ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme ALPHA, AMD TRX40 motherboard - socket sTRX4

The combination of a new chipset and socket has become necessary for the HEDT processors with up to 64 computing cores plus hyper-threading, since 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 the 4.0 standard, which offers twice as much bandwidth as 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 Zenith II Extreme ALPHA motherboard at a glance:

4x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 / x8 / x16 / x8) for high-end graphics cards
I / O panel with 1x USB 3.2, 6x USB 3.1 A, 1x USB 3.1 C and 4x USB 3.0
Internal: Up to 7x RGB (various), 13x fans and 2x USB 3.1 front header (type C)
DDR4 memory up to 4733 MHz (OC) in quad-channel mode
Dual LAN with 1x 10 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 Zenith II Extreme ALPHA in detail:
The ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme ALPHA can already be recognized by the striking covers and the RGB LED lighting. The lighting that can be set using the manufacturers software is located on the cover 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 Zenith II Extreme ALPHA include a WLAN / BT module (Intel WiFi 6 AX200) and a LAN port with 10 Gbit / s (Aquantia AQtion AQC-107), which is operated by one gigabit -LAN port (Intel I211-AT) is added. When it comes to audio, the manufacturer relies on the ROG SupremeFX S1220 audio codec with ESS SABER 9018Q2C digital-to-analog converter. This provides a total of five illuminated 3.5 mm jack sockets and an optical S / PDIF output on the I / O panel.

Internal and external USB ports
The mainboard has a USB 3.2 port (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2). This always comes in the form of a USB Type-C socket and reaches a maximum data transfer rate of 20 Gbit / s. There are also seven USB 3.1 ports – one type C – and six type A – and four USB 3.0 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 3.0 or USB 3.2 Gen 1 a maximum of 5 Gbit / s per port.

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

Expansion slots and connectors for drives
The E-ATX mainboard provides four PCIe x16 slots in the 4.0 standard for plug-in and expansion cards. Eight SATA 6G connections (including RAID support) and three M.2 slots, each with four PCI Express 4.0 lanes connected directly to the CPU, are provided for connecting data carriers such as SSDs and hard drives . The advanced NVM Express protocol is supported, which has been specially optimized for highly parallelized data carrier accesses of modern PCIe SSDs.

In addition, the ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme ALPHA has a DIMM.2 slot. The matching plug-in module is included with the mainboard and offers two additional M.2 slots, which are each connected directly to the processor with four PCI Express 4.0 lanes and also support M.2 SSDs with SATA interfaces.

Connections for fans and sensors
The ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme ALPHA offers a total of seven 4-pin PWM fan connectors on the motherboard. The enclosed ASUS Fan Extension Card II offers additional connections for six 4-pin PWM fans and offers three headers for temperature sensors and three headers for RGB accessories (4-pin / 12V). For the power supply, there is a 24-pin, two 8-pin ATX and one 6-pin PCIe connector on the mainboard.

Overclockers are delighted with the extensive power supply with 16 phases including a 90-amp Infineon TDA21490 power amplifier, which is equipped with solid heat sinks. The colored LiveDash OLED display on the cover shows detailed hardware information and helps with error analysis. There is a start button and a freely assignable FlexKey on the board, which serves as a reset button as standard. A BIOS switch button for the dual BIOS, a try button and a safe boot button are also on Bo (a) rd. The I / O panel is equipped with a Clear CMOS button and a BIOS flashback button. The back of the ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme ALPHA is also reinforced with an aluminum backplate.

Danger:

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: E-ATX (310 x 277 mm)
– Chipset: AMD TRX40
– Socket: sTRX4 (for Ryzen Threadripper 3000)
– R.A.M:
– 8x DDR4 (3200 MHz / 4733 MHz via OC)
– Quad channel
– Max. 256 GB
– Slots:
– 2x PCIe 4.0 x16
– 2x PCIe 4.0 x16 (electrical x8)
– Multi-VGA configurations: 3-way CrossFireX (x16 / x8 / x16), 3-way SLI (x16 / x8 / x16)
– Multi-GPU configurations: Quad-GPU CrossFire / Quad-GPU NVIDIA SLI
Internal connections:
– 8x SATA 6G (RAID 0, 1, 10)
– 2x M.2 (M-Key, 2242 to 2280, PCIe 4.0 x4)
– 1x M.2 (M-Key, 2242 to 2280, PCIe 4.0 x4 / x2)
– 1x DIMM.2 (2x M.2, M-Key, 2242 to 22110, PCIe 4.0 x4, via ROG DIMM.2 module)
– 2x 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)
– 3x USB 2.0 (two headers, max. 480 Mbit / s)
– 1 x TPM header
– 1x WB_SENSOR
– 1 x front panel audio connector (AAFP)
– 7 x ProbeIt measuring points
– 1 x node connector
– 1 x ReTry button
– 1 x W_IN header
– 1 x W_OUT header
– 1 x W_FLOW header
– 1 x speaker connector
– 1 x RSVD switch
– 1 x start button
– 1 x FlexKey button
– 1 x BIOS switch button
– 1 x LN2 mode jumper
– 1 x safe boot button
– 1 x FS mode switch
– 1 x M.2_3 Cold Storage Switch

Fan header:
– 1x CPU fan (4-pin PWM)
– 1x optional CPU fan (4-pin PWM)
– 2x case fan (4-pin PWM)
– 1x H_AMP fan connector (4-pin PWM)
– 2x 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)
– ASUS Fan Extension Card II:
– 6x fan connector (4-pin PWM)
– 3x 4-pin RGB (12V)
– 3x temperature sensor header
External connections:
– 1x USB 3.2 (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, max. 20 Gbit / s)
– 1x USB 3.1 Type C (USB 3.2 Gen 2, max. 10 Gbit / s
– 6x USB 3.1 Type A (USB 3.2 Gen 2, max. 10 Gbit / s)
– 4x USB 3.0 Type A (USB 3.2 Gen 1, max. 5 Gbit / s)
– 1x 10 Gigabit LAN (Aqauntia AQC-107)
– 1x Gigabit LAN (i211-AT)
– 5x 3.5 mm jack (SupremeFX S1220 / ESS SABER 9018Q2C)
– 1x S / PDIF (optical)
– 2x WLAN antenna (Intel WiFi 6 AX200)
– BIOS flashback button
– Clear CMOS button
– Power supply:
– 1x 24-pin ATX12V
– 2x 8-pin ATX12V
– 1x 6-pin PCIe
– 1x 4-pin Molex (EZ_Plug)

Special features: OLED display, dual BIOS, integrated RGB LED lighting (3 zones), ASUS Aura Sync, DIMM.2 module, fan and RGB hub, WLAN / BT module, aluminum backplate, onboard Buttons, diagnostic LEDs, pre-assembled I / O panel, RAM-OC up to 4733 MHz
Manufacturer guarantee: 3 years