ASUS X299 SAGE

So. Six hours and 4 Bios flashes later, I finally manage to get all the RAM to post. This Crucial RAM is the hardest I've ever had to train and I'm not there yet. I'm hanging on by a shoestring coz I lost my bootstrap and did a silly thing: I let Windows 11 reinstall because it died of shock after I flashed the BIOS. First I tried to save what few personal files and settings I had. When that didn't work I let Windows go full bore. How dum-dum of me. How very agonizing it is to install Windows 11 without RUFUS!! So I lost it all. All that hard work trying to make 22H2 work on a Windows 11 compatible system. All those nasty updates for naught. Now it's just one Windows 11 BLUE SCREEN after another. Just for kicks though, I thought I'd see if I could boot to good ole Windows 7 Ultimate without crashing. No problem. It needs lots of driver updates but at least it isn't crashing. Isn't that amazing?

Wow. They sure don't make operating systems like they used to.

I have pictures. Lots of pictures. Most of them are depressing. I'm taking a break.

So after a break and a much needed nap I come down stairs to see that the SAGE that I left on that was apparently receiving updates just as long as I didn't log in (it crashes instantly whenever I log in) decided that I don't know the name of my pet, that my password isn't the password I used (even though I wrote it down and logged in several times with it before the crashes began) and I was locked out. The SAGA continues.



I have absolutely no idea why flashing my BIOS killed my perfectly installed Windows 11 or how Windows 11 forgets all my log in particulars. Clearly the hardware is working fine. (Even if it is a bit janky for the time being.)


This is the cooling solution I'm using for the time being until I can build enough confidence in the RAM to know that I don't have to tear it all out again. It consists of a solid copper heat sink with a server fan blowing through it at high RPM. Because the system isn't being put under any extreme loads it will suffice for the time being. I have a decent cooler with a ridiculous name waiting in the wings to install but there's no point in putting it on until I know this RAM will behave.

Meanwhile, Windows 11 had decided it needs another reset. So I'm here now, giving ya'll the play-by-play. My SAGE journey if you will.


Yup, yup.


Well, it has failed again so I am considering jumping ahead to the latest BIOS flash as there are at least four more that follow the first four flashes. I believe there are about a dozen flashes total to choose from. Pick a flash, any flash. . . Read 'em and weep. The joys of Windows 11 are boundless. Meanwhile, Windows 7 just keeps on chugging along through all the abuse.



This was taken on the Windows 7 side of things. I'd never get this far with Windows 11. It would crash within seconds of logging. I did not choose this Bitlocker Encryption. Windows chose for me. I'm thinking it is time to go visit uncle Rufus and get past all this nonsense.

Well, I'm about to be persuaded that computers have a mind of their own. This here SAGE X299 ain't got nuthin' on my X99. It's a simpy mama's boy that is so in love with Mama Microsoft it won't let me do much else with it. As soon as I plugged in that flash drive from Uncle Rufus it clammed right up on me, blasting errors on the Q-code logger, D-5, B-6, EE, blah blah... BTW, the D in D-5 stands for DIE. It also means that the BIOS hates my system memory.

It would seem I am not allowed to have anything set to LEGACY if I want to use Win 11 on this machine. Unlike my X99, which offers me the option of both, this thing wants the WINDOWS UEFI and apparently that "OTHER OS" selection is only for those who got their divorce papers from Mother Microsnot. Forget booting to Linux on this machine. At least not if you don't want to muck about in the BIOS every time you want to make a switch coz it ain't gonna happen.
No worries, I'll save Linux for the X99 then.

