Gigabyte WRX80 Threadripper PRO - FINALLY Thunderbolt! - Motherboard Review

This board puts thunderbolt as a first calss citizen, and L1 couldn't be happier. Wendell goes in depth with this board to give a full review!
Hope you enjoyed!
~ Editor Amber
**********************************
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Intro and Outro Music By: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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[@dakata2416]

Thank you Wendell!

[@danielsnyder2288]

Thank you, got mine yesterday!! Really looking forward to this

[@johnnyxp64]

04:10 i love those vfx on the hardware. very nice video! plz do it in all your hardware reviews from now on.

[@Ogorodovd]

Yeeeees! The video I was waiting for, thank you!

[@kelownatechkid]

I'll never bother with a board like this but I'll watch anyway because of wendell's humorous commentary

[@joeybuddy96]

Great video Wendell and Amber!

[@Level1Techs]

Thank you!

[@GearSeekers]

I'm really digging my SU8.

[@bits2646]

O-M-G, my favourite "bundle", WRX80 + TW + L1Techs :DDD

[@TheBauwssss]

For anyone interested in the actual price, in the Netherlands the Gigabyte WRX80 is currently retailing for anywhere from €850 (cheapest) to €1300 (most expensive). General pricing across Europe should be relatively similar. (Price last updated on 5 Juni 2021)

[@franzpleurmann2585]

It is down to 730 Euro again.

[@artisan002]

Wendel: "Listen how quiet it is..." KZbin: [cuts to dumb, loud-ass ad for Hero Wars]

[@chungisyoung4good]

At least it ain't a barbie ad.

[@Level1Techs]

We will be more than happy to dream house once again :D

[@artisan002]

@@chungisyoung4good At this point, I'll take it. 'Cause it's either Hero Wars, career alcoholics telling me they cracked the system, some fitness guru lying about his nutrition, or some fidgety, nervous dude trying to get me to believe in his solar power company. Only in the past two weeks have I been free of the Donald Trump Jr. sounding guy trying to act confident over his nervosa with, "We're calling the the best investment..." Oh yeah. Those winded sounding ads from Motley Fool, too.

[@chungisyoung4good]

@@artisan002 lol dude, I think you just infected me with those ads, minus hero wars. Only after reading your comment, I'm starting to get them now.

[@artisan002]

@@chungisyoung4good JOIN ME IN SUFFERING

[@jannikmeissner]

Thank you, nice video! Normally I hate IPMI on a shared NIC, but for a workstation it is pretty sweet, because that would be the primary computer I would use to access my management network anyways.

[@RetroTinkerer]

Now that looks like the spiritual successor to the dual Socket8/Slot-1 monster motherboards I lusted for a "while" ago.

[@mohsh86]

14:31 "A Swiss army knife that hopefully has a screwdriver in it"

[@michelvanbriemen3459]

I too would like a first calss citizen on my motherboard.

[@ddanrich]

Thanks!

[@KayJay01]

This board, but with Zen 3 TR Pro is my dream. I just want my 5950X but with 128 PCIe lanes and thunderbolt with the 25m conning active TB3 cables to be able to shove this in a room elsewhere in the house and blast the fans and have zero noise. Like LTT's setup at home, but with AMD Ryzen instead of Intel.

[@MrMcGreed]

Wauw... Gigabyte made a good BIOS/UEFI... - great review!

[@henrikmikaelkristensen4784]

17:00 That fan is quite hypnotic to look at.

[@Cooe.]

5:10 Just an fyi, the Realtek ALC 1220 is 7.1 not 5.1 Wendell. Also, the TRX40 Designare also comes with that exact same Titan Ridge TB3 card and has for a LONG time at this point. Though I don't know if all those BIOS options you showed here were originally exposed in the other board too. Or if they've been added since.

[@larryteslaspacexboringlawr739]

thank you and posted to reddit

[@dexheavy85]

You can try turning the rear fan to intake. It will do wonders for memory and VRM. With AIO and liquid cooling setups, it is awesome. With air coolers, it needs to be exhaust.

[@maxhughes5687]

After three years on a Heatkiller copper Threadripper cpu block, I'll stick with water. Use the water to pull all the heat up and away from your RAM and VRM.

