Trx40 aorus xtreme review in Spanish (full analysis)

The third generation of AMD Ryzen Threadripper is a reality and we started very strong with the TRX40 AORUS XTREME motherboard. This is the top manufacturer range for this new platform that debuts processors, socket and of course a TRX40 chipset. This board is impressive in every way, since in addition to the power of the CPU itself, we have dual sound cards, dual 10 Gbps network cards together with Wi-Fi 6, as well as 4 M.2 PCIe 4.0 and 4 PCIe 4.0 x16.

A true show of power that is completed with a PCB design reinforced with NanoCarbon and a colossal VRM 16 + 3 real phases with MOSFETS Infineon 70A so that the little one does not lack food.

Before we continue, we thank AORUS for their trust in us by giving us this impressive plate to do our analysis.

TRX40 AORUS XTREME technical characteristics

Unboxing

We start with the Unboxing of this huge TRX40 AORUS XTREME, which has come to us in a fairly thick and large cardboard box. All faces are painted on black vinyl with the logo nicely decorated in RGB colors. On the back we have a preview in the form of specifications of what we will find inside.

When we open it, we have a usual presentation for high-end plates, with this one firstly placed on a cardboard base with a plastic protector on it. Then, a second floor will be destined to store the enormous amount of accessories that it brings us.

The bundle consists of the following elements:

• AORUS XTREME TRX40 motherboard AORUS Gen4 AIC expansion card with 4 M.2 User manual and quick installation guide 6x SATA 6 Gbps cables 2x external Wi-Fi antennas G-Connector Front panel extension cable Front USB extension cable 4x LED header strips Velcro for routing cables 2x temperature thermistors 1x noise sensor Screws for M.2

Look at the huge amount of details and accessories that we have on this motherboard, we can never say before. In addition, it has done something that we usually see in the top range of MSI, and it is the incorporation of expansion cards to increase the functionality of the board if possible.

Exterior design

Where to start talking about the design of this TRX40 AORUS XTREME ? Something that can be confirmed is that we are reaching levels of excellence that until recently was simply a dream for many. We have an XL-ATX size motherboard, which is indeed even bigger than an E-ATX, so you will have to work to find a chassis that accommodates sizes 325mm high by 275mm wide. It was a long time since we saw one of these.

Almost integral cover and internal connectors at 90 ^o

What is most striking at a glance is the practically integral cover that covers the PCB in both the upper and rear areas. This cover is made of a metal with NanoCarbono, which in addition to increasing the rigidity and protection of the PCB, also shields the surface from electrostatic charges that can damage some element.

The upper cover basically consists of 3 parts. The first will be the chipset cover and the four M.2 slots we have, one of which is just under the chipset, covered in plain sight. Each of these heatsinks has its own silicone heat pad, and the chipset has a turbine-type fan under the diagonal grille.

The second zone is just the right edge, which is a great EMI protector that covers the vast majority of internal board ports. These are placed at a 90 ° angle to allow seamless, kink-free connections for external ATX power and cables. In addition, the entire area has integrated RGB Fusion 2.0 lighting that is completed by another area of ​​the chipset, and the rear I / O panel protector. The Debug LED panel and Power and Reset buttons are seamlessly integrated into this DIMM-level protector.

The third part is the opposite side, the left, where we have another protector for the sound accessories and the rear port panel and part of the VRM dissipation system. In fact, this 16-3 phase VRM of the TRX40 AORUS XTREME consists of two finned aluminum and copper heatsinks joined by an 8mm diameter heatpipe. In contact between MOSFETS and heatsink is made with thermal pads 1.5 mm thick and 5W / mk thermal conductivity, not requiring any type of fan as in the Asus and ASRock models.

Finally, the back is also completely covered except for the CPU socket area, in order to work on the backplate if deemed necessary. The overall look is simply exquisite and one of the best we've seen.

PCIe 4.0 AORUS Gen4 AIC Adapter Card

In addition to the main event that is the TRX40 AORUS XTREME, the manufacturer has included a model GC-4XM2G4 PCIe 4.0 x16 card, which has the ability to connect 4 M2 NVMe PCIe x4 SSDs inside.

This card is aimed at enthusiastic configurations and with almost unlimited budgets for users who want to mount, for example, a RAID 0 of superfast solid storage. In this way we could achieve read and write performance of about 15, 000 MB / s.

