Review and Build Test of the ASRock WRX 90 WS EVO With 24 Core Threadripper

Finally, a commercial wrx90 that's not weird! This motherboard from ASRock might be the board you are looking for, so join Wendell as he breaks it down!
Get the wrx90 mobo here: newegg.io/nc61fd34f6
Fractal Case here: newegg.io/nce825b3ec
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Check us out online at the following places!
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IMPORTANT Any email lacking “level1techs.com” should be ignored and immediately reported to [e-mail].
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Music: "Earth Bound" by Slynk
Edited by Autumn

[@wendelltron]

CORRECTION: So in my hurry to get this tested, it turns out the DP rear io is IPMI out; that's why no vga header. I just assumed the reason it wasn't working with my monitor is that it is a picky DP 1.4 monitor and too much SNR loss via usb4 and/or bios update to fix it. OOPS.

[@Pseedholm]

Asrock putting wrx and evo in the same name is prime automotive trolling

[@vincei4252]

I miss my WRX.

[@pimpstick2]

What kind of car do you have? The gangster from Malibu's most wanted "I got a wrx 90 evo".

[@robotstronghold6195]

Wrx 90 evo, pikes peak edition

[@Travelfast]

Sti

[@burntnougat5341]

Whoever at Asrock came up with this name must be giggling every day

[@spiralout112]

I love how nuts these motherboards are. Also can't help but laugh at the idea that as long as you stay under 1kw into your cpu you're not being irresponsible.

[@cracklingice]

If I won the lotto, I wouldn't tell, but there would be signs.

[@peterpain6625]

Nah. I'd still go Supermicro or ASUS ;)

[@cracklingice]

@@peterpain6625 Yeah, I'd probably go with the non pro - but I'd like to think no matter how much money I had, I wouldn't be so wasteful as to buy Asus.

[@theglowcloud2215]

@@cracklingice and if you buy Asus, pray you never need warranty support

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

Incredibly disappointed that WRX 90 Evo is not a race car.

[@notscream4656]

it is in spirit 1000w instead of 1000hp

[@raymondobouvie]

Huge thanks Wendel, i need to build TR machine for my client and I had questions - and you answered all them here. Enormous respect for the level of expertise you provide here!

[@lukasschmidt9555]

Insane specs, can't believe how much power this motherboard handles.

[@PlayingItWrong]

Fractal Compct might be my favourite case ever,. 180mm fans rejoice

[@grahambo2005]

Class video. As a DBA, I see the availability of these threadripper CPUs and boards as a major boost for open source RDBMS such as Postgres over core licensable products just as Oracle. We'll try build something out in a blade configuration over the next few months/years hopefully.

[@chromerims]

A positively gorgeous ThreadRipper mobo 👍

[@scentilatingone2148]

Well done. This is an enthusiastic video and wntertaining.

[@Bill-lt5qf]

I'm usually against RGB, but if I ever had a Threadripper build then RGB sounds silly enough to be cool again.

[@edwinc9948]

0:50 I believe those MCIO are Gen5 :)

[@noobulon4334]

I dont know if this has changed, but last I heard gpus with external power generally avoid drawing much power from the pcie lanes, something about the transients creating noise on the motherboard's power bus

[@jakobfindlay4136]

15:15 that is fan-tastic

[@ickebins6948]

More like fan-atic

[@MarcsSpark]

For CEB and EEB motherboard support on a budget, the new Montech Sky Two GX looks like a really great option.

[@ArashK]

Please put links to all parts so I can purchase and support the channel.

[@Zefram0911]

i have the 7xl.. i didnt even know fractal design made a north xl. cool.

[@markos8971]

Another useful video exactly what I was looking for and ThreadR. with compatibility for memory, board and case that it fits in. Just looking for as much as possible RAM to put into and what would you suggest? What exact kits should I look for, for over 480 GB?

[@MikeBob2023]

FANtabulous! 👍

[@McLongSausage]

I built a PC last year in the Fractal Torrent White, put in a 7950X3D, Gigabyte B650E Master Motherboard, Gigabyte 4090 Master GPU, Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 AIO Push/Pull exhausting into the case (Modded the case to fit and did a little pushing on the GPU lol), 64 Gb 6000 mt/s GSkill 30-40-40-96 Cas 30 Trident Z5 Neo RGB ram, EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 powersupply, 2 140 Bottom Intakes and 1 120 exhaust, 3 x 1 TB Samsung 980 Pro's, 1 4TB TeamForce something for steam library. Idle temps are 40c, gaming nothing passes 60c, Cinebench will push it to 80C in a few runs unless I under to -30 offset then it never goes above 78C but will crash when Idle, will pass every stability test but after idle or watching you tube for 20 min's will crash. Love the Case and water cooling wasn't the original plan so I know it's not the best use case for it but works great still, also I have it exhausting through the case because the airflow with the push pull really keeps the temps down on the passively cooled components, and keeps the case at positive pressure instead of negative pressure. Had the number 6 spot in Timespy for a day with this CPU and GPU for these components (different ram) but it didn't last long once the real overclockers started playing with the 7950X3D lol.

