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

 

[VegetableStu]

Probably been asked, but would it be possible to power this using an external laptop power brick? Maybe using a pico PSU?

Maybe something like this,

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6dV48d/athena-power-power-supply-apmfatx25

And just wrap that in something to make it more... protected so I an use it external to the case and pretend it's a laptop brick? I like to keep it external to reduce heat-buildup, because I want things as quiet as possible.

I kinda doubt it...? A 250W PSU at 80% would be 200W. At 100% load a 7900X pulls about 150W (do not confuse with TDP) and that's without overclocking.

EDIT: point being I'd start being a bit uncomfortable if I use all the remaining 50W at once, and a 1060 would already blow past that when you start taxing it.

@guryhwa does 500W external bricks (thread related), so that might be more feasible. Might want to check with him on his feelings about use on this board

 

[Phryq]

I kinda doubt it...? A 250W PSU at 80% would be 200W. At 100% load a 7900X pulls about 150W (do not confuse with TDP) and that's without overclocking.

@guryhwa does 500W external bricks (thread related), so that might be more feasible. Might want to check with him on his feelings about use on this board

I don't need a GPU (not gaming) so the only power I'm drawing (mostly) would be CPU, yes? But maybe 100% power draw is still unhealthy for the power supply? His custom bricks look really nice anyhow, and the price isn't bad.

 

[VegetableStu]

You'd need a GPU. X299 motherboards and CPUs don't have a video processor. Unless you're okay with a 1050 which hovers around 65W to 75W at load depending on program/utilisation. Or anything less power hungry at any point

 

[epithumia]

Probably been asked, but would it be possible to power this using an external laptop power brick? Maybe using a pico PSU?.

Technically you can put the power supply wherever you like as long as you get the cabling to the right parts of the board.. Obviously there is a length limitation but you should be OK if you use wire of a reasonable gauge. Of course you'll need to solder if you don't use a fully modular PSU. If you do go fully modular then you can just make your own cables.

As for a picoPSU-type thing, you might get away with something like the 300W DC-DC power supplies you can get, but I don't know if they supply -12V which I recall this board requires. I'd love to see it if someone does it, though. The AC-DC brick for those things is larger than many small computers.

If you're really just doing this for noice.... to be honest I think the power supply is the least of your noise concerns if you're putting this in a sufficiently small case.

 

[Phryq]

You'd need a GPU. X299 motherboards and CPUs don't have a video processor. Unless you're okay with a 1050 which hovers around 65W to 75W at load depending on program/utilisation. Or anything less power hungry at any point

I was wondering about that, so would the 1050 be the best bet for low-power / low-TDP gpu?

Technically you can put the power supply wherever you like as long as you get the cabling to the right parts of the board.. Obviously there is a length limitation but you should be OK if you use wire of a reasonable gauge. Of course you'll need to solder if you don't use a fully modular PSU. If you do go fully modular then you can just make your own cables.

As for a picoPSU-type thing, you might get away with something like the 300W DC-DC power supplies you can get, but I don't know if they supply -12V which I recall this board requires. I'd love to see it if someone does it, though. The AC-DC brick for those things is larger than many small computers.

If you're really just doing this for noice.... to be honest I think the power supply is the least of your noise concerns if you're putting this in a sufficiently small case.

I'm trying to build a small, silent, powerful machine that can fit in my backpack. The brick means less heat / potentially more airflow if I build a custom-case, and also can better fit in a backpack (I think).

The adapters linked above, made by a member here, look perfect as far as I can tell.

 

[epithumia]

I think what you want might be pushing physics or reality just a bit, but maybe you just have a bigger backpack than I'm imagining. But hey, if you have the money to spend on an experiment then have at it. I know you can fit it all in an 11 liter case with room for optical and some 2.5" disks (because I've done it) but cooling it adequately is tough and its a stretch to call it "quiet" when it's under load. 11 liters will fit in a backpack.

 

[QuantumBraced]

I'm trying to build a small, silent, powerful machine that can fit in my backpack. The brick means less heat / potentially more airflow if I build a custom-case, and also can better fit in a backpack (I think).

The adapters linked above, made by a member here, look perfect as far as I can tell.

Sounds like the Lone Industries L4 would be a perfect fit for what you're looking for. You can fit a Noctua L12 in it, which is rated for 140W, although airflow will be restricted with all the riser cards and you'd only be able to use the bottom 92mm fan. So perhaps you could run up to a 7900X at stock if you don't push it super hard. The case fits a low-profile GPU, so up to a 1050 Ti, and you power it with an HDPlex or G-Unique PSU. It's only 4.6L, definitely backpackable.

