The base is bit lower than I expected, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. If the boost works just as well as it does on 3950X, it never even gets near the base. (from all tests I ran on 3950X which has 3.5 GHz base, it's always at 4 to 4.1 when rendering all-core, and 4.2-4.55 when up to 4 cores are utilized, so it covers almost all the workstations tasks. Even during rendering, it will still boost up single-core for Photoshop action for example, it works really nicely).
But otherwise looks like everyone here is on the same ship, 3970X is simply far too good. Let's hope the benchmarks will come sooner than 7th Feb.
GIGABYTE TRX40 AORUS XTREME is really worth extra money compared to ASUS ROG ZENITH II EXTREME?
Not sure if anyone can categorically tell. Aorus went extra mile to really go over the top with the build and features with price that follows (particularly the Intel dual-nic), but they both have fantastic VRM, heatsinks and shit ton of m.2 slots.
One thing I can tell, is that Asus 'looks' better than it actually is, while I really enjoy the ROG aesthetics (minus rgb) and just today received Rampage Omega for my multi-media/gaming PC where I'll slot the i9, there are so many complaints about the lack of working bios, various design faults,etc.. Did you guys know that almost half of those uber Dominus boards for Xeon 3175X were faulty and couldn't boot due to misplaced conductors? Asus lives on brand-name recognition, but quality control is not what it used to be.
For Zenith:
- E-ATX fits almost everywhere, in majority of cases, not just mid-towers, even some small towers!. It's just wider.
- Easier access and better cooling of m.2 drives due to Asus's proprietary "DIMM.2" addon card that slots next to memory. This is really nifty thing.
- Lot more popular, brands test their memory on it to make sure it work. So G.Skill has kits that were tested and guaranteed to work on Zenith II, but not on Aorus. This gives you a peace of mind when buying 1000+ Euro memory.
- If you only ever plan to add dual GPUs, the layout is sort of better.
For Aorus:
- If you ever planned on Quad-GPU rendering, then this is the board for it.
- Intel 10GBe is of much higher quality than Aquantia, both on hardware and driver level. It's not dramatic difference but if you want the best...also comes with two 10GBe nics so you can go 20GBe straight on.
- Passive cooled VRM. TRX40, just like X570 has already tiny and annoying chipset fan. No need to have more of them on board.
- Sturdier build. Both boards have backplate, but Aorus is full-cover and more heatsink connected, might even actually help with temperatures, not just aesthetics.
- General consensus on UEFI is that Gigabyte is really trying hard at the moment and might be the best player right now when it comes to care.
You can't go wrong with either. And if you don't need 10GBe, you don't even need to go with these. More affordable Aorus Master and Asus Strix are also good boards with same VRM.