W
ithAsusalreadyshowingusits
flagshipTRX40boardintheformof
theROGZenithII Extreme(seeIssue
197,p22)lastmonth,wewerekeentoseeif it
couldreproducea similarlevelof
awesomenessfora moreaffordablepricetag.
Costingcloseto£500,theROGStrixTRX40-E
Gamingisn’texactlycheap,butit’soneofthe
lessexpensiveTRX40boardsoutthere.It
certainlylookstheparttoo,witha farmore
refinedandcompactlookthantheASRock
TRX40Taichi,anda neutral,minimalistdesign
whenit comestocoloursandheatsinks.
Ratherthanoptfora la vishtwo-part,actively
k forthe16-stageVRMs,though,
th airofsmall
ASUS ROG STRIX TRX40E
GAMING/£490inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.ukpacked array of fins. This cooling system isn’t
as potent as the one on the ASRock board, but
the fans were quiet and they’re also protected
by a fine mesh on top, which should prevent the
need for regular cleaning.
Despite the lack of aluminium compared
with the ASRock TRX40 Taichi, the VRM
temperatures were only a little warmer on the
Asus board, with our measurements reading
48°C on the top and 55°C on the underside.
The latter sports a backplate that acts as a
heatsink too.
At the other end of the board is the chipset
and its heatsink, along with a Delta-made fan
thatshovesairthrough two finned air ducts in
ordertoboostcooling. However, it doesn’t really
olingthenearbyM.2portsor, as in
at r TRX40, theaudible
esting, and
ileinAsus’
e orthe EFI.
relatively
oreadvanced
, butthey still
a control offered
e’sboards, such
lityto switch
atureinputs
g tofan speed.
Asusboard also
s twomore fan
adersthan the
ASRock board.
Like the
ASRock board,
youalso get
eight SATA6Gbps ports, but there are only three M.2
ports, and two of them are hidden under a
heatsink that requires you to remove your
graphics card in order to access them. That
could prove very time-consuming if your
graphics card is water-cooled. However, a
far more frustrating design feature is found
with the DIMM slots. Their lower levers hinge
outwards so that they sit in line with the
middle of the primary 16x PCI-E slot, meaning
you can’t install or remove your memory with
most graphics cards installed, especially ones
with backplates, such as our GeForce RTX
2070 Super Founders Edition.
The same isn’t true for the other boards
on test, which have the DIMM slots seated
much higher up the PCB, so be warned. Of
the three M.2 ports, only one also supports
SATA M.2 SSDs, which sits in a vertical mountSPEC
Chipset AMD TRX40
CPU socket AMD Socket TR4X
(3rd-Gen Threadripper/Zen 2)
Memory support 8 slots: max
256GB DDR4 (up to 4400MHz)
Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E 4, one 1x PCI-E 4
Sound 8-channel ROG SupremeFX
Networking 1 x Intel Gigabit LAN, 1 x
Realtek 2.5 Gigabit LAN, 802.11ax Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 40-300MHz,
CPU multiplier 22-64x; max
voltages: CPU 1.7V, RAM 2.15V
Ports 8 x SATA 6Gbps, 3 x M.2 PCI-E 4,
7 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C,
4 x USB 2, 3 x surround audio out
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244LABS TEST / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS
o hea
the boardhasa singleunit thapair
fans inside it, which blow air through a densely pl arole
e caseofthe I eatorTR
Mstoo.
Still,thefanspunatina
levelsthroughoutourte
u cantweakitspr
FanXpert4 softwar
Bothsystemsare
capable,andmo
thanASRock’s
lacktheextra
byGigabyte
astheabil
tempera
relatin
TheA
has