The ASUS ROG STRIX X299-XE Gaming is another Intel X299 motherboard that should help filling in gaps in the ASUS X299 lineup. The name of this particular board already suggests that’s it’s been designed with the upcoming Intel Core i9-7980XE processor in mind. Therefore it looks like ASUS updated/reworked the CPU VRM heatsink, making use of a heavier block. This way the VRMs should not cause thermal throttling issues. Besides that, the motherboard is 99% identical to the X299-E.



Like the previous model, the ROG STRIX X299-XE Gaming is based on an ATX form factor, yet this time ASUS is using all the area available on the PCB. Nevertheless the ROG STRIX X299-XE Gaming also comes with RGB backlight at each heat sink and there are steel reinforcements on all the PCIe slots. In general the layout is quite similar to the previous model and therefore it has also been equipped with three full-sized PCIe 3.0 x16 slots.

Using a 44-lane CPU, the motherboard supports x16/x16/x8 configurations. There are eight SATA ports and all of them have been angled. Apart from that you get two M.2 slots allowing the installation of differently sized SSDs. The first M.2 slot is placed below the PCH heatsink and it’s compatible with 2280 units, while the second one is almost in the center of the board and it supports 22110 SSDs.

Since the ROG STRIX X299-XE Gaming belongs to the vendor's high-end series, there is also a plastic I/O cover which received RGB backlight. Furthermore we see all the bells and whistles you'd ask for in the event of overclocking. So far ASUS has not revealed details on pricing and availability on their ROG STRIX X299-XE motherboard.




Source: Techpowerup