GIGABYTE X399 Designare EX (AMD Ryzen Thread Ripper TR4/ATX /3X M.2/WIFI/Front & Rear USB 3.1/Dual Intel LAN/ Motherboard)

Admittedly I was a bit skeptical at first when getting this board. It looks absolutely stellar on paper - but the paper is what marketing teams at these companies do so well at. It's the implementation that really needs to hold up for these boards to shine the way their adverts do. And I can say confidently that now the x399 Designare EX does.As EVGA says, a board is only as good as it's BIOS. And that is slightly ironic coming from them, in that the latest BIOS I had for my x99 FTW K was full of problems that led me to upgrade to this purchase. The reviews for this aren't very good and I think that's mostly down to the growing pains that any board goes through in it's early days, with the BIOS being ironed out. I can say confidently that out of the box, this board did everything it was supposed to and hasn't given me a single problem. And I ran the board out of the box with the F11 bios (am on F12e now). So it's clear to me that while this board has historically had issues, I believe they were mostly based around an immature BIOS that has been fixed up now.I am running this board with a Threadripper 1900x, 16GB of Corsair RGB Vengeance Pro RAM, a Gigabyte RX 580 8GB, a Thunderbolt Titan Ridge card and a Samsung 970 EVO M.2 drive. Of note is that I am able to run my RAM at the rated speed of 3200Mhz without any issues, using the XMP Profile #1. What's awesome about this architecture is that components like M.2 drives take PCIe lanes directly from the CPU, giving you spectacular data rates. I believe there is a total of 68 PCIe lanes available.Now, Titan Ridge: I have been building systems around thunderbolt for years now, and it is a default necessity for me. It was somewhat on a lark that I tried the Titan Ridge controller on this AMD platform after reading that some users had done it - and to my amazement it works out of the box, plugged into any lane, and the spec is fully implemented (ie hotplug and power delivery work). Note that there are no BIOS configuration options, and that authorization defaults to User Level (SL1). Gigabyte had plans for thunderbolt with this board, but for unknown reasons took mention of it out of their adverts. The GPIO still remains though, and with the card plugged into it, it is fully functional. Yes!So, with overclocking made easy with Ryzen Master in Win 10, RAM that is fully compliant with XMP profiles and runs at it's rated speed, well over 2133 (a default handicap on most x99 boards), ultra-fast connectivity with M.2 peripherals, full Thunderbolt compatibility, a wealth of PCIe lanes, and all of the other features this board comes with (RGB, temperature headers etc), it's a no-brainer. Also, this board has more of a professional polish and isn't soaked in RGB crap that would stoke the teenage masses. It has a look reminiscent of their workstation boards while still retaining some of the features that we find some guilty pleasure in some of the time : )For $299 I believe this is a steal. This board can really only be rivaled by the top-top shelf of any other manufacturer, and because the BIOS is now seeing maturity and past it's growing pains that stop many users dead in their tracks, I think it's a winner. And the best part is that upgradeability is massive here: the Ryzen Threadripper architecture is a juggernaut and I believe is here to stay, making this beast more future-proof than really any of the 2011-3 or 2066 series.Although the Threadipper chips are pricy, I'd still heartily reccomend just slamming down the cash and picking one up with this board. Flash the bios to the latest, first thing, and you should be rolling.

I finally got all the parts for this monster system only to find that the board is damaged. The heat shield between both memory banks was installed wrong by the manufacturer. The right corner of the shield is pulled away from the board, with the holding screw broken off, and the other half pulled half way thru the board. The pipe that connects the shield is pulling the shield from the board.In an effort to get the board repaired, Gigabyte responded with "Please note physical damage is not covered under warranty.." Damage like this should have been caught during a Quality Assurance Inspection and never shipped to a customer.If the company is shipping damaged/faulty products, then state that physical damage is not covered under warranty, even though it's manufacturing issue. it's time to look elsewhere for computer supplies.Their warranty is junk, compared to other manufacturers!!!GIGABYTE offers a limited manufacturer’s warranty on all GIGABYTE brand products which guarantees the product you purchase through authorized channels is free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use during the warranty period.This limited warranty will not apply if a claim is made arising from any unacceptable use or care of the product including (without limitation) misuse, abuse, negligence, acts of God, unauthorized modification or repair, and unauthorized commercial use. Any non-GIGABYTE software and/or applications, loss of data/profit, installation/inspection fees, non-GIGABYTE hardware will not be covered by this limited warranty. This limited Warranty is also invalid if any serial number on the product has been altered or removed.The manufacturer’s warranty varies from region to region. Please check with your point of purchase for detailed warranty information. For warranty information in North American please check here . Be prepared to provide your proof of purchase, and in some cases, GIGABYTE will need to validate the SN for your region. Forget the 5 days turn around - they received me board on 8/11 and supposedly shipped on 8/26. And they didn't even provide a tracking number. Taking this long for a simple fix only means I'm not getting my board back.The turn around time is normally 5 business days plus transit time. (Notebook is normally 5-8 business days plus transit time) If you need faster service, please contact our customer service representative via emailIf a GIGABYTE product fails under normal use during the warranty period, GIGABYTE will, at its own discretion, repair or replace the defective part(s) within the product or the product itself with an identical or equivalent model.The replacement part(s) or product, either new or refurbished will transfer the ownership of defective part(s) or product to GIGABYTE.This just means that you can expect NOT to get your original board back, even if you sent them a defect NEW board that was never used (see below).Repaired or exchanged products shall be warranted free from defects for a period of 90 days after date of repair or exchange or for the remainder of the original limited warranty period whichever is greater.Users need to obtain an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) number before returning the defective product. Please make sure the assigned RMA number is visible on the box.Every other manufacturer that I've had to send products back for repair has always paid for the shipping and provided a shipping label, but as you can see below, not this company. It cost us some $62 to ship it to them even though it was a manufacturing defect that should have been picked up during a Quality Assurance Inspection. Which also tells us that they don't have one or at least a competent one.We advise to choose a traceable shipping method (i.e. UPS, FedEx or USPS with delivery confirmation). You are responsible for shipping and handling charges as well as any applicable customs, duties or taxes in returning GIGABYTE product(s).An anti-static bag is highly recommended for packing. Anything including (without limitation) the driver disc, manual and color box etc. returned along with the defective product will be treated as packing material. Please remove all your hardware components (CPU, memories etc), back up your software and find a suitable box (will not be returned) prior to shipping. GIGABYTE is not responsible for loss or shipping damages in transit to GIGABYTE; please make sure the defective product is safe from potential shipping damage in transit.They even go on to tell us techs that they will change their policy even after you purchase their products without notice and no grandfathering.*GIGABYTE reserves the right to change this policy at any time.