MSI Creator X299 Motherboard Review!

# MSI Creator X299 Motherboard Review: A Comprehensive Walkthrough

## Introduction to the MSI Creator X299

The MSI Creator X299 is a powerhouse motherboard designed for enthusiasts and professionals seeking top-tier performance. In this video, we delve into its features, compatibility, and overall value. The creator begins by mentioning that MSI sent them the board ahead of schedule, and it arrives extremely well-packed. However, they quickly point out a significant issue: finding a reasonable CPU to pair with the X299 platform.

The creator mentions that while Intel has sent them a 10-core 980 CPU, they also have a deleted 79 80 XE chip from a previous build. They humorously express frustration at not being able to find a 14 or 12 core CPU on platforms like Newegg or Amazon since the launch of Intel's 10th gen CPUs. This scarcity has driven prices up, with some older CPUs fetching exorbitant prices—$1,000 for a 10-core and $800 for an 8-core chip.

The creator suggests that this situation is putting motherboard vendors like MSI in a tough spot, as Intel's pricing strategy seems out of touch. They mention attempting to acquire a 10th gen CPU but have only managed to find one slightly above MSRP at around $1050. They also point out that while some sellers like Newegg are offering these CPUs, the prices are still unreasonable.

## The MSI Creator X299: Features and Design

The creator highlights the MSI Creator X299's standout features. One of the most impressive aspects is its ample VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) configuration, with triple 8-pin power connectors. This design choice by MSI is praised for its robustness, as it allows for plenty of power delivery even when overclocking high-end CPUs.

The board also boasts quad PCIe slots—two x16 and two x8—a feature that provides excellent expandability. However, the creator warns against using older 4-core Kaby Lake CPUs with this modern X299 platform, as they might not be fully supported without an appropriate motherboard setup.

Another notable feature is the inclusion of U.2 ports, which are ideal for connecting high-performance NVMe SSDs. The creator mentions using these ports to connect some Samsung SSDs they acquired on eBay, further showcasing the board's versatility.

The MSI Creator X299 also includes dual 30-pin headers and an auxiliary 12-volt input, making it suitable for systems with multiple GPUs. This design choice is particularly beneficial for users looking to build a powerful workstation or gaming rig.

## Connectivity and Peripherals

The rear I/O shield on the MSI Creator X299 is built-in, offering a comprehensive array of connectivity options. The creator lists the ports available:

- USB 3.0 Type-C

- USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 2.0 ports

- BIOS flash and clear CMOS buttons

- Intel Wi-Fi 6 solution

- PS/2 keyboard/mouse ports

- ALC 1220 audio codec with optical S/PDIF output

- 10 Gbps LAN and 1 Gbps Intel NIC

The creator also mentions the inclusion of an AI 219 header, which is typically used for voltage regulation monitoring. However, they note that some users have reported issues with VRM monitoring without a VROC key, though Samsung SSDs seem to work fine without it.

## Performance and Overclocking

The creator dives into the board's performance metrics, sharing benchmark results:

- **3DMark FireStrike**: Overall score of 10,387

- **Cinebench R20**: Single-core score of 581, multi-core score of 64

- **POV-Ray**: Render time of 6:97 (in comparison to other systems)

- **Latency**: 81.1 nanoseconds

The creator also highlights the board's excellent memory overclocking capabilities. With quad-channel configuration, users can achieve speeds up to 85-90-95 GB/s with latencies around 68 nanoseconds.

## Thunderbolt and Expansion Options

A key feature of the MSI Creator X299 is its inclusion of Thunderbolt technology. The creator explains that the board comes bundled with a Thunderbolt adapter and an M2 expander card, which adds significant value for users needing high-speed storage solutions.

The creator demonstrates the Thunderbolt card's dual DisplayPort input and discusses the importance of using the correct expansion slot. They note that if you're only using two PCIe slots, you can utilize any of the remaining three slots for the Aero Expander.

