CPU Cooler Fit & Included Accessories
CPU Cooler Fit
To test the amount of space surrounding the CPU socket, we mounted a Noctua NH-D15 cooler to the CPU socket. An overly large CPU air cooler, the NH-D15 houses a dual fan construction and two huge vertical cooling towers.
Noctua NH-D15
With the NH-D15 oriented to blow air towards the board's rear panel, the cooler does not come into direct contact with any of the memory modules or heat sinks surrounding the CPU socket. While a graphics card does not conflict with the heat sink in the primary PCIe x16 slot, the card may require using an alternate slot if it contains large components on the rear side of the PCB or backplate.
The side views illustrate that the memory slot layout is designed to be usable with even the largest CPU coolers, as long as the cooler is designed to adhere to the Intel design spec. The fit between the front fan and the front memory modules could be tight, depending on the cooler's front fan seating height.
Noctua SecureFirm2 mounting system
Noctua's SecureFirm2 mounting system is a good method to quickly determine how well the CPU socket laid out to accommodate a larger cooler. The mount easily fits within the constraints of the upper and lower memory modules, as well in the PLX and VRM heat sinks and the power chokes located just under the VRM sink.
Included Accessories
ASUS bundled in everything necessary to get the X99-E WS/USB 3.1 board up and running.
The X99-E WS/USB 3.1 motherboard manual is well written and highly detailed, as expected from ASUS manuals. ASUS also includes an install disk containing all necessary hardware drivers and application software for board functioning. Additionally, a "Powered by ASUS" branded metallic case badge is bundled in with the board.
ASUS includes a flat black colored rear panel shield with the ports labeled via white colored text and graphics and specialized coloring to differentiate the BIOS Flashback and Q-Code Logger buttons and tied USB ports as well as the USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 ports.
ASUS included a total of 12 6Gb/s rated SATA cables for use with the integrated sata ports. The black colored cables have integrated port locks.
For multi-GPU use, ASUS includes two-way, three-way, and four-way NVIDIA SLI cables, for using the board with multiple graphics cards.
For use with the on-board front panel and USB 2.0 headers, ASUS included their Q-Connector header plugs. You simply plug the front panel and USB 2.0 plugs into the Q-Connector, then plug the Q-Connector into the appropriate board header. It makes the installation of the front panel and USB plugs much easier.
ASUS included rear panel brackets for adding a serial port and two USB 2.0 ports to the system.
Could you give more details
Could you give more details on how the OC socket works and how well it performs compared to other competitor’s approach for this?
OS Support – No Windows 10 😛
Wow – eSATA ports are back 🙂
First. Thanks for the review.
First. Thanks for the review. This is a great looking board and Beast like you said. My only gripe is since this is the EXREME platform using the H100i which clearly is not enough for more aggressive overclocking just like you said in the reveiw that it was maybe holding it back. Question is when using Ek Predator or H240x from Switech with a real copper Radiator if it is possible to reach 4.5 Ghz or not ? I am maybe nitpicking but like I said 5960X and a 550$$ motherboard deserve to get the best cooling out there to be tested on in my opinion !
I used the EK’s cooling
I used the EK’s cooling results to compare various AIO options and the H100i displayed roughly 1-2 hotter temps then their EK option.
Per this review and your comment, I believe an AIO solution may not be enough to cool the 5960X further. However, from various reviews; 4.3GHz to 4.6GHz is found to be the common stable OC range for the 5960X.
If your build allows, I would go with the Predator from EK. Not only is it an AIO option, but the larger rad allows for better cooling and if you want to convert to a full water system, the Predator has the adaptors for it.
No I am talking for the
No I am talking for the Review so Morry does not have to build a custom loop every time and I would NEVER use an AIO cause I am hardcore water cooler m8 😉 = AI not AIO = ALL IN = ME 😀 😀 :D.
In previous reviews, the
In previous reviews, the Corsair H100i was plenty capable of keeping my 5960X cool and stable at 4.5GHz. With this review, I think the Corsair cooler was having problems because of age more than anything. You have to realize that I've used and abused that AIO cooler for years with 10's if not closer to 100 mounts and dismounts, so I would chalk the issues up to the cooler going bad rather than a board issue.
That said, I am using a custom loop for both my test benches now to ensure that the cooler does not become a bottleneck for board testing…
All right my man…Nice
All right my man…Nice
The link on the front page to
The link on the front page to this article is wrong.
Only ONE M.2 slot on this
Only ONE M.2 slot on this workstation mainboard? But on Z170 gaming boards there are 2 or 3 M.2 slots? WTF?
Relax. It is an old board
Relax. It is an old board (much older than Skylake chipsets) just with USB 3.1 added. Asus would be mad to rework whole board just to add 2 USB ports and another quirky M.2. Want more M.2 go with newer Skylake.
IMHO WS board don’t need M.2 whatsoever. You have RAID AICs for that. At least I know I have, because RAID 0 is no RAID at all.
Not very good reviews from
Not very good reviews from Newegg and Amazon…
dual 8 pin CPU power… how
dual 8 pin CPU power… how many watts ?!@?!?
Note: you need to fix the
Note: you need to fix the “Continue reading our preview of the ASUS X99-E WS/USB 3.1 motherboard!” link on this post.
Got it, thanks.
Got it, thanks.
No PS/2 port? It’s useless!
No PS/2 port? It’s useless!
Ditch the SATA-Express ports
Ditch the SATA-Express ports and
support at least 4 integrated U.2 ports.
See photos of the ASUS Z170 Premium:
by removing the 2 SATA-Express ports,
there’s plenty of room for 3 more U.2 ports.
Yes, I realize this shifts the bottleneck
to the DMI link, so let’s start talking
about higher upstream bandwidth too.
MRFS
https://twitter.com/OC3D/stat
https://twitter.com/OC3D/status/645938923580035073/photo/1