Solved ASUS X299 SAGE

Just pulled the trigger on one of these. It was an out of the box special. So zero wear and tear at a fraction of the cost of what it was originally worth. I didn't really get it for gaming but I needed something that would do my next personal build justice and my 1070 was getting a little long in the tooth.

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Model
KO-RTX3070-O8G-GAMING
Graphic Engine
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070
Bus Standard
PCI Express 4.0
OpenGL
OpenGL®4.6
Video Memory
8GB GDDR6
Engine Clock
OC Mode - 1845 MHz (Boost Clock)
Gaming Mode - 1815 MHz (Boost Clock)
CUDA Core
5888
Memory Speed
14 Gbps
Memory Interface
256-bit
Resolution
Digital Max Resolution 7680 x 4320
Interface
Yes x 2 (Native HDMI 2.1)
Yes x 3 (Native DisplayPort 1.4a)
HDCP Support Yes (2.3)
Maximum Display Support
4
NVlink/ Crossfire Support
No
Accessories
1 x Collection card
1 x Speedsetup manual
Software
ASUS GPU Tweak II & GeForce Game Ready Driver & Studio Driver
Dimensions
10.82 x 5.16 x 2.13 in
27.5 x 13.1 x 5.4 Centimeter
Recommended PSU
750W
Power Connectors
2 x 8-pin

Will probably running the studio drivers and wait a while before I start over clocking it. Yes, it will be going in the SAGE X299 build. Yes, I know that's not a PCIe gen 4 board. Even on PCIe 3 this GFX card will out perform an RTX 4060. i don't need bleeding edge. I just need performance.

Pulled the tray on the ATCS 840. All the ball bearings are present. Case is in very good condition. Thanks again, Mr. X. You have restored my faith in overseas shipping. (Part of why I purchased that GFX card. It should be in next month some time.) Also a box came in from NewEgg. It's a 1000 Watt Platinum Certified PSU. (Door crasher special - less than $100) Given the nature of this wonderful case I'll be able to install it before I do anything else. And no, it isn't pink.

Despite the fact that this SAGE build will not be a gaming PC I am not disappointed with my choice in graphics cards.


Further research has revealed that this card will run as well as a 2080 Ti on PCIe 3 and that's good enough for me.

This will be handy for video rendering and content creation. I think I made the right choice.

So what have I done with the SAGE build lately? A: Absolutely nothing.

Well, perhaps not "absolutely" nothing. I got a proper power supply for it to test the GFX card I want to use with it but I have to lug a monitor down the stairs to test it because a regular old monitor won't do it justice. I've ordered some better RAM for it but I want to swap over my good old Platinum Dominator RAM to it because it is tried and tested and proven: A factory matched set of 128 GB of RAM. Pictures forthcoming. In the meantime, here's a rose.

So half the RAM is here and I expect to buy a set each month until I have 128 GB worth. It won't be a full factory matched set but it should work on the X99 just fine so that I can move the factory matched set of Samsung B die RAM over to the SAGE. I have the RTX 3070 on the SAGE now but I have to install a different PSU on the test bench. We decided that 1000 Watts will look pretty in pink, but it isn't going in the Cooler Master and it won't be going in the Level 10 GT.

I should have entitled this thread the SAGE SAGA.


Well, it's a good thing I had no intentions of keeping the Vetroo PSU as a permanent fixture as I got it all plugged in on the test bench and nothing...

I mean, nothing. Zip. Nada. Checked all my connections many times over. It don't work.

Tried it on a different system board because it didn't have the 6 pin connector for the CPU I needed. Still nothing.

Tried it with a jumper: Dead to the world.

Admittedly, it does look pretty in pink once it was installed.

In fact, I would say it looked 'Instanisnlretty'.

But i was stopped dead in my tracks when I found out the CPU connector was for either 4 or 8 Pins and the SAGE needed a 6 pin connector.



