Gadgetory

- When the X399 platform was first released, the motherboards were quite expensive but fast forward now to late 2018 and ASRock have released an X399 board that dare you would say is a budget option coming in around US250 street price and it's designed specifically for the 12 and 16-core Threadripper variants. That is the 2950X and also the 2920X. So today, we're gonna be taking a look at this motherboard and pairing it with the 16-core 32 threaded Threadripper chip and then overclocking that as well to four gigahertz to see if this motherboard's VRM can handle the beat. ♪ I wish that I was a madman ♪ ♪ So that maybe I ♪ - Welcome back to Tech YES City, and getting straight into those juicy VRM details for you guys, they're using an 8-Phase VRM design here with six phases for the CPU and two phases for the SOC with the MOSFETs being the Intersil/ISL99227IRZ-T which I rated at 60 amps. And then for the chokes, they're using the Magic 60 amp R29-ARs and then for the capacitors, Nichicon 12K caps. For the Vcore digital controller, they're using the Intersil/ISL69147IRAZ-T. And then for the V SoCs, they're using the digital Intersil/ISL69144IRAZ-T. So, putting this VRM through the paces, first off, I tested the out of the box settings where the CPU draws up to 170 watts going up to around about 3.7 gigahertz on all cores, this soared the VRM temperatures go up to around about 80 to mid-80s max in a 26-degree ambient environment. And then overclocking the CPU to four gigahertz on all cores soared the power draw got up all the way to 260 watts and this VRM still handled it with the max recorded temperature going to 100 degrees, so it's still well within those limits and great if you want to use a 2950X and get a bit more overclocking headroom out of the CPU on this board. So now moving on with this motherboard, it has two eight-pin CPU connectors up the top, though in my testing, even when overclocked to four gigahertz at 260 watts draw on the CPU, the one eight-pin was actually fine even though the cable itself was getting hot. So, if you are planning to overclock the 16-core 32-threaded CPU, I would recommend plugging up two eight-pin connectors just for peace of mind. However, looking at the DIMM slots themselves, you get eight slots and a running quad channel memory at 3200 megahertz CL14 with the Flare X memory kit locking the XMP profiles, that worked flawlessly, there was no problems from the get-go. Moving into the BIOS itself, ASRock have done a great job of simplifying their BIOS and making it super easy to overclock. And literally, all you have to do in this BIOS is change the CPU multiplier, up the voltage, and then lock-in your XMP profiles and you'll be getting some really nice performance gains. But speaking of other features on this board, there's three full 16x slots for PCIe available, as well as three M.2 NVMe slots, there's one of those that includes a heat shield. I did test this with an NVMe drive and I was happy to report that it does reduce the temperature, so it's great if you've got an NVMe drive that you're using not just for a boot drive but maybe for a scratch drive for editing 4k videos, for example. Other noteworthy things is there's a power and reset button located at the bottom just in a simplified form and this sort of helps reduce the costs yet still keep the feature set available. The onboard audio itself, speaking of this, the crosstalk was phenomenal up until a volume level of 90. Once you go 91 volume level and over, it still has that Realtek problem where the sound from the left channel will leak into the right channel, so this is still not fixed. I've been identifying this problem for a while. So basically, if you're a headphone user or you're using this onboard audio, just keep your volume at 90 or below and you'll have a great experience. Speaking of the frequency response curve, that was great too. There was only a two-decibel drop off below 10 hertz, the rest of it was flat, so it's gonna give you some good listening, especially on easy to power headphones. As for the mic port itself, they're using noise suppression, so if you're just using this to play games with your friends, it will be great. They won't have any noise coming in. But if you're using it for professional recordings, I'd look into getting an external solution with a better ADC and amplifier to get a pure signal going into the recording. And then going through the last of the little nitty-gritties with this motherboard, there are three x4 Gen3 PCIe NVMe slots. One of them even supports SATA III six gigabits per second. There is an additional M.2 as well for WiFi connectivity if you need that. Looking at the rear of the motherboard, there's USB 3.0 , USB 3.1, and Type-C connectivity too, as well as boasting a dual NIC solution with one of those being the Phantom Gaming 2.5 gigabits per second. So, testing this out, as well as the USB speeds, they were absolutely fine. And the good thing about the 2.5G solution is it does prioritize gaming packets, so if you are on a congested network, this will be beneficial for you. And lastly, for RGB lovers, there are two four-pin 12 volt headers, as well as a five-volt three-pin addressable RGB header on the board. And the southbridge heatsink itself includes some RGB LED lighting that can be controlled via the Polychrome software, but you can control via Windows or in the BIOS itself. So there it all is with the ASRock X399 Phantom Gaming 6. Honestly, this motherboard packs a serious punch for the money. I'm actually going to be using it besides this test bench in a build to see the longevity of this motherboard, to see whether it can hold up at the overclocks of four gigahertz with 16 cores 32 threads over the long run. The VRM temperatures were getting a little bit hot when it was overclocked but still completely satisfactory, so it is a great option for someone who's looking to get into a Threadripper chip, especially a 1950X, for example, which can be had for under $600 and get access to 16 cores 32 threads if you need that amount of cores. And also, the BIOS, the extra feature set, and the onboard audio, as well as the utility with three NVMe slots, three PCIe 16x slots, really makes this motherboard a hard-hitting value for money play if you wanna get on X399. In terms of negatives for this motherboard, I really can't fault it for anything especially at its given price point. I also think the look of this board is so clean. I really like what they've done with the VRM heatsink, for example, where it encompasses the I/O shield. Instead of using those cheap plasticky covers, they've actually used the metal from the heatsink itself and it looks really cool in my opinion. Anyway guys, hope you enjoyed today's review. If you did, then be sure to hit that Like button and let me know in the comment section below what you think of the X399 Phantom Gaming 6 from ASRock. In terms of availability, I can only find it up for sale at Newegg at the moment. It will be releasing in Australia very shortly, so I will update the description when those details become available. And with that said, I'll catch you in another tech video very soon. Peace out for now. Bye. (upbeat music)