MSI Creator TRX40 Motherboard Review

During Computex 2019 I attended the AMD Keynote where they announced the next generation of AMD processors.  While the bulk of the presentation was focused on how AMD was an innovator that brought new technology to the market there were two notable processor announcements.   The AM4 based Ryzen 3 and workstation based Threadripper 3.

To be honest I was never all that impressed with previous generation of the Ryzen platform, they seemed slow compared to their Intel counterpart and didn’t overclock well.  Yet despite this many in the hardware community embraced Ryzen and what it had to offer. 

In this review I’ll be looking at the MSI TRX40 Creator motherboard.  This is a board supporting the extreme upper end of the AMD product line and designed specifically for the Threadripper 3.  This is my first hands on look at the new platform and while I really wanted to use the X399 I’m glad I waited.

• Supports 3^rd Gen AMD^® Ryzen^TM Threadripper^TM Desktop Processors for Socket sTRX4
• Supports DDR4 Memory, 8 DIMMs, Quad Channel Max Frequency DDR4-4666(OC)
• More Powerful than Enough: dedicate 16 phases 70A digital power to CPU, with All Aluminum Design
• More Efficency for Data Transfer: 10G LAN + Intel^® Gigabit LAN with Intel^® WIFI 6 and bandwidth management
• More Compatibility for Storage: 7 x Lightning Gen4 M.2 with M.2 XPANDER-AERO GEN4
• More Flexibility for Temperature Control: Full fan control with 9 PWM fan headers and 3 dedicated thermal sensor
• Lightning Fast experience: Lightning USB 20G, PCIe 4.0, Lightning Gen4 x4 M.2 with double-sided M.2 Shield Frozr, StoreMI, AMD Turbo USB 3.2 GEN2
• Set Core Power Free: Extended Heatsink and Heat-pipe Design, stacked fin array, Core Boost, Digital PWM IC, dual 8 pin CPU power connectors, DDR4 Boost
• Frozr Heatsink Design:  Designed with the patented fan and double ball bearings to provide the best performance for creators and prosumers. 
• Mystic Light: 16.8 million colors / 29 effects controlled in one click. Mystic Light Extension supports RGB, Rainbow and Corsair LED strip
• Audio Boost 4 with Nahimic: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality
• Multi-GPU: With Steel Armor PCI-E slots. Supports up to 3-Way NVIDIA SLI™ & 3-Way AMD Crossfire™

Socket    sTRX4
CPU (Max Support) 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ Desktop Processors
Chipset    AMD® TRX40 Chipset
DDR4 Memory    2133/2400/2666/3200 by JEDEC / 2666/2800/2933/3000/3200/3466/3600/3733/3866/4000/4266/4400/4600/4666 by A-XMP OC MODE
Memory Channel    Quad
DIMM Slots    8
Max Memory (GB)    256
PCI-E x16    4
PCI-E Gen    Gen4
SATAIII    6
M.2 Slot    3
RAID    0/1/10
TPM (header)    1
LAN    1 x Intel® I211AT Gigabit / 1 x Aquantia® AQC107 10-Gigabit
USB 3.2 ports (Front)    1(Gen2, Type C), 4(Gen1, Type A)
USB 3.2 ports (Rear)    1(Gen2x2, Type C), 5(Gen2, Type A), 4(Gen1, Type A)
USB 2.0 ports (Front)    4
Audio ports (Rear)    Realtek® ALC1220 Codec
Form Factor    E-ATX
SLI    Y
3-way SLI    Y
CrossFire    Y
Operating System    Support for Windows® 10 64-bit