Review on 🎮 ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha TRX40 Gaming AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper sTRX4 EATX Motherboard with 16 Infineon Power Stages, PCIe 4.0, and Wi-Fi 6 by Josh Sharp

1. After a few weeks of use, the built-in 10 Gigabit network card died. It stopped negotiating the link no matter what I connected to it. It's made by Aquantia so I wasn't surprised. I didn't want to rip out the circuit board for the RMA, so I installed a 10 Gigabit Intel PCIe NIC in the system. I've never had any of them die, unlike the Aquantia junk I've had a lot of problems with.2. The ASMedia SATA controller is garbage. When you reboot the system, the BIOS does not see any drives attached to it. You must turn off the system and then turn it on again. After switching on, the controller periodically resets the ports connected to it, resulting in I/O errors. The board has eight SATA ports. Four are on the TRX40 chipset and work fine. The other four go to the ASMedia controller and are very unreliable. I had to connect additional SATA drives to my LSI RAID controller because the basic tasks (install OS, boot, connect drives) were too unreliable with ASMedia.3 ports. You get the same technical support from ASUS as a budget builder. Although it costs more than most ASUS workstation motherboards, this board gives you the same support as a $90 board. If you choose the cheaper ASUS workstation board, you get professional support.4. The ASUS ROG forum sucks. I have tried, to register and had to wait weeks for approval. Although it is run by ASUS employees, getting help from customers is not among their priorities. The BIOS lacks many features. So although the ASUS workstation board is more expensive, the board's BIOS has fewer features. I originally installed two GPUs in the system, but the BIOS doesn't let you select the primary GPU. The wrong GPU occupied the display, making it impossible to pass a PCIe connection through to the VM. The BIOS also does not allow you to manage boot records. If you want to remove obsolete entries, you need to boot the operating system and use the tool in OS.6. Although Threadripper processors support 72 PCIe lanes, there are only four PCIe.7 slots on this board. There is no serial port on the motherboard.8. The system cold boot takes forever. However, this is more of a Threadripper issue than this board. I bought them because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less. The BIOS also does not allow you to manage boot records. If you want to remove obsolete entries, you need to boot the operating system and use the tool in OS.6. Although Threadripper processors support 72 PCIe lanes, there are only four PCIe.7 slots on this board. There is no serial port on the motherboard.8. The system cold boot takes forever. However, this is more of a Threadripper issue than this board. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have picked the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less. The BIOS also does not allow you to manage boot records. If you want to remove obsolete entries, you need to boot the operating system and use the tool in OS.6. Although Threadripper processors support 72 PCIe lanes, there are only four PCIe.7 slots on this board. There is no serial port on the motherboard.8. The system cold boot takes forever. However, this is more of a Threadripper issue than this board. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE, since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and costs $150 less. 8. System cold boot takes forever. However, this is more of a Threadripper issue. than this board. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less. 8. System cold boot takes forever. However, this is more of a Threadripper issue than this board. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less. However, this is more of a Threadripper issue than this board. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less. However, this is more of a Threadripper issue than this board. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less. I bought it because I wanted the best. But it's not the best - just the most expensive. I probably should have gotten the ASUS WS C422 SAGE since it has two built-in 10 Gigabit Intel ports and is $150 less.