News AMD X570 ITX Motherboards

So we have 1 confirmed so far:

The Crosshair VIII Impact is the ITX variant.

I'm hoping here that Asus think Zen 2 is amazing enough to revive Enthusiast class Impact boards and not offer us neutered versions like the Strix garbage they've been peddling for the last few years!

B550 boards are "speculated" to appear around 6 months after X570.
 
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Obakemono

Trash Compacter
Jan 20, 2019
49
33
I'll double check tonight but I did not see any mounting mechanism for the chipset heatsink. I don't want to risk damaging my board to find out but maybe buildzoid might do it!!! Also there seems to be enough room above the M.2 for a low profile heatsink on the M.2 to be cooled by that little fan. I'm trying to find my copper ones that I bought a few months ago.

O
 

FCase

SFF Lingo Aficionado
FCase
Dec 20, 2015
142
92
Question: I have an old Athlon II CPU. Can I use it to update the bios of an AM4 motherboard or is it way too old?
 
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Obakemono

Trash Compacter
Jan 20, 2019
49
33
I'll double check tonight but I did not see any mounting mechanism for the chipset heatsink. I don't want to risk damaging my board to find out but maybe buildzoid might do it!!! Also there seems to be enough room above the M.2 for a low profile heatsink on the M.2 to be cooled by that little fan. I'm trying to find my copper ones that I bought a few months ago.

O
Update: The PCH heatsink is glued on the chipset as I cannot see any retaining screws at all. Also, there is a 5-6mm air gap between the PCH fan and the M.2 drive.

O
 
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Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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Update: The PCH heatsink is glued on the chipset as I cannot see any retaining screws at all. Also, there is a 5-6mm air gap between the PCH fan and the M.2 drive.

O
So to clarify, the big chunk of metal next to the fan is purely for looks (and possibly directing airflow across the SSD) and holding the fan, and not actually a heatsink? There looks like there'd be a little contact between the base heatsink and the top plate, but not enough to facilitate any real thermal transfer. I guess that shows two things: the chipset does really not need a lot of cooling, and there should be room for most SSD heatsinks in there. Good to know!
 

Obakemono

Trash Compacter
Jan 20, 2019
49
33
So to clarify, the big chunk of metal next to the fan is purely for looks (and possibly directing airflow across the SSD) and holding the fan, and not actually a heatsink? There looks like there'd be a little contact between the base heatsink and the top plate, but not enough to facilitate any real thermal transfer. I guess that shows two things: the chipset does really not need a lot of cooling, and there should be room for most SSD heatsinks in there. Good to know!
The top part of the PCH heat sink does transfer heat, I did the finger test and it does get warm so heat is flowing into it. I have the PCH fan set to a performance setting in the BIOS (you need to update the BIOS to the F03J? to be able to control that little fan). I wish that there was a way to see/monitor the chipset temp like the CPU.

O
 

CountNoctua

(no relation)
Jul 11, 2019
214
263
The top part of the PCH heat sink does transfer heat, I did the finger test and it does get warm so heat is flowing into it. I have the PCH fan set to a performance setting in the BIOS (you need to update the BIOS to the F03J? to be able to control that little fan). I wish that there was a way to see/monitor the chipset temp like the CPU.

O

Hwinfo does show chipset temp
 
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Mackan

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 2, 2016
302
160

Detailed analysis of the AsRock board. What strikes me are the traces around the mounting holes for the CPU socket. Won't they get damaged by the CPU cooler? There is litteraly no clearance at all, especially the lower right hole. Yet there are "clearance" circles around the holes, I presume.

The AsRock board probably has the best chance to get a real monoblock that covers the chipset, as well. No M.2 SSD or other capacitors that are in the way. If Bitspower or EK cares.

Another interesting thing is what kind of passive aftermarket chipset heatsink could be used. There are mounting holes there, but do they fit any existing "older" chipset heatsinks?
 
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Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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Detailed analysis of the AsRock board. What strikes me are the traces around the mounting holes for the CPU socket. Won't they get damaged by the CPU cooler? There is litteraly no clearance at all, especially the lower right hole. Yet there are "clearance" circles around the holes, I presume.

The AsRock board probably has the best chance to get a real monoblock that covers the chipset, as well. No M.2 SSD or other capacitors that are in the way. If Bitspower or EK cares.

Another interesting thing is what kind of passive aftermarket chipset heatsink could be used. There are mounting holes there, but do they fit any existing "older" chipset heatsinks?
Wow, I've never seen traces that close to a mounting hole before. That can't possibly be safe, no - any tightly mounted metal fastener could be enough to damage those ...

