GIGABYTE TRX40 DESIGNARE (sTRX/AMD/TRX40/Direct 16+3 Phase VRM/Fins-Array Heatsink/Gen 4 AIC with 4 Extra M.2/ XL-ATX/Motherboard)

Content creators are drawn to Threadrippers and Thunderbolt 3. The TRX40 Designare is the only "officially supported" choice at present for that combination (the Aorus TRX40 Master and Aorus TRX40 Xtreme have a TB header on the mobo ... but are not "officially supported"). Level1Tech as of Dec 2019 reported TB3 DCH drivers were messed up ... but my new build (3970X, TRX40 Designare, WD SN850 storage, 128GB G.Skill Trident Neo Z DDR4-3600, GB RTX 3090 Turbo, Noctua air, beQuiet Platinum 1200) came together with only a minor hiccup (the RTX did not like looking at a DP panel through an HDMI to DP adapter, so I went all HDMI). Once the panel/cable issue was resolved, mobo booted to UEFI and accepted XMP 1 (XMP1 bumped the DIMMs from 2600 to 3600). Win10 x64 installed in one minute flat (the getting ready part.... longer). Moved the rig from bench to case with only Win10 installed, disconnected internet, and loaded drivers from the GB DVD (did not load RGB Fusion and other frills ... not a glamor gaming rig). Connected to internet, and several updates installed, including Intel DCH drivers for the Titan Ridge. Plugged in a 2TB M.2 TB3 external drive, accepted the connection to the drive in the TB control center, and got full TB3 speed (short cable). Installed Resolve 17 Studio beta, and render times are multiples faster than using our x570 build (ASRock X570 Creator, 3950X, 128GB RAM, Resolve 16 Studio, AMD 5700xt). For PCIE slots, RTX nearest CPU, then Titan Ridge (x8), then quad M.2 expansion card (x16). Here's some GREAT news: the GB UEFI automatically bifurcates (quadfurcates?) into 4 x4 lanes the x16 slot the quad M.2 card is in! The first boot after you put a loaded AIC in an x16 slot the rig boots to UEFI with a popup about a change ... simply accept and proceed, it then reboots to Win10.). If the quad M.2 AIC is installed but has no M.2 SSDs installed, the UEFI ignores the quad M.2 AIC.UPDATE: Davinci Resolve 17 Studio BRAW Speed Test reports the 3970X build will run 8K video at 93 fps, and all boxes in the performance matrix are checked green. My 6K source (BMD PCC 6K) content produces no stutters when working in 6K. Our studio also has a GB Aorus TRX40 Master in which the Titan Ridge works fine. The Titan Ridge works ONLY in the x8 slot (x8_1) nearest the CPU in GB TRX40 mobos with a TB3 header (Designare, Master, Xtreme). According to AMD, a 3990X CPU boosts the Cinebench 20 score by 40% compared to the 3970X... but at 100% additional cost ($4000 vs. $2000 MSRP), so we're staying with the 3970X.

The media could not be loaded.  The first board I bought was bad and had to return it. That should have been enough warning to choose another brand but I forged ahead since I bought $15000 worth of other parts to go with it. I had an experienced shop put it together. I think the board is fine if you don’t use all the PCI slots. Lol yes that makes it kind of worthless. I fed it 2 rtx 2080 ti cards and the raid card it comes with was enough to cause nightmares in installation. Forget about using the included thunderbolt card unless you’re just using 1 video card. I tossed that aside after too many failed installation attempts. The board simply can’t handle too many high speed PCI lanes. One visit to the gigabyte forums will tell you. Today the included raid PCI failed. I was getting insanely good read write times but alas it was only temporary. My fault for wanting 15GB/s read write times Going with raid-0. So after writing a fat check and a big reality check overall I’m disappointed in gigabyte and probably would never buy the brand again. A lot of hype and false advertising. Over promise and under deliver seems to be their motto.

Got this M/B because it was the only option for Threadripper 3960X CPU and Thunderbolt 3. The board comes with a Titan Ridge TB3 card and (very important) has a TB header on the board. Thunderbolt is very tricky to get set up with Windows, but I got this one working with my RME audio interface after about 40 minutes of setting adjustments and reading. Worth the effort because TB is SO FAST!I have 25TB of storage attached to it with room for lots more. Board is very heavy, thick and strong and unlikely to break. Everything worked right away on first boot. This board has LOTS of gazintas and gozoutas and if you need them, this is the bomb. $700 is a lot of scratch, but you do get what you pay for. I highly recommend this board if this is what you need.

Motherboards are static sensitive things and I'm a paranoid guy. A little zap and it could die immediately or a month in the future. This box arrived without a plastic shrink wrap and without tamperproof tape on the box. Lift the cover and you have access to the PCB. I returned the product for an exchange thinking this was evidence of someone peeking and maybe touching it with their static charged hands. New one arrived in same condition. So I give a zero for packaging.It booted the first time and no issues. The documentation is excellent.Notice their website did not list the bios installed on the motherboard. So updated the motherboard with the latest from their website. Big mistake. Now I can't enter the bios. Been posting trouble tickets for 3 days, no answer yet. This version of the bios is no longer on their website. Their online support says 3 to 7 days. A long time when you need help. The Q-flash functionality sounds great, but I need to strip down the motherboard (remove CPU, heatsink, video cards). Not a great option given the cost of the processor.BTW, crazy number of fan headers.

Had to RMA board due to a broken screw mount for the cooler, took about a month to be repaired.

I was looking for a great board for my Ryzen Threadripper 3960x and it appears that those are not so much easily found. I had seen some recommendations for it on pcpartpicker so I decided I'd splurge and it was fully compatible with all my other parts.The installation was a breeze, it looks good and works great so far.