[@lucimon97]

Next L1Techs video: "So I bought the decomissioned Cheyenne Supercomputer for my homelab, the Danny Devito AI images have become sentient"

[@MindstabThrull]

I read about that on Tom's Hardware. I could see either Wendell or Linus buying it to do who-knows-what with it!

[@ToddWBucy-lf8yz]

hmm but will those SlimSAS connectors actually work for SATA drives...still waiting on ASRock to update their BIOS for the TRX50

[@Ozz465]

The Puns bro

[@Japhgar]

what about the pcie bifurcation? can it support x4x4x4x4 on all the x16 slots maintaining the pcie 5.0 spec? or does it degreade to pcie4.0 on some? I wonder the same thing for the Asus wrx90 board...

[@billkillernic]

Also couldn't remount the front funs on the front but outside of the torrent compact case to make space for the front io ?

[@raider762]

Will you take a look at Super Micro's version?

[@xpgaming6977]

15:57 I don't think it's a DisplayPort in. It's the DisplayPort out for the BMC graphics. Nice that ASRock is embracing digital BMC video outputs since we've been stuck with VGA ports for so long.

[@UlitpUzzer]

I would build it in an older large case like a Rosewill Thor, so I could have external drive bays. They will have to pry my classic style cases from my cold corpse hands.

[@MindstabThrull]

7 PCI-Express slots: six for storage cards (either M.2 adapter cards or PCI-E storage drives themselves) and a stronk GPU at the bottom. Should be fine, right? This setup looks like it's only fans. So far two on the top, two on the CPU cooler, five for the VRM's, three on the GPU, and whatever else is plugged in already!

[@derekjcooper]

@12:44 LOL!

[@DeviloftheHelll]

so, how much is the total system idle power draw?

[@PplsChampion]

1:49 moment of zen

[@fimbulvntr]

For that 24c vs 24c(pro) head-to-head, can you compare llama.cpp in cpu-only mode? I want to see if the speed doubles when you double the ram bandwidth. I've also heard that AI tasks on CPU are so bandwidth starved that the number of cores doesn't really matter (within reason)

[@pimpstick2]

What kind of car do you have? The gangster from Malibu's most wanted "I got a wrx 90 evo".

[@TripleMachine]

Is this board more stable than the Asus one?

[@citizensteve6713]

Cooler master haf 932!

[@sblantipodi]

How can a workstation relies on such a delicate fans?

[@jakobfindlay4136]

Uhm.. 1:30 pretty sure you meant to say back into the motherboard

[@ElHua]

I have had one ASRock product, the B650M-HDV/M.2 motherboard. I have had a terrible time with it, two RMA's, multiple bios versions, new RAM, new power supply, tested with a friend's cpu, tried multiple drives....but it bricks when I make any changes to bios settings. I can't change boot order, can't adjust fan speeds, can't enable XMP/EXPO, otherwise I have to clear the bios and undo all changes to settings. This is with three different serial numbers of the same model motherboard. So youtube commenters, am I just really unlucky? Or did I choose a bad model? ASRock says that they have not heard of this issue with anybody else, and I can't find any reference to it online. This one motherboard has left me with a terrible impression of ASRock. Are their other models good? The main reason I got this board is it was the cheapest B650 at the time.

[@floodo1]

I won’t be satisfied until my cpu draws a jiggawatt

[@ZimZamZimmy]

I think you mean 1.21 jiggawatts

[@icky7835]

It is interesting that so far, only Asus and Asrock have any WRX90 boards. There are no MSI, Gigabyte, etc. WRX90 boards. Is this all we are going to get? I mean, good for them.

[@Level1Techs]

And supermicro sooon?

[@icky7835]

@@Level1Techs That is interesting. I recently re-expanded using a 4x-bifrucated M.2/NVME PCI-E 5.0, but seeing HiPoint put out their Rocket 1608A, I can see where, coming this year the options will continue to improve for all-flash/NVME options. This won't undo U.2/U.3 frameworks, but it gives different options for mid-level SMBs.

[@icky7835]

@@Level1Techs PS, I'd love to join your web forum, but when I try I just get "outgoing email has been disabled for non-staff" and I never get a chance to confirm my new signup :) In case you aren't aware..

