ASUS X99-Deluxe II Motherboard Review

Conclusion

Although the ASUS X99-Deluxe II is the first of the second generation LGA2011-v3 motherboards that this reviewer has tested, I can confidently state that this model has set a high bar. From the eye-catching and infinitely customizable aesthetics, to the bevy of connectivity options, and impressive accessories bundle, the Deluxe II definitely lives up to its name and does justice to its predecessor.

In case you skipped straight to the conclusion, let's recap some of the hard specs: five physical PCI-E x16 slots, 3-way CrossFire and 3-way SLI capabilities, one PCI-E x1 slot, one M.2 x4 connector, two U.2 connectors, one SATA Express ports, eight SATA 6Gb/s ports (plus the two on the SATAe port), three USB 3.1 Type-A ports and one USB 3.1 Type-C port, four USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0/3.0 headers, two Intel-powered Gigabit LAN ports, Thunderbolt 3.0 header, a dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi module with Bluetooth v4.0, Realtek's latest ten-channel HD audio controller, diagnostic LEDs, thermal sensors all over, a high amperage fan header, a water pump header, and a bunch of onboard buttons and switches, and…well, you get the idea. And that is not even counting the included accessories bundles, which consists of a ThunderboltEX 3 expansion card, Hyper M.2 x4 Mini adapter, and a fan extension card with an included thermal probe. ASUS have also managed to pack all of these slots and ports onto a standard ATX form factor and they have done it all while avoiding any show stopping clearance/installation issues.


The way the AURA RGB lighting was implemented on this motherboard is an improvement over previous implementations. All lightning areas have now been outfitted with RGB LEDs and they now all fully controllable. The addition of the LEDs into the PCI-E slot clips is pretty darn cool too. The RGB header is a cool addition as well, allowing an expansion of the lighting effects to other parts of your case. Overall, the lights are bright, the colour selection is effectively unlimited, and the lighting effects are cooler and more numerous than before, and it's all very easy handled in the Lighting Control utility. Speaking of software, ASUS continue to improve their software suite with small incremental changes that make them amongst the best in the business.

When it came time to overclock, we were once again left impressed by the work ASUS has put into perfecting their automatic overclocking features. While the UEFI-based options weren't particularly aggressive, pushing our Core i7-6900K to between 4.0 to 4.1GHz depending on the workload, the software-based 5-Way Optimization feature pushed our chip up to 4.4GHz at 1.35V, which was within a hair of our own manual overclock. So either we've lost our touch or ASUS' auto-overclocking technology has gotten exceedingly good. We also appreciated the mild but effortless memory overclock, from the stock DDR4-2133 to DDR4-2666.

When we took over the overclocking reigns, we were able to push our i7-6900K a tiny bit higher to 4.43GHz at the same 1.35V. This is a voltage/heat wall, since any higher requires an ample boost in voltage that results in higher output and eventual throttling under load. Focusing on other parts of the processor, we managed to overclock the uncore from its stock 2800Mhz up to 3300Mhz, which is a decent 18% increase. Likewise, we were able to test this motherboard's claimed DDR4-3300 memory frequency validation by hitting exactly DDR4-3300. The large 32GB G.Skill Trident Z memory kit that we used probably had a bit of additional headroom, but it was the highest we could achieve while also maximizing the CPU core clocks and maintaining a respectable uncore frequency as well. During our hours of hands-on overclocking, we never witnessed any odd behaviour, and never felt that the motherboard was the limiting factor in any of the efforts. You can't ask for much more than that.

As we mentioned in the introduction, given how exemplary the X99-Deluxe was, we had high hopes for its successor. Thankfully, we are now happy to report that the X99-Deluxe II does everything the original did - and does it equally well - and adds a bunch of new functionality. The $420USD/$540CAD price tag is high in general terms, but this is not an overpriced motherboard by any means especially given the accessories bundle. We wouldn't hesitate to build a personal system around it, which as high a praise as you can get.