## CPU Availability and Pricing Concerns

Throughout the video, the creator emphasizes the challenges in finding reasonably priced CPUs for the X299 platform. The 10th gen Intel CPUs are priced at $1,000 for an 18-core chip (MSRP around $950), which they argue is a good deal compared to older CPUs like the 7900 or 9900 series, which are still fetching high prices on platforms like Newegg and Amazon.

The creator advises against purchasing older CPUs at these inflated prices and suggests waiting for more affordable options as Intel's supply chain catches up. They also express frustration with Intel's lack of rebate programs to make these older CPUs more accessible.

## Linux Compatibility and Virtualization

The creator touches on the board's excellent compatibility with Linux. They mention using tools like CPUFreq to control Turbo Boost settings, ensuring that all features work as expected in a Linux environment. The creator also highlights the board's suitability for virtualization tasks, noting its robust IOMMU support for hardware pass-through.

## Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The MSI Creator X299 is lauded as an excellent choice for building a high-end workstation or gaming rig. Despite some minor complaints, such as the limited availability of 10th gen CPUs, the creator praises MSI for delivering a well-rounded motherboard with top-tier features.

They conclude by expressing hope that Intel will address the CPU supply issues and make older CPUs more accessible to users. In the meantime, they recommend waiting for better pricing on 10th gen CPUs before making a purchase.

