AMD Socket sTRX4 Mainboards

The sTRX4 (LGA) socket was introduced with the TRX40 motherboards because the Threadripper processors of the 3000 series ("Castle Peak") made it necessary. Due to changes in the "Zen2" architecture compared to the Threadripper CPUs based on the "Zen+" architecture, the pin layout of the sTRX4 socket had to be changed compared to the TR4 socket. The most important new feature of the TRX40 motherboards with the sTRX4 socket and the "Threadripper 3000" processors is the introduction of PCIe 4.0 in the HEDT segment. AMD has thus more than doubled the theoretically possible data throughput, as the 3000 series Threadrippers offer even more PCIe lanes than their predecessors!

Key features of motherboards with the sTRX4 socket:

• Up to 4x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16/x16/x8/x8) for high-end graphics cards
• Extremely fast USB 3.1 without additional chip
• 3x M.2 slot PCIe 4.0 x4, directly connected to the CPU
• DDR4 memory up to 3200 MHz (without OC) in quad-channel mode
• Modern UEFI BIOS with temperature monitoring
• Overclocking with the TRX40 chipset for Ryzen Threadripper 3000

AMD sTRX4 Socket: High-End Desktop

Thanks to the high number of PCIe lanes and the optimizations to the "Zen2" architecture, the "Castle Peak" Threadrippers offer extremely extensive connectivity. Many TRX40 motherboards with the sTRX4 socket provide three M.2 and/or U.2 slots with PCIe 4.0 connectivity for NVMe SSDs that are directly connected to the processor. This allows the extreme read and write speeds of NVMe M.2 and U.2 SSDs to be fully utilized without being slowed down by routing data through the chipset. The connection via four PCI Express 3.0 lanes per PCIe NVMe slot in U.2 or M.2 format enables extremely high data transfer rates of up to 32 Gbit/s, which is nearly eight times faster than SATA 6G.

Memory is operated on sTRX4 socket motherboards in the particularly fast quad-channel mode, and even without overclocking, clock speeds of up to 3200 MHz are supported, while the total memory capacity has doubled to 256 GB compared to previous Threadripper platforms. Networking connectivity has also seen improvements, with many manufacturers offering two LAN ports each with its own network chip, and 10-GB LAN ports are also common on the sTRX4 HEDT platform.

Compatibility notice for the AMD sTRX4 socket:

As of November 2020, AMD motherboards with the sTRX4 socket are only compatible with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPUs of the 3000 series. The incompatibility is due to the completely new pin layout of the sTRX4 socket compared to the TR4 socket. Compatibility with a possible future Threadripper 4000 series based on the "Zen2+" architecture is currently unknown.