[@MichaelAuerswald]

I'd love to see a build with an actual use-case for those 7 PCIe slots. Because with the disappearence of single-slot anythings... I can't think of a lot. Edit: to clarify - yes I can come up with some theoretical system, but reviewers almost never actually build one for real world use, that would also somehow manage to use those tightly grouped PCIe slots. Sure, you could somehow fill it up with m2 cards but... why. Would you not use a much more space efficent bespoke file server case for that? Multi GPUs are kinda out of the questions as well, since they covere 2-3 slots. One idea could be a fully water cooled render server with single slot gpus. I'm just tired of seeing these boards tested with a a single GPU and 'yup, works'. I was kind of expecting that tbh ;)

[@TheBackyardChemist]

network cards, SSDs, TB adapters?

[@piked86]

Water cooled GPUs

[@TheBackyardChemist]

@@piked86 or risers like in a mining rig

[@virtualinfinity6280]

I have one: 1*W6800 GPU (dual-slot, covers one slot), 2* 4xm.2->PCIe-x16 adapters for 8 m.2 ssds, one LSI SAS controller for the external tape drive (backups) and an AMD Instinct MI100 accelerator in a GPU riser-mount using a PCI riser cable. That is 4 x16 slots, one x8 (LSI) and one covered. I have one slot remaining....

[@robot_0121]

I have h12ssl-i paired with 7282 percent (I don’t like its 4-channel mode, I’m thinking of finding a 32-core one) two nvme raid boards and each board has 4 SSDs, one has all SSD 970 evo plus 1 TB, they are very worn out in my life, but they work. in RAID0 they give 3.3-2 GB/s for recording to the entire memory. The second board is occupied by 4 KC2500 2tb each. They are not worn out in terms of service life, but in terms of speed they are worse due to a weaker controller. There is also a wx2100 card... temporary. I don’t know how to disable aspeed 2500, as this leads to incorrect operation of the discrete image.......

[@FrenziedManbeast]

I need this mobo, right? RIGHT?!

[@javiej]

I don't need it, but I want it. Or better said, I want to need it.

[@floodo1]

I want to need it but don’t want to pay the power bill! (-8

[@shrimp_p4rm]

Should be perfect for my fornite build

[@lm4122]

phans on ram? soon ram AIO's.... sooooon! and tons of leds to make the ram work better xD

[@philmarsden9594]

i hope you are buying the cheanne super computer dude. dont think it will cost much more than these tr pro systems xD|

[@yuan.pingchen3056]

There are currently no single slot PCIe gen 5 x 16 devices/adapters available, don't tell me "you can divide a single pcie gen 5 x16 slot into 4 pcie gen5 x4 slots to use 4 x pcie gen 5 nvme SSD", This doesn't make sense.

[@Level1Techs]

Asus has a gen 5 x16 to 4x m.2 gen 5 adapter out now

[@austin2994]

What’s the current Linux laptop recommendation may 24?

[@rezenclowd3]

but asrock.....id go supermicro anytime.

[@sativagirl1885]

Q: How much AI does it support?

[@jamesdegriz]

Drewl...

[@javiej]

I want a mini itx version of this board

[@UlitpUzzer]

In about 10 yrs, you'll get one from China.

[@Ryet9]

[Comment removed by Australian eSafety commissar]

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

Motherboard versions are not always as simple to deduce as for this ASRock motherboard. I used to work with Tyan motherboards and it took a fair time before I figured out their system. Tyan used a system where there were one code for the motherboards PCB version and one for changed introduced in the components or modifications to the signal paths. This last part was called the ECN or Engineer Change Notice. A ECN could be issued if the values of some component was changed, the manufacturer of a component or a component added or removed compared to the previous design. The reason for ECN changes were also mentioned and most of the time it was some issue that a customer had reported that was addressed. These were usually not something your average end users had reported but a large company such as Siemens. While the ECN code was simple, a single letter beginning with A and following the regular ABC order the PCB revision was harder to figure out. Oh and the ECN reverted to start with a A when ever the PCB version was changed. Now for the PCB revision it was a single letter and started with a T for the first revision. Second revision was a Y and third an A. Seeing a first revision PCB was very uncommon. Usually they made at least four or five revisions of the motherboard during development so it wasn't immediately obvious what order they used for the codes, but eventually I collected enough data to see the total sequence. TYANCOMPUTER. That's enough for twelve revisions of the PCB, should be enough you might think, but they actually surpassed this in at least one case. It was the S1832 - Tiger 100 motherboard. This was a dual Slot1 motherboard with a 440BX chipset. It was a very popular motherboard for it's time and I remember that eventually we got motherboards revision 13, 14 or 15. It's been ages and I can't remember the last revision, but I know it restarted with T, Y and A, so I think they just reused TYANCOMPUTER again. Now I really didn't like the Tyan method and they didn't really want you to know to much about this, but a technician at TYAN in Germany eventually started mailing me the ECN documents. Unfortunately he died from a heart attack while at work. That was a pretty tough thing to learn. I never met him and only knew him by phone and email, but he was a great guy and a superb technical contact. I really miss him, but unfortunately I can't even remember his name anymore. I suffered though some brain damage november last year and though I seem to remember almost everything I've always had a problem with names, and now my language center got damaged and a lot of words has gone into hiding. I know them, I just can't find then when I'm typing or speaking. It's very frustrated. But as you see I remember things like this Tyan motherboard! They made a slightly newer model, the S1832 Tyan Tiger 133. It was very similar to the S1832 but had a VIA chipset that supported 133MHz FSB. This I think went through seven revisions before it was discontinued. It really wasn't as reliable as the Tiger 100. That chipset had a lot of problems and while it could run faster CPUs we had a lot of customers returning those. As technology improved there were fewer and fewer PCB revisions of new motherboards. This had a lot to do with the improvement in design software. The circuitry generated had less and less problems so the release motherboard were often PCB version Y or in some cases even T.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Speed rather than Cores. 95% of programs cannot use more than 16 Cores. More RAM rather than NVMe, especially if you are using "add on's".

