ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming, AMD TRX40 motherboard - sTRX4 socket [90MB12E0-M0EAY0]

The combination of a new chipset and socket has become necessary for the HEDT processors with up to 32 computation cores plus hyper-threading, because with the "Zen2" architecture and the 7 nm manufacturing process of the Threadripper 3000 CPUs, various changes compared to the previous series were introduced.

The new features of the "Castle Peak" processors primarily include support for the PCIe 4.0 standard and a new memory controller that supports four memory channels for up to 256 GB capacity and memory with error correction (ECC). The TR3000 CPUs offer 64 PCIe lanes in standard 4.0, which offers twice the bandwidth compared to PCIe 3.0, of which 12 lanes are reserved directly for connecting NVMe SSDs, while eight lanes for connecting the CPU and chipset are responsible.

The special features of the ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E gaming motherboard at a glance:
- 3x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 / x16 / x16) for high-end graphics cards
- I / O panel with 7x USB 3.1 A, 1x USB 3.1 C and 4x USB 2.0
- Internal: Up to 4x RGB (various), 7x fans and 1x USB 3.1 front header (type C)
- DDR4 memory up to 4400 MHz (OC) in quad-channel mode
- Dual LAN with 1x 2.5 gigabit and 1x 1 gigabit
- WLAN 802.11ax and Bluetooth 5.0
- RGB LED lighting including RGB LED headers
- Modern UEFI BIOS including temperature monitoring

The ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming in detail:
The ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming can already be recognized by the eye-catching cooler cover with RGB LED lighting. The lighting that can be set using the manufacturer's software is located on the cooler on the I / O panel, the active chipset cooler and on the right rear side of the PCB. For additional RGB components such as fans and LED strips, the TRX40 mainboard offers several RGB headers: 2x 3-pin for digitally addressable RGBs and 2x 4-pin for conventional RGBs.

Other important features of the ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming include a WLAN / BT module (Intel WiFi 6 AX200) and a LAN port with 2.5 Gbit / s (Realtek RTL8125-CG), which by a Gigabit LAN port (Intel I211-AT) is added. When it comes to audio, the manufacturer relies on the ROG SupremeFX S1220 audio codec. This provides a total of five 3.5 millimeter jack sockets and an optical S / PDIF output on the I / O panel.

Internal and external USB ports
There are eight USB 3.1 ports - one type C - and seven type A - and four USB 2.0 ports with type A socket on the I / O panel. USB 3.1 or USB 3.2 Gen 2 reaches maximum speeds of 10 Gbit / s and USB 2.0 a maximum of 480 Mbit / s per port.

Internally, the mainboard offers a USB 3.1 Type-C connector (a header) for modern PC cases. In addition, four USB 3.0 ports (2 headers) and four USB 2.0 ports (two headers) are provided.

Expansion slots and connectors for drives
For plug-in and expansion cards, the ATX mainboard provides a total of three PCIe-x16 slots and one PCIe-x4 slot in the 4.0 standard. Eight SATA 6G ports (including RAID support) and three M.2 slots are provided on the board for connecting data carriers such as SSDs and hard drives.

Two of them are directly connected to the CPU, each with four PCI Express 4.0 lanes. The advanced NVM Express protocol is supported, which has been specially optimized for highly parallelized disk accesses of modern PCIe SSDs. The third M.2 slot is connected to the chipset with four lanes and also supports SATA SSDs.

Fan connectors and overclocking features
The ASUS ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming offers a total of seven 4-pin PWM connectors on the main board, which are suitable for the operation of fans and / or pumps. For the power supply, there are one 24-pin and two 8-pin ATX connectors on the mainboard.

Overclockers are happy about the extensive power supply with 16 phases, which is equipped with massive heat sinks. The colored LiveDash OLED display on the cover shows detailed hardware information and helps with error analysis. There is a start button on the main board for switching the board on and off. The I / O panel is equipped with a BIOS flashback button.

Attention:

TRX40 motherboards are only compatible with AMD processors of the Threadripper 3000 series. The socket sTRX4 differs from the socket TR4 by a different PIN assignment and is not compatible with older Threadripper CPUs!

Note:

Due to the size of the Ryzen Threadripper CPU, the sTR4 socket is very different from conventional sockets. When inserting the CPU, please carefully observe the instructions in the assembly instructions of the CPU or the mainboard! It is a LGA socket! The pins are on the socket, not the CPU.

Technical details:
Format: ATX (305 x 244 mm)
Chipset: AMD TRX40
Socket: sTRX4 (for Ryzen Threadripper 3000)
R.A.M:
8x DDR4 (3200 MHz / 4400 MHz via OC)
Quad-Channel
Max. 256 GB
slots:
3x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 / x16 / x16)
1x PCIe 4.0 x4 (electrical x4)
Multi-VGA configurations: 2-way CrossFireX (x16 / x16), 2-way SLI (x16 / x16)
Multi-GPU configurations: Quad-GPU CrossFire / Quad-GPU NVIDIA SLI
Internal connections:
8x SATA 6G (RAID 0, 1, 10)
2 x M.2 (M-Key, horizontal, 2242 to 22110, PCIe 4.0 x4)
1 x M.2 (M-Key, vertical, 2242 to 22110, PCIe 4.0 x4 & SATA)
1x USB 3.1 Type C (USB 3.2 Gen 2, two headers, max. 10 Gbit / s)
4x USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1, two headers, max. 5 Gbit / s)
4x USB 2.0 (two headers, max. 480 Mbit / s)
1 x TPM header
1 x front panel audio connector (AAFP)
1 x speaker connector
1x thermal sensor connector
1x Clear CMOS jumper
1x node connector
1x system panel connector
1 x start button

Fan header:
1x CPU fan (4-pin PWM)
1x optional CPU fan (4-pin PWM)
3x case fan (4-pin PWM)
1x H_AMP fan connector (4-pin PWM)
1x W_PUMP + / fan connector (4-pin PWM)
1x chipset fan header (proprietary)
1x VRM_HS_Lüfter header (proprietary)
RGB header:
2x 4-pin RGB headers (12V)
2x 3-pin A-RGB header (5V)
External connections:
1x USB 3.1 Type C (USB 3.2 Gen 2, max. 10 Gbit / s
7x USB 3.1 Type A (USB 3.2 Gen 2, max. 10 Gbit / s)
2x USB 2.0 type A (max. 480 Mbit / s)
1x 2.5 Gigabit LAN (Realtek RTL8125-CG)
1x Gigabit LAN (i211-AT)
5x 3.5 mm jack (SupremeFX S1220)
1x S / PDIF (optical)
2x WLAN antenna (Intel WiFi 6 AX200)
BIOS Flashback button
Power supply:
1x 24-pin ATX12V
2x 8-pin ATX12V
Special features: OLED display, integrated RGB LED lighting (3 zones), ASUS Aura Sync, WLAN / BT module, 2.5 gigabit LAN, M.2 passive cooler, pre-assembled I / O panel, RAM OC to 4400 MHz
Manufacturer guarantee: 3 years