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This premium motherboard is eye-wateringly expensive, only works with one type of processor, and may not fit your case – but it’s worth remortgaging your house for

December 20, 2023
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There are a good number of reasons not to buy ASUS’ new Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE high-end motherboard. For starters, it’s expensive. It’s currently available to pre-order for $1,299.99.

The second reason is it’s designed specifically and only for AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-series of processors (Storm Peak). And lastly, the motherboard comes in an EEB form factor which, while the same dimensions as E-ATX motherboards (12 x 13 inches/30.5 x 33.0 cm), it likely won’t slot into an E-ATX case – the screw holes won’t be in the right place.

That all said, if you have the cash, a suitable case, and a Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WX-series processor, then this is the motherboard you’ll want.

Power and efficiency

The motherboard’s AMD WRX90 chipset offers serious Pro-grade features and includes up to 148 PCIe 5.0 lanes and up to 2TB of quad-channel DDR5 memory across eight RAM slots.

The Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE's VRM comprises (16*2)+3+3+3 power stages (with two 8-pin power connectors for the CPU) for the power and efficiency that top-end Ryzen Threadripper processors demand.

It offers four M.2 PCIe 5.0 x4 slots (two of which can accommodate the longer M.2 22110 format for higher-capacity drives), four SATA III ports, and two SlimSAS connectors to allow users to connect a large number of additional drives for a vast storage array. There are seven expansion slots – six PCIe 5.0 x16 and one PCIe 5.0 x16 (x8 mode). 

The motherboard, which is compatible with both Windows 10 (64-bit only) and Windows 11, doesn’t offer wireless or Bluetooth connectivity, but it does come with two Intel 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports and one Realtek  Gigabit Ethernet port.

There are a variety of USB ports, including two USB4 Type-C ports, six USB Type-A ports (USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2), and one USB 2.0 port. No Thunderbolt though.

There’s also one VGA port, two mini DisplayPort, and two audio jacks for the Realtek ALC1220P 5.1 audio.

B&H Photo Video is currently accepting preorders for the Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE for $1,299.99. The motherboard is expected to be available from January 29, 2024.

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