One of the criticisms levied at AMD final yr was that it launched its new Threadripper Pro platform in September nevertheless it was vendor-locked on the time to the Lenovo Thinkstation P620. The P620 appears to have offered like sizzling muffins, and the system design is absolutely neat (we now have one in for testing), however the truth that events solely have Lenovo as an choice was thought of a limiting issue for some. Fast ahead to the start of 2021, and AMD has introduced that TR Pro might be made obtainable at retail, permitting different OEMs to additionally construct techniques. Alongside this, three motherboard producers have additionally showcased their upcoming motherboard choices, and probably the most anticipated mannequin that acquired probably the most plaudits on seems to be alone was the ASUS. Today, in what seems to be a worldwide unique, we now have some hands-on entry to the ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE WiFi. Yes, it’s a mouthful to say.
Dang, This Thing is Heavy
First factor I seen when the motherboard was delivered was simply how heavy it’s. On the scales, the board and field comes to five.four kg (11.9 lbs), and the board is most of that. I don’t even assume my heaviest laptop computer weighs that a lot, and this can be a lot greater than the motherboard that ASUS made for Intel’s overclockable 28-core Xeon W-3175X a pair years in the past. It’s onerous to get throughout in phrases on a web page in regards to the weight, however put it this fashion, it may substitute some dumbbells that’s for certain.
Part of what makes this board so heavy is the dimensions, with this mannequin being a full prolonged ATX (E-ATX) unit, but in addition ASUS has in-built some correct rigidity assist and cooling. On the rear there’s a stiffening plate to make sure that the board doesn’t bend when giant coolers and add-in playing cards are getting used.
On the entrance the 16-phase energy supply has this large chunk of anodized steel on prime of it that appears to have the ability to take in a number of warmth power. I took this heatsink off the motherboard and weighed it, and it is available in at simply shy of 300 grams (0.6 lbs) by itself.
Moving again to that 16-phase energy supply – ASUS has transposed the socket such that the airflow strikes throughout the board, by means of the reminiscence, and out of the panel IO. This signifies that the facility supply is aligned in another way on the board, and ASUS has supplied greater than sufficient right here for the Threadripper Pro CPUs. In truth, it is vitally a lot overkill – we see trendy 240 W EPYC techniques constructed with solely six phases per socket being lots, so the truth that ASUS has gone for 16 right here, on a chip that doesn’t have CPU overclocking, appears a bit excessive. I suppose one think about that is perhaps as a result of these boards received’t all the time be in server-like builds, and may need to take care of a poor airflow client chassis. Though anybody shopping for this ought to be desirous about additionally getting a good case.
It ought to be famous that this motherboard is considerably distinctive by having three 8-pin CPU connectors, slightly than the same old two. Most energy provides received’t include sufficient cables or assist for 3 8-pin CPU connectors, so customers should be cautious of this requirement. That being mentioned, out of the three headers on the board for these connectors, ASUS has seen match to strengthen two of them with extra armor assist, however not the third. I’m wondering if the 2 strengthened ones are literally those required for the CPU, and the third is for added energy to the motherboard.
Sticking with cooling, the chipset is roofed by a heatsink that’s considerably/however probably not related to the facility supply heatsink, and inside is a fan with a easy steel grille on prime. Users may need to get in right here to take away mud each on occasion, as I can see this grille being stuffed with mud within the incorrect environments.
Underneath this heatsink is the chipset, which has the code…
