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

 

[Phuncz]

BTW, has anyone changed their mind on going X299 now that reviews are out on the 7900X?

That power consumption is quite high, a dealbreaker for some SFF builds for sure. I'm hoping the 8-core behaves itself more to allow non-watercooling to be an option. Though it will be interesting to see people squeeze this into a case that's not supposed to be able to handle a TDP that high

 

[Phryq]

FYI, you can make a fanless 1060 with the Accelero S3. That's the most powerful GPU that you can run fanlessly right now, barring some DIY cooler.

But that's not what you're looking for, you probably want a passive 1030. The 1050/1050 Ti is a much better value, but if you absolutely do not need graphics performance then go 1030.

I never game. I do some video editing, but apparently that doesn't actually use the GPU, so I really don't need GPU.

The 1050 requires a fan, yes? I'm trying to make the thing nearly silent. I guess an external GPU means the CPU has less load simply handling the OS DE/GUI, right? So maybe it's good having an external.

How does the 1030 compare to e.g. a laptop i7's onboard graphics?

 

[VegetableStu]

Just to be sure, which video editor are you using?

 

[EdZ]

BTW, has anyone changed their mind on going X299 now that reviews are out on the 7900X?

I was always intending to wait on testing of the i7-7820X with VR workloads to see if it can noticeable raise maximum frametimes compared to the 7700k. If it's worse, then I'd probably rule it out entirely. If it can match or exceed, I'd definitely consider moving to X299.
The i9-7900X is looking pretty decent on the single-threaded front, but we'll see how things work out in practice. The high power is certainly an issue, and means I'd be comparing it to an OCed 7700k rather than base.

 

[chx]

How does the 1030 compare to e.g. a laptop i7's onboard graphics?

Depends on which i7. If you take an ordinary U series chip that will come with HD 620 at best and the GT 1030 is perhaps three times as fast as that. Quad chips perhaps come with HD 630 where the advantage goes down from 200% to ~130% or so. Then if you get to 45W chips you might be getting Iris Pro 580 which is pretty damn close to the 1030. Still, the 1030 will be some 30% faster.

Killing off the Iris Pro was one of the dumbest things Intel did recently. I wonder whether the Ryzen APU will make them reconsider.

 

[QuantumBraced]

Agreed. They should have put quad cores with next-generation Iris Pro graphics in 13" MacBook Pros, they you could conceivably call them "Pro".

 

[Phryq]

Thanks for replying to me even though I'm somewhat off-topic. At the moment I have a Haswell 4800mq (47w i7 from 3 years ago. 22nm).
I'm video editing with Fusion 8 (keying etc.)

 

[QuantumBraced]

Sorry to keep diverging from the topic, but I guess we need something to keep us interested while we wait.

7740X reviews are out and it seems like it can do 5.2GHz at only 1.33 VCore. VCore for VCore, it seems like Kaby Lake-X overclocks 400-500 MHz higher than Z270 Kaby Lake. That's significant, I am a little less upset at Intel now. Is it worth the extra $100 for an X299 board? I don't know... For some people certainly. The board itself is also worth something even if you can't take advantage of it. So... still not good value by any means, but it's not a TOTALLY useless product.

The bigger problem seems to be that b/c the VCore requirements have gone down, there's more overclocking headroom on these high-TDP chips, resulting in a lot more heat, and the bottleneck becomes the stupid thermal paste they use. Delidding seems to be making a huge difference with these chips. Intel... always a love-hate relationship.

 

[jeshikat]

I wonder if having the iGPU fused off combined a higher TDP gives it more thermal headroom to OC better?

Though just as a reminder to anyone who hasn't kept up with the whole thread, the X299E-ITX/ac does NOT support Kaby Lake-X.

 

[QuantumBraced]

Ah good reminder. Is the iGPU just disabled or not present on the die at all?

 

[3lfk1ng]

All these reviews and I'm not seeing much information on thermals... which is kind of strange considering the TIM was a major source of public frustration.

After a little digging however, this was all I was able to come up with and it looks like custom H2O loops (possibly w/ TIM replacement) will be the only way to keep the temperatures low on these CPUs as even at stock clockspeeds, air cooling wasn't enough. That being said, they appear to be terrific overclockers just not good contenders for SFF rigs due to heat.

GURU3D had this to say with the 7900X @ 4.3GHz (stock turbo clocks):

Overall stress/load temperatures are very high with temps at the ~80 C marker. These, of course, are default results and not tweaked. The processor idles at roughly 40 Degrees C. We used a fairly dated but good Corsair H110 here for cooling.

