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.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
Really disappointed the didn't add a 2 pin power in connector to the board. Having to use and split voltage to a barrel connector is kind of a pain in the ass.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
Yeah, that would have been nice but at least the M.2 is wired directly to the CPU.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phuncz

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
With M.2 to the CPU, that means a basic riser/adapter will run at 3.0 x4 correct?
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
In theory. There's a much better chance of such an adapter working than if it was wired to the chipset but the only way to know for sure is to try.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,827
4,902
As a low-end board (H110) this is actually pretty OK feature and connector wise. I hope they'll be doing a H170 and Q170 though with proper audio, networking, M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 and a strange but remarkably industry-standard flat-cable header that just says PCIE_X8.
 

QinX

Master of Cramming
kees
Mar 2, 2015
541
374
That dual USB+RJ45 stack and the straight up SODIMM slots make any case designed around this very "thick" or at least thicker that it would need to be. But I can understand that laying those SODIMM slots flat would've meant an increase in board area.

I would've loved to see this with a superslim cooler like that 23mm cooler from silverstone.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
I hope they'll be doing a H170 and Q170 though with proper audio, networking, M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 and a strange but remarkably industry-standard flat-cable header that just says PCIE_X8.

That would be sweet, but I think the networking and M.2 port on this is pretty good. I'm rather surprised they went with an Intel NIC on a board like this actually.

That dual USB+RJ45 stack and the straight up SODIMM slots make any case designed around this very "thick" or at least thicker that it would need to be.

The enclosure it's normally paired with seems designed around the stock Intel heatsink which is probably why they weren't too concerned about height: http://www.asrock.com/news/images/20160108-5.jpg
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,827
4,902
That would be sweet, but I think the networking and M.2 port on this is pretty good. I'm rather surprised they went with an Intel NIC on a board like this actually.
Indeed, usually a Realtek would have been used on H110 boards, but by going Intel and the proper M.2, they might be taken seriously for office use where a NUC would lack high end raw performance.
 
Last edited:

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q70D9GE/?tag=theminutiae-20

The one issue with the BPlus adapter is your GPU with face the opposite direction of the IO on every M.2 enabled device I've tried it on so far (I assume you are buying this to add GPU to Mini-STX?). The AsRock Mini STX is no exception. The one I've listed above will have the GPU and Motherboard IO facing the same way. Finnicky I know, but I reckon trying to build around the BPlus configuration would be quite difficult.

Also while we're talking about this possibility, anyone want to try and figure out how to power the board and a GPU off a single 19V power supply? I still haven't figured this out (but I suck at electronics).
 
Last edited:

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Original poster
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
I'm thinking of having the board backwards, so the BPlus actually works better. Ideally though would be a M.2 to cable to PCIe slot, all in one product, but I haven't found one.

You'd need a 19V AC-DC adapter, and split the output. Half going to the board and the other half going to a PicoPSU or HDPlex to power the GPU.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
Uses SODIMMs instead of standard desktop RAM, on board 19V DC conversion, and has a 65W cap on the CPU TDP. Other than that, I don't think it's wildly different than an ITX.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,827
4,902

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
Would people please pipe up if they notice this for sale anytime in the near future. Keeping an eye on Amazon and Newegg, but so far nothing. Would really like to pick one up to play with. Cheers.
 

iFreilicht

FlexATX Authority
Feb 28, 2015
3,243
2,361
freilite.com
Would people please pipe up if they notice this for sale anytime in the near future. Keeping an eye on Amazon and Newegg, but so far nothing. Would really like to pick one up to play with. Cheers.

There you go, first "seller" in the EU that says it's "coming soon". Just put this page on auto-refresh, that'll help ;)

Uses SODIMMs instead of standard desktop RAM, on board 19V DC conversion, and has a 65W cap on the CPU TDP. Other than that, I don't think it's wildly different than an ITX.

I'd say it is quite different and I'm happy that it exists, but to be of any interest to me, it needs an internal 2-pin header for power input and an option for 12V power input. Get on it, Gigabyte!
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
According to this slide, 12-19V. Looks like this is definitely the one we're waiting for if it has true PCIe 3.0 4x on the M.2. While is says M.2 Socket 3 for SSD, I believe this only means it is PCIe x4, but could be 2.0 or 3.0. Is this correct?

 
Last edited: