Audio Performance
ASUS set the audio pace early a few years ago by putting more effort in to their ROG series which carried down to the channel boards. Z87 continued that trend making integrated audio a noiseless and slightly more impressive feature. Boards with amplifiers really stand out when it comes to gaming and media. That said, here’s what the X99 Deluxe does for audio.
 
Thanks to ASUS’ implementation, the audio is a bit more robust than the Z97 platforms, which were slightly better than any X79 board before it. Volume isn’t really a problem for the board if you have a passive analog or USB headset (which bypasses the onboard audio anyway). It’ll probably be more than you need for extended periods of gaming or jamming to your favorite music. But overall, it was an enjoyable experience with no issues, and great fidelity.
Quality Control – EMF and EMI
Here, we took a close look at component placement, implementation, materials quality like PCB, and component noise. A lot of times, these bleed over in to the audio performance but not this time.
There weren’t any crooked components or questionable factory issues like bad solder. The PCB also feels quite sturdy which is required when pairing with heavy CPU coolers and high end video cards. The board was, for the most part, rather quiet throughout most of the benchmarks. If the board was making any noise, it was well below the Thermaltake 3.0 Ultimate liquid cooler which emits a very low noise level to begin with.
One of the last aspects often overlooked is audio popping when turning the system on and off. Thankfully, the board didn’t emit any popping or line noise. And we experienced no other overheating or issues with individual components that would cause concern. It’s definitely a well built board.
Final Thoughts
What can you do with an ASUS X99 Deluxe paired with a Haswell-E processor? Simply put, anything!
Honestly though, far be it from us to tell anyone how to use their ASUS X99 Deluxe – Core i7 Haswell-E combo. But, typically, pro users will be looking for the most stable performance while using it productively in content creation or multithreaded scenarios. However, should some gaming or overclocking ensue, there is a plethora of high performance tweaking options readily available at the click of a mouse button. Users have the option to use the TPU option (conservative overclock), EZ Tuning System (conservative overclock), and EZ System Tuning (F11 in the BIOS for aggressive overclock).
Ultimately, we found the Dual Intelligent Processors 5 (DIP5) program to be one of the best features for overclocking and tweaking the ASUS X99 Deluxe. The 5-Way Optimization is extremely aggressive if not almost too aggressive achieving a 4.6 GHz overclock. However, users can pick the OC frequency they want as well with ease. After some use, everything worked flawlessly sticking with a 4.5 GHz overclock. Still, it’s too bad DIP5 doesn’t work on all motherboards in their line up.
That said, a couple minor issues arose. The software bundle installation didn’t go superbly smooth with some bluescreening. And DIP5 can be a bit too aggressive finding an overclock it supports, but isn’t 100% stable and didn’t detect CPU temps accurately. Finally, the rear IO USB ports would not detect a few USB headsets. Only when they were connected to the front case panel USB ports did the headsets properly detect. The keyboard and mice eventually detected after some patience. These are definitely user experience issues that need to be ironed out.
Still, the ASUS X99 Deluxe was, overall, superbly stable at all times whether gaming or hard at work. Additionally, the connectivity is top notch offering everything that could be possibly needed to store data or access a network, wired or wireless.
In the end, with a little more driver polishing, ASUS engineers should be able to fix these minor issues we experienced in short order. Currently, the ASUS X99 Deluxe carries a premium price tag of $399.99 US making it one of the more expensive options available. And because of that, and the minor issues, we have to knock it down a bit because at that price point, we expect near perfection. But if BIOS issues get ironed out in short order, this could be one of the classic boards of this chipset series.
Pros
- Stable X99 platform
- Aggressive overclocking features
- DDR4 overclock support outpaces most processors
- Great connectivity
- Dual Intelligent Processors 5 – Tuning and Overclocking
- Comprehensive AI Suite III
- Very attractive cosmetics
- No power BIOS flash USB feature
Cons
- DIP5 showing incorrect CPU temp(s)
- DIP5 aggressive overclock wasn’t 100% stable
- Rear USB not detecting devices
Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0
Help Us Improve Our Reviews By Leaving a Comment Below!