Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

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

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