[@QuentinStephens]

I've been waiting for this for some time. Thank you. How about putting some copper fins on those VRMs to help cool them down. And now Threadripper Pro is here how about trying Neil Parfitt's challenge of duplicating his Apple Mac Pro in a Windows PC? The Threadripper Pro has the RAM capability and the PCIe lanes to do it, so the only questions are whether or not all his add-in cards will fit and are there Windows versions of his software? How about giving it a go?

[@starpuss]

Same Model i was Looking at!

[@TheMichaelAltman]

This board is incredible

[@Kurukx]

My wait is over :P

[@rainerwolf9064]

Hello - Thank You for your great introduction in this great mainboard ! I wonder , if it would be possible to use it for an AMD Hackintosh beside for Windows 10 Pro via Open Core by reducing the threadcount in OpenCore to 64 Theads or 64 cores without Hyperthreading ? So the resulting machine could be a Hack Master or an Windows Slave for my Audio ( Logic Pro X ) . As a Windows Master it would be great for Video , Animations and other stuff ?? Are there incompabilities with UAD pcie hardware like Octo ?

[@GroundGame.]

Hey Wendell, can we ever see a follow up video to your Ryzen 3800XT video versus the 5800x lookin' at the generational cashe improvement concerning the CCX/CCD and Memory latency improvements? I've always heard about the improvements but I've yet to see the latencies explored in the real world testing. Kind regards. GroundGame.

[@mianderson86]

Thank you for this review, I have been debating between this and the Asus Sage. I was really leaning towards the Sage but this Thunderbolt support has me interested. What is your personal choice between the 2 boards for workstation workloads?

[@RickyBobby_USA]

I was searching his channel for the pros and cons of each, myself.

[@samuelschwager]

Damn, I had no idea TB3 had so many settings...

[@nickname1392]

Ayyyy I sit a fan on my GPU pointed at my RAM too.

[@kelownatechkid]

Possibly a use case for the Arctic CLC's VRM fan?

[@skittlzism]

I’ve made an all nvme zfs server using the 3955wx and asus board >:)

[@b2bb]

papa bless the engagement

[@bighairycomputers]

Upvote for more of Wendell saying "hanky panky"

[@RNGwhydoihavetoregis]

what happened to your audio after 23:53? someone blowing on a mic? maybe it was AC running, I hear it after the wipe at 22:28 also.

[@derekjcooper]

Hoping the SKU drops in Canada some day?

[@cephei7]

Nice video! But how to enable RAID on the sata drives?

[@ItsGaryy]

That’s a spicy meatball

[@tangfranklin1730]

I am just waiting for Msi to release their WRX80 board so that Wendel can finally review it

[@DrewryPope]

i want it for thunderbolt-net, so once i have to add-in a card i might as well use a 40 gig sfp

[@kennethmadsen6474]

I've got a 1st gen Threadripper 1920X for my Unraid setup. I wish IPMI was a thing for Threadripper back then.

[@franzpleurmann2585]

There are Threadripper Asrock Rack mobos for first gen threadripper with ipmi.

[@bretspangler8717]

I used to consider myself a power user, but it is so easy to slip behind.

[@StariusPrime]

Just out of curiosity, do STRX4 compatible cooler mounts work on Threadripper Pro boards?

[@ejbully]

Nice board... Wish I would of waited

[@___Zack___]

Would "of" ?

[@mikeignacio8517]

Just curious, were you able to install server 2019 on it? i find it odd that this is the only wrx80 board that has server 2019 drivers on the website. every other board does not have drivers for windows server. I currently have the gigabyte GIGABYTE MC62-G40 and am considering on switching to this board. any notes or comments would be appreciated

[@ccrr7069]

This motherboard is basically ASRock Rack's EPYC ROMED8-2T twin brother. Gigabyte has an audio chip, bigger VRM heatsink, Tb3 (40Gbps) vs EPYC's USB 3.2(20Gbps) but is significantly expensive,.

[@tahajaorawala7103]

could you shed some light on the IPMI and BMC feature and connection on the Gigabyte WRX80 cause the official website has no proper info

[@samgao]

Also, noticed that my thunderbolt option is greyed out.

[@braindeadbzh]

No integrated IO shield on an high-end motherboard, what year is that?

[@ionstorm66]

You can get right angle adapter for fan headers and audio too FYI. The type-c isnt in a great spot. It should of been inline with the x8 slot.

