Intel's refreshed CPUs for the X299 platform gave motherboard makers a chance at a do-over in the wake of a narrowing of focus for those chips. Like I alluded to in my review of the Gigabyte X299 Designare EX, not every X299 board that's passed through the TR labs has been a winner, especially when you toss 18 overclocked Skylake Server cores in the LGA 2066 socket.