ASUS X99-PRO Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

The Intel X99 chipset is a single-chip solution, which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip supports ten SATA-600 ports (there are no SATA-300 ports), supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5).

The ASUS X99-PRO offers those ten SATA-600 ports (two of them are shared with a SATA Express connector). All SATA ports are located at the motherboard’s edge and rotated 90 degrees, so that video cards will not block them.

Figure 6: SATA Express and SATA-600 ports

The Intel X99 chipset supports eight USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASUS X99-PRO offers eight USB 2.0 ports, four soldered on the rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard. It also supports ten USB 3.0 ports, six soldered on the motherboard rear panel (one controlled by the chipset and five controlled by one ASMedia ASM1074 chip and one ASMedia ASM1042 chip) and four available through two headers on the motherboard, controlled by the chipset.

The ASUS X99-PRO does not support FireWire or Thurnderbolt ports. (There is a header labeled “TB_HEADER” to route digital audio to an optional Thunderbolt expansion card from ASUS.)

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the Realtek ALC1150 codec, which is an excellent audio codec, providing 115 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. These specifications are good even for the user who wants to work professionally capturing and editing analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.).

The analog audio outputs are independent and the motherboard also comes with an on-board optical SPDIF output. It also has a header labeled “SPDIF_OUT”, where you can install an adapter to have a coaxial SPDIF output or to connect a cable to older video cards that required a physical connection to have audio on their HDMI outputs.

The analog audio outputs are independent only if you use a 5.1 analog speaker set. If you install a 7.1 analog speaker set, you will need to use the “line in” jack.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by an Intel i218V chip.

The X99-PRO has an integrated dual-band IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi interface, shown in Figure 7. It comes with a dual-band MIMO 2×2:2 antenna set. The board also supports Bluetooth 4.0. This module is actually a removable standard Mini PCI Express Wi-Fi card inside a metal casing that works both as electromagnetic shield and as a support for the antenna connectors.

Figure 7: wireless module

This motherboard comes with a button on the rear panel named “BIOS Flashback” that allows the user to update the BIOS even with no CPU or memory installed. Simply insert a flash drive containing the BIOS file on a USB port, press the button for three seconds, and the BIOS will be flashed.

In Figure 8, you can see the motherboard rear panel, with the “BIOS Flashback” button, shared PS/2 connector for keyboard and mouse, four USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet port, six USB 3.0 ports, two Wi-Fi antenna connectors, one optical SPDIF output, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 8: Motherboard rear panel