Anandtech ASRock X99 M-ITX board

*The worlds heaviest breathing ever!*

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9081/...x-haswell-e-at-cebit-x99e-itx-ac-with-usb-3-1
There is bundled dual-stream 802.11ac wifi, along with dual Intel network controllers and SATA Express. USB 3.1 is also supported through two Type-A ports, presumably using the ASMedia controller we previously tested on other motherboards. The box also mentions Ultra M.2, which means PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes for an M.2 slot and looking at the board it seems to be located between the socket and the SATA Express ports. With all those PCIe lanes to spare, it makes sense to use them in this fashion.


Man I want this board. The only shameful things is only 2 DIMMs.
Note how it using a different Socket pitch.
For 2011 there is Standard and Narrow and this board uses the Narrow pitch for the CPU Cooler
 
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PlayfulPhoenix

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Wow, I pretty much figured that this would never be done :eek:

Limited to two memory slots as you'd expect, and the socket is narrow (limiting cooler compatibility), but otherwise it includes pretty much everything you could ask for. They even throw in an air cooler!

I wonder what the pricing and timeframe will be for this. And if other board manufacturers will jump in...
 

jeshikat

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Feb 22, 2015
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Wow, that was unexpected. After Asus and EVGA both dismissed Mini-ITX X99 I had given up on it.
 

jeshikat

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I'm thinking about an adapter to fit H80i in this. What do you think?

I don't see why it wouldn't work, I expect a few manufacturers will make such adapters if this board turns out to be popular.
 

4RTEX

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Feb 24, 2015
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This is quite surprising that it was quicker in many tests actually. I was expecting otherwise.

I don't have any knowledge about that, but it's hard for me to believe that that cpu they used wouldn't be any faster in games than i7 4790. What about all the physics calculations? It's not about GHz any more these days.
 

jeshikat

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Games are getting better at using multiple threads but that's more dual-core vs quad-core. Going from 4 to 8 cores still isn't that beneficial for the vast majority of games.
 

PlayfulPhoenix

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Most games only utilize up to four threads anyway. Properly handling threads across more and more cores (virtual or not) gets very complicated very quickly, and game developers have little incentive to work on it when the benefits are so minor, and affect so few.

That said, four threads is slowly becoming a performance floor: Far Cry 4 and a few other games have started to require quad-core processors, and that will become more common in time. A bit of a shame, too, since budget builds with overclocked Pentiums and other cheap dual-core processors now have a bit of an expiry date.
 

jeshikat

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Well, an unlocked quad would just be an i5 K-series. What they should do is release an unlocked i3.
 

Phuncz

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Very interesting board for SFF when combined with a good Closed Loop Cooler. I'm anxious to see builds with these and see what limits people can reach with them.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
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Feb 22, 2015
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Very interesting board for SFF when combined with a good Closed Loop Cooler. I'm anxious to see builds with these and see what limits people can reach with them.

Will be on Youtube in two weeks but if you're a Vessel member, Linus built with this board using the E5-2699 v3 (18C/32T), 2 x 16GB ECC RAM, dual Intel 730 SSDs, and a Titan X and stuffed it all inside the new SilverStone SG13: https://www.vessel.com/videos/Gdb2u0UqC

Interestingly, they got the bracket it comes with working with a Corsair H80i.

 

Phuncz

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Excellent news, with cooling al but sorted out, this makes for a very interesting platform. I remember Necere not having any issues with the 450W SFX PSU being (back then) the top end for using a full length GPU in the Ncase M1 because X99 wasn't available on mITX. And here we are, with 18-core 145W TDP CPU's :D

I will be looking forward to the Nova though, X99 still seems like a compromise on mITX (one PCIe slot and 2 memory slots) so for dual-wielding some GPU's, it's still mATX that reigns supreme.
 

PlayfulPhoenix

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Excellent news, with cooling al but sorted out, this makes for a very interesting platform. I remember Necere not having any issues with the 450W SFX PSU being (back then) the top end for using a full length GPU in the Ncase M1 because X99 wasn't available on mITX. And here we are, with 18-core 145W TDP CPU's :D

I will be looking forward to the Nova though, X99 still seems like a compromise on mITX (one PCIe slot and 2 memory slots) so for dual-wielding some GPU's, it's still mATX that reigns supreme.

It's funny how everyone who wanted it, basically expected that it would never be available. And, now that it is, we're all like, "Yes!... wait... what now?".

I'm just happy that the option exists at all - although I do think that most who want LGA 2011 also want lots of memory and expandability (which mITX can never really support, relatively speaking), I'm sure there are some who can now have their needs met on the smaller standard. Which is great, for everyone involved.
 

4RTEX

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Feb 24, 2015
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That bracket kind of looked to me like it would fit common corsair aios. I'm personally interested to know when this would be available to buy. I can live with 2 slots of ddr4 and 1 pcie. I just can't wait for some other firm to try to build one like this.