Beyond that, I want a "monoblock" air cooler for this. Fin stack covering the entire surface between the PCIe slot, rear I/O and RAM, with a 120-140mm fan on top. Probably impossible to manufacture (how and where would you route the heat pipes?), but it would be pretty awesome nonetheless. Could be relatively low profile yet have impressive cooling capabilities. You're right that this seems very nice for a liquid cooling monoblock design, though. Still, it's a damn shame there's only one m.2 on that board.
 

MrClippy

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Nov 16, 2018
126
143
Anyone know if the thunderbolt port on that Asrock ITX can pass through video from a dedicated GPU i.e. give video to a USB-C monitor or say a lapdock?
 
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Mackan

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Jun 2, 2016
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Wow, I've never seen traces that close to a mounting hole before. That can't possibly be safe, no - any tightly mounted metal fastener could be enough to damage those ...

This is mostly what concerns me right now. Otherwise, since AsRock use Intel mounting, we can use one of the best low profile coolers like Thermolab LP53 which doesn't have an AM4 bracket. But those traces... Is it a design fault from AsRock, or is this somewhat common? Will they blame the end user if the traces are damaged?
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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This is mostly what concerns me right now. Otherwise, since AsRock use Intel mounting, we can use one of the best low profile coolers like Thermolab LP53 which doesn't have an AM4 bracket. But those traces... Is it a design fault from AsRock, or is this somewhat common? Will they blame the end user if the traces are damaged?
I guess it's a good thing that motherboard is off the table for me (single m.2 just doesn't cut it any more, even if TB3 for TB networking to my laptop would be nice), as I sure wouldn't want to deal with that nonsense.
 

Mackan

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 2, 2016
302
160
I guess it's a good thing that motherboard is off the table for me (single m.2 just doesn't cut it any more, even if TB3 for TB networking to my laptop would be nice), as I sure wouldn't want to deal with that nonsense.

I looked at some other high resolution motherboard pictures and it's not uncommon to see the traces being very close to some of the mounting holes, although AsRock seem to push the limit. Not sure I understand the logic behind it, but I guess the traces and pcb insulation material is quite resistant to pressure. Unfortunately, the LP53 cooler use metal standsoffs that could cause issues here.
 

MrClippy

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Nov 16, 2018
126
143
Yes, that's what the DisplayPort input is for.
Unfortunately, a lapdock won't work in this case. The HP lapdock requires a USB C to send over video and keyboard and mouse.

Basically I'm wondering if this thunderbolt can do what NVIDIA USB C port on their 2070 and 2080 GPUs can do - send video and usb input over a single cable. I've tested the HP lapdock with a 2070, and it works quite well, but really limits my GPU options.
 

OtackKulandinglar

Trash Compacter
May 24, 2019
46
76
For those with the Gigabyte board, I have a question from a novice at water cooling...

So I'm sitting here with my case in front of me with just the Alphacool Eisbaer LT and radiator fans left to go to complete my build and I'm befuddled as to how to take the wee three pin female connector (not a four pin sized but with three pins) and tie it in to my extension coming off the radiator fans, which is your standard 4 pin PWM female connection, so I can hook things up to the CPU fan header... One person with the same pump, case, Mobo, and fans said he had a Noctua three way splitter and used that to plug it all in to the CPU header? My Noctua y-splitters don't seem to like that idea.

The Gigabyte board doesn't have a pump header, and this isn't a standard fan header... so wtf do I put it?
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
2,225
Unfortunately, a lapdock won't work in this case. The HP lapdock requires a USB C to send over video and keyboard and mouse.

Basically I'm wondering if this thunderbolt can do what NVIDIA USB C port on their 2070 and 2080 GPUs can do - send video and usb input over a single cable. I've tested the HP lapdock with a 2070, and it works quite well, but really limits my GPU options.
It should be able to. You need to connect a cable between a functional DP output (either on a dGPU or from your iGPU) into the input on the rear I/O of the motherboard, and that output will then be output through the TB3 port - just like any other USB-C with DP Alt Mode. One can only hope that the board includes a very short DP cable for this. I guess it would be possible to make this work without an external cable, but that would likely either require even more hardware on a packed ITX board or at the very least compatibility testing with a bunch of dGPUs to ensure nothing gets borked. In other words, using an external cable is not that bad of a solution.