SFF.Network [SFF Network] ASRock announces the H110M-STX motherboard

While ASRock showed off a Mini-PC utilizing this motherboard at CES this year, it wasn't clear then if the motherboard would be available for purchase by itself. Well, today ASRock is announcing the standalone H110M-STX motherboard! While John may be dubious on the use case for Mini-STX, I think there's modding potential for ultra small gaming builds by way of M.2 to PCIe slot adapters (which hopefully will work with this board).

Read more here.

 

[iFreilicht]

Of course they fucking did. Well done, Gigabyte!

 

[jeshikat]

The Deskmini 110W (the barebone kit with this motherboard, case, 120W AC adapter, and two SATA cables) is in stock on Newegg for $140: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856158048

Of course they fucking did. Well done, Gigabyte!

I'm waiting to hear back on date and price for NA, but Europe seems to be getting that Gigabyte mid-October.

 

[veryrarium]

Here are a few tweets from an Akiba shop on the CPU cooler compatibility for the ASRock H110M-STX ASRock inside the DeskMini 110:
They say both Silverstone NT08-115X and Noctua NH-L9i have no clearance issue with on-board components (barely clear off the silver heatsink on the right side of the CPU socket) but NT08-115X is 48mm tall and is a bit too tall to fit inside the DeskMini 100 case, a 45mm tall cooler will probably fit. I threw them a question regarding the 47mm tall Cryorig C7 to see if they'll take time to check that out.

ETA: They checked C7 upon my request:
They said three issues shown in the photos: 1) simply too tall; 2) the C7 backplate not fitting with the stock aluminum backplate; 3) mounting screws too long.

Also, there's already someone else who tried an NH-L9i heatsink (23mm tall) with the stock 14mm thick fan replaced with a 25mm thick fan (with the total 48mm tall), and he reported that this combo actually did fit in the case once he trimmed parts of the fan frame that hit the hooks on the case when sliding the mobo tray back in. He said the hooks protrude by 2 to 3 mm, so 45mm is the max height of a cooler that can be tucked in the case without modding. (Those circled with orange in the image below.)

I personally don't like the way ASRock (or whoever the case was outsourced to) designed the case for opening/closing, as it looks like the top panel isn't removable by simple unscrewing, which means this tray sliding system prevents us from sticking our fingers in the case while sliding the whole system back in to keep the floating (unguided) portion of the front power switch cable away from the fan on the CPU heatsink. I try to believe they chose the length of the cable so that the floating portion will not reach fan blades, at least with the stock Intel cooler, but I don't completely trust them.

 

[iFreilicht]

Funny how things fit together so well when everyone adheres to the standard. Who would've thought?

 

[jeshikat]

It's so tiny! Or this CaseLabs is huge. Or both

 

[Phuncz]

Maybe you should ship the Kimera Cerberus inside old ATX cases filled with foam nuggets, just because trollin'.

 

[jeshikat]

Ha! As if we don't get enough complaints from you Europeans about shipping price

 

[Phuncz]

Very true

 

[jeshikat]

MSRP on this board will be $82.99, no word on availability though.

 

[Kmpkt]

The ASUS board is also available for purchase now if people want it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...08-20&linkId=0d02da0ce26cd09900ba84037b9c46a9

 

[jeshikat]

Bah, that one doesn't have an onboard power connector either. Nice to see more options popping up though.

 

[BirdofPrey]

I keep thinking that on a board that small, they really should start going with the narrow type mount that most server boards. I know there's not a whole lot of cooling options available there, and most of those aren't exactly consumer solutions (again, server boards mainly, so mainly server cooling units; loud but effective), but the keepout zone takes up a rather large portion of the board.

We have seen a couple ITX boards go that route in the past and ship a cooler with the board for compatibility reasons..

 

[jeshikat]

I think as a cheaper, more flexible alternative to the NUC it makes sense to sacrifice board space to maintain compatibility with standard coolers.

 

[K888D]

Asus are about to release their own STX motherboard:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asu...ie-sata)-dual-intel-realtek-gbe-usb-30-aplusc

 

[jeshikat]

Only PCIe 2.0 x4 on the M.2, that's a shame.

 

[Kmpkt]

Yeah. This board has already been listed for a couple/few weeks on various sites, but the PCIe 2.0 was a killer. I hope the Gigabyte doesn't do x2 PCIe as well since it looks to be the only board coming out with a 2 pin internal power header.

 

[K888D]

How much does that limit the storage speeds by? Are we talking back down to Sata III speeds?

 

[jeshikat]

PCIe 2.0 x4 has a real-world max speed of about 1600MB/s (megabytes). Still fast, but the Samsung SM961 can do 3200MB/s sequential read.

 

[K888D]

Ah ok, I've got a Samsung PM951 that is reaching 1500MB/s sequential on the Gigabyte B150N Pheonix. So that should work to its full potential under PCIe 2.0 then.

 

[ASRock System]

Only PCIe 2.0 x4 on the M.2, that's a shame.

Hmm...

Let me clarify this... ASRock H110M-STX motherboard supports Ultra M.2 within PCIe Gen3 x4 lanes from CPU directly.
So, there is possibility of supporting add-on PCIe card!

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