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 the card contains large components on the rear side of the PCB.
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 may be tight, depending on the height of the memory module coolers and the CPU cooler's front fan seat 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 VRM heat sinks and the power chokes located just under the VRM sink.
Included Accessories
ASUS bundled in everything necessary to get the X99-M WS board up and running.
The X99-M WS motherboard manual is well written and highly detailed, as we have come to expect 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 button and tied USB ports as well as the USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 ports.
ASUS included a total of eight 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 a two-way NVIDIA SLI cable 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.
For attaching to wireless and Bluetooth-based networks, ASUS included their triple-plug antennae with gold-plated screw-in connectors. The antennae can be used in a flat or upright orientation with its surface optimized for broadcast and reception of 802.11ac type signals.
Those finned heatsinks used
Those finned heatsinks used to cool VRM are really neat. Its hard to see those good old finned heatsinks on recent motherboards.
on page 2 -> “ASUS designed
on page 2 -> “ASUS designed the X99-M WS board with a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, all controlled by the Intel Z170 chipset.”
it should rather be X99 chipset 😉
Agree.
Appears to be a typo
Agree.
Appears to be a typo on the “Features and Motherboard Layout” page where “[…] 6 Gb/s ports, all controlled by the Intel Z170 chipset. […]” should say X99 chipset. As far as I know, ASUS hasn’t made any revision to the chipset.
You are correct, thanks for
You are correct, thanks for pointing it out. So much for my iron clad review methods…
I’ve built a pc with this
I’ve built a pc with this mobo. I love the board. Only down side would be the fact that older m.2 (x2, not 32gbps) was used.
Totally agree, I’m looking
Totally agree, I’m looking forward to build a small powerful system, and this motherboard would have been great, but the m.2 slot is already dated and lagging behind current SSDs.
If you are only using one
If you are only using one video card, I would think that you could get an m.2 to PCIe adaptor card for about $20 to $30. For full speed you would need to use one of the x16 or x8 slots, either of which would prevent use of a second video card unless you have a single slot card.
i hope to correct your
i hope to correct your confusion here. m.2 is a slot, and ssd is a type of storage. m.2 theoretically can reach a transfer rate of 32 gb/s. On the other hand, the most common form of today’s ssd in computer main storage ultiliszes the sata III slot that reaches a transfer rate of 6 gb/s. PCIe based ssd will reach the same performance as m.2. The storage board that you use for m.2 slot is ssd too. sata 3 is slower but not lagging behind anything because sata 4 doesn’t not exist and the use of PCIe is slowly replacing sata. m.2 is faster than sata. which ssd drives were you referring to? please understand the logic of form and function.
Thank you Morry Teitelman for
Thank you Morry Teitelman for the Review! Been waiting for it 🙂
Wow, I didn’t know the antenna came with it 🙂
Does this board support Dual Channel memory if only using a Dual Channel memory kit of 2 sticks or more? My understanding was that this board only supports Quad. If it supports both, what are the pros and cons? You didn’t go in much details when OC the memory.
What is your opinion on the OC socket compared to the competitors options? Did you feel it provided better stability?
Thanks 🙂
It appears to only have 3
It appears to only have 3 PCIe X16/8, but supports Quad SLI?
That’s a neat trick.
Its supports Quad SLI when
Its supports Quad SLI when using two dual GPU cards…
Ah, i totally forgot about
Ah, i totally forgot about that.
As always unique &
As always unique & interesting perspective from Morry.
Sadly board is a bit hit and miss. mATX is not exactly good for advanced RAID setups (and I don’t mean 2 SSDs in non-redundant ‘RAID’ 0 on chipset controller because that’s how most home users see RAID) or anything in general except SLI/CF. One of the things I don’t get it. “WS” doesn’t equal SLI/CF gaming machine.
Can’t slap more than one RAID card as it’ll be totally impossible to provide enough cooling to keep RoC cool (unless liquid cooled, but still not enough space for 2 controllers or expander). Even with less power-hungry HBAs for drive pools 1 card is max.
WS moniker with mATX/mITX boards is a bit overinflated. It’s not very good at everything workstation should do or at least be prepared to do. That’s why I just read ‘micro/mini’ reviews for flavor sake. Definitively not my cup of tea. But if your “workstation” is a gaming one, go ahead. 😀
Hello
thank very much Morry
Hello
thank very much Morry for the review and also the review of the big X99-WS board, I know it is very late, but I had to disconnect my internet for a few months for the sake of passing in college *sigh*
One more I have one little parts question: does the add-in card stack up against the onboard 3.1 ?
Is there a board similar to
Is there a board similar to this but with the m.2 x4?
The only x99 mATX board that
The only x99 mATX board that I know of is the EVGA X99 Micro2, here:
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=131-HE-E095-KR
What about the two ASRock
What about the two ASRock boards? They also feature M.2 with PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth.
ASRock X99M Extreme4:
http://asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99M%20Extreme4/index.us.asp
ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer/3.1:
http://asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20X99M%20Killer3.1/index.us.asp
Asus is really testing my
Asus is really testing my loyalty, not releasing an x99 ROG branded MATX mobo. I’m in love with my Fractal Define Mini, and refuse to change it.
Maybe they should do a
Maybe they should do a refresh on x99 platform and remove that useless data exspress port. It’s what’s kept me from upgrading my x79 rig something bout useless tech on board bugs me too much to buy in why I waiting for z170ws but it’s $600 cnd atm a gut punch at that price.maybe kabby lake will cause a refresh and data exspress will go the way of FireWire,and be ripped of chipset and outa BIOS.
Not sure that I follow what
Not sure that I follow what you’re saying.
As far as I know, this board doesn’t support sata express ports. It does have a lot of sata ports to support multiple raid setup.
Which they believe is more important on a WS board than fewer high performance data transferring storage drives.
Weaknesses
*Lack of
It does have an integrated CMOS clear switch. It’s the red button situated beneath the lower PCI-E x16 slot.