For the first time in a long time, AMD is battling Intel for high-end desktop supremacy with its Ryzen Threadripper processors. Its chosen weapon? Cores, cores, and more cores, culminating in the monstrous 16-core, 32-thread Threadripper 1950X. But cramming that much hardware into a chip means bigger chips, and bigger chips need bigger sockets. Enter the new AMD X399 motherboards.All X399 motherboards revolve around the gargantuan TR4 socket, and thus arenīt compatible with mainstream Ryzen processors. But on the flip side, Threadripper systems can tap into capabilities that the rest of AMDīs CPU lineup canīt-quad-channel memory support, eight DIMM slots, and a whopping 64 PCI-E lanes, most notably. Those robust features come at a price though, as X399 motherboards can cost even more than Intelīs pricey Extreme Edition boards.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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