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[TPU] Asus Unveils WS X299 SAGE Motherboard

13K views 70 replies 34 participants last post by  KCDC 
#1 ·
Quote:
The ASUS WS X299 SAGE draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and a 6-pin PCIe power. An 8-phase VRM powers the CPU, and is rated to power 16-core and 18-core CPU models. The CPU socket is wired to eight DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 128 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory; and seven PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots. Storage connectivity includes eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and two each of 32 Gb/s M.2 slots and 32 Gb/s U.2 ports. Four USB 3.1 gen 2 ports, two 1 GbE interfaces, and a dozen USB 3.0 ports make for the rest of it. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Source


It would be great to see a VRM temp analysis/comparison whenever this releases. I'm curious to see how much of a difference a real heatsink makes over the other ones.
 
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#5 ·
This looks like a fairly robust motherboard, and I feel like I am the only person who is excited to see the dual U.2 ports
redface.gif

Taking a close look, it looks like the PCB was designed to support a third U.2 port, but they left it off of this model for whatever reason..

I am willing to bet there will be a bigger revision of this board, with the 3 U.2 ports, and maybe the 10G ethernet that I have already seen a complaint about.
(Unless the bigger board already exists, and I just haven't seen it yet)
redface.gif
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmons572 View Post

This looks like a fairly robust motherboard, and I feel like I am the only person who is excited to see the dual U.2 ports
redface.gif

Taking a close look, it looks like the PCB was designed to support a third U.2 port, but they left it off of this model for whatever reason..

I am willing to bet there will be a bigger revision of this board, with the 3 U.2 ports, and maybe the 10G ethernet that I have already seen a complaint about.
(Unless the bigger board already exists, and I just haven't seen it yet)
redface.gif
Noticed that as well.... It may have to do with the plx chips they are using. I am counting 104 lanes for pcie devices on the board so it seems they may be using a different chip than the 8747 that they have used on previous boards. I still have a soft spot for the ws boards like this, clean design plenty of connections.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by jarble View Post

Noticed that as well.... It may have to do with the plx chips they are using. I am counting 104 lanes for pcie devices on the board so it seems they may be using a different chip than the 8747 that they have used on previous boards. I still have a soft spot for the ws boards like this, clean design plenty of connections.
I would kill for a board that had a clean design like this in the mainstream arena for either camp. I can't stand the gaudy gamer aesthetic that infests every board.

EDIT: although I would prefer actual heatsink fins like they have had on past WS boards.
EDIT2: nvm it has fins but they look to be covered by a shroud. Not ideal but better.
 
#11 ·
That 6 pin in the middle of the board though
frown.gif
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmons572 View Post

This looks like a fairly robust motherboard, and I feel like I am the only person who is excited to see the dual U.2 ports
redface.gif

Taking a close look, it looks like the PCB was designed to support a third U.2 port, but they left it off of this model for whatever reason..

I am willing to bet there will be a bigger revision of this board, with the 3 U.2 ports, and maybe the 10G ethernet that I have already seen a complaint about.
(Unless the bigger board already exists, and I just haven't seen it yet)
redface.gif
I can pretty much guarantee that. It'll be called x299 WS Sage 10g. It'll have all of the missing features seems here, plus rgb.
 
#14 ·
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by RXWX View Post

There was also discussion of the SAGE in the thread, which falls in line in the Pro variants.
Perhaps you should update your OP to reflect that.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by naved777 View Post

Pretty sure its to provide extra juice to those PCIE slots which wont be necessary unless one goes berserk mode
devil.gif
Indeed a very useful feature if you're running multiple pcie devices. 75 watts per card starts to add up very quickly and if you're not careful you can melt the 24pin connector been there done that not a very fun experience
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by jarble View Post

