News ASRock Unveils the X299E-ITX/ac: Mini ITX + X299 + Quad-channel Memory

Mod edit:

Detailed overview of what we know about the X299E-ITX/ac thus far here: https://smallformfactor.net/news/asrock-x299e-itxac-little-monster-detailed

Original:

ASRock did it! Finally, there's an Intel HEDT platform motherboard with full quad-channel DDR4 memory. The new X299E-ITX/ac is for those who need up to 18 CPU cores and up to 64 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory in their SFF machines for reasons. The board manages its limited PCB real-estate by going vertical. It features two riser cards, one with a few onboard controllers, and a pair of 32 Gb/s M.2 slots), and the other riser with SATA 6 Gb/s ports, a third M.2 slot, and the headers such as USB 3.1. The board draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, conditioning it for the LGA2066 CPU using a 7-phase VRM. The lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 3.0 x16, memory is handled by four DDR4 SO-DIMM slots. Connectivity includes two Intel I219-V driven gigabit Ethernet interfaces, 802.11ac WLAN, and Bluetooth 4.1.

Source

 

[EdZ]

I was reading this review of the 7820X, which I imagine will be the most popular or second most popular X299 CPU.

https://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/intel_core_i7_7820x_skylake_x_review/3

And it can do 5GHz at 1.3v. That's incredible. That is massive improvement over Broadwell-E. The problem is it overheats like crazy even though it's stable. Because of the TIM obviously. I want to find a review where it was tested delidded... I think it's safe to recommend anyone considering Skylake-X pay $50 to SL for a warranty-backed delidding.

Wow, that's looking pretty good for the 7820X, single-thread performance should be very comparable to the 7700K.

 

[tjh1989]

After researching a lot of compact cooling possibilities, I honestly think that the Ncase M1, with its support for dual 240mm radiators might be the perfect SFF case for the 10+ core ITX builds on the 2066 platform. Sure, it would require a custom loop but 2x240mm radiators shouldn't have a problem keeping a top of line i9-7900x (or higher) in check with some additional headroom for overclocking.

@chx Yes! The Scythe Fuma is awesome. At just 149mm high, it trades blows with the much larger 160/165mm HSFs and 240MM AIO solutions (source). Outside of the stock sleeve bearing fans, my only concern is ram clearance, so provided you have enough headroom to accommodate for the fan being slightly offset, I think that the Fuma will score quite well among the SFF community.

Yeh but I think it will be difficult if not impossible to get 2x240mm in the NCASE M1 (unless you put the pump and res on the back of the case which looks a bit ghetto...)

 

[Boil]

Yeh but I think it will be difficult if not impossible to get 2x240mm in the NCASE M1 (unless you put the pump and res on the back of the case which looks a bit ghetto...)

FrozenQ res on back of chassis (as designed for)...

Swiftech Apogee Drive II (pump /CPU water block combo) has 2011 bracket, that would work on 2066 as well, yes...?!?

 

[3lfk1ng]

@tjh1989 Nah, people do it all the time. Only the NCase reservoir needs to be on the outside (the sexiest res ever). The only thing it means is that you cannot use a beefy D5 pump, you need a low profile pump or a pump/block combo.

 

[tjh1989]

FrozenQ res on back of chassis (as designed for)...

Swiftech Apogee Drive II (pump /CPU water block combo) has 2011 bracket, that would work on 2066 as well, yes...?!?

Yeh I've got the FrozenQ Res ready.

You are correct that the Apogee Drive II should fit in theory. However, it may not physically fit due to those riser boards. I've been going round in circles on this!

@tjh1989 Nah, people do it all the time. Only the NCase reservoir needs to be on the outside (the sexiest res ever). The only thing it means is that you cannot use a beefy D5 pump, you need a low profile pump or a pump/block combo.

Yeh I plan to use the FrozenQ Res. I have 2 big questions about x299 in the M1:

1. Will the Apogee Drive II fit on the board? In theory yes as 2066 coolers should fit 2011 sockets but may be space issues.

2. If you use the FrozenQ Res, can you use 2 x240mm radiators in the M1 with a small ddc pump?

 

[jeshikat]

Will the Apogee Drive II fit on the board?

It's hard to tell for sure. It'll depend on the final height of the daughterboards and their spacing to the socket.

 

[3lfk1ng]

1. I think it will depend on the rotation. I honestly don't see how it wouldn't work with vertical barbs (it may be close), however I can definitely see it being problem if mounted horizontally. Also, the heatspreaders can be gently pushed up against for some additional space if needed.
x299 ITX board - Apogee Drive Vertical Orientation

Spoiler: Concepts that are not measured

2. With low profile fans on the side and a thin rad, you could probably mount a pump on the back
Example - Example 2

There are some pretty extreme low-profile pump options so I think the only limit here (outside of Thermals) would be creativity.
http://cdn.overclock.net/5/59/5985e699_2012-05-14_18-18-28_736.jpeg

Also, if 2x240mm is too difficult to manage, a 1x120 + 2x240mm is possible as well... with plenty of room to spare.
https://cdn.pcpartpicker.com/static...427.e211b39cfa458d27da22dacac73e84fe.1600.jpg

I'm not a fan of external pumps/reservoirs myself but it can work and still look decent doing it (for all you external power brick loving heathens).
https://0x7d.com/category/misc/

 

[QuantumBraced]

Yeah, I think the M1 is the smallest you can go with overclocked Skylake-X. I think with delidding, a 240mm AIO would be fine at 1.3v

Otherwise, if you go 1.2v (at which a 7820X can do 4.6GHz) or under, then the temperatures go WAY down, so really any cooler would work, including an R15 + 15mm fan for the smallest cases or a C14 for the M1 or anything else. You may even be able to squeeze 4.8GHz, which in that one review of the 7820X they got at 1.22v. But no higher than that. That goes for the 6 and 8-core chips. For the 10+ core chips, I think you'd need delidding if you wanted to run them at 1.2v with a low/medium-profile air cooler.