For this, it has a powerful cooling system consisting of a copper cold plate and a 50 mm diameter turbine fan. In addition, 8 temperature sensors control we continue the installed SSDs. A big advantage is that the power supplied by the PCIe interface is sufficient, so you don't need extra PCI connectors.

VRM and power phases

One of the great innovations that this TRX40 AORUS XTREME introduces is related to its entire power supply system. And it is that we have no less than 16 + 3 power phases, being 16 for the V_Core and 3 for the SoC.

But what is really important is that this system does not have benders or duplicators, but all these phases are real. This entire system is digitally controlled by a PWM Infineon XDPE132G5C capable of managing the entire MOSFET system on its own.

And speaking of MOSFETS, this time 16 Infineon TDA21472 have been used. These power stages support an input voltage of between 4.25 and 16V transforming it into an output of between 0.25 to 5.5 V for CPU and SoC. The second feeding stage is completed with another 16 choke or 70A chokes and the corresponding solid capacitors. In this way the manufacturer estimates the capacity of its VRM at 1330A, an astronomical figure to say the least.

And no less important will be the power inputs necessary to develop all this power. In this case it is made up of two 8-pin CPU connectors and a third 6-pin connector whose function is to provide power support to the PCIe slots. The latter is located just below the SATA ports in a discrete corner of the board.

Socket, chipset and RAM memory

We come to another of the novelties of the TRX40 AORUS XTREME, and that is that we finally released a platform for the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3000. Not only in chipset, but also in socket with the new LGA sTRX4, so this board is only compatible with the 32C / 64T Threadripper 3970X and the 3960X 24C / 48T.

In principle, this socket maintains its design as a 4094-contact LGA matrix. AMD has a good justification for changing the interface, which “ensures” that it will remain for a long time and future updates. The argument is simple, it has been necessary to modify the internal structure of the socket to be able to address the 88 PCIe 4.0 lanes that at most will support the CPU + Chipset set, although only 72 of them are available, while another 16 are for the exclusive use of the system. Will it really stay long in the future? Well, it is a great unknown, since we are at the gates of a new generation of DDR5 RAM and the new USB 4.0 interface with a 40 Gbps bandwidth, yes, like the current Thunderbolt.

Regarding the RAM memory we do not have in this case great modifications with respect to the previous generation. Being an enthusiastic platform there is no shortage of its 8 288- contact DDRM slots for DDR4 memories. Capacity is officially expanded to 256GB DDR4 up to 4400MHz OC with XMP profiles. Only Non ECC memories will be supported, as usual.

New TRX40 Chipset

And they are not all new, since the new AMD TRX40 chipset is released, which also offers only compatibility with Threadripper 3000. This time we have a total of 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes available to implement connectivity of peripherals and slots in this chipset, while the CPU remains with 64 of them accessible. To that sum of 72 PCIe 4.0 / 3.0 we must add the 16 intended for the link between CPU and Chipset, that is, a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface (8 dedicated lanes of the CPU and another 8 dedicated lanes of the chipset). There has been a lot of wandering on this topic, but the architecture scheme makes this very clear and we understand it in this way. The CPU - Chipset communication therefore doubles the bandwidth of the existing link until now, and amounts to 16 GB / s.

The manufacturer provides us with very complete and user-friendly information about the entire interface and lines of this board. In any case, we will explain these connections throughout the review. As general information, the architecture of this new chipset makes it support 8 USB 3.2 Gen2 and 4 2.0 ports along with 4 SATA 6 Gbps ports. In addition to this, it has 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes for general purpose and a double Pick One to expand up to 4 SATA ports or one or two 1 × 4 or 2 × 2 PCIe lines. To all this, we add those 8 reserved lanes for the connection with the CPU.

Storage and PCIe slots

After a little review of the central core, we come to the section corresponding to the storage and slots of the TRX40 AORUS XTREME.

