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Asus X99-A Motherboard Review

Rating: 8.5.

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises about Intel's most recent iteration of the High-End Desktop (HEDT) platform has been its relative affordability from the perspective of an enthusiast's budget. OK, DDR4 isn't cheap, and nor are processors starting at £300. But when you consider the additional cost over an LGA 1150 Core i7-based configuration (as we delved into here), and graph it against operational results, the price vs performance rewards start showing themselves.

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What relevance does that opening section have to today's review? Well it's thanks to affordable, feature-filled motherboards such as the Asus X99-A that the LGA 2011-3 platform is within financial reach for a greater number of enthusiasts. Making a chip, board, and memory cost of less than £650 plausible, without skimping heavily on features, it's easy to see why the sub-£200 X99 motherboard market is so fiercely contested.

3-way SLI support, ten SATA 6Gbps ports, a 32Gbps M.2 connector, and enhanced audio are just some of the features that Asus provides on its lowest-cost X99 solution.

Can the value-orientated X99-A prove its worth in the hotly contested sub-£200 marketplace.

Features:

  • Patent Pending OC Socket – Drive CPU and DDR4 performance beyond all expectations!
  • 5-Way Optimization by Dual Intelligent Processors 5 – One click overclock and cooling, done!
  • 32Gb/s ultrafast M.2 x4
  • Crystal Sound 2 – Flawless audio that makes you part of the game!
  • Total control anytime, anywhere with Remote GO!

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One comment

  1. Luke, fantastic review. I am interested in two things.

    Firstly, is the M.2 slot physically blocked by a second graphics card. For example, 2x4GB EVGA GTX 980? This card extends the whole width of this motherboard and I suspect the second card would occupy the third PCIe slot (PCIEX16_3 on the schematic). Due to the thickness of the card, I am worried that the M.2 slot is obscured.

    Secondly, what benefit would I or other readers experience in your opinion by upgrading to the x99 Deluxe motherboard given the following components:
    > Intel Core i7 5960X Haswell-E 8 Core
    > 2x 4GB EVGA GTX 980
    > 8x8GB Corsair DDR4 Vengeance
    > 250GB Samsung 840 EVO Basic SSD SATA III

    Thanks for your thoughts.