ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha
2019Type
MotherboardPrice
$699.99 USAMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990X Processor - Power Consumption Tests
When it comes to power consumption, there are a few things we should take note of. First of all, Intel has focused on efficiency for several years but as we have seen, they are starting to loose rapidly at this front. The Intel Core-X processors are based on the new 14nm processors and we know this that Intel generally has a better fabrication process compared to their rivals. AMD, on the other hand, is using a refined 12nm process from Global Foundries on their Zen+ based Ryzen, and Ryzen Threadripper chips.
The Ryzen Threadripper chips are based on four dies rather than a single monolithic die. We have seen how that affects the temperatures but it is also crucial to see how power management is now handled on four separate dies. All four dies are connected through the infinity fabric interconnect and hence, it is used to thermally manage the load on different dies.
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper WX processors feature a reference TDP of 250W and I pushed the voltage higher than stock when running the chips in overclock mode. The resultant power numbers at both stock and overclocked frequencies can be seen below:
Contents
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At $699 US, the ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha packs so many features, an incredible power delivery system and lots of IO, making it the ultimate X399 motherboard that you can buy for AMD's disruptive Ryzen Threadripper processors.
- 16+4+4 Phase IR Digital PWM Power Supply (60A MOSFETs)
- Dual 8-Pin Power Connectors For Unrestricted Power Delivery to CPU
- Proper Aluminum Fin Based heatsinks with heat pipe interconnection
- Dual Fan Active Cooling For VRMs with Idle Fan Tech (Finned Aluminum heatsink)
- Supports Up To 128 GB of DDR memory with speeds of 3600 MHz+ OC
- Matte Black Finish on the entire board + dual backplates
- ROG DIMM.2 With Dual M.2 ports (Includes Heatsink / Heatpad)
- ROG Fan Extension II Hub with 6 additional fan ports, 3 RGB and 3 Thermal sensor ports
- Impressive AURA Sync RGB Capabilities With Good Software Support
- Aluminum cover for PCIe and M.2 slots (includes heatsink for M.2)
- Full I/O cover with aluminum heatsink + Aura Sync + OLED Live Dash
- Metal Shielded PCIe Slots
- Metal Shielded DIMM Slots
- Metal Shielded M.2 Slots
- Integrated Intel 802.11 ac Wireless capabilities
- 10G Ethernet Port (Aquantia) + 1 Gigabit LAN ports
- SupremeFX 8 Sound (Superb onboard sound capabilities)
- Tons of USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 ports on rear panel IO
- Pre-mounted IO Shield
- Internal USB 3.1 Gen 2 Header
- Dual BIOS for easy tuning if anything goes haywire
Pros
- Extremely High Price ($699.99 US)
- Can consume a lot of power when CPUs (especially the WX models) is overclocked beyond 4 GHz
- OLED Live Dash is very clunky and often unresponsive
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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