A cleaner system? I would not know anybody using a 5G NIC within a 10GB Network. A sincere slip of ASUS in the design of the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe II, despite the fact that its onboard Aquantia 5G NIC up to now is anyway useless under macOS (as the respective Aquantia chipset is neither AQC107 nor implemented on any Apple device) such as it's WIFI onboard controllers (although the latter are also not compatible with macOS in case of all other X299 motherboards, which however have a sufficient amount of PCIe extension slots to compensate this slip). They apparently also messed up so far with the TTR TB and USB-C firmware implementation for macOS and finally the missing THB_C connector and just 3x PCIe 16x slots on a 500$ motherboard are enough reason to discourage all people from buying such hardware, which obviously has been designed and configured for its use under Windows only.
For Hackintosh systems and macOS, the combination of the ASUS WS X299 Sage or the ASUS WS X299 Sage 2x 10G and the GC-Titan Ridge PCIe adapter works absolutely flawless and is therefore definitely by far the cleaner, better and overall not much more expensive solution or choice. And last but not least, 7x PCIe 16x slots also leave plenty of space and freedom for future PCIe hardware extensions in line with the onboard THB_C connector.
Before opting for the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe II, I would even go for the ASUS Prime X299-A (299$) + a 10GB PCIe Aquantia NIC (99$) + the GC-Titan Ridge adapter (99$) and would end up with the same expenses but a fully working system though, if he/she requires or uses the 10GB NIC and TB implementation at all. By employing the EK mono-block for water blocking both CPU and VRMs, the else badly designed VRM heat sink is simply removed anyway.
In any case, not the first time that I am expressing here my respective personal opinions on this matter and everybody is anyway free to take his/her own choice and decisions.
