SFF.Network ASRock Z270M-STX MXM Micro-STX Motherboard Pictured

This morning we posted about the amazing ASRock DeskMini GTX and DeskMini RX, and now we have shots of the new Micro-STX motherboard that makes this all possible: the ASRock Z270M-STX MXM!

Read more here.

 

[Boil]

I believe somewhere in here it mentioned that the MXM had a 'standard' spacing/mounting pattern for the GPU, 'standard' as in the same as the current 1151 sockets…?

I could see a more refined chassis than the shown mini PC barebones from ASRock, with dual Noctua NH-L9x65 coolers on the CPU & GPU; the extra room needed for the taller coolers would be gained by ditching the ODD / 2.5" SSD area on the ASRock barebones…

Question though (have not bothered to do a simple Google search), does the MXM card have its own 4-pin fan header…?

All in all, an exciting board…!

 

[EdZ]

New I believe somewhere in here it mentioned that the MXM had a 'standard' spacing/mounting pattern for the GPU, 'standard' as in the same as the current 1151 sockets…?

According to the MXM 3.0 technical brief:

The thermal solution is referenced to the GPU die. The thermal attachment holes are 3.2 mm in
diameter placed at the corners of a 46 mm square for both form factors. The GPU must be placed at the center of the square to guarantee mechanical load balancing for any die size. The thermal solution
must cool all the required areas as defined in the specification.

LGA115x uses M4 (4mm) holes in a 75mm square.

 

[BirdofPrey]

Even if the mounting holes were the exact same, would that be a good idea? Remember GDDR runs pretty hot; those and the VRMs need cooled as well.

 

[EdZ]

Even if the mounting holes were the exact same, would that be a good idea? Remember GDDR runs pretty hot; those and the VRMs need cooled as well.

The same solution could be used as with aftermarket GPU coolers for normal PCIe cards: attach a block/heatsink to the GPU itself, then use either individual adhesive heatsinks for the RMA and VRMs, or a unitary heatsink for the specific model/range.

 

[Boil]

Yeah, ent back thru the thread, it was on the barebones thread that I mis-read…

But I will say, I might just forgo building a new gaming PC & just get the DeskMini GTX when it becomes available…!

 

[alamilla]

 

[Phuncz]

For me this is the most revolutionary product of CES 2017 just by the sheer amount of possibilities this realise. I'd love to see this in projects ranging from a passive but powerful HTPC up to a beefy 3D workstation. I'm glad we aren't the only ones that are reporting on this (properly).

 

[lhl]

We all know smaller PC size is market trend, but it's still difficult to push (or lead) customers to try this one.
That's why ASRock looks forward in professional small form factor media (like here).

FWIW, as a SFF enthusiast/VR developer, I'm extremely excited about the possibilities of this form factor - I'd expect that you could easily shave some mm off the design and put this package in a <2L enclosure. It could be more portable than even the smallest VR capable laptops (to my knowledge, by volume and weight, currently the Gigabyte Aero 14), with a bonus of being able to swap between a 19V power supply or lithium-ion battery as the situation called for.

Honestly, I'd swing by Beitou next time I passed through Taipei (or split a box w/ @Josh | NFC to get my hands on one of these.

(I suspect that it's a bit early, but as wireless HMDs (w maybe one more doubling of pixel density) start getting adopted, this "deck" style form factor might grow a lot.)

 

[Boil]

I imagine a version of this designed for the Skylake X / X299 platform, with four (4) SO-DIMM slots, 24-pin MB / 8-pin CPU power connections, & a MXM slot that will take a (…highly hypothetical…) Titan X Pascal MXM card…!

Skylake X CPU, 64GB DDR4 RAM, (3) 2GB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 SSDs in a RAID 5 configuration & a Titan X Pascal GPU…!!

Cube / Tower (…square footprint, like the Silverstone Fortress series…) configuration, SFX PSU on its side under the MB, water blocks on the CPU & GPU; individual AIO for each…!!!

Too much…?

 

[confusis]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11052...x-using-microstx-motherboard-with-mxm-support

Anandtech adds their views..

 

[BirdofPrey]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11052...x-using-microstx-motherboard-with-mxm-support

Anandtech adds their views..

So all our pictures in this piece are from the Small Form Factor Network, and many thanks to them.

WOOT

More subs incoming?

 

[PNP]

On one hand, I am excited that this could make monoblocks much more useful and greatly simplify SFF watercooling.

On the other hand, hasn't MXM been called "dead" multiple times?

 

[Kmpkt]

The reason MXM has been referred to as dead a few times is that laptop OEMs keep fucking it up and building out of spec variants. The purpose of MXM to date has been to enable one OEM to use the same engineering to include the same GPU on multiple models. The reason I believe they then make incompatible boards the next generation is that they don't want to provide customers a convenient GPU upgrade path when they can force them to buy a whole new laptop. For VR and SFF, MXM makes infinitely more sense, especially with the shrinking power requirements with each node reduction.

 

[3lfk1ng]

This particular project is designed in partnership with Intel to help standardize it for MXM desktops like this one. Perhaps @ASRock System can elaborate on this a little bit.

AFAIK, their end goal is to make this a viable option and to remove issues that plagued this platform in the past.

Not saying that it will or even that it will be a success but I am hopeful that pure innovation like this will persist.

 

[PNP]

I thought MXM-SIG controlled the standard? How much influence does Intel have?

Hey, anything to help us move past the last vestiges of the XT era is fine by me.

 

[jeshikat]

How much influence does Intel have?

Intel seems to have their hands in every spec related to PCs.

 

[BirdofPrey]

Many of those industry standards groups contain mostly the same big companies.
The STX form factor that this is derived from is Intel's, though. I suspect that's what 3lfk1ng meant.

Anyways as for MXM, it always seems on again off again for that. Companies seem to dip in and out of advertising upgradability of their laptops, though it's almost never practical, though the standards never really went away. The problem is the standard itself has a LOT of provisions for proprietary solutions just so long as standard stuff still fits. Of course, fitting, and working as intended aren't the same thing.

Non-standard modules can be bigger than standard and/or non-regtangular, and there's a number of signal pins reserved for custom solutions. You can't expect them NOT to make use of that

 

[CC Ricers]

I'd like to see this or another STX board mounted diagonally in a square case. This is what Gigabyte's Brix VR does with their own custom made board. You can get a profile down to approximately 4x4 inches this way.

 

[lhl]

I'd like to see this or another STX board mounted diagonally in a square case. This is what Gigabyte's Brix VR does with their own custom made board. You can get a profile down to approximately 4x4 inches this way.

I saw the Gamers Nexus teardown - it looks like the same form factor as Gigabyte's last-gen Brix Gaming UHD - do you know for sure if it's an STX-sized board or custom (I think it could just fit in the footprint)?

BTW, at 2.54L, you're not saving that much volume, I suppose it just comes down to your footprint preference. Since the video card on the Brix is split, If you sandwiched the boards w/ a custom monoblock/radiator, I bet you could get a dang small (0.5-1L?) custom system going. I wonder how many of those you'd need to sell (and at what price) to make the NRE costs worthwhile...

 

[sergiiua]

Good news - https://www.techpowerup.com/230473/asrock-unveils-the-h110-stx-mxm-motherboard
Product page - http://www.asrock.com/ipc/overview.asp?Model=H110-STX MXM