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

 

[Boil]

Pics and a few details here: https://smallformfactor.net/news/asrock-x299e-itxac-first-look

So yes, that wasn’t a typo in the press release and this board really does feature 3x M.2 slots.

Not only that though, all the M.2 slots are connected directly to the CPU and can operate at PCIe 3.0 x4 simultaneously. Better yet, they can even operate in RAID, though officially only with Intel drives.

Hmm... So, a nice little M.2-based RAID 5 system drive could be created...?!?

 

[JournaL]

Only thing missing in this motherboard that I would want would be a USB C front i/o header (maybe they can consider it when making the daughter board).

Looks good. Hopefully intel's i9 chips aren't too disappointing (the specs aren't very impressive).

ASRock also made the only X99 mobo in ITX that was available on newegg.
Kudos to them!

 

[Mackan]

The board is not so pretty to look at, with asymmetrical ram slots and those two daughter boards, but perhaps nothing can be done about that. Might grow on me.

 

[jeshikat]

The board is not so pretty to look at, with asymmetrical ram slots and those two daughter boards, but perhaps nothing can be done about that. Might grow on me.

It's a huge improvement in aesthetics over the X99 IMO while fitting way more features. Beggars can't be choosers and al that

 

[Biowarejak]

It's a huge improvement in aesthetics over the X99 IMO while fitting way more features. Beggars can't be choosers and al that

I really liked how clean it was, but the more I stared the more i became dissilusioned

 

[jtd871]

Are you really going to be looking at the mobo all that much? Form follows function when you have limited real estate.

 

[CC Ricers]

I think it looks pretty rockin'. It's the closest we're getting to features packed in HEDT in this small size and comparable looks to what's inside the Mac Pro.

Even better since it's on a newer chipset.

 

[Biowarejak]

Are you really going to be looking at the mobo all that much? Form follows function when you have limited real estate.

At least in the case I'm designing, which I really ought to post sometime to get the good feedback early, the form still allows for nice views on either side of the tray sometimes the function of the case is as much a display as an enclosure.

 

[jtd871]

I was actually only talking about the mobo. They have alot to cram on there and not so much room to do it. With quad-channel RAM, the slots need to be in specific places to get the traces (relatively) easy to layout: lots of squiggly (technical term ) traces to get the path length for each within tolerance.

 

[MarcParis]

is it me of this time socket 2066 is a standard one (ie on X99, socket was slightly different).

Does it mean it will be able to fit all coolers compatibles 2011-3? if yes, that's the good news.. The only issue with this board...is well...X299 chipset...i will prefer AM4 X370/X399 version lol

 

[chx]

This would be so perfect if the upcoming X chips would support 128GB RAM... I wonder whether both M.2 slots have four PCIe 3.0 lanes in them. If so, then surely a converter from the bottom one into a convenient PCIe slot could be used for some dual GPU hotness. And hotness it would be, a ~150W X CPU plus 500W of GPU

 

[MarcParis]

This would be so perfect if the upcoming X chips would support 128GB RAM... I wonder whether both M.2 slots have four PCIe 3.0 lanes in them. If so, then surely a converter from the bottom one into a convenient PCIe slot could be used for some dual GPU hotness. And hotness it would be, a ~150W X CPU plus 500W of GPU

well after you need psu to power them and small case to resist/cool all these watts..

 

[EdZ]

And yes, this will NOT do ECC.

If the m.2 slots are all CPU connected, that's going to leave KBL-X in a weird position, either dropping the slot down to 8x (and driving either one or two m.2 slots) or running the slot at 16x and not having any m.2 connectivity. Or having at least one m.2 slot switchable between CPU and PCH lanes, which would just be further crazyness.

 

[Phuncz]

That would suck. The LGA115x line already broke with consumer/Xeon cross-compatibility, it'd be a shame to see HEDT do the same.

I dislike this too, the option to be able to use Xeon CPUs on desktop boards and vice-versa appealed to me. Although it seems quite clear to me that Coffee Lake's consumer lineup will probably not have any "K" CPUs, considering the i5 and i7 "K" quad cores are being pushed to HEDT. I'm curious what the end-game plan is.

 

[Biowarejak]

I dislike this too, the option to be able to use Xeon CPUs on desktop boards and vice-versa appealed to me. Although it seems quite clear to me that Coffee Lake's consumer lineup will probably not have any "K" CPUs, considering the i5 and i7 "K" quad cores are being pushed to HEDT. I'm curious what the end-game plan is.

If it doesn't have any K-sku's I might have to reconsider waiting for it. Damn.

 

[CC Ricers]

The only thing I don't like about the x299 CPUs is their high power consumption but that's a given with HEDT specs. What was really bad for many high-end consumers is when Intel eventually cut Xeon compatibility (and usually at lower prices than the i5/i7 counterparts) with the consumer chipsets. I like multi-threaded performance when it can scale when it need to, like this Xeon 10 core L CPU. A modest TDP and base clock but with a good turbo frequency ratio for various applications.

The split is likely to continue with the X299 chipset. X99 was the last consumer chipset that had supported the high-end Xeons.

 

[EdZ]

Although it seems quite clear to me that Coffee Lake's consumer lineup will probably not have any "K" CPUs, considering the i5 and i7 "K" quad cores are being pushed to HEDT. I'm curious what the end-game plan is.

I don't see any reason to not have Coffee Lake -K SKUs. Remember all the nonsense around Haswell (and later Skylake) supposedly not having a -K series, being all BGA lines, being low-power only, etc, that just turned out to be people reading a tiny subset of specsheets and speculating wildly, or just getting plain confused by Broadwell's -C designation (for Crystalwell)? KBL-X are just some existing Kaby Lake dies plonked onto a bigger substrate to pad out the HEDT lineup (and wave the fastest-SP-performance flag which X99 was unable to), not a replacement for the next consumer socket architecture.

 

[|||]

I'm not sure, being able to hook up all the M.2 directly to the CPU is using a new Intel feature, so I presume the RAID support is related. But it's been a long day and I'm hazy on the details for that.

Details at PCWorld.com.

Apparently it is called Virtual RAID On CPU (VROC) and it only works on Skylake-X, not Kaby Lake-X.

If you're using Skylake-X, up to 20 storage devices can be set up into a virtual RAID 0.

If you want the array to be bootable, the storage devices all need to be Intel.

And then, if you want RAID 1, RAID 5, or other RAID options, you need to buy a special dongle with a key that enables "Premium Mode" in the BIOS.

Hmm... So, a nice little M.2-based RAID 5 system drive could be created...?!?

So the answer is yes, but at a TBA price (enterprise feature = enterprise price).

 

[VegetableStu]

The only thing I liked about the article was that Asus outs a 4x M.2 add-in PCIe x16 card. Even as a JBOD adapter at bare minimum. LOL

(also MSI had a 2x version there)

 

[jeshikat]

If you want the array to be bootable, the storage devices all need to be Intel.

Hmm, maybe ASRock can work their BIOS magic and get around that.

And then, if you want RAID 1, RAID 5, or other RAID options, you need to buy a special dongle with a key that enables "Premium Mode" in the BIOS.

Oh god, I've head to deal with dongles for old CAD software before and it's an interesting anti-piracy method until the dongle decides it doesn't want to work for no reason. Then it's an absolute nightmare to deal with.

And now our motherboards have dongles, thanks Intel