Precisely we will start with the expansion part, where 4 PCIe 4.0 / 3.0 x16 slots have been installed. All of them have a good steel reinforcement in the connector to withstand extreme MultiGPU configurations. In this case it is compatible with AMD CrossFireX 2, 3 and 4-way and also Nvidia Quad-GPU SLI 2, 3 and 4-way, or what has been 4 graphics cards in parallel. We will detail the operation of these 4 slots:

• 2 PCIe slots will work at x16 and will be connected to the CPU (they will be the first and third slot) 2x PCIe slots will work at x8 and will be connected to the CPU (it will be the second and fourth)

This makes a total of 48 busy lanes along with 8 dedicated lanes.

Now we move to the storage section, where we will have to take some more things into account due to the distribution that AORUS has made on its board. In total we have 10 6 Gbps SATA III ports and 4 M.2 PCIe 4.0 / 3.0 x4 NVMe slots and compatible with the SATA interface. The three M.2s located between the PCIe slots support sizes 2280 and 22110, while the one below the chipset supports sizes 2280. In this case, the distribution and operating modes will be as follows:

• The top 2 slots (M2M and M2Q) are connected to the CPU in x4 configuration each. The 3rd outer slot (M2P) is independently connected to the chipset. The 4th slot (M2C under the chipset) is connected to the chipset and shares bus with 4 SATA ports (4, 5, 6 and 7) 4 SATA ports (0, 1, 8 and 9) are connected to the chipset independently The remaining 2 SATA ports (2 and 3) are connected to an ASMedia controller and in turn to a PCIe lane of the chipset

A quite varied and very very complete connectivity, which can even be expanded with this card included with 4 extra M.2. With this we complete the lanes of the chipset in the absence of seeing the USB ports. In both SATA and M.2 we have native support for RAID 0, 1 and 10.

Network connectivity and sound card

After such deployment and consumption of PCIe lanes, we did not stop and now we are going to see what the TRX40 AORUS XTREME offers us in terms of network connectivity.

How could it be otherwise, we have an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 chip, which we have already seen ad nauseam in many models of AMD board and some Intel. A chip that works on the IEEE 802.11ax standard that offers a maximum bandwidth in 5GHz of 2, 404 Mbps and 733 Mbps in 2.4 GHz. The MU-MIMO and OFDMA technologies operate on the channels to provide these new cards with a high capacity. We can see from the cheat sheet above that it is also connected to the chipset with a PCIe rail.

Where we have been most surprised is in the wired connection, since AORUS has not settled for Aquantia or Realtek chips from other models and has chosen to take one that is used by servers. It is the Intel X550-AT2 that offers a double network interface with RJ-45 ports working at 10 Gbps each, (20 Gbps in total) and occupying another 4 lanes in the chipset. Without a doubt the most powerful plate for general consumption in this regard that we have on the market.

The sound system of this board will not be left behind in a top range, since we have physically separated the sound card from the rear I / O panel and the one from the front internal connector. For the first case, a configuration with a new generation Realtek ALC4050H codec has been used together with the ALC1220-VB codec for high definition audio with 7.1 channels. And for the second case we once again have the Realtek ALC4050H codec along with a dedicated SABER9218 DAC for studio-level headphones. In all cases we have support for DTS-X Ultra sound specially oriented to enthusiastic or professional sound equipment.

I / O ports and internal connections

And as always this in-depth review of the TRX40 AORUS XTREME with everything related to I / O connectivity and details of internal ports. It goes without saying that we will be at a very high level.

Starting with the I / O panel

• Button for Q-Flash Plus Clear CMOS button 2x Wi-Fi antenna outputs USB Type-C 3.2 Gen27x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (red) 2x RJ-455x 3.5mm jack for audio S / PDIF port

Absolutely all ports are already Gen2 working therefore at 10 Gbps. It does not matter much in this case where they are connected, since neither share a bus with another device and therefore it can be used at its maximum bandwidth.

As internal connections we have

• 7x headers for fans and cooling pumps 2x LED headers (2 Addressable RGB and 2 RGB) Front audio 1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C2x USB 3.2 Gen21x USB 2.0TPM Header for noise sensor 2x headers for temperature sensors Gigabyte card connector Points for voltage measurement

Among these connectors we have only sneaked a shy USB 2.0 necessary because most chassis have at least two of these ports yet. In addition to all this connectivity we must not forget the Debug LED panel to notify the BIOS status and the interaction buttons to turn the board on and off, and BIOS control. Out of curiosity to mention that the USB Type-C port and a 3.2 Gen2 Type-A port will be managed by an ASMedia controller so that the PCIe lane accounts come out.

