Motherboard Asus X99-M WS review – Worth the Wait?

jeshikat

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On the bench today is the X99M-WS motherboard, Asus’s much anticipated foray into the world of microATX X99. But has it been worth the wait?

Read review here
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
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May 9, 2015
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Well done on the review ! This seems like a solid board, although the M.2 limitation does put me off.
I don't see why they even went with the PCIe 2.0 x1 slot, it could have allowed maybe just enough PCIe lanes (if another lane was available) to bump the M.2 spec to 110mm length and PCIe 2.0 x4. I'm hardly convinced the PCIe x1, just below the primary PCIe x16 slot, is more important than proper M.2 support.
 

jeshikat

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Looking at the block diagram they'd have to disable one device (USB 3.1, NIC, etc.) to get the last lane for 2.0 x4 on the M.2. I'd gladly give up one NIC or the WiFi or something for it.
 

iFreilicht

FlexATX Authority
Feb 28, 2015
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It looks like you can do spaced or even triple crossfire with this, and with a 40-Lane CPU you can do spaced or triple SLI as wall, so that's rather nice.
 

jeshikat

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Nice find, I've never seen any reference to this board anywhere. I did find the spec page: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/X99-M-WSSE/

Strangely I could only find it by searching for that exact model, it's not linked on the ASUS website. But it's not anything special, I carefully went through the spec list and the only difference is the SE model lacks the WiFi/Bluetooth module.
 

veryrarium

Cable-Tie Ninja
Jun 6, 2015
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Ha, I had tried similar URLs guessed from that of the original edition but ASUS tricked me with different hyphen and underscore pattern.:( Anyway yeah, what you found from the spec is exactly what the shop person who posted the photo answered to my inquiry later today. My initial reaction when I first saw the photo was, "did ASUS take the Gen2 x2 M.2 criticism from here and on your OCN thread seriously and redesigned the board with an M.2 slot with Gen3 x4 lanes from the CPU instead?" Too good to be true I guess.

ETA. By the way, I recall you quoting September as an expected release date of X99-M WS in Japan from a Japanese article. It turned out the ASUS distributor in Japan decided not to sell it here. I don't know why they've now decided to give a go ahead to this WiFi/BT-module-less edition.
 
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kostah

Cable Smoosher
Nov 8, 2015
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For no other reason than the missing "M.2 PCIe 3 x4" on this
X99-M WS i went with the EVGA x99 Micro 2.. Though they have their flaws as well. But it seems that the overall build quality with EVGA is (subjectively) better..

I think they really want to address some different clients segments.

Considering the fact that the x99 Micro 2 disables (supposedly by HW design error of) the 3rd PCIe slot, when M.2. is used, you could actually be in advantage here, if you take a M.2 pci 3 Card / Riser for x4 using it in the lowest slot (presumably having a 40 lanes CPU)

Then it is comparable to the Micro 2 but has substantially more features as I see (Wifi, 2nd NIC), additional PCIe x1 Slot, *additional*, though lower speed M.2.. so you could actually go with 2 M.2 Slots here :) not bad eh?
The question remains what is disabled when? when using all the PCIe lanes *and* the internal periphery...
 

alexciurea

What's an ITX?
Dec 1, 2015
1
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hello,

by any chance the x99-m ws/se will have full pcie x4 capabilities for M.2, since it does not have the wifi?
or it's just the same board as x99-m ws, just that without the wifi card and antennas...?

Thanks,
alex
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
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According to the manual, the M.2 port on the SE is still just 2.0 x2.

As far as I can tell, the two models are completely identical other than the lack of the wireless module on the SE.
 

fabio

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Apr 6, 2016
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Someone knows if the Intel SSD 750, the pcie version, works with this board? NVMe and boot through it is supported by the actual BIOS? Thank you very much!
 

jeshikat

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Welcome to the forum!

I'll check if ASUS plans to refresh it but I doubt they will.

My board has been rock solid but that's just one data point. I'm not sure how many layers it has, I'll ask.
 

jeshikat

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Is there any word on a refresh for this board?

I asked Raja at ASUS if they have plans for a X99-M WS refresh or maybe even a Rampage V Gene. He was very clear that there are no plans for a X99 Gene.

When I followed up to clarify if that meant there were also no plans for a refresh he reiterated there were no plans for a Gene. So make of that what you will.

Edit: I pestered him many times about releasing a microATX X99 board back before the X99-M WS was announced so I'm not sure if he's just being cagey and they do have plans for a refresh or if the same reasons for the lack of a X99 Gene apply to a hypothetical refresh (lack of market demand, limited engineering resources to devote to it, etc.).

Does anyone know how many layers the PCB is?

From Raja: "As for layer counts, every board has as many as it needs."
 
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jeshikat

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It is a non-answer but he has a point, like megapixels on cameras, layer count isn't a good indication of quality (or lack thereof) when looked at by itself.
 

Singular

Chassis Packer
Jan 25, 2016
15
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I know this is an old post, but im putting together my next matx workstation build, im 80% ready to get this board, the only thing is the "m.2 slot problem"

The build so far:

Case: Fractal Define C Mini
Mobo: Asus WS-M
Ram: Corsair LPX 32GB 3000MHz DDR4
GPU: 2X 980TI
CPU: I7 6850K (40 Lanes)
PSU: Corsair AX860i
Cooling system: EKWB Custom Loop
SSD: Samsung 960 Pro 512gb M.2 on a HYPER M.2 X4 MINI CARD (boot drive)
SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 1Tb Sata III

So, the dumb questions...

Its enough lanes on the mobo?

the m.2 will give me full speed 32gb/s?

Iknow its a tight fit on the last pcie slot but im planning to cut the DVI port on the bottom gpu to make it "single slot", what do yo think about this?

and last, the 2nd SSD will run fine?

this will be my replacement for my currently itx wokstation... i will be posting that build this weekend.

PD: I LOVE THIS FORUM (L)