To make a very long story a tad bit shorter, in the process of flashing the BIOS a sixth time (Hey, when you're desperate you'll try anything) I got an odd message in UEFI stating that I should turn off Bitlocker and back up my security keys. OMGG! I never even consented to that abomination! I figured I had nothing left to lose and went into CSM and cleared all the keys instead. (I had the foresight to disconnect the drive that likely had them anyway.) I proceeded with the BIOS flash and was greeted with a sweet E-E on the Q CODE logger. This meant that I froze up. No worries. Hold in the power button and reboot and hope for the best. Yup. Definite F1 job there. Once I checked in to see if at least the BIOS recognized that it had 128GB of memory I hit the switch on the PSU and reconnected my die hard, only OS that actually works no matter what, WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE.

On rebooting I thought I'd give the old, disastrous WIN 11 another go and lo, and behold not only did it boot but it actually remembered my pet's name, where I grew up, and who my parents were! I was in like flint. OF course I lost everything. All my apps are gone. My personal settings were gone. My glorious pictures of TBMT are history, and well, there's not much else to report because Windows 11 doesn't last long so I didn't accumulate much. Of course MS used this opportunity to remind me that if I hadn't chosen a local account I could have had it all backed up on One Drive. Nope. Sorry. Doesn't work. I'm not going to let Mother Microsnot hold my personal files hostage. I'll keep the valuable stuff on my own cloud TYVM.

So now, as I type this missive, Windows 11 24H2 is running updates. I'm not holding my breath. I'm already braced for more disappointment. I haven't had this much fun since Windows 8 (not to be confused for 8.1, which should have been called WINDOWS NINE). And now a word from my sponsor . . .

Tired of chunky fan shrouds on your GFX card hogging two or more PCIe slots that could have been put to better use? Remove the shroud and get ready for SUPPER. Just strap on a SUPPER THIN by FANNER and you'll have access to those two extra PCIe lanes that were rendered useless for no good reason. What's the point in RGB if it only compromises your utility and makes your graphics card look FAT and GREEDY? What's the point in converting your PC into a disco when it isn't even an aquarium? Get a SUPPER THIN FAN today. You'll be glad you did.

The Supper Thin has been strapped onto the GFX card and it looks pretty good. More importantly it actually keeps the fins on the card cold. For a cheap Chinese card it is surprisingly quiet. I'm actually thinking of getting another one.


The "Fearless Assassin" is finally installed on the CPU but I haven't checked the temps on it yet. I have a very good feeling about this air cooler.

So my janky makeshift cooler is now eliminated from the platform. No more noisy high speed server fan and no more copper block heat sink. I also removed the PCIe riser cable. I have reasoned that I won't need it since the shroud is off the graphics card and it seems to run well that way. I can sacrifice one lone PCIe slot to the card in addition to the one it uses, but, as I stated before, two is too much. The shroud had to go. Where the system is going nothing will be visible beyond the little Window at the top of the side panel anyway. I'm thinking perhaps I'll keep the Corsair Ram Fans on the Micron memory since this memory runs hotter than the original Dominator RAM that came with the fans.



The strap on fan works excellent. Zip ties can work wonders. It is a PWM fan so I'll probably just run it constant as it isn't really that noisy at full speed. The 200 mm directional intake fan on the side panel should provide enough supplemental air flow for the rest of the heat sinking. If not I'll snag another one of those Supper Fans by Fanner to strap onto the fins on the card. But I think I'll be okay with what I have.



Still getting this horrid D-5 error on the Q-code and I've tried at least a dozen different ways to deal with the issue. The "D" here stands for die. System just freezes up on the code and the only thing that seems to allow me to boot to the OS is clearing the CMOS and hitting the Mem OK button. I know the memory is good because I already ran it in the 20 hour MemTest86 software. Something else is awry and it could just be that I'll have to flash the BIOS up a notch yet again.



The voltage on the CPU is low but I can deal with that later. At least all the RAM shows. I disabled XMP thinking perhaps this was the answer to my D-5 issue but apparently this is not the case. I've no idea why A-1 and A-2 are listed as Micron while the rest are listed as CRUCIAL. It's supposed to be all the same memory. Temp on the CPU is also low, which is to be expected. The real proof of the cooler will be when I have it under load. First I need to deal with that nasty D-5 issue.

