The board is magnificent! . Glad I purchased this instead of the ASUS Zenith (extra features I don't need, costs more). I had no major problems that needed a return, though as you'll read below I did encounter a few annoyances (no fault of the board at all).
1.Gigabyte AORUS 1080ti Waterforce would not insert all the way into any PCIe slot when using the Thermaltake F51 Case and this motherboard. The vid card's brackets would hit the left side of the motherboard (the plastic casing that protects the audio components). The case is to blame as there are no issues when the board is out of the case as I was able to firmly seat the vid card all the way in. I modified both vid cards so that the brackets are flushed.
2.Board will not boot, error code 9c shows up when I have my Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.0 PCIe card installed at top PCIe 4X slot. Once I removed the card, I finally got to the startup screen.
3.Got inside the BIOS, updated it successfully to Ver.F2K, but right after it reboots, error code 62 is showing and a blank cursor. Reset the CMOS didn't work, so I removed BOTH my Apricorn Velocity Duo X2's (installed on both PCIe 8X slots) and only then it worked. Proceeded to disable IOMMU so Windows would install properly and enabled XMP for my Dominators.
4.My vid cards are the only peripherals installed occupying the PCIe X16 slots. I proceeded to install Win10. Installed the WiFi drivers from Gigabyte when I got on the Desktop (I read somewhere that Win10's default drivers would crash the system).
Installed all the Gigabtye drivers for the system, Corsair Link, Nvidia graphics drivers, Samung NVMe drivers, & etc. Now she's up and running like a champ! TR temps in the high 40's, low 50's (deduct 27deg, see gurud3d TR review for reasoning) when idle using Corsair H115i push/pull config and it's glorious 32 threads are locked and loaded.
I will update this later as I will plug back in the Apricorn Velocity Duo X2's and the Sonnet Allegro Pro to see if the system will boot up after the BIOS update.
UPDATE:
After updating to BIOS F2k the board still would not boot with the Sonnet and Apricorn cards, along with vid cards in SLI. Tried different combinations (with/without Sonnet, Apricorn & etc) the board simply is not compatible with these cards. They're going back into the Mac Pro.
Anyone interested in a Mac Pro 4.1? lol
Everything is solid except the for the newest RGB fusion & Aorus 1080 ti Utility programs as I keep getting the BSOD (gdrv.sys driver is the culprit) when launching. If you want to use RGB Fusion make sure you download from the website, not through the APP center. The exe from the website works and it does not crash. As for the Aorus 1080ti Utility it just doesn't work, no matter which version so ignore it completely and use MSI Afterburner instead.
My Dominators were working then all of a sudden the system won't boot with all four sticks. It'll boot with two though. I'm in the process of returning these for a G.Skill 3200C14's instead. I'll update this review again in the next coming days.
UPDATE: I updated my BIOS to the latest, F2 (F3d is out though). No problems with encountered so far.
My Dominators were NOT defective after all. They were not pushed in all the way so everything is fine. Also a friend of mine has the same mobo & 1950X but using G.Skill F4-3200C14Q-32GTZR and confirmed it's working even though its not on the QVL list (this is also the same kit guru3d.com & other reviewers are using).
Ran Memtest86 and my Dominators passed (entire test was 7 hrs long)! The Dominator kit i'm using is CMD32GX4M4B3600C16 and it is on the QVL list.
I am now encountering Prime95 instability as a couple of threads are failing the test so I suspect my Corsair H115i can't handle the full load heat its producing. Mind you I haven't OC'd the Threadripper yet, so it's stock! I'm now considering a custom loop with a 360 radiator to cool it down.
UPDATE 9.19.17
Gigabyte updated their QVL and my Dominators were no longer Quad channel supported on BIOS version F2k, so maybe that's why they're not stable. Either way It doesn't work properly so I returned it and got GSkill F4-3200C14Q-32GTZR. After 14 hrs testing using memtest86 and Prime95 it's solid like a rock and no errors!
| RAM | 128 GB DDR4 |
|---|---|
| Memory Speed | 2133 MHz |
| Wireless Type | 802.11n, 802.11b, 802.11g |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 2 |
