The almost perfect motherboard - ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE WIFI

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cyclone3d

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Sooo.. finally a board that is almost perfect except even with the massive number of PCIe lanes, it still doesn't have enough to run everything at the same time.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/Pro-WS-WRX80E-SAGE-SE-WIFI/

If you are using a high performance video card (unless it is watercooled), it will block at least one slot unless you use the very last slot on the motherboard... which will not really work unless you mod your case anyway.

So why not be able to disable the 2nd PCIe slot and then use those lanes for the nvme / SATA ports that get disabled if other nvme / SATA ports are used? Yeah, yeah, wiring.. I know, but it is still a dumb design that it is set up the way it is.
 
cyclone3d said:
Sooo.. finally a board that is almost perfect except even with the massive number of PCIe lanes, it still doesn't have enough to run everything at the same time.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/Pro-WS-WRX80E-SAGE-SE-WIFI/

If you are using a high performance video card (unless it is watercooled), it will block at least one slot unless you use the very last slot on the motherboard... which will not really work unless you mod your case anyway.

So why not be able to disable the 2nd PCIe slot and then use those lanes for the nvme / SATA ports that get disabled if other nvme / SATA ports are used? Yeah, yeah, wiring.. I know, but it is still a dumb design that it is set up the way it is.
Click to expand...

It's not wiring. It's the need for additional PCIe lane switches. Specialized ASICS which cost more and then traces for them. That increases production costs on a board that's already expensive to build that's good enough for 99% of the people that would use it.
 
How much do you think they are already making on a board that is listed at $999 ?

I understand the need for switches but would there necessarily be more of them as it already switches between the enabled devices depending on what ports are being used?

Not like I would buy this board in the first place... at least not at that price.
 
Damn that is a beautiful motherboard. Damn.

cyclone3d said:
If you are using a high performance video card (unless it is watercooled), it will block at least one slot unless you use the very last slot on the motherboard... which will not really work unless you mod your case anyway.
Click to expand...
Or just have a really big case, my case has 2 full PCI brackets below the edge of the motherboard, it could probably fit a rather large 3.5~ slot GPU if it was at the bottom edge of a mobo, albeit it would be somewhat starved for air.
 
I have this board with a 3955WX sitting on my workbench. The system is up and running, but cabling is a complete mess. The board required 3 8-pin and 2 6-pin, and the 24 pin ATX power connector (not counting the video card(s)). The board is MASSIVE. You really have to see this board first hand to appreciate how large and heavy it is. It's the same size as my dual Xeon server board. Build quality is over the top. The steel plate on the back basically eliminates any board flex.

My main complaint was there was not a printed manual in the factory sealed box. Seriously, ASUS what were you thinking.

As for the IO overlap, I've only seen it with M2.2 / U2.1 and M2.3 / U2.2. Does not seem the worst trade off to me. I'm simply not using M2.2 and M2.3. The board comes with a single slot quad M2 add in card that has active cooling. The onboard M2 slots are passive heatsinks.

As far as losing a slot, there is also the option to mount the video card off board and use a PCIe cable. Mine is installed in a Fractal Design Define 7 XL which has the option of vertical off board video mounting (up to 3 slot width).
 
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cyclone3d said:
How much do you think they are already making on a board that is listed at $999 ?
Click to expand...

The short answer is: Less than you think, but more than they make on a cheaper motherboard.

To be clear, you will not get a precise answer on this as the actual cost data is going to be something internal to the company and something a handful of people at any manufacturer would know. Basically, only the people that see the actual BOM or negotiate contracts with suppliers can tell you what any give product costs to make. Everything on the motherboard costs something, but its impossible to know without the BOM and being able to account for every component used on the board. Even if you looked up the costs for everything that goes on it, you wouldn't ever be able to figure out what a company like ASUS paid for them. The manufacturers of specific parts often list pricing, but only in 1,000 unit quantities. This doesn't tell you what ASUS paid for them if they bought 500,000 units of something. It also doesn't factor in labor, packaging, shipping, marketing and the company's operating costs. If the material costs came out to 50 or 60% of a motherboards retail cost, that wouldn't equate to ASUS making $400 to $500 on a motherboard like that.