The video wraps up with the creator giving their final verdict: the MSI Creator X299 is a solid, stable platform with excellent performance and features. They express satisfaction with MSI's efforts in creating this motherboard and suggest that it will serve well as a long-term investment for enthusiasts.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enx2 99 wait this is the MSI creator x2 99 you're gonna want to watch this I promise not being weird just say it you want to see this it comes extremely well packed and MSI sent me this a little ahead of schedule the problem is I've got a single 10 980 cpu also supplied by Intel which is great thanks though I've also got this 79 80 XE that has been deleted the CPU like an overclock with custom live to be higher performance in the 10 9 8 Exe but the plot thickens but try to buy a 14 core 12 4 or 14 core on Newegg or Amazon since the 10 series CPUs launch now I've been able to pick up for other CPUs not from the 10 series and I look through the available socket you know X 299 CPU socket 20 66 see if we use on Newegg and I'm there's a lot of 7 and 9 series CPUs but the pricing is just insane thousand dollars for a 10 core $800 for an 8 core Intel's gonna have to offer some rebates I don't know who the sellers are I mean in some cases it looks like Newegg is offering these CPUs but I've really got a feel for MSI because it's got to be putting these motherboard vendors in a completely impossible situation if no reasonably priced CPUs or this socket are available now whether you know Intel is producing CPUs as fast as they possibly can or there are other availability issues if we trying to order stuff with a robot and usually I'm pretty good at that and I have not been able to acquire a 10 serie CPU for more than $100 over MSRP so about 1050 for the 10 9 8 Exe one place I wasn't looking for CPUs was on silicon lottery I'm told the silicon lottery actually had a pretty good bundle of the the not like the lower tier like retail price 10 980 xes but I was hoping to get the 12 or 14 core because I think the way that Intel has those priced for certain kind of workstation uses it's a pretty good deal and I love the features on this motherboard for that kind of a warding off we're gonna build a developer station there's that whole Android studio compatibility problem on the competing platform although that's fixed it's fine now there are certain reasons like don't be a fanboy just don't be a fanboy at around $1,000 for the CPU this is 18 cores is a very 18 cores at $1,000 is not a bad deal and if you've got a few other constraints things like memory capacity or other things like that then it's not a bad deal necessarily I can't believe I have to say that but there's so many people alright so this board is well packed as I said before the other thing it's gonna be super nice about this board is that it has an ample vrm situation as triple 8 pin yeah that's just that's just silly MSI having a couple extra bins of 8-pin connectors they're like man what are we gonna do with those it's like I know we'll put them on this board this board layout is pretty good you've got four slots it's by 16 by 8 by 16 by 8 you know keep in mind that if you've got I mean Intel did make some 4 core CPUs for the socket don't try to use a KB Lake 4 core CPU with modern X 299 motherboards you're gonna need an alarm state X 2 nan lian motherboard if you're gonna try that but it's definitely ill-advised this board also has u2 which is great because of the Intel high performance Intel nvme drives that I picked up on eBay so this would make a great great org station say at USB C 30 pin header at the front edge 30 pin header at the bottom edge of the motherboard so dual 30 pin headers we've also got auxilary 12 volt input so if you are gonna run a lot of GPUs off of this motherboard there is an auxilary 12 volt line on this board for you to be able to do that the i/o shield the rear i/o shield at the back it's built in and look we've got one two four six seven eight ten USB one of which is a Type C it's a mix of five and ten and some even years 2.0 get a BIOS flash buttons and a clear CMOS button or Intel Wi-Fi 6 solution and a combo ps2 keyboard and mouse pores get a real tech ALC 12:20 audio solution with an optical s/pdif port our 10 Giga quanti a LAN and then an Intel NIC as well and until one gigabit he's an AI 219 this motherboard does have the Intel v rock raid header although I've noticed that the V proc rate seems to be unlocked got some Samsung SSDs seem to work fine without the vrock II don't know if that's an oversight don't know if I should be mentioning that in the video your mileage may vary officially a V rocky key is gonna be required if you're gonna run into rain but these modern motherboards in terms of m dot 2 raid are gonna be a better choice because the m dot 2 slots not all of them but more of them are routed directly to the CPU and some of the launch date boards none of the m dot 2 slots when directly to the CPU it be bottleneck through the DMI I see all of the peripherals that go through the chipset here the the link from the chipset to the CPU is only PCI Express by 4 it's an equivalent it's a DMR 3.0 but it's for gigabytes per second so all of the USB and SATA and everything that's going through the chipset is limited in aggregate to 4 gigabytes per second a modern induct alien via me can saturate that terms of performance 3dmark firestrike the overall score is 10 387 these are stock you know stock 10 980 scores intogen super position 1080p extreme is 41:38 30.9 5 fps on average Cinebench are 28 o 71 povery 3.7 sixty to ninety seven eight is 64 74 for 77 for read and sixty five eight forty right and 81 point 1 nano seconds on the latency that's out of the box with a completely stock nut