That's based on the numbers I've seen, but do correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Davila]

Yeah, I think the M1 is the smallest you can go with overclocked Skylake-X. I think with delidding, a 240mm AIO would be fine at 1.3v

Otherwise, if you go 1.2v (at which a 7820X can do 4.6GHz) or under, then the temperatures go WAY down, so really any cooler would work, including an R15 + 15mm fan for the smallest cases or a C14 for the M1 or anything else. You may even be able to squeeze 4.8GHz, which in that one review of the 7820X they got at 1.22v. But no higher than that. That goes for the 6 and 8-core chips. For the 10+ core chips, I think you'd need delidding if you wanted to run them at 1.2v with a low/medium-profile air cooler.

That's based on the numbers I've seen, but do correct me if I'm wrong.

Man if only this motherboard came out sooner. ASRock said that this board comes out around 8/15

Also what temps would we be looking at for a 7820X @4.6GHz delidded?

 

[jeshikat]

Man if only this motherboard came out sooner.

Maybe it's for the best that it's not:

 

[Davila]

Maybe it's for the best that it's not:

Dang...

Maybe it is for the best

On another note, do you think the overclocking potential will be on-par or comparable to future ATX motherboards?

I've never seen any major differences when it comes to overclocking on ATX vs. MATX/ITX but I think that might change with X299.

 

[Ionrent]

 

 

[3lfk1ng]

It's not a coincidence either, Silicon Lottery expressed these same concerns yesterday.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1631319/skylake-x-binning/150_30#post_26189935

I am having trouble with some of these X299 motherboards. I've bought a wide variety for this launch, and none of them are really handling the load of an overclocked 7900X as well as I'd expect. VRM temps through the roof and boards throttling.

I agree with Der8auer here, it's surreal that these motherboards are behaving like this from every vendor. I did not expect to be in this spot at launch, not having a motherboard that I am really comfortable with.

 

[MarcParis]

Yes i saw this video...mainboard are not well designed for such power cpu line...

 

[BirdofPrey]

and here I thought only AMD was capable of screwing up a product launch this badly (and I say this as a member of Team Red)

 

[EdZ]

I don't think you can blame Intel for this: as Derbauer himself says, the VRMs themselves work perfectly fine if you remove the heatsink and have some airflow. It's purely down the to 'heatsink' being a cosmetic plastic-encrusted lump rather than an actual functional heatsink.

On the EPS12V connector issue: per EPS spec you're supposedly limited to 8A per pin (two pins per rail, 16A per rail) or 384W. The Mini-Fit Jr itself is rated for 13A per pin, or 624W. Even if the draw is entirely from the EPS connector and nothing from the 24-pin, if the CPU is drawing under ~350W then a single 8-pin should be sufficient unless your PSU has not been designed to conform to the minimum specifications (e.g. by skimping on the rating of the wiring used). Draw from the PCIe slots if you have one or more GPUs that draw the full 5.5A/slot (or more in the case of some AMD cards) will reduce this further if there is not an additional auxiliary connector.

 

[3lfk1ng]

To be fair, at 30 seconds into the video der8auer squarely places the blame 50/50 (50% Intel and 50% Vendor). I'm not saying his percentages are in any way accurate (or even backed up with facts for that matter), but that could possibly be what @BirdofPrey was refereing to.

To summarize der8auer's blame:
Intel's 50%- Intel brought up the launch from August to June, giving vendors little time to test and launch their motherboards.
Vendor's 50%- Vendors fault for not testing their motherboards. Possibly just designing to Intel's default spec which is restricting unlocked X-series CPUs from having enough headroom for OCing (even if CPU thermals are in check) due to VRM throttling. Vendor's fault for choosing decorative heatsinks and cheap thermal pads instead of functional heatsinks.

Looking at how he has presented it, I would say it's more like 30/70.

 

[BirdofPrey]

No, I can't blame Intel for this issue in it's entirety, but they did certainly facilitate it by pulling additional SKUs out of their hat, and not giving the manufacturers sufficient time to prepare for the product launch. I am sure some of these boards would have shipped with these bad decisions anyways, but rush jobs have more of a tendency to turn out badly, and this does also seem to be a systematic issue rather than just a couple of boards for specific manufacturers.

I'll also note this is just one of the issues the platform has, the segmentation of the market that Intel is doing that has managed to anger a great deal of people is 100% Intel's doing.

 

[jØrd]

I wonder if part of the blame also falls at the feet of the consumers. Much like chipsets, if they don't put something that at least looks like a heat sink, even if its not needed, the market will perceive it as cheap and shop elsewhere.

 

[BirdofPrey]

That's almost certainly a factor as well.
Lack of consumer knowledge has been brought up many times here already regarding the notion that smaller boards don't sell as well for a similar reason of most consumers assuming they lack features.