MSI is readying a monster WS WRX80 motherboard for AMD’s upcoming Threadripper PRO 5000WX CPUs. The E-ATX board features seven PCIe and eight DIMM slots.
Also compatible with Threadripper PRO 3000WX using socket sWRX8, the board can accommodate up to 2TB of ECC or non-ECC DDR4 memory at speeds of up to 3,200MHz.
Feeding the humongous 64-core, 128-thread CPU are two additional eight-pin connectors near the 24-pin ATX. Power then goes through 11 dedicated VRM phases rated at 105A apiece.
Additionally, there are a couple of six-pin headers presumably to power the PCIe array, which consists of seven PCIe 4.0/3.0 x16 slots, courtesy of 128 PCIe lanes present in this platform. A 14-layer, 2oz copper PCB intimates good build quality.
Two ‘Lightning’ Gen4 M.2, eight SATA, plus dual U.2 connectors make for a diverse storage proposition, and I/O is well-stocked, too. 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and Wi-Fi 6E feature as standard, as does 10GbE LAN.
Overclocking on CPU and memory is said to be supported when pairing it with a 5000WX chip, though generally, one would most likely keep to stock clocks to ensure stability on what is for all intents and purposes a workstation platform. Finally, the BMC/IPMI remote management is powered by a Aspeed AST2600 BMC chip.
Sources at Wccftech state this board will be launch as a timed exclusive in Lenovo workstations, followed by a retail release a month later. Either way, expect to pay a pretty penny given how few WRX80 are available to self builders.
