Type-C ports on the rear panel. The latter support USB3.1Gen
2 2x2, which adds another lane of bandwidth to the equation,
boosting throughput to 20Gbps. For audiophiles, Asushas
also beefed up the Realtek ALC1220 codec with an ESSSabre
90118Q2C amplifier and Nichicon capacitors. Apart fromthe
Fan Extension Card II and DIMM.2 module, though, therearen’t
as many extras as we expected in the heavy box.
Performance
We don’t have any results for other TRX40 boards yet,but
we’ll be doing a group test next month, so we suggestwaiting
to see how the competition stands up before purchasing.For
now, though, the Zenith II Extreme performed admirablywith
no hiccups, which is more than could be said for 1st-genand
2nd-gen Threadripper boards at the outset.
It managed a RealBench system score of 357,734 atstock
speed, and 377,955 once overclocked, while the Far Cry 5
minimum and average frame rates rose from 85fps and
104fps to 87fps and 110fps respectively. The audio
performance was excellent too, with a dynamic rangeof
114dBA and noise level of -116dBA. Meanwhile, our PCI-E 4
SSD hit 5,003MB/sec and 4,263MB/sec.
We managed to hit an all-core overclock of 4.35GHzusing
a 1.325V vcore with our 24-core Threadripper 3960X,andthe
fans remained quiet throughout testing. Asus has clearly
learned lessons in fine-tuning chipset fans from its X570
boards. In fact, the chipset fan didn’t spin up at all during any of
our benchmarks. The VRM fans were largely redundant too,
with the reported VRM temperature not topping 45°C at stock
speed, even after a ten-minute stress test using Prime95.
Finally,theEFIis generallyexcellent,aswe’vecometo
expectfromAsus,andit hasthefullsuiteofAMD-specific
overclockingtools.However,weweredisappointedthatyou
can’tselectfromdifferenttemperatureinputstocontrol
yourfans.
Conclusion
TheAsusROGZenithII Extremeis hideouslyexpensive,but
it’salsooneofthebestmotherboardswe’vetested,witha
fantasticpowerdeliverysystemthatremainedcoolandquiet,
despitedealingwithAMD’smonsternewCPUs.It hasthe
potentialforcreatingmassivestoragearrays,it offersallthe
cutting-edgefeaturesyoucould need,including 10GLANand
USB3.1,plusit wasrocksolidthroughoutourtesting.Sadly,the
pricewilldictatewhocanaffordit, butit’sanamazing
motherboardif youhavethemoney.
ANTONYLEATHER
VERDICT
Deals with AMD’s 32-core monster with ease, but
it will eat your wallet for breakfast.
ROG
+Extreme
featureset
+GreatVRMcooling
+Excellentcooling
control
BOG
- Hugelyexpensive
- Notmany
accessoriesfor
themoney - SomeM. 2ports
trickytoaccess
OVERALLSCORE
80 %
PERFORMANCE
34 / 35
FEATURES
33 / 35
VALUE
13 / 30
BENCHMARK RESULTS
Stockspeedmin Stockspeedavg
Overclocked min Overclocked avg
1,920 x 1,080, High settings
FAR CRY 5
0306090120
Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme 85fps 104fps
87fps 110fps
GIMPIMAGEEDITING
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000
AsusROGZenithII Extreme 60,286 60,445
HANDBRAKEH.264VIDEOENCODING
0 300,000 600,000 900,000 1,200,000
AsusROGZenithII Extreme 1,023,216 1,098,103
HEAVYMULTITASKING
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
AsusROGZenithII Extreme 322,836 328,673
100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000
SYSTEMSCORE
0
Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme 357,734 377,955
Stock speed Overclocked
Stockspeed Overclocked
0 200 400 600
0 200 400 600
AsusROGZenithII Extreme 132W 172W
Asus ROG Zenith II Extreme 440W 526W
TOTAL SYSTEM POWERCONSUMPTION
Idle
Load