[Kitguru] ASRock's X299E ITX Board

[EXCellR8]

They need to do the same for 'Ripper!! It can be done with vertical daughterboards!

Sure, the socket takes up 30% of the board space but ASRock take my money if we get TR4 models.

ASRock’s innovation for its X299 mini-ITX motherboard is particularly fascinating – full quad channel memory support by opting for DDR4 SO-DIMM (laptop memory) rather than DDR4 DIMM (desktop memory). The X99 iteration of ASRock’s mini-ITX motherboard opted for two DDR4 DIMM slots as its memory solution which sacrificed the benefits of quad channel memory but retained the familiar DDR4 DIMM form factor.

ASRock has made plentiful use of “daughterboards”, secondary vertical PCBs, that have long been used by motherboard vendors on mini-ITX motherboards as a space-saving tactic since at least the introduction of the Z77 chipset in 2012. The ASUS P8Z77I-Deluxe is the first such mini-ITX motherboard that comes to mind that used a daughterboard in a mini-ITX form factor.

Full review @ Kitguru

 

[aigomorla]

Did you see how insane the layout on that board is?

I was just left speechless on how they managed to conserve so much space on that board.
Also the way it uses laptop ram instead of desktop ram, definitely would make it a ultra premium board.

Whats funny tho is that with only 1 pci-e slot, you probably wont even be complaining if you have most your pci-e lanes locked.

 

[EXCellR8]

thanks for posting a good pic of it. quite the interesting board. @ $400 it's a bit of a risky buy though.

my favorite feature is the cmos battery slapped on the side of the wifi-antennae box

 

[ao_ika_red]

Somebody on ASRock just went mad. Kudos to them. The soldering space is insane.

 

[lukart]

Thats one thing Ive always liked about them, they are not afraid to push the limits on their designs.

 

[EXCellR8]

ASRock has steadily become one of my favorite board manufacturers, well maybe my favorite now between their solid Ryzen boards and responsive customer support.

I'd be interested in seeing what they conjure up for Zen+

 

[Charlie22911]

The x399 TaiChi was my first ASRock board, and what struck me was the BIOS/UEFI.
Now I have the x299 TaiChi XE and it’s just as good, and as far as I know ASRock are the only folks putting RGB controls in their BIOS and eliminating the need for bloatware.

They must have some great layout folks because their ITX stuff has been technically superior to its competitors lately.

 

[aigomorla]

RGB controls in their BIOS and eliminating the need for bloatware.

i have RGB control in bios on my Giggy Auros.

 

[Charlie22911]

i have RGB control in bios on my Giggy Auros.

A trend I’d like to see more if manufacturers are insistent on RGB’n everything.

 

[aigomorla]

i dont think it gets anymore RGB bling then a giggy Auros tho.... lol...
IMO its a bit too much.

 

[EXCellR8]

I think my current ASRock X370 board has LED controls via BIOS but not RGB... maybe? Not totally sure but I know there is an app you can use while Windows is running and it will change the visual style. Whatever changes are made definitely get stored in CMOS though because even if you install a new OS the LED mode doesn't change until you either go into BIOS or use the app again. Personally, I could take it or leave it but LED features have become pretty standard with other components (i.e. anything Aorus) and I do appreciate when things match up.

 

[aigomorla]

im so tempted to buy this board, but i cant make an excuse for me to get another $500 intel cpu + $400 dollar board that is limited on the PCI lanes physically and not because of a gimp'd CPU.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Nice. All of my Ryzen rigs are on ASRock B350 boards. The board in this thread has insanely-good layout. Kudos to ASRock! They seem to be able to pull off layout miracles.