If you want to go up to 7L, the Lazer3D LZ7 can fit up to a 130mm air cooler with external power, and it fits an ITX-sized graphics card.

 

[Kmpkt]

I haven't honestly been following this thread super closely, so apologies if this has been posted already:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11952/gskill-announces-ddr4-so-dimm-kits-for-x299-skylake

Very interesting implications for Raven Ridge as well if performance of either component scales like Ryzen does with memory speed, especially with these being Samsung B-dies.

 

[QuantumBraced]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but FYI the M.2 on the riser card is connected to the PCH. Only the rear 2 M.2 slots are connected directly to the CPU. So you'd want to install your drives there.

 

[h2plus]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but FYI the M.2 on the riser card is connected to the PCH. Only the rear 2 M.2 slots are connected directly to the CPU. So you'd want to install your drives there.

This is great to learn - I've been looking for some documentation for how the m.2 slots are wired up - can you point me to the source of that info?

 

[QuantumBraced]

This is great to learn - I've been looking for some documentation for how the m.2 slots are wired up - can you point me to the source of that info?

I heard it on the latest PCPer podcast... There's a chance they could have been wrong as it was just a podcast discussion, not a written review, but they're generally a reputable source.

 

[Testifier]

4 x 3 + 16 = 28 lanes. That's exactly the number of lanes for Skylake-X i7 (7800x and 7820x)
I think it would be wasteful if the last 4 lanes were not connected to the CPU

 

[QuantumBraced]

4 x 3 + 16 = 28 lanes. That's exactly the number of lanes for Skylake-X i7 (7800x and 7820x)
I think it would be wasteful if the last 4 lanes were not connected to the CPU

Indeed. On the podcast they said it was probably a wiring issue.

 

[epithumia]

Does it really make any real-world difference if the M.2 drive is connected to the PCH? I expect that latency would be higher but I'm not sure if it would really make much difference in practice. Any reference to performance numbers?

 

[QuantumBraced]

Well it would share the same DMI 3.0 4GB/s link with the rest of the I/O, so in theory if you're downloading at high bandwidth over your Ethernet, or you have a drive connected over USB, or you have SATA drives that are being used at the same time, then it would become a bottleneck, but in reality that hardly happens and you'd never notice it. It's more relevant for ATX boards where you could have multiple M.2 or PCIe slots connected to the PCH, but here functionally there would be next to no difference. Latency would be a bit higher too, yes. I mean you can't tell the difference between a SATA SSD and NVMe 95% of the time, let alone this. Still, no reason why you shouldn't connect your drives directly to the CPU. It would be better to have more room for airflow in the front anyway.

 

[Phryq]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but FYI the M.2 on the riser card is connected to the PCH. Only the rear 2 M.2 slots are connected directly to the CPU. So you'd want to install your drives there.

So if you don't need 3 m.2 drives, you might as well remove this, right?

I feel like I'm missing something. Having the power supplied by an external brick means

1 - Smaller case (a custom case could be made 6.8 x 6.8 x cooler height [put a massive Dark Rock in if you want a 7" cube, about 5.6L, but with an ultra-beefy cooler, or 4L if you use a Shadow Rock TF2]

2 - Increased airflow / heat dissipation (because the power supply isn't in the case, PSU heat can dissipate into the air, and case heat has more room to radiate.

3 - (Drawback) A 20cm*10cm*4.3cm brick (easy to hide) and max 400w. If you go with one of these, https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...bto-psus-are-now-available-direct-order.1983/

That drawback seems negligible to me; internal PSU seems nuts.

 

[VegetableStu]

So if you don't need 3 m.2 drives, you might as well remove this, right?

you'd be removing half your rear IO. their controllers share the same board as the m.2 riser

 

[confusis]

Three quarters of your rear IO, as well as all your wired networking!

 

[Goose1981]

Sorry all for the super n00b question, but my google skills are failing me badly. Does anyone have a link to a web storefront that sells the Bitspower water block for this mobo? I'm having a devil of a time trying to find something (might be that i'm in Australia? i'm happy to order in from overseas, just not sure why i can't find it!).

 

[VegetableStu]

probably still unreleased? X299 isn't on their list yet

EDIT: I'm blind ._. it's there. And there.
EDITx2: they want users to make an account to access pricing I think o_o