(source)

Toms Hardware had this to say:

Air cooling is completely out of the question if you expect the -7900X to run comfortably under full load.

(source)

PCPerspective has this to say:

With a core voltage of 1.28v I was able to push all cores to a 4.6 GHz and run the system mostly stable. However, temperatures at this point would spike to over 100C (!!) and level off in the mid-90C range, which was too hot for me to run for an extended period with a clear conscious, even with a Corsair H100i GTX as the cooler.

(source)

Summary: At no surprise to anyone at this point, it doesn't look like these will be good processors for SFF based rigs that rely on air, let alone AIO H20 solutions. In two of the very few reviews that actually covered thermals, a 240mm radiator was NOT sufficient for cooling under loads.

A compact Cerberus or NCase build that supports custom H2O loops might better be able to handle the loads if and only if users are willing to void their warranty and replace the cheap stock TIM.

 

[jeshikat]

Ah good reminder. Is the iGPU just disabled or not present on the die at all?

The iGPU is physically there since it's the same die as the 1151 Kaby Lake versions, just permanently disabled.

Air cooling is completely out of the question if you expect the -7900X to run comfortably under full load.

lol, they obviously haven't seen the extremes we push SFF heatsinks to around around here

 

[3lfk1ng]

I have a feeling Intel is in for some major headaches over the next few months due to the crappy TIM being used on their HEDT processors.
*grabs popcorn*

 

[tbronzwaer]

Do you guys recognize that feeling where you spend all your waking hours reading about part specs, then you think you have your perfect build figured out, but then you read something that just takes the wind out of your sails?

Thanks for the info 3lfk1ng. I definitely wasn't expecting a 240 mm AIO to be barely adequate at stock speeds. In fact I almost have a hard time believing that - do you guys think there's any chance at all that driver/firmware updates or some other future development could make a difference?

I wonder if the TIM will be a different story for the Xeons btw.
At any rate, the idea of packing so many powerful cores into an SFF enclosure is just too delicious to abandon.

 

[jeshikat]

I definitely wasn't expecting a 240 mm AIO to be barely adequate at stock speeds. In fact I almost have a hard time believing that

I wouldn't take the water cooling only talk too seriously. People have been saying air cooling isn't viable for HEDT since X58 and it's patently untrue.

Power draw is higher this gen so it'll be more difficult, but I've run a 5930K on a Noctua L9x65 with satisfactory performance.

 

[Phryq]

Buy delidded CPUs with a warranty at http://siliconlottery.com/ !!

Let's ask Larry from HDPlex to make something that can cool this! Or maybe a combo of case-cooling + air cooling.

With one of these you could make a 'cube' that was quite small, but it should be able to cool it no problem, right? (Would need external power brick to fit a cube, so maybe if you want a high end gaming card that's a no go).

Sorry to keep diverging from the topic, but I guess we need something to keep us interested while we wait.

 

[QuantumBraced]

On SL's Delid page, it says:

• Not compatible with Intel Skylake-X CPUs, including the 7800X, 7820X, and 7900X

I guess they don't have the tools/testing/expertise yet?

Yeah, there is no way that a 140W CPU at 1.28 VCore can't be effectively cooled by a 240mm AIO UNLESS the TIM is crap and the cooler has to keep the IHS extra cool to compensate for the poor thermal transfer below the IHS. Heck, the Shadow Rock LP can cool a 5960x at 1.26 VCore. SiliconLottery is about to make a lot of money haha.

It's a little surreal to be bottlenecked by thermals vs. VCore again, I mean it's been quite a few years... But otherwise all the 2066 chips seem to overclock like champions.

 

[Phryq]

Hmmm, too bad. And too bad the board doesn't do Kaby lake.

KabyLake X delidded
Dark Rock
64gb ram
Samsung 960 Pro

In a 5L cube (about 170mm x 170mm x 170mm).

 

[jeshikat]

In a 5L cube (about 170mm x 170mm x 170mm).

It'd be a decent bit bigger than that after accounting for everything.

 

[Phryq]

It'd be a decent bit bigger than that after accounting for everything.

What if it uses an external power brick? Small fan-less GPU? No CD or large hard drives? Build a custom case around it so air can move through through the cooler easily, build a custom case from aluminium, form-fitted to the system (basically a cube with 120mm air intake holes where the cooler fans are).

Using a lower profile fan you could go even smaller, 2.5L