INTRO
We recently released a guide on choosing parts for your Threadripper build, and the Gigabyte TRX50 AI Top motherboard came up a couple of times. This is an interesting board; according to our sources it’s the most returned TRX 50 motherboard, with perhaps good reason. But really, that doesn’t mean that the board is bad, just that it’s a little odd. Because of that I figured I’d write a little something up explaining what’s going on with it.
WHAT’S STRANGE ABOUT THIS BOARD
Although this motherboard is labeled as a TRX 50 board, in some ways it’s more suitable to Threadripper Pro than standard Threadripper. It has 8 memory slots but only supports 4 DIMMs on standard Threadripper. The VRM is also suitable for Threadripper Pro; it’s built to handle high power parts. In a way it feels like a WRX 90 board that just so happens to be able to support non-Pro Threadripper CPUs.
The PCIe layout also is worth considering; there are four x16 slots, but the bottom is only PCIe Gen 5 on Pro CPUs or 9000 series non-Pro CPUs, meaning those of you with 7000 series non-Pro CPUs won’t get Gen 5 speeds. This board seems built to support multiple GPUs, and has two extra GPU style power inputs to help support that. The x16 slots are also fastened to the backplane and reinforced.
The rear IO is fairly typical, but I want to draw attention to the 10G connections at the back. These are connected to a Marvell 10G chipset and are fastened to the rear heatsink assembly, which has a fan to help with cooling. This assures that it won’t overheat and cause connection loss, or cause a loss of bandwith. This is something that a lot of other TRX 50 and WRX 90 motherboards have not figured out, so good work Gigabyte. There’s also plenty of room for airflow over your DIMMs, which is nice to see.
SHOULD I PICK THIS UP FOR MY SYSTEM?
Overall, if you were going to run say a 32 core Threadripper Pro in this, with eight sticks of memory, this would be a fine board. Anything above that and it would probably be better to get a WRX 90 motherboard, which would have way more features for only a couple hundred more dollars, which is a rounding error in the total cost of the system. For regular Threadripper, I could see this board being ok for higher core count 9000 series CPUs, but anything less than that and you’re probably better off with a different TRX 50 board.
However, if you find this as an open box deal or a return, you can probably get it for a bit under MSRP, which would make it solidly worth it. It’s a very nice board, it’s just a little strange, and a lot of people might not have read the manual and had issues with running eight DIMMs on non-Pro CPUs, or whatever.
Either way, it’s certainly a valid choice for your Threadripper system. If you had any more questions about parts, check out the previous forum thread!