ASUS X99-Deluxe Motherboard Review

Features and Motherboard Layout

Features

Courtesy of ASUS

• 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!
• 3×3(3T3R) 802.11ac Wi-Fi – Fastest onboard Wi-Fi up to 1300Mb/s
• Fan Extension Card – Powerful cooling with flexible installation & detailed control
• Dual 32Gb/s ultrafast M.2 x4 (onboard and PCIE add-in card)

Motherboard Layout

ASUS designed the X99-Deluxe board with a classic black and white color scheme – a black PCB and ports with white plastic covers over the heat sinks, rear panel, and sound hardware. The covers over the rear panel ports and sound hardware are very reminiscent of the Thermal Armor overlay ASUS uses on its Sabertooth and ROG Formula board lines. The integrated components are well placed with adequate room around all provided ports and headers.

The X99-Deluxe is mostly free of component on its underside. However, ASUS did place the TPU chipset behind the PCI-Express slots. There is also some power circuitry located beneath the rear panel components. The area direclty around the CPU socket is clear of components with the components in close proximity protected from harm by the socket back plate or the cooling plate directly under the CPU VRMs.

ASUS integrated the following ports into the X99-Deluxe rear panel: 2 USB 2.0 ports, 10 USB 3.0 ports controlled by the ASMedia chipset, USB BIOS Flashback button, dual Intel GigE NIC ports, a Broadcom-based 802.11ac tri-port Wi-Fi and Bluetooth assembly, an optical audio port, and 5 analogue audio ports. The lower USB 2.0 port located to the right of the right-most NIC port can be used in conjunction with the USB BIOS Flashback function.

The USB BIOS Flashback button can be used to re-flash the BIOS without having to boot the system into the UEFI BIOS interface or DOS. Simply plug in a USB drive containing the proper BIOS file in the root of the drive into the bottom USB 2.0 port(to the right of the right-most NIC port) and press the button for 3 seconds until the integrated LED begins to flash. As the BIOS is updated, the LED flashing frequency increases. Once the LED goes out, the flash operation is completed and the board can be booted. Note that if the BIOS Flashback LED flashes for 5 seconds and then glows solid, it means that something went wrong with the flashback operation. Check the USB drive for the the BIOS file in the root and make sure that the BIOS file is named correctly. BIOS Flashback looks for a specific filename and file format when attempting to replace the on-board BIOS. According to the user manual, the BIOS file in the root of the flash drive must be named X99D.CAP for the BIOS Flashback applet to successfully re-flash the board's BIOS.

The X99-Deluxe motherboard has a total of six PCI-Express device ports – five PCI-Express x16 slots and one PCI-Express x4 slot. For the PCI-Express x16 slots, the board supports full x16 bandwidth with a single or dual cards, x16-x16-x8 bandwidth with three cards populated, x8-x8-x16-x8 with four cards populated, and x8 across all slots with five card populated. Note that x16-x16-x8 mode is only available when using a CPU with 40 PCI-E lanes. When using a CPU with 28 PCI-E lanes, triple card mode operates in x8 mode across all ports.

ASUS designed the X99-Deluxe's audio components on a physically separate PCB to minimize noise and crosstalk from other integrated components, dubbed Crystal Sound 2. The PCB separator line illuminates in white, but is covered by the plastic overlay. The front panel audio header and S/PDIF output header are located just below the audio subsystem's capacitor bank.

The front panel audio header, S/PDIF output header, power, reset, and CMOS Clear button, Q-Code diagnostic display, external fan header, and trusted port module (TPM) header are located in the upper left corner of the board, along the outside of PCI Express x16 slot 5. The Q-Code diagnostic display is a 2-digit hex display used for troubleshooting motherboard boot related issues. A table of codes is located in the motherboard manual to interpret the diagnostic read-out. The external fan header can be used to connect to the external Fan Extension card, adding additional fan headers and temperature sensor ports to the board.

The trusted module port header and two on board USB 3.0 headers located to the lower left of PCI Express x16 slot 5. Note that both on board USB 3.0 headers are controlled by the X99 chipset controller.

The USB 2.0 headers, front panel headers, CPU Overvoltage header, DirectKey header (DRCT), Thunderbolt header, multi-GPU configuration switch, EZ-XMP switch, TPU switch, EPU switch, and a chassis fan header are located in the lower left corner of board. The DirectKey header can be connected to a case button, triggering direct board boot in to the UEFI BIOS on next reboot. The multi-GPU configuration switch (SLI/CFX) enables LEDs below the correct slots to use, based on the switch setting, the CPU in use, as well as the PCI-Express x16 slot 5 bandwidth setting (set via the BIOS). The EZ XMP switch allows you to activate the memory XMP speed and setting specifications when enabled, overriding any current active BIOS settings. The EPU switch enables BIOS controlled power consumption optimization. The TPU switch enables BIOS assisted overclocking with two modes available. In mode 1, only the CPU ratio is changed. In mode 2, both the CPU ratio and the base clock value are changed. The Thunderbolt header is used to connect to the optional ThunderboltEX II PCIe board using the included board adapter and USB extension cables.

The Intel X99 chipset is covered by large flat heat sink covered by a white plastic overlay, just below the PCI-Express x16 slots. The heat sink is connected via heat pipe to the heat sink to the left of the CPU socket.

ASUS includes a total of eight on-board SATA 6 Gb/s ports and two SATA Express 10 Gb/s ports located just under the chipset cooler. The lower SATA Express port is tied to the ASMedia controller, while all other ports are tied to the X99 chipset controller. The four dark grey SATA ports can be used in a RAID along with drives connected to the lower SATA Express port. The four black colored SATA ports support only AHCI-type devices and cannot be configured for raid operation directly via the chipset controller.

The DDR4 memory slots frame the CPU socket with four underneath and four above the CPU socket. Quad Channel memory mode is enabled with memory modules seated in like colored slots. Note that the gray colored slots are the primary memory slots when using four modules in the board. The board supports up to 64GB of memory running at a maximum speed of 3200MHz. Note that memory speeds above 2133MHz are considered overclocked speeds and are outside of the official Intel stock memory speed specifications. Along the board edge underneath the lower set of DIMM slots are a chassis fan header, the two Intel-controlled SATA ports, the on board M.2 slot, and the 24-pin ATX power connector. ASUS also includes four dedicated power phases for use by the memory slots, two for the lower set and two for the upper set. Note that the M.2 slot shares bandwidth with PCI-Express x16 slot 5. Bandwidth assigned to each slot can be configured via the PCH Storage Configuration menu in the BIOS.

To the lower right of the lower set of DIMM slots are the 24-pin ATX power connector and MEMOK! button. Two 4-pin fan headers (four in total) are located to the upper left and lower right of the upper set of DIMM slots. The MemOK! button can be used to reset memory-related BIOS settings to defaults, useful when the system doesn't boot because of memory options set over-aggressively.

The CPU socket ares is clear of obstructions, allowing for use of the larger CPU coolers. The socket is framed above and below by DIMM slots and on both sides by heat sinks. ASUS integrated a total of eight digital power phases to ensure board stability under all operating conditions. Note that the board contains two heat pipe-assisted cooling loops. The heat sinks to the right and left of the CPU socket are on separate cooling loops.

The CMOS battery is located to the left of the CPU socket, just under the heat sink. ASUS oriented the battery in a vertical position, making it easy to get to as well as space-efficient.

The 8-pin ATX12V power connector is located to the outer right heat sink to the right of the CPU socket. While it looks close in proximity to the heat sink, you should have no issues with accessing the power port.