As prices continue to drop on Threadripper processors it got me thinking about which motherboard would be best for UnRaid.  Has anyone been more successful with GPU passthrough with one or the other?  I'll be building my new server this fall so figure it would be a good time to start investigating.

First on the list:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-Zenith-Extreme-Alpha/

Edited April 4, 20197 yr by GreenEyedMonster

Shouldn't have issues with any TR board for GPU passthrough.

Lots of other factors to consider, but if you have the cash for the high end Asus boards you shouldn't have any regrets.

 

That said, make sure not to skimp on RAM quality & speed, I'd argue this is more important factor for Ryzen/TR than the mobo itself.

 

I have the ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme and wouldn't recommend it. You cannot choose a primary GPU, it always defaults the first PCIe x16 slot which is what I want to use for gaming and a better cooling setup, not to have a garbage GPU for unraid sitting in there.

I've had no luck passing through the primary GPU with this board to a windows system as it just hangs.

 

The IOMMU is decent enough but I still use PCIe ACS Overrides to get the control I need.

 

Basic Specs:
ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme

TR 2950x

64GB GSkill TridentZ 3200 RAM
1TB Samsung 970 NVMe
1TB Samsung 850 SSD
12TB JBOD RAID
NV GTX 1080 Ti
NV GTX 780

I've been pleased with my Prime X399-A. I haven't updated it for a while, but I've outline my build here:  

Give you some ideas of what I've been able to do with the board.

I am running the Asrock taichi x399 with 4 GPUs and have had no real issues.  I started with 4x 960s but have since replaced the 2 bottom cards with RTX 2070s and couldn't be happier.  Getting within 3% of bare metal performance even with the 8x slots.  The bottom card gets the best airflow so I have a nice overclock on that card.  I use the top card for unraid unless all 4 gaming workstations are in use- then it takes over the top card on boot.  It shouldn't matter where your favorite GPU sits, since 8x and 16x slots perform very close to the same.  My preference is to have the GPU with the best airflow- be the primary for my VM.  I use web gui or ssh to manage the array after the 4th machine boots.

On 4/28/2019 at 4:16 AM, danyul said:

I have the ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme and wouldn't recommend it. You cannot choose a primary GPU, it always defaults the first PCIe x16 slot which is what I want to use for gaming and a better cooling setup, not to have a garbage GPU for unraid sitting in there.

Is there any TR board that does allow selection though? It's not a very common feature (unfortunately).