Now I do realize there are work arounds for this but if I can't even get the thing to power up a regular ATX board it isn't likely I'll be able to get it to power up an EATX either. :::SIGH::: Back to the drawing board.

So I went over the connectors again, tried the jumper on the ATX board, and viola! Got the Pink Vetroo working again. Alas, on the wrong system board. Then again, it wasn't going to be a permanent thing. Just wanted to put some xtra power on the test bench for the GFX card. Meanwhile I found this so perhaps I can get away with not using the 6 pin connector at all.

Well, domestics seem to be keeping this old man away from his favourite hobby but I managed to squeeze in a little time to work on the SAGE work station board. Admittedly, I don't mind losing one PCIe slot to a thick GFX card but losing three is simply unacceptable. The whole idea behind having 44 lanes is to be able to use them so I decided to eliminate the cause of the issue: The shroud.



Since I really don't need all the RGB glitz as it is going inside a Thermal Take Level 10 GT case with a leetle tiny top window on the side panel I decided to de-shroud the RTX 3070 GFX card. It seems to work rather well. The huge 240 mm fan on the side panel of the case should provide ample air cooling.


I noticed that I can even access the PCIeX16_2 slot with a short little riser cable for just in case more PCIe connectivity is needed. This would mean that I will have access to all 7 PCIe slots.

The preferred position for my Thunderbolt 3 card was blocked by the shroud and this is also where I plug in the cable for TB3. The RGB shroud simply had to go. The ASUS RTX 3070 KO card is more toward the higher end of the spectrum for NVIDIA 3070 graphics cards. I plan on using it in conjunction with my Thunderbolt 3 card which also plugs into the display port on the graphics card. Alas, this shroud covers the cable port for the Thunderbolt card making it pretty much inaccessible. I don't have this issue on my X99 board as the Thunderbolt header is not located under a PCIe slot on that particular system board. Also with my NVIDIA 1070 graphics card I only lose one PCIe slot (instead of two) as it is not nearly so thick.

So... I thought about whining about this in the ASUS section but since it didn't affect all ASUS builds I'll keep it here for now.

I just lost all my drivers for my 24H2 after running and installing Windows Update and then I hit a wall on a security update. So, after numerous attempts at getting it to take I opted for the stand alone version which led to the April 4 24H2 repair installation. Lots of fun. Suddenly Windows decided that I no longer had TPM2 on the X299 Windows 11 ready system board. Somewhere along the lines of updates the TPM option was disabled in the UEFI and so the trouble shooter decided my PC was not Windows 11 compatible.

The Fix:

The fix for Windows thinking your PC isn't TPM2 ready is to default the entire BIOS, turn off the PC, and jumper the CMOS. After doing this (and of course placing back the jumper) you have to go back into your BIOS and look for the TPM settings (They're under the Thunderbolt settings — make sure you scroll all the way down or you may not see them). Just to make life interesting TPM settings on the SAGE X299 are called PTT. I remember this because on the initial Win 11 installation I had to hunt for them to activate TPM2 and wasted more time trying to locate this setting than I care to admit. The page may look as though it is completely scrolled down to the bottom and that the last line of text is for your Thundebolt settings but no, there is one more line that is hidden from view if the window isn't scrolled down all the way.

Once you have done this you can reboot your PC and go back to your OS where you can enjoy the privilege of convincing Windows that your PC really does have TPM2. This will require a Windows 24H2 stand alone repair that you can get from Windows Catalogue. *Warning* The repair takes time. It takes more time than reinstalling Windows 11 so forget about being in a rush. After this you can proceed to go back into your UEFI and make all those adjustments you lost because you had to "reset your BIOS". This of course will be followed by having to re-install drivers that Windows has magically forgotten existed once upon a time. I'm not there yet. I'll save re-installing the drivers for another time. But for those who are struggling with the X299 SAGE WORK STATION because Windows doesn't recognize TPM2. . .