonic Radar II: Flawless audio with stealthy, game-dominating overlay
- Top-speed protected networking: Intel Gigabit Ethernet, LANGuard and GameFirst technology
- Gamer's Guardian: SafeSlot and smart DIY features
- Ultra-speedy transfers for faster gaming: 2×2 802.11ac MU-MIMO Wi-Fi, U.2 and M.2, USB 3.1 Type A+C, RAMCache
Couple of questions first is why isn’t Asus throwing in a mobo speaker at this price point it should be included. Second is I have my setup but haven’t booted still waiting on one more ram kit. Which CPU fan header should be used based on the manual it suggests CPU/w or with Pump but I have seen some threads that suggested the users were having issues with fan speed and cpu cooling. Im running the Strix w/ the i7 6800 appreciate any guidance on which is the proper fan header.
For 1 fan, the CPU_FAN, for 2 fans, CPU_FAN & CPU_OPT, for 2 fans and a pump, CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT and W_PUMP (though in most coses it is fully recommended to use SATA power and just run the pump @ 12 volts all the time, particularly if its an AIO, but if you have a SATA and fan header connection for your pump, you can plug both in so that the fan header cable gives you an RPM read-out [the H100i has this]).