testing bench

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	AMD Threadripper 3960X
Base plate:	TRX40 AORUS XTREME
Memory:	32 GB G-Skill Royal X @ 3200 MHz
Heatsink	Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3
HDD	Kingston SKC400
Graphic card	Nvidia RTX 2060 FE
Power supply	Corsair RM1000

As we can see we opted for a state-of-the-art test equipment. We would have liked to mount our traditional Corsair H100i V2, but since we did not have the official support of the AMD microprocessor (we have achieved it in other ways), so we have chosen to mount an excellent NH-U14S Tr4 from the prestigious manufacturer Noctua, which is at the height of any AIO liquid.

The chosen graphics card is the RTX 2060 in its reference version. We believe it is a good option since it is affordable for many mortals and is the one we use for all our tests. For 2020 we will choose to mount a higher graphic, to see if we get an RTX 2080 SUPER.

BIOS

Since the first AMD Ryzen came out in 2017, the BIOS in AMD equipment is one of the points to improve, either due to system compatibility or constant memory problems. And it is that every few months we see a new update for each AM4 or TR4 motherboard.

As Aorus is used to, we have a very complete BIOS that we can modify each of the sections that we need. We have been able to set our 3200 MHz memories without any problem, yes, at least the two Aorus models have had a little trouble accepting the 32 GB of RAM that we have installed. After installing it a couple of times, we have obtained the total of our RAM. We don't know the cause, but you need to know.

Software and overclocking

We are in favor of not installing the proprietary software of the manufacturers because they usually overload our operating system with unnecessary processes. But to adjust the lighting to our liking, it is an essential requirement, even if we later uninstall it.

In the case of Aorus we recommend installing RGB Fusion and Aorus Engine, with both applications we can control the lighting of our motherboard, and in the case of having other Aorus or compatible components, synchronize them and go hand in hand. We find them quite intuitive and very complete. For our part a 10 for Aorus .

We have also decided to overclock via software. For this we have used the AMD Ryzen Tools application for sTR4. We have managed to raise the 3960X processor to 4, 400 MHz and a voltage of 1.47v. Somewhat high for the circumstances, but the platform is still missing a couple of BIOS updates to drop voltage. The processor throws a lot, this platform is a joy.

Final words and conclusion about TRX40 AORUS XTREME

Aorus has re-created one of the best high-end motherboards for AMD's enthusiastic platform. The TRX40 AORUS XTREME is positioned on the podium of best motherboard manufactured by Aorus and it does not lack ballots to be the best.

It has a total of 16 + 3 direct power phases, this means that it does not use benders, and that its cooling system is one of the best we have seen to date. Best of all, it does not need active cooling at any time to get the most out of it. Not like other more modest models.

We recommend reading the best motherboards on the market

In our tests we have managed to raise the AMD Threadripper 3960X to 4.4 GHz in all its cores, a voltage of 1.48v and the memories set at 3200 MHz. The performance, as we have seen, is extraordinary at Cinebench.

It also has a dual 10 Gigabit LAN connection, a WiFi 6 connection, an improved sound card and lighting divided into several zones that can be fully configured via software. Altogether it is a motherboard for many years. Its price will fluctuate 983 euros , we believe it is worth it if you want to get the most out of your new platform and you need all these "extras". If there are no more interesting options on the market, but this motherboard is the cream of the cream in the sTR4 socket.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ MATERIALS AND DESIGN	- THE BIOS HAS TO BE TUNED A LITTLE
+ RGB LIGHTING AND ITS CUSTOMIZATION	- PRICE WITHIN REACH OF VERY FEW
+ 10 GIGABIT AND WIFI 6 CONNECTIVITY
+ IMPROVED SOUND AND DISSIPATION IN M.2 CONNECTIONS
+ EXTRAORDINARY PERFORMANCE, BOTH IN STOCK AND OVERCLOCK

The Professional Review team awards him the platinum medal:

TRX40 AORUS XTREME

COMPONENTS - 99%

REFRIGERATION - 95%

BIOS - 85%

EXTRAS - 99%

PRICE - 88%

93%

The best AORUS TRX40 motherboard we have tested to date. Both aesthetically, by component and by performance. Chapó by Aorus.