Noticed that as well.... It may have to do with the plx chips they are using. I am counting 104 lanes for pcie devices on the board so it seems they may be using a different chip than the 8747 that they have used on previous boards. I still have a soft spot for the ws boards like this, clean design plenty of connections.
Four of those slots are wired x16 and three are x8, that's a total of 88. However, there are also PCI-E quick switches, looking at large clusters, there are two sets of 4, each of those clusters can switch x8, so we can remove x8 or x16 from the total number needed from devices, so that goes to maximum 80 and minimum of 72 required lanes. You get 44 from the CPU, however, they probably just used two PEX8747 (and you can feed a PEX8747 just x8 and get 32), and it looks like the same PCI-E layout as we saw on the board here: https://www.tweaktown.com/image.php?image=imagescdn.tweaktown.com/content/7/9/7925_19_asus-x99-10g-ws-workstation-motherboard-review_full.jpg

The PCI-E layouts will be different because we don't know all devices and port counts. Here was my analysis on the X99 version:
Quote:
For a 40 lane CPU, the X550 Intel 10Gbit controller gets x4 PCI-E 3.0, and the M.2/U.2 get x4 PCI-E 3.0, leaving x32 PCI-E lanes for the slots. That x32 is split into two sets of x16, each one going to a separate PEX8747 chip that turns them into x32 PCI-E 3.0. This provides a total of x64 PCI-E lanes for the 7 slots. The first slot will always run at x16, and the third will always run at a minimum of x8, while another x8 connection can be allocated to the second PCI-E x16 slot or the third to turn it into an x16. The first three slots can operate at x16/x0/x16 or x16/x8/x8. The fifth and seventh PCI-E x16 slots will always run a minimum of x8 and will run x16 if the fourth and sixth slots are unoccupied. The last four PCI-E x16 slots can run at x0/x16/x0/x16 or x8/x8/x8/x8. So you can run x16/x0/x16/x0/x16/x0/x16 for 4-way SLI or you can run all slots at x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8, x16/x0/x16/x8/x8/x8/x8, or x16/x8/x8/x0/x16/x0/x16.

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7925/asus-x99-10g-ws-workstation-motherboard-review/index2.html
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sin0822 View Post

Four of those slots are wired x16 and three are x8, that's a total of 88. However, there are also PCI-E quick switches, looking at large clusters, there are two sets of 4, each of those clusters can switch x8, so we can remove x8 or x16 from the total number needed from devices, so that goes to maximum 80 and minimum of 72 required lanes. You get 44 from the CPU, however, they probably just used two PEX8747 (and you can feed a PEX8747 just x8 and get 32), and it looks like the same PCI-E layout as we saw on the board here: https://www.tweaktown.com/image.php?image=imagescdn.tweaktown.com/content/7/9/7925_19_asus-x99-10g-ws-workstation-motherboard-review_full.jpg

The PCI-E layouts will be different because we don't know all devices and port counts. Here was my analysis on the X99 version:
For my count I used 8x for u.2, 64 for 16x pcie, 24 for 8x pcie, and another 8 for M.2 not counting switches just raw plugin count. I totally agree with you that they will more than likely continue to use the 8747. I am very interested to see how the configuration is laid out when people get their hands on it.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by jarble View Post

For my count I used 8x for u.2, 64 for 16x pcie, 24 for 8x pcie, and another 8 for M.2 not counting switches just raw plugin count. I totally agree with you that they will more than likely continue to use the 8747. I am very interested to see how the configuration is laid out when people get their hands on it.
Yea the U.2 and M.2, but they also seem to switch with some of the PCI-E lanes as there are multiple other sets of quick switches (not counting the two sets of four quick switches) that would move around PCI-E to those devices from the slots, and you also have PCH bandwidth. I assume they will just use two PEX8747, as sourcing components is more of an issue than most people realize. Vendors typically need to buy in bulk to reduce component cost otherwise it's extremely expensive to buy the chips individually, so they typically use what they have on hand. It will be interesting when it comes out, i agree.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Delphi View Post

That 6 pin in the middle of the board though
frown.gif
That is one of the main reason I use the x99 WS board for my Titan X compute machines. Makes it much easier to plug in compared to the right angle on the bottom of the board when using a rack chassis like this one I used for 5 compute nodes.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811123178&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Server+-+Chassis-_-N82E16811123178&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2azmwdjG1wIVDcpkCh1l5wo0EAQYASABEgI-HPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
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