[@Level1Techs]

The right angle audio adapter I have wouldn't clear the gpu but the 30 pin does

[@ionstorm66]

@@Level1Techs The ones I have are a smt female pin header soldered to a pcb with the right angle male head on it as well. The are about 2mm taller than the header on the board. On an ITX rig I even went as far as removing the plastic from the motherboard header, which made the adapter shorter than the pins. They are just 5x2, they don't have the keying for usb/audio so you have lop off a pin on the male side to make them work.

[@Level1Techs]

That would be great and probably work

[@johnnyxp64]

03:35 what the psu you used that had 2x CPU 12v cables? i just bought a dual x79 board and needs the same. i bought an adapter to split 1 12v 8pin cpu to 2... for 800watt. will you recommend use the splitter or buy a new psu and if so what to not break the wallet?

[@kienanvella]

I know the EVGA 750w and up in their BQ line has two EPS 12v (4+4) connectors. and the BQ is pretty low end (bronze), so the gold/platinum/titanium PSUs above 750w almost certainly also have two EPS connectors.

[@johnnyxp64]

@@kienanvella thanks a lot for your reply! i will have a look for those models

[@yuuki-yuuki]

Modular PSU usually has many PCIe/CPU 8 pin socket. My Seasonic 750W Platinum has 4 such sockets, and comes with 2x EPS cable. You can also get a cheaper option (SS 550W Gold) and add a compatible EPS cable.

[@Phynix72]

Why not this layout & component orientation avilable on all motherboards ? Look at that RAM slots, it can easily be cooled with front intake fans & vrm has direct shots of fresh air. Its also good aerodynamically.

[@samgao]

Yeah this is my first Threadripper Build, and one thing is for sure: it's not your consumer grade motherboard. I've built plenty of super micro intel based xeon server's but even then is still fairly basic. Trying to figure out how to enable the NVMe RAID and installation process, and wrap my head around how to install Windows on this beast of a machine lol. Waiting for gigabyte to call me back. Tried grabbing another PC and typing the IP Address of the BMC IP Address (indicated in BIOS), though I can ping it, I can't access it. And it keeps booting into the UEFI Shell prompt which I have no idea what commands to use...

[@cdoublejj]

what vacuum pump are you using in this video?

[@DazedMikey]

My build with this board will not see any of the 4 x 3090s installed in windows for some reason. I cannot figure this out or find anyone with the issue I am experiencing.

[@johnnyxp64]

now you need to review this new babe: GIGABYTE Server MZ72-HB0 Revision 3.0

[@edingacic546]

Can I run this Board with only one CPU to start with then upgrade down the road or I need to put both CPUs from the start because other SAS ports and 2 pciX slots won't work?

[@tedmiles2461]

Any idea how long you've been waiting for that package to come... She said the same thing

[@gimmegaming5345]

With the ram being so expensive would it not make sense to get a couple of ek memory waterblocks to cool them a little more?

[@maxhughes5687]

An sWRX8 will run dual channel with two sticks of RAM (just like X570). An sWRX8 will run quad channel with 4 sticks of ram (just like a Threadripper). A water block on the cpu gets that cpu oven heat away from your RAM and VRM. IDK why but people want to cram more and more system in an old case. You just need a bigger case for bigger FANS. If you want the top end stuff and no throttling go open loop water. It's not 1994 and a small PC case with 3 ft cables to everything. I use a huge case and 15 ft cables from my PC case on the other side of the room to my work space.

[@mattv6262]

Anyone have any tips for cleaning drool off of carpet?

[@Jdjsksjdhdj]

i messed up oh well Wendel can teach me things

[@atiq.r]

I don't see Gigabyte WRX80 being sold anywhere anymore. What's up with that?

[@HERETIC529]

Audio at the end is all messy

[@Gastell0]

19:00 - Hey, screw your heavy GPU to chassis already

[@danielsnyder2288]

My total Treadripper set up cost $40 more than if I had ordered an x570 system with a similar Ryzen 5959 vs my TRP 3955x. At the time I ordered, the x570 would have been $200 more.

[@maxhughes5687]

Three years ago I found the same deal TR X399/1900X eight core cpu Vs X470/3800X Ryzen.

[@lzcpg]

I noticed the CPU socket does say SP3, are Threadripper Pro and EPYC actually socket compatible to the extent I can get a board for one and use the other CPU?

[@Level1Techs]

No. Physical same electrical different

[@lzcpg]

@@Level1Techs yeah that's what I thought, any idea why the socket had "SP3" printed on it?

