I have received two sets of ASRockRack X570D4I-2T, Ryzen 9 3950X (got it at a VERY good price) and 4 x 32GB ECC 3200 SODIMMs (via Newegg) I have run it on a test bench with an ASUS X299 4 x NVME expansion card (for testing bifurcation). I will upload some photos and a better review soon. Some early things to note for the uninitiated/interested:
1. It requires an Intel 115X cooler (i.e. NOT an AM4) and the backside mount (with pin female threads that poke through MB) appears to be glued on.
So many coolers that require their own screws from the bottom "may" not work (I am too scared to rip the base plate off) as the motherboard is super expensive @ $800 AUD (mostly because it includes so many extra features like the dual X550 10Gbits NICs and BMC/IPMI with iKVM).
I am using a 140 NZXT Kraken water cooler as it works with the premounted plate. I could not fit many of the Noctua and IT coolers I have in stock.
2. Another issue is that there are minimal USB ports. For instance, with the aforementioned watercooler, I could not plug in the USB connection and had to resort to a hacked USB3 to USB2 4 pin header adapter in the rear port (luckily I had one around). The motherboard has no USB2 header at all. Worse there "appears" to be one at a glance but is actually an ITX Auxillary Panel Header. This I initially I suspect "may" include one USB2 port but alas it is only for 4 additional LEDs for LAN 1/2, case open and system fault. Another header that is less easy to mistake for USB2 is reserved for a TPM module. Alternatively, with a suitable adapter, you could use one of the USB2 ports available on the USB3 internal header, but that would potentially sacrifice a case front panel USB port. Leaving just 3 USB 3 ports in total, one on the front and a double one on the rear. This could probably be rectified which some witchcraft by intervening on the USB 2 side with a USB2 switch and then plumbing one of those ports back out to the front give 4 USB3 ports in total and at least 2 or 3 internal ones.
I set up my "workstation" install with a USB stick in one and a USB wireless Keyboard/Mouse in the other rear. Then once the OS was running I pulled the USB stick and plugged in the watercooler (without the USB the fan runs at full speed all the time)
3. A scan of the BIOS shows many more fine controls than I have ever seen before. There is an unexpected option: Fastboot (still seem to be rather slow compared to normal PCs as the BMC seems to still need to initiate/start (even though there is a "no wait" option I set in the bios). Be sure to turn off the BMC networking port if you don't use it otherwise a long timeout awaits you. The first time it seems to take forever as you don't know (not sure) what is going on.
4. I have not been able to find any ECC settings or ECC error log yet. Still looking (it is a VERY extensive BIOS)!
Mostly on the good side:
5. The BIOS has many options, as yet I have no idea if they all work. There appear to be some options that probably should not be there, kind of a way for ASRock to make the server bios updates easier across different motherboard models one might presume. So some of the help texts also seem problematic/misleading at best.
6. The x16 has all the bifurcation options one would expect (i.e. x4+x4+x4+x4; x4+x4+x8; x8+x4+x4; x8+x8). I have tested a few at the stage. These will change with less capable CPUs. All the APU Ryzens (with the builtin GPUs) do not support bifurcation and will have no GPU video exit; if they work at all.
7. Unlike many server BIOSes there appear to be a full suite of overclocking tools (I have not tested yet), probably because it is targetted at workstations also.
8. The 2 of 4x OCulink ports are able to be switched in at least two different BIOS settings (a little confusing) from PCIe (default) to 4 x SATA III. As others have mentioned these can be extended to PCIe 4.0 NVME x4 or even used with a suitable adapter as ways to add other expansion options. Like additional networking or USB 3.1/3.2 as required. Alternatively, these expansions could be bifurcated off the PCIe x16 with suitable active adapters and cables leaving a Gen 4.0 PCIe x8 which is more than enough for a future GPU (i.e. RTX30_0). Note: these x4 ports come off the X570 southbridge and not directly off the CPU, so they are constrained by sharing 4 x 4.0 PCI lanes with the dual 10Gbit Ethernet and the internal USB 3.1 header. So they are better when NOT used for NVME. In a workstation, you might want to run a PCIe audio card and/or additional USB3 off of one. In a NAS/Server you would probably best use one for 4 x SSD/HDD SATA III storage drives.
9. The motherboard box comes supplied with one OCulink to 4 x SATA cable and a 4Pin Molex takeoff cable that "can" be used to provide power to up to 4x SATA drives. This is kind of neat and a nice touch for a compact system build.
10. The power supply is almost ALL supplied via one 8 way ATX12V2 connector (theoretically at least that can be 4 x 15A x 12V = 700W). A 400W SFX has been enough so far. The box comes with another 20/24pin adapter that hooks up to a special ATX4PIN1 connector that provides only a GND, Power ON/Enable, +5VSB (standby) and Power Good (feedback).
More soon. Ask for requests if you like.
9.