So I need to run a few more tests on the Thunderbolt card but I believe I have it configured correctly. It worked well in the X99 but the BIOS in the X299 is quite different. CPUZ stress test rated the CPU to 4.4GHz but I'm settling for 4 until I get it in the case. The i9 7960X doesn't OC as well as my 6900K but I suppose that is to be expected considering it has twice as many cores. I would like to tweak the memory a little more but 3466 isn't too bad considering I haven't tweaked latency settings and voltage yet. On this platform anything over 3200 GHz is really negligible anyway so I may just let it slide. Still, would be nice to lower the latency a little. I've discovered that I can't use the Corsair RAM fans on the Micron RAM because the huge cooler covers the RAM. There's just no room for it.

I expect to divide the storage drives between the X99 and the X299 and then just build from there with new drives. Both boards can handle a ton of storage quite easily, but I'd like to move off from using mechanical drives on the X299 as much as possible.

So I changed my mind. After the Thunderbolt experiment failed I had to reset CMOS so I decided to get a little braver with the CPU overclock. HWiNFO rates some of the cores @ 4.397 GHz. CPUZ rounds it all to 4.4. This is fast enough for an old codger like myself. I'm not extreme over clocking and I'm not trying to break any records, except perhaps my own. This comes close as I have never achieved a stable OC @ 5GHz on anything. One is compelled to ask to what practical end would such a high clock speed on a domestic platform be required?



I am very disappointed in this system board's flexibility, functionality, and over all user NON-friendliness. No wonder Wendel from Level 1 Techs calls it a dead platform. I do not recommend this board to anyone, despite their expertise or experience with system boards. Once again, ASUS has proven the SAGE adage that 'newer isn't always better'. For example, according to the manual Thunderbolt can only work on this platform when the card is installed in the #2 slot, the slot that is covered by the GFX card. This means you must move your graphics card to a less desirable location or use a riser cable thus reducing the efficiency of having Thunderbolt in the first place. On the X99 you can select which PCIe slot your card will go in and manually configure the location in the UEFI/BIOS. On the SAGE X299 ASUS took that away. You don't have a choice.

This is the most NON-user friendly workstation system board I have worked on in my entire life. Overclocking is extremely difficult, and the board is very finicky about the slightest changes in settings, whether it be standard system settings such as CSM, boot settings, storage settings, or even hot plugging. The fact that I can't get Thunderbolt to work on this platform, even after following ASUS instructions to the letter, more than adequately explains why it was so quickly abandoned. My X99 E WS USB 3.1 runs the card just fine without nearly as many hurdles to jump over.

I purchased this board because I needed a workstation that was legitimately Windows 11 compliant. I didn't want to stray away from the X99 series platform too much because I was happy with it until the Consortium decided what a profitable venture it would be to render most functional PCs in the world (likely 90% of them) obsolete. What a headache Windows 11 has turned out to be for me! This is supposed to be progress but with all the dysfunction I can only say that the light at the end of the tunnel is more indicative of a train wreck than much else. In this case newer is NOT better.

I am currently typing this on the SAGE build while it is on the bench. Just how stable the clock speed is I can't rightly say at this point but despite the ASUS AI splash screen stating that it is a 57% OC I know that this is a mild OC as the top speed out of the box for this CPU is 4.2 GHz. I've disabled speed stepping so that it runs at 4.4 GHz steady. What I had to do to achieve these results is too enervating to go into. Admittedly, it could just be the CPU itself and not the board. After all, I got the board with the CPU for the price of the board used. So that might explain a few things. Still, I have my doubts. All the things the manual says are there are there. I just can't get over whoever thought it would be a good idea to make it a mandatory thing for Thunderbolt to only use the #2 PCIe slot. What on earth were those boys at ASUS even thinking?? If anything, this borders on malicious intent. Even after complying with this Thunderbolt did not work. Yet, it works fine in my X99 build.