overclocked position now in terms of memory benchmarks you can overclock the memory you can get 85 90 95 gigabytes per second on your quad channel configuration with the latency more like 68 nanoseconds it's really good this is our Thunderbolt header interface because remember in the box you get a thunderbolt adapter which is the in the Box Thunderbolt adapter and the in the Box m2 expander are a large part of the cost of the motherboard you could get an alternative motherboard from MSI that doesn't come bundled with his PCIe added cards and save a few bucks but for building a create or workstation Thunderbolt storage you know your m dot to raid that kind of thing may be nice to have those accessories look at this a movable Wi-Fi antenna this should be standard issue the rubber duck antennas are no more don't want to see them especially on a premium product and show you why these are so good Intel Wi-Fi six and you can physically place this antenna anywhere you like it's a good setup here is our Thunderbolt card it's dual DisplayPort input here's your Thunderbolt interface header that's gonna plug into your motherboard there is no auxiliary power input so if you get one of the USB C powered you know if you our headsets or something like that the output on these USB C ports is limited to about 25 watts and experimental testing so and finally this is their end up - arrow expander it has four m2 interfaces this is a PCI Express by 16 so you can do your PCI Express bifurcation this would plug into this slot only if you are going to have a GPU and an x16 slot and you're gonna use all four slots if you're only going to use two slots you could use it in any of the other three slots so out of the box with your graphics card this poster board is only gonna have one free expansion slot which is really my only complaint the Aero expander also has an extra auxilary analog temperature sensor in the Box in the bag ever how you want to leave that so if you want to physically monitor the temperature of this by taping a temperature sensor to the heatsink you can totally do that now the interesting bits depleted CPU which is not holding correctly which is bad as a big old piece of silicon for 18 cores when you have a depleted CPU in this kind of a situation you actually have to unscrew the CPU socket when you reinstall the socket be careful not to install it upside down because that would be exceptionally bad he's a joke nobody's that dumb anyone go corner-to-corner when you're tightening this down because this mechanism is the mechanism that matches the CPU into the socket each one of those little pins is a spring and there we are well the 10 9 80s away on a side mission can outfit this thing with the 79 80 this is the system with the XS PC custom cooling it's a custom loop it's raced on pro block it works especially well with the deleted 79 80 astonishingly well-loved motherboards with the pre-installed backplate tada blam it's just that easy look its compatibility we always like to talk about Linux compatibility in terms of sensors clocking Intel turbo boost yeah actually all that stuff works fine in Linux I use a genome utility called CPU freak CPU F req it's a really good utility let you control turbo boost and whether or not you want to uninstall irq balance and monitor your system and make sure that turbo boost is working correctly and that kind of thing you can get some insight to make sure that your system is operating correctly and it's boosting correctly and all that kind of thing even with the overclocking fairly stable the X 299 platform is extremely mature at this point it is an incredible rarity in the industry that we have third generation motherboards coming out for this platform so of course the Nick and the sound card and all the peripherals are going to work perfectly on Linux pretty much out of the box so the Wi-Fi 6 is the only thing that you have to worry about because it's a relatively new chipset but any modern distro is gonna be able to handle that relatively trouble-free iommu groups if you're going to run virtualization this would be a great board for it because you've got two slots that are x16 x8 really though is enough for for just about any kind of virtualized you know hardware pass-through workload that you would be doing and of course the m dot 2 and the chipset lanes and the X 8 and X 16 lanes they're all broken into their own iommu groups the only thing that was a little odd was to of the m2 on board or in the same aisle in the new group on mine initially but I did a BIOS update that seemed to break them out so good job MSI a lot but good job MSI he can have you know the 10-gig Nick for your host operating system when the one gig Nick for your guest operating system it's a really good choice for virtualization and of course Intel's compiler and tools and things like that or are really good but like I say I feel bad for board partners like MSI because they've got a great brand new X 299 motherboard I mean this is a refresh there's lessons learned here tried-and-true stability and $1,000 for 18 cores 950 MSRP for 18 cores is actually a deal but you know here we are the middle of January 2020 and I still can't buy a 10.8 exc and the 7000 series look on Newegg or amazon the prices for the 7 and 9000 series CPUs there doesn't seem to be a rebate maybe it's old stock but you should not buy those old CPUs at those prices it is insane like $600 for an 8 core again I can't emphasize this enough don't do that don't do that it's like there's not you can't wait nobody's that desperate just wait get a 10 series CPUs because the pricing of those 10 series CPUs I mean it's really good compared to the pricing on the 7 and 9 Series CPUs and this is a great motherboard this is gonna make a great workstation really happy with what