[@JohnPlissken]

Just in time for Ark: Genesis 2. Time to build a new server.

[@lyndajones1133]

are AMD Socket sTRX4 waterblocks compatible onto wrx80 cpus?

[@Alphahydro]

Threadripper and Threadripper Pro are expensive platforms. I went with Epyc because boards were much cheaper.

[@pinocleen]

subaru makes motherboards now?

[@KD_Puvvadi]

p2200, love that card. lucky that scalpers didn't care for workstation cards. got p2200 for brand new for 280 before taxes

[@nogravitas7585]

$750 AUD is the cheapest you can get that here so equal to about $570 USD so either those are some crazy high taxes or I'm getting screwed no scalpers required.

[@KD_Puvvadi]

@@nogravitas7585 it's around 350 now, i guess i got lucky

[@TheHandHistoryVault]

Wendell, would you recommend this board or the Asus?

[@Level1Techs]

waiting for the supermicro on order before I make final decision. GB is way a head for thunderbolt support but asus is overbuilt in other ways, which is nice

[@edingacic546]

What Asus board model, please?

[@RickyBobby_USA]

@@edingacic546 Just search his channel for Threadrippers vids.

[@maxhughes5687]

@@edingacic546 Asus has just one, WS WRX80E sage $1000. That's what I bought. I can't comment on performance. I'm still saving money for the cpu.

[@shardaarora1552]

Can we use threadripper in medium server cloud based

[@giratina_86]

are you going to keep this build?

[@DarksurfX]

Wendell, what about Linux support?

[@Psychx_]

Were the chicken wings good? I'd totally watch your cooking/food channel if you had one.

[@CathyInBlue]

With Thunderbolt requiring secure boot, how is the Linux Thunderbolt support?

[@LA-MJ]

You can sign your efi shim

[@TheKrister2]

@@LA-MJ I am big dum. Can you elaborate pretty please? :)

[@LA-MJ]

@@TheKrister2 search for docs related to sbsign. There's some info here: wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface/Secure_Boot#Manually_with_sbsigntools. Personally I have just enrolled my PKI in BIOS and signed my own bootx64.efi so I don't even need hooks to sign kernels etc

[@012MIS]

GPIOs on a PC motherboard? tell me those dip switches are connected to straps and I will be very sad that I'm not in the market for a motherboard...

[@redtails]

still waiting for zen3 threadripper here

[@maxhughes5687]

I'm waiting to see how much $? And is AMD going to drop the 16 core from the TR PRO lineup?

[@Psychx_]

I am eagerly waiting for Ryzen 6000, which will hopefully come with USB4.

[@maxhughes5687]

I would think something running off a GEN4 X16 lane would be faster than a USB4. PCIe GEN4 devices are at 28GBs on a 32GB socket. HBMe is at 1TBs of throughput on 4 stacks of 4GB of memory. HBMe2 is 4 stacks of 8GB at 1TBs. What's the cap on USB4? What's the cap on Thunderbolt?

[@Psychx_]

@@maxhughes5687 Thunderbolt and USB4 are both getting PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds minus some protocol overhead.

[@Cosmstack]

There's actually a B550 board now with official TB 4 support! It's the Asus ProArt B550 Creator. More AMD systems getting proper TB support is great

[@Level1Techs]

I have it, review soon, it doesn't quite have as many knobs and tunables as what we see here in the GB uefi. Older TB devices may be problematic as a result.

[@maxhughes5687]

What r u running on thunderbolt and what is the bandwidth on thunderbolt?

[@Cosmstack]

@@maxhughes5687 Currently nothing since I've got a B450 board, but I want to hook up Thunderbolt audio interfaces. Latency is much better for those than for USB

[@majstealth]

would look like a realy nice board for my homeserver, but i am not willing to put 2-4k for it, so i am back to using old hardware my customers would dump^^

[@ddanrich]

Where on this planet can I purchase this server board????

[@AD34534]

Will USB ever surpass Thunderbolt's performance in the future?

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Can you set the FCLK to 1:1 mode when running 3200 dimms?

