EVGA And ASUS Out Small But Mighty Intel X99-Based micro-ATX Motherboards

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, July 31, 2015, 10:34 AM EDT

Although Intel has something new coming down the pipeline in the not-too-distant future, Haswell-E and the X99 chipset will remain its flagship, high-performance desktop platform for quite some time. As such, motherboard manufacturers are still pumping out new, fresh designs featuring the X99 chipset. Two of the newest boards to hit the scene come by way of EVGA and ASUS. Both companies just announced fresh micro-ATX motherboards, targeting a couple of different market segments.

First up we present the EVGA X99 Micro2. The EVGA X99 Micro2 build upon the original X99 Micro (which we showed you here), but kicks things up a few notches with USB 3.1 Type-C support, additional SATA ports, an improved layout design, and a new BIOS fitted with a fresh UI. Other features of the EVGA X99 Micro2 include:

Intel X99 Express Chipset
Up to 3-Way SLI Support
mATX Form Factor
Highly Efficient 6-Phase Digital VRM
Onboard Power, Reset and Clear CMOS
Onboard CPU Temperature Monitor
Black Nickel CPU ILM
Built in USB 3.1 Type-C Port
10x SATA 6G Ports
Audio Isolation for Superior Sound
M.2 Socket M Supports up to 32Gbps

Pricing and availability info wasn’t in the release, but we expect pricing to be somewhat higher than the original X99 Micro, which currently sells for about $230. When the X99 Micro2 hits retailers, you’ll be able to find them here.

The new ASUS X99-M WS has a similar form factor to EVGA’s board, but ASUS is targeting the workstation crowd with its board. The ASUS X99-M WS supports dual PCI Express 3.0 graphics cards at full x16 speed, in addition to Intel Xeon CPUs with up to 18 cores (Core i7 are also supported). The ASUS X99-M WS also has 10Gbit/s USB 3.1 support, 1300Mbit/s 802.11ac Wi-Fi built-in, and high-speed M.2 support as well. Other key features include:

Two-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX Support
8 x SATA 6.0Gbit/s ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support
1 x M.2 Socket 3 with M key, type 2260/2280 storage devices supported (SATA/PCIe mode)
1 x Intel I210-AT Gigabit LAN controller
1 x Intel I218LM Gigabit LAN, dual interconnect between the Integrated Media Access Controller (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY)
Realtek ALC1150 8-channel high-definition audio codec featuring Crystal Sound 2
2 x USB 3.1/3.0 ports (on back panel)
6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 on front panel, 4 on back panel)
6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 at mid-board, 2 on back panel)

The ASUS X99-M WS hasn’t popped up at any retailers that we can see just yet, but its MSRP is $279.99. You’ll be able to snag one here once they hit the shelves.

Tags: Intel, Asus, evga, motherboards, X99, haswelle

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com