You also have distributor costs that retailers pay. It's difficult to know what these costs are, but that $999 ASUS motherboard wasn't sold by ASUS to the distributor for $999. There is also distributor to retail markup, which is something I've seen numbers on from time to time, although not all that recently. But, the markup from distributor to retail and retail to consumer is much smaller than you'd think. It is typically higher on more expensive products than cheaper ones, but margins on computer hardware have been falling for years and are only decent at the high end. All of these reasons, are why I'm hesitant to tell you what I think that $999 ASUS board probably costs. The truth is, I'd be guessing. I know something about how the business works, so my guess might be somewhat educated but the truth is I don't really know and no one outside a select few at ASUS would even know the true answer and they aren't going to share that answer.

cyclone3d said:
I understand the need for switches but would there necessarily be more of them as it already switches between the enabled devices depending on what ports are being used?
Click to expand...
There are switches yes. But, they'd need to add more and add additional supporting components and traces for them. Cost may not even be the reason or at least, it isn't the sole reason. As I said, the design was probably deemed good enough for 95% of the people that would buy it. You can't please everyone and it doesn't make sense to give up more profit margin to appease 1% of the customer base who would care about that.
 
cyclone3d said:
What case do you have?
Click to expand...
Fractal Define 7 XL.
1615620918390.png


It has 9 PCI slots.
It's definitely big enough for a motherboard of this size, and while that's not a likely upgrade option for me ever, i do like having a case with enough room to hold any hardware I throw at it.
 
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TheSlySyl said:
Fractal Define 7 XL.
View attachment 338491

It has 9 PCI slots.
It's definitely big enough for a motherboard of this size, and while that's not a likely upgrade option for me ever, i do like having a case with enough room to hold any hardware I throw at it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my workstation case, the Lian Li PC-V2120 has 11 expansion slots. I think people forget about the cases released during the HPTX and XL-ATX era. Oh the good ol days with SLI and SAS.

1615622231295.png
 
That motherboard is a beautiful piece of hardware. I have that case as well. It has a massive amount of space. I went with it because of the sleek styling, 5.25" drive bays and I would like to go with a Threadripper system one of these days.
 
ND40oz said:
Yeah, my workstation case, the Lian Li PC-V2120 has 11 expansion slots. I think people forget about the cases released during the HPTX and XL-ATX era. Oh the good ol days with SLI and SAS.

View attachment 338493
Click to expand...

I'm running a Thermaltake Core WP100. It has more than enough space for anything I can think of.
 
The motherboard looks great, but ofc this being ASUS the BIOS is some basic trash-tier.
Similarly no OpenBMC just some janky af ASUS proprietary implementation again (probably full of vulns as usual). _sigh_.
I'm keeping it because there really aren't any decent alternatives but ffs ASUS ease up on the marketing bullshit and focus on functionality/quality again!
 
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ND40oz said:
Yeah, my workstation case, the Lian Li PC-V2120 has 11 expansion slots. I think people forget about the cases released during the HPTX and XL-ATX era. Oh the good ol days with SLI and SAS.

View attachment 338493
Click to expand...
I just purchased a used PC-V2120B.

By my calculations, the space between the top of the card slots and the edge of the case is 3.2". Is that correct?
 
cyclone3d said:
I just purchased a used PC-V2120B.

By my calculations, the space between the top of the card slots and the edge of the case is 3.2". Is that correct?
Click to expand...

I just measured it at 3.25" but you're going to lose some of that with the side panel on. There's a .125" deep reinforcement that runs along every edge the side panel about .5" in on every side.
 
ND40oz said:
I just measured it at 3.25" but you're going to lose some of that with the side panel on. There's a .125" deep reinforcement that runs along every edge the side panel about .5" in on every side.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for the info. I am going to have to mod the case anyway and I could always just adjust the mount I will be making.

Vertical mount GPU slot(s), here I come.
 
Anyone know a seller who has this in stock? I would buy if I could.
Got the case, PS, SSD's, CPU
 
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