I spent a good deal researching the x299 platform prior to buying in. And i honestly see x299 as the x58 of today. Lots of top tier last gen connectivity (that can be overclocked given x299 chipset) like pcie gen 3 for example. However, at the end of the day the easy access to high core count fair clock speed processors like this 16 core/32 thread beast makes this platform extremely compelling. If you need a workstation that can also game and you dont mind tweaking/tuning and extracting the most performance out of your system. Look no further than the x299 platform. Also i highly recommend a 7000s series chip because they are easily delidded for much better thermals.