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  • R0H1T - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Did someone say RGB, in the other pipeline article :P
  • Wolfclaw - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    why 2xIntel i210, surely they could have come up with an adaptor to breakout to 1Gbe connections an duse th space for something else?
  • Xajel - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Link Aggregation is still a thing, thought a single port is better, ie single 2gbps port is better than 2x 1gbps ports, thought there's no single 2gbps standard, the new one is 2.5, 5 & 10gbps.

    But still LA two 1Gb is still less expensive and more common than a 10Gb port, for LA'ed 1Gb you just need a managed switch with LA feature which are very common and affordable these days. but 10Gb switches are still expensive and very you have very limited options also.
  • rocky12345 - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Yea I know on my own system it has 2x 1Gb's connections which I have both hooked up and bridged as a single connection. It actually gives a huge boost when data transferring to other systems in the house because when I was on a single 1Gb connection it would get bogged down if I was transferring to 2 or more systems in the house and now it does not. The system also has 2 sets of drives in raid as well as the C drive with SSD so drive speed is not really an issues with the setup.
  • rocky12345 - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    I just wanted to add that yes to most people 2 network connections included on MB's is pretty much useless and it is just an extra check box they can show off. For me it probably is not a must to have it used the way I am using it but I figured hey what the heck may as well try to use the included hardware somehow...lol
  • milkod2001 - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    How is the quality of on board sound these days? Is it the right time to retire my: sound blaster x-fi titanium fatal1ty or sound cards are still a thing?
  • Flunk - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Sound cards aren't really a thing anymore, almost everyone has given up developing new ones. The "cool" kids are now hooking up USB DACs to their computers so that the DAC is outside the chassis. I personally don't really hear a difference, but if that's your concern, a USB DAC is for you.
  • AdrianB1 - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Not only the cool kids use DAC's, some people use it not only because onboard Realtek sound was bad or drivers were bad (usually both), but it is also portable from a computer to another when you do an upgrade. My cheap DAC (Fiio E10k, $50) is with me on the third computer already and I have no plans to change it until it dies, hopefully not anytime soon.
  • niva - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    I'm ignorant on this subject, but how is the DAC better than the on-board hardware?

    You mentioned drivers but that's never been an issue in my experience. Mind you I mostly run linux except for 1 desktop machine which remains windows mostly because of Photoshop. I really don't game much anymore though that used to be a reason in the past.

    I haven't had to buy a sound card since the 90s because the included hardware was fine for me... but then again my systems are either 2.1 (on my desktop) or 5.1 in the living room connected to my home theater which are definitely not exotic configurations...
  • AdrianB1 - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Cracking and popping noise; high background noise, hissing. Driver problems like some features in Windows sound do not work or stop working unexpectedly or audio apps crash. Did I forgot to mention bloatware coming with the drivers? Or autodetection of ports that thinks a line-in is a headset?
    My stereo DAC uses simple Microsoft drivers, no fancy 3D processing, no effects, no fuss; never had a problem with that.
    This was some years ago, when I bought the DAC. Since then, I always turned off the on-board audio. Same for the onboard network where I bought an Intel NIC that I still use instead of Realtek's stuff.
  • Danielucf - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    I just used cheap headphones for the longest time, $100 ish dollar Steelseries or cheaper Logitech headphones with small drivers. Wondered why I had super nice components for everything else but not headphones. I looked around and decided that some AKG Quincy Jones Q701s would be worth trying out. They had, at release, been $500 but at the time were $180 on eBay. After I got them they didn't sound so great off of my sound card, or motherboard. After more research I learned I needed a DAC/Amp to properly power them. After getting a USB Fiio E17K I think, the difference was night and day. Now I hear the difference and I can never go back to cheap smaller drivers.

    TLDR: You'll need a nice set of headphones and an amp to get the benefit.
  • milkod2001 - Tuesday, June 19, 2018 - link

    Sorry for noob question but how exactly does it work? Can i just disable onboard sound, remove my sound blaster from computer and connect USB Fiio E17K to my 2.1 PC speakers and headphones through USB port and i'm all set? Do i need anything extra to get?
  • GreenReaper - Thursday, June 28, 2018 - link

    You don't even need to disable onboard sound. You can use "App volume and device preferences" in the "Sound settings" portion of Windows 10 to select devices for particular applications to output to. Presumably you'd want your default device to be the headphones but maybe not for everything.
  • Alexvrb - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    I might buy an AE-5 for my next rig to replace my Zx. I like some of the capabilities of the Zx and it pairs nicely with my still-working-great set of older Klipsch THX's. Discrete audio isn't as necessary as it once was, but it's nice to have something with good op-amps.

    Then again most users are satisfied with older lossy compression sourced off CDs so... to each their own I guess.
  • asmian - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Or if you have a spare x1 PCIe, Asus Xonar Essence STX FTW. ;)
  • Arbie - Monday, June 18, 2018 - link

    Does overclocking ThreadRipper disable XFR and PrecisionBoost? I'm pretty sure it does on Ryzen, and that you lose more than you gain especially in IPC/watt. If it's the same with TR, then adding capability to support "TR OC" seems silly. Almost nobody will run it that way for long.
  • man114 - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link

    Weird compromise of features over their original x399 boards. Looks like you lose the qflash bios USB port, the DAC USBs as well as the legacy PS2 connector (probably only matters if you want an older keyboard/mouse for some reason). You gain a few network ports. You lose two SATA ports but a power connector is added up there for some reason. CPU power is now two 8s Instead of a 4 and an 8 though this seems to have to do with the heatsink pipe more than anything, I’m not sure the finned heatsinks are any better than the extruded ones on the original board even if they are copper. You lose a full length PCIe slot. Eliminates some RGB. DAC will probably end up about the same. If the out of the gate performance is like the F10 Bios they just released for the original boards for TR2 support the Bios will need some tweaking. Not sure if this board will be better or worse than the original, I think it will end up on your configuration and what you’re using it for.

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