msi did with our X 299 Creator it's solid board even with the crazy over clocks I'm Windell this is level 1 I'm signing out gonna go play with my new Linux bars I'll see you laterx2 99 wait this is the MSI creator x2 99 you're gonna want to watch this I promise not being weird just say it you want to see this it comes extremely well packed and MSI sent me this a little ahead of schedule the problem is I've got a single 10 980 cpu also supplied by Intel which is great thanks though I've also got this 79 80 XE that has been deleted the CPU like an overclock with custom live to be higher performance in the 10 9 8 Exe but the plot thickens but try to buy a 14 core 12 4 or 14 core on Newegg or Amazon since the 10 series CPUs launch now I've been able to pick up for other CPUs not from the 10 series and I look through the available socket you know X 299 CPU socket 20 66 see if we use on Newegg and I'm there's a lot of 7 and 9 series CPUs but the pricing is just insane thousand dollars for a 10 core $800 for an 8 core Intel's gonna have to offer some rebates I don't know who the sellers are I mean in some cases it looks like Newegg is offering these CPUs but I've really got a feel for MSI because it's got to be putting these motherboard vendors in a completely impossible situation if no reasonably priced CPUs or this socket are available now whether you know Intel is producing CPUs as fast as they possibly can or there are other availability issues if we trying to order stuff with a robot and usually I'm pretty good at that and I have not been able to acquire a 10 serie CPU for more than $100 over MSRP so about 1050 for the 10 9 8 Exe one place I wasn't looking for CPUs was on silicon lottery I'm told the silicon lottery actually had a pretty good bundle of the the not like the lower tier like retail price 10 980 xes but I was hoping to get the 12 or 14 core because I think the way that Intel has those priced for certain kind of workstation uses it's a pretty good deal and I love the features on this motherboard for that kind of a warding off we're gonna build a developer station there's that whole Android studio compatibility problem on the competing platform although that's fixed it's fine now there are certain reasons like don't be a fanboy just don't be a fanboy at around $1,000 for the CPU this is 18 cores is a very 18 cores at $1,000 is not a bad deal and if you've got a few other constraints things like memory capacity or other things like that then it's not a bad deal necessarily I can't believe I have to say that but there's so many people alright so this board is well packed as I said before the other thing it's gonna be super nice about this board is that it has an ample vrm situation as triple 8 pin yeah that's just that's just silly MSI having a couple extra bins of 8-pin connectors they're like man what are we gonna do with those it's like I know we'll put them on this board this board layout is pretty good you've got four slots it's by 16 by 8 by 16 by 8 you know keep in mind that if you've got I mean Intel did make some 4 core CPUs for the socket don't try to use a KB Lake 4 core CPU with modern X 299 motherboards you're gonna need an alarm state X 2 nan lian motherboard if you're gonna try that but it's definitely ill-advised this board also has u2 which is great because of the Intel high performance Intel nvme drives that I picked up on eBay so this would make a great great org station say at USB C 30 pin header at the front edge 30 pin header at the bottom edge of the motherboard so dual 30 pin headers we've also got auxilary 12 volt input so if you are gonna run a lot of GPUs off of this motherboard there is an auxilary 12 volt line on this board for you to be able to do that the i/o shield the rear i/o shield at the back it's built in and look we've got one two four six seven eight ten USB one of which is a Type C it's a mix of five and ten and some even years 2.0 get a BIOS flash buttons and a clear CMOS button or Intel Wi-Fi 6 solution and a combo ps2 keyboard and mouse pores get a real tech ALC 12:20 audio solution with an optical s/pdif port our 10 Giga quanti a LAN and then an Intel NIC as well and until one gigabit he's an AI 219 this motherboard does have the Intel v rock raid header although I've noticed that the V proc rate seems to be unlocked got some Samsung SSDs seem to work fine without the vrock II don't know if that's an oversight don't know if I should be mentioning that in the video your mileage may vary officially a V rocky key is gonna be required if you're gonna run into rain but these modern motherboards in terms of m dot 2 raid are gonna be a better choice because the m dot 2 slots not all of them but more of them are routed directly to the CPU and some of the launch date boards none of the m dot 2 slots when directly to the CPU it be bottleneck through the DMI I see all of the peripherals that go through the chipset here the the link from the chipset to the CPU is only PCI Express by 4 it's an equivalent it's a DMR 3.0 but it's for gigabytes per second so all of the USB and SATA and everything that's going through the chipset is limited in aggregate to 4 gigabytes per second a modern induct alien via me can saturate that terms of performance 3dmark firestrike the overall score is 10 387 these are stock you know stock 10 980 scores intogen super position 1080p extreme is 41:38 30.9 5 fps on average Cinebench are 28 o 71 povery 3.7 sixty to ninety seven eight is 64 74 for 77 for read and sixty five eight forty right and 81 point 1 nano seconds on the latency that's out of the box with a completely stock nut overclocked position now in terms of memory benchmarks you can overclock the memory you can get 85 90 95 gigabytes per second on your quad channel configuration with the latency more like 