ASUS X399 ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha Review
Up Close Continued
A great litmus test of where any motherboard fits in a manufacturers range is to glance at how much of the IO section is taken up, usually by USB connectors. By that rule of thumb the ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha definitely sits proudly at the peak of the ASUS AMD range. No matter how many peripherals you have, or recording equipment for your streaming exploits, the Zenith Extreme Alpha has you covered. As well as one Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2 there are 3 Type-A USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, 8 USB 3.1 Gen1 and two LAN ports including the Aquantia AQC-107 10G port if your home networking setup is up to snuff. Wireless people will be pleased to note the Extreme Alpha has support for Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi up to 1.73 Gbps.
The movement of the DIMM slots downwards has expanded the VRM setup to take up the entire top section of the Zenith Extreme Alpha, providing smoother power delivery for even bigger overclocks. If you ever feared that the early X399 motherboards weren’t capable of delivering the monstrous gobs of power required by the Threadripper 2 CPUs then worry no longer. There is more than enough capability here and with the twin fan cooling, gigantic heatsink, and even a heatspreader around the back to keep your PCB stable and dissipate the generated heat you needn’t worry about temperatures either.
Onboard OLED displays are something that first appeared a short while ago and, whilst flashy, didn’t seem to have a lot of usefulness. Now as the technology has matured and more hardware is equipped with them the utility support grows almost daily. It doesn’t just look the part, but helps you keep track of things at a glance. Or just shows off your personal logo. Whichever works.