[@Level1Techs]

Yep that's the idea

[@Banner1986]

I'd be fully populating if I went wrx80... if not, it's really not that much more beneficial than a trx40 for cost, or an epyc for memory. That pin placement is a killer :-(

[@dearheart2]

If I whisper "thunderbolt" will the video playback stop and change to a commercial for all options in thunderbolt. I should mention that I come from Scandinavia where Thor is active :) (And Thor is a first class citizen)

[@Intrusdave]

0:09 That’s what she said

[@maxhughes5687]

"FINALLY" a sWRX8 board with 128 GEN4 cpu lanes that will run a GEN3 X4 antique thunderbolt4 card. We needed a new TR PRO GEN4 board that could go backwards and run Intel X299 GEN3 tech. "FINALLY"

[@richard975]

Primocache write mode with idle flush is giving me 22gbps

[@jasonatkins1467]

Help. Bought the Gigabyte board. I've built several computers including a Ryzen last year and a 10700 last month. My Gigabtye WRX80 board "sees" my Sabrent SSD and Corsair Win 10 install USB in UEFI, but won't put them in the boot order so I can't even get started. My only boot options are UEFI and Network. Gigabyte support blows. Suggestions?

[@Level1Techs]

Enable csm? Try legacy boot mode for storage?

[@jasonatkins1467]

@@Level1Techs I tried that. The drives still didnt populate in available boot devices :(

[@Amerikanskis]

Now I want chicken wings, Wendell!

[@Level1Techs]

I like chicken I like liver meow mix meow mix please deliver

[@owlmostdead9492]

God, WRX80 is so sexy. I just want the Zen3 architecture on it.. dream platform.

[@Skavaat]

That's what i was thinking, but no oc vrm on this board so i guess no Zen3 threadripper for wrx80....

[@maxhughes5687]

@@Skavaat Try the Asus WRX80E.

[@ajmiranda]

No word on this vs Asus’?

[@jsteezus]

Couldn’t you just put an aftermarket heat sink on those vrms? Because certainly with even a small fin stack you will exponentially increase the cooling potential with the case fans you already have installed. Could use some m.2 heat sinks too on the vrm

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

Same thing with the RAM, seen a bunch of heatspreaders online.

[@thachester]

I have absolutely no need for it. But I want the Asus wrx80e

[@timotmon]

Why is no security 'horrifying'? Does having security on matter for a home a pc?

[@samuelschwager]

Probably not if you don't let random strangers plug things into your pc ;)

[@timotmon]

@@samuelschwager I have a wall and crocodile moat around my computer 👍

[@samuelschwager]

@@timotmon That will work! ;)

[@techfan7808]

But Wendell; Does it have Dual BIOS? Reset CMOS? Reset Buttons?

[@mohsh86]

Why would you need this? it doesn't support overclocking.

[@Level1Techs]

@4:16? Don't need dual bios with ipmi. You can literally remote into it when it's off 🤣

[@mohsh86]

@@Level1Techs can you please consider doing head to head gaming benchmark comparison between similarly speced Ryzen TR say 3970x and 3975WX, same RAM, SSD and GPU ?

[@RickyBobby_USA]

@@Level1Techs Does it give the option to disable this feature if you desire?

[@jollygreen4662]

Pcie 4.0 risers for my mining rig

[@maxhughes5687]

With seven PCIe sockets, why do you need risers?

[@carisi2k11]

Those gpio pins are not the same as usb headers. 7 pin vs 9 pin.

[@abavariannormiepleb9470]

Is ASUS‘ WRX80 motherboard compatible with their own new Thunderbolt 4 AIC?

[@Level1Techs]

Didn't see a header for it or mention of it in the manual

[@abavariannormiepleb9470]

Thanks for checking - was hoping that the ASUS guys just missed something in their documentation. Sad 😢

[@Level1Techs]

The magic here is gb exposing all the tb knobs and tunables. Should improve compatibility a lot

[@abavariannormiepleb9470]

@@Level1Techs Not disagreeing at all, just wish other manufacturers than Gigabyte with the GC-Titan Ridge 2.0 would release AIC solutions that offer all or at least most of Thunderbolt 3+‘s potential. Just had an extreme face-palm reaction with an ASUS ProArt B550-CREATOR with dual Thunderbolt 4 ports - in its UEFI you can choose for Thunderbolt: “USB-only” or “No Security” 😵 Oh, THE HUMANITY! 😭

[@jeverett0902]

@@Level1Techs What Gigabyte Thunderbolt cards is it compatible with? GC-MAPLE RIDGE or just GC-TITAN RIDGE? (I don't see any mention in the manual, nor is the WRX80 listed under the "Certified Motherboards" for any of the "GC-* RIDGE" add on card product pages.)