Published: September 20, 2016 | Source: ASUS | Author: Tom Logan

ASUS X99 Deluxe II Review

Conclusion

Often with motherboards they are targeted at a specific sector of the audience. Some are all about their overclocking prowess and promise world record breaking scores. Others are about the gaming benefits, and yet more are honest about their positioning as an affordable all-rounder. The ASUS X99 Deluxe II is so well rounded it’s like a cannonball.

There is no denying that the thing which dominates our thoughts when we consider the Deluxe II is the insane amount of technologies packed onto its PCB. Everything that is part of the foundations of any system has found its way onto the silicon. Do you need high bandwidth storage? The Deluxe II has Thunderbolt 3 – which supports USB 3.1, Thunderbolt 3 and DisplayPort connectivity – as well as on board USB 3.1, SATA Express, U.2 and M.2 NVMe storage options alongside the near limitless SATA 6Gb/s ports, USB 3.0 ports and other elements we’re more familiar with. Indeed it has so many connection options that ASUS have included daughter boards for Mini M.2 and Thunderbolt 3 so as to fit them all into your case.

It’s not only storage options where the Deluxe II shines either. With twin Intel Gigabit LANs – I218-V and I211-AT – and ASUS own LAN Guard and Turbo LAN technologies, your hard cabled network will perform to its maximum. If you prefer wireless networking the X99 Deluxe II has both Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi supporting 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections with up to 1300Mbs transfer speeds. There is no replacement for displacement as the saying goes, and the Deluxe II has bandwidth out the wazoo.

The design might appear to be somewhat vanilla, but the moment you dig even slightly below the surface it’s clear that the ASUS X99 Deluxe II is completely deserving of that Deluxe branding. It comes with everything. But it isn’t just a case of a bunch of technologies stuffed onto a PCB but no real performance. The inclusion of the ASUS OC Socket alongside their excellent BIOS and high quality power components mean that the Deluxe II overclocks like a champ and the end result of this commitment to excellence is reflected in our benchmarks. It performs extremely well in every test we threw at it, whether you’re demanding massive calculation capabilities or just chilling with the latest gaming title of your choice.

All that performance and connectivity comes at a price, of course. This isn’t the motherboard for those of you on a tight budget, but then if you’re on a very tight budget the chances are you wont have the hardware to justify the Thunderbolt 3, NVMe or USB 3.1 features of the Deluxe II anyway. However, if you have got the hardware to fully take advantage of the Deluxe II then it will reward you tenfold, which is why it wins our OC3D Enthusiast Award.

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