68 nanoseconds it's really good this is our Thunderbolt header interface because remember in the box you get a thunderbolt adapter which is the in the Box Thunderbolt adapter and the in the Box m2 expander are a large part of the cost of the motherboard you could get an alternative motherboard from MSI that doesn't come bundled with his PCIe added cards and save a few bucks but for building a create or workstation Thunderbolt storage you know your m dot to raid that kind of thing may be nice to have those accessories look at this a movable Wi-Fi antenna this should be standard issue the rubber duck antennas are no more don't want to see them especially on a premium product and show you why these are so good Intel Wi-Fi six and you can physically place this antenna anywhere you like it's a good setup here is our Thunderbolt card it's dual DisplayPort input here's your Thunderbolt interface header that's gonna plug into your motherboard there is no auxiliary power input so if you get one of the USB C powered you know if you our headsets or something like that the output on these USB C ports is limited to about 25 watts and experimental testing so and finally this is their end up - arrow expander it has four m2 interfaces this is a PCI Express by 16 so you can do your PCI Express bifurcation this would plug into this slot only if you are going to have a GPU and an x16 slot and you're gonna use all four slots if you're only going to use two slots you could use it in any of the other three slots so out of the box with your graphics card this poster board is only gonna have one free expansion slot which is really my only complaint the Aero expander also has an extra auxilary analog temperature sensor in the Box in the bag ever how you want to leave that so if you want to physically monitor the temperature of this by taping a temperature sensor to the heatsink you can totally do that now the interesting bits depleted CPU which is not holding correctly which is bad as a big old piece of silicon for 18 cores when you have a depleted CPU in this kind of a situation you actually have to unscrew the CPU socket when you reinstall the socket be careful not to install it upside down because that would be exceptionally bad he's a joke nobody's that dumb anyone go corner-to-corner when you're tightening this down because this mechanism is the mechanism that matches the CPU into the socket each one of those little pins is a spring and there we are well the 10 9 80s away on a side mission can outfit this thing with the 79 80 this is the system with the XS PC custom cooling it's a custom loop it's raced on pro block it works especially well with the deleted 79 80 astonishingly well-loved motherboards with the pre-installed backplate tada blam it's just that easy look its compatibility we always like to talk about Linux compatibility in terms of sensors clocking Intel turbo boost yeah actually all that stuff works fine in Linux I use a genome utility called CPU freak CPU F req it's a really good utility let you control turbo boost and whether or not you want to uninstall irq balance and monitor your system and make sure that turbo boost is working correctly and that kind of thing you can get some insight to make sure that your system is operating correctly and it's boosting correctly and all that kind of thing even with the overclocking fairly stable the X 299 platform is extremely mature at this point it is an incredible rarity in the industry that we have third generation motherboards coming out for this platform so of course the Nick and the sound card and all the peripherals are going to work perfectly on Linux pretty much out of the box so the Wi-Fi 6 is the only thing that you have to worry about because it's a relatively new chipset but any modern distro is gonna be able to handle that relatively trouble-free iommu groups if you're going to run virtualization this would be a great board for it because you've got two slots that are x16 x8 really though is enough for for just about any kind of virtualized you know hardware pass-through workload that you would be doing and of course the m dot 2 and the chipset lanes and the X 8 and X 16 lanes they're all broken into their own iommu groups the only thing that was a little odd was to of the m2 on board or in the same aisle in the new group on mine initially but I did a BIOS update that seemed to break them out so good job MSI a lot but good job MSI he can have you know the 10-gig Nick for your host operating system when the one gig Nick for your guest operating system it's a really good choice for virtualization and of course Intel's compiler and tools and things like that or are really good but like I say I feel bad for board partners like MSI because they've got a great brand new X 299 motherboard I mean this is a refresh there's lessons learned here tried-and-true stability and $1,000 for 18 cores 950 MSRP for 18 cores is actually a deal but you know here we are the middle of January 2020 and I still can't buy a 10.8 exc and the 7000 series look on Newegg or amazon the prices for the 7 and 9000 series CPUs there doesn't seem to be a rebate maybe it's old stock but you should not buy those old CPUs at those prices it is insane like $600 for an 8 core again I can't emphasize this enough don't do that don't do that it's like there's not you can't wait nobody's that desperate just wait get a 10 series CPUs because the pricing of those 10 series CPUs I mean it's really good compared to the pricing on the 7 and 9 Series CPUs and this is a great motherboard this is gonna make a great workstation really happy with what msi did with our X 299 Creator it's solid board even with the crazy over clocks I'm Windell this is level 1 I'm signing out gonna go play with my new Linux bars I'll see you later\n"