Gigabyte x299x, present the first motherboards for cascade lake

After being listed by the EEC, Gigabyte has finally shared images and specs of its X299X motherboard lineup today, which will house the HEDT Cascade Lake-X processors.

X299X Designare 10G, X299X Aorus Xtreme WaterForce and X299X Aorus Master

The motherboards advertised by Gigabyte are; X299X Designare 10G, Aorus Xtreme WaterForce and Aorus Master. These new chips come at half the price of previous-generation Skylake-X models, meaning these new boards should receive more attention than usual for an HEDT line.

The three high-end motherboards carry the nickname Intel X299X and it should be noted that these still use the same X299 chipset that debuted two years ago. The suffix "X" only serves to specify that the boards are specifically built for the latest Cascade Lake-X processors.

Visit our guide on the best motherboards on the market

Cascade Lake-X chips come with four more PCIe lanes than previous-generation Skylake-X CPUs, and those four lanes won't be available on older X299 motherboards, meaning the X299X is the only alternative to take full advantage of I / O capabilities.

Gigabyte's X299X offerings also include new power designs, thermal solutions, and other features such as Thunderbolt 3 compatibility and 5Gbps or 10Gbps network connectivity. The X299X Designare 10G, X299X Aorus Xtreme WaterForce, and X299X Aorus Master are designed with a 16-phase VRM system, server-grade components, and eight DDR4 memory slots to accommodate up to 256GB of RAM. They are also built to support multi-GPU configurations and are validated for Nvidia's Quadro graphics cards.

Importantly, the X299X Designare 10G and Aorus Xtreme WaterForce models come with an AIC Gen 4 adapter that offers up to four additional PCIe x4 M.2 slots for increased storage.

Gigabyte X299X Designare 10G, Aorus Xtreme WaterForce and Aorus Master should be available to buyers soon. Gigabyte did not share their prices. We will keep you informed.

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