Conclusion

Final Words 

It is crazy stuff to just realize where we are in 2018 with motherboards and processors. Would you ever have expected 32-core processors on a consumer platform? Fantastic stuff, albeit really just something for a small amount of people. The MSI MEG X399 Creation edition motherboard is really sweet to pair with that many-core processor. I'ver already mentioned it in the original 2990WX review, but  I did not expect a 32-core part with clocks this high. You have seen my overclocking results, included them on all tests, 4100 MHz on all 32 cores with just an LCS cooler was accomplished in mere seconds of BIOS tweaking.The reality is that you should not overclock a 32-core part for reasons of power consumption, but also, the default Turbo towards 4.2 GHz is lovely, only once you use more than 4 threads, it'll start to throttle down towards that base clock in gradual linear steps. The word 'amazing' is the one word that keeps returning while I was testing this platform.

The Experience

You have seen the results. If the software supports 64-threads, there's nothing stopping this processor to rip threads and spit out serious numbers. The base clock, however, will severely slow down the per-core performance. This is for reasons of TDP and likely heat. You can tweak all cores to 4.1 GHz of course, but remember that will increase power consumption severely. Running Cinebench 15 multi-threaded, meh .+.. 10 seconds and you are done :) Many threaded applications will fly in terms of relative performance. And make no mistake, single threaded performance is also fairly good as Threadripper can boost to 4.2 GHz. Windows does need further optimization though, as not always that single thread will ruin that Turbo. AMD is working with Microsoft to improve on this.  Make no mistake, you do not need a 32-core processor, I have stated it a couple of times already, last year I felt that we all need to move to 6 and 8-core processors as these simply a snappier and faster PC ecosystem with all the things we do simultaneously on a PC these days, so 32-cores .. I do not know how to explain a need for that logically other than sheer fun.  In the very very very long term, a platform like this might last you the best though. You have the performance, the threads and let's not forget the connectivity with the many PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes available.

I am also happy to report that, with the initial BIOS and motherboard we really did not run into any significant enough issues. The memory compatibility and stability was truly good. If you pick your memory right, you will not have any issues as the initial Ryzen releases have already removed the launch issues. In the BIOS simply enable the XMP SPD profile and you'll boot straight into Windows with your new timings and frequency. 

The Memory

We mentioned DDR4 memory a couple of times already; the latest AGESA 1006 based BIOSes have improved a lot in the past year. Threadripper is fully supporting 3200 even 3466 MHz, the same stuff we've been recommending for a year now. 3200 MHz is a non-issue with the right memory, we recommend 2933 MHz or better you plan to do some gaming. Obviously, with quad-channel you could go a little slower as you gain more bandwidth. Please do check your motherboard QVL list for recommended memory. If you do not need ECC memory, we can recommend the G.Skill FlareX memory as used, we never have any issues with it. Pop it in, enable XMP and you're up and running.  

The Conclusion

We feel MSI hit a sweet spot in overall design, the nice dark looks with the accents appeal to me very much. On a personal note though, I liked the looks of the X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC better, but that remains to be a personal observation of course. The baseline performance between brands is nominal, the tweaking performance as expected and the memory runs great. Next to that MSI armed this motherboard with three M2 slots, 8x SATA3, 8x DIMM slots and very nice AC WIFI. We like the M2 PCIe card for an extra four M2 SSDs, but also feel that is unneeded and jacks up the price of this board. We LOVE the massive VRM design and heatsinks that go along with it. What I just do not understand that 450 USD/EUR motherboards still do not have 5/10 Gbps Ethernet, and that makes this board less future-proof. I would have loved to trade that PCIe M2 card for 10 Gbps Ethernet.The looks are good, connectivity is plentiful and the performance is well balanced (very good even). There is no logical reasoning that I can think of for any 'normal' consumer or end-user to recommend this motherboard and processor to. Really, that's the brutal honest truth. But that doesn't change the fact that there is a certain user-base for these many-core processors and also, what AMD did here today is just undeniably freakishly awesome. We can wholeheartedly recommend the MSI MEG X399 Creation, it is seriously good as we as being a very reliable and proper performing board. Long term we do hope to see a bit of a price drop, as really that's what this platform could really use on the mobo side of things.

This one is for the creators. 

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