[@ImportRace]

Subaru Wrx vs Mitsubishi Evo 😂

[@DeepStone-6]

They got the car guy naming the these products lol

[@Pseedholm]

@@DeepStone-6 no car guy would never combine wrx and evo. It woulda been wrx sti s209 or something. Or evo IX MR

[@Justfun-nk3vj]

It's shameful to sully a nice system like this with Windows...

[@chillcopyrightfreemusic]

Indeed it is 😢

[@billkillernic]

Their timing sucks and maybe it's a reason they won't make any in the near future (I assume that's because they sell less because the same class mobo for Intel has a ton more SKUs) when they made the first one zen 3 was out (and zen 4 about to launch)but they were only compatible with zen 2+ Then new mobos with zen 3 compatibility were out but zen 4 already launched Now they launched this one when zen 5 is about to launch...... I mean these kind of mobos mostly ain't going to be bought by huge companies but by small studios , scientists designers and HPC enthusiasts.... So paying north of 1k only to run yesteryears CPU gens doesn't " sit well" in the mind of most of their potential customers like me so we go to the Intel version or wait hoping that a new Mobo will come that will support the newest (or very soon upcoming, like within months) AMD architecture... But as I said they always disappoint because the new mobo launches so late to the game that AMD already sells an even newer chip ... And the cycle repeats

[@azurethessian]

Sorry Wendell, but you dropped a total stinker at the very beginning. There is no DP for TB4/USB4 PCIe tunneling. It's ONLY for BMC/remote management! Resolution is limited to 1080p and its DP 1.1a only. On top of that there is no TPM header. I don't know if it has some built-in solution someplace under chipset radiator or only iffy fTPM in the CPU. I don't agree about 24/32c argument. For PCIe density TRX50 is no option at all. For rendering where CPU is only useful for ~120 seconds for gathering geometry data before GPUs take over the load, 24c is best option. Interesting board done by two separate teams. Team on Tuesday put port connectors flat, team Friday put connectors vertically. Super weirdo. Shame they didn't dropped 3 slots and replaced that with multiple MCIOs 8i. SlimSAS linked to the chipset is pointless because you will clog the DMI link with any NVMe drive and you can't break this port to 4xSATA. What's good AsRock released 5 or 6 BIOSes since release, while Asus released 1. Asus is such premium garbage.

[@comguaf8093]

ASUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@DeCleyre161]

AlgoBump();

[@ferdinandbardamu3945]

Building a 24 core Zen4 so close to Zen5 is questionable.

[@Decenium]

Asrock, wasnt that one of those crap companies that went ham on NFT's and Blockchain crap? yeah that and biostar are companies ill never buy from again.

[@julfy_god]

i just don't understand the logic behind putting those tiny whiny fans on a super premium board. mobo manufacturers, pls stop

[@dgo4490]

Dissipating 50 watts of heat should not require 5 fans...Those are not great fans...

[@docteurdoome8205]

Windows?! Someone save that poor Mobo from this abuse!!

[@uberchemist]

Peel the plastic off your TV bezels before I reach through the screen and do it for you 🤬

[@mesmashyou30]

how many watts should you push through a threadripper irresponsibly though?

[@PCBMedicAMD]

TOO BAD US NORMIES CANT AFFORD IT

[@PCBMedicAMD]

UNLIKE 1st GEN THREAD RIPPER X399 THAT AMD ABANDONED US TR4 ADOPTERS FU**CK AMD!!!