Asrock launches X99 ITX board!

Boomstick777 · 13 Mar 2015 at 13:14

X99 Mini ITX: ASRock to Debut mini-ITX Haswell-E at CeBit: X99E-ITX/ac with USB 3.1

Yup mini-ITX X99 !!!!!!!!! :eek:

6 and 8 core CPU monsters in Mini-ITX !!

I always love to see interesting deviations to the norm when it comes to motherboards, and something such as a mini-ITX based extreme system has been at the top of my list for many years. We never saw a mini-ITX X79 system (the nearest was an extended mini-ITX from Shuttle) but now ASRock has gone head first into the X99 plus mini-ITX arena, showing their first model at CeBIT later this month.

http://anandtech.com/show/9081/asrock-to-debut-mini-itx-haswell-e-at-cebit-x99e-itx-ac-with-usb-3-1

Boomstick777 · 13 Mar 2015 at 13:16

This will be hard to resist !!!!!!!

VincentHanna · 13 Mar 2015 at 13:37

I love ITX systems, but I seriously don't see the point in this.

You are limited to Dual Channel memory for a start. And for gamers the normal Haswell is just as good, unless you use multiple GPU's.

And this only has 1x PCI Express slot, so that point become moot.

Dave2150 · 13 Mar 2015 at 13:38

Good news for those wanting small factor PC's, thread belongs in the motherboard section though I think

ALXAndy · 13 Mar 2015 at 13:48

VincentHanna said:
I love ITX systems, but I seriously don't see the point in this.

You are limited to Dual Channel memory for a start. And for gamers the normal Haswell is just as good, unless you use multiple GPU's.

And this only has 1x PCI Express slot, so that point become moot.

TBH dropping from quad to dual channel memory would not have any affect on gaming. Nor would only one PCIE slot, as most people run a single GPU.

What does concern me are the VRMs or lack of. I don't think you'll be doing much overclocking on this and HE CPUs have lame stock clocks.

/checks date.. Nope, not April the 1st yet so should be real..

Boomstick777 · 13 Mar 2015 at 13:49

VincentHanna said:
I love ITX systems, but I seriously don't see the point in this.

You are limited to Dual Channel memory for a start. And for gamers the normal Haswell is just as good, unless you use multiple GPU's.

And this only has 1x PCI Express slot, so that point become moot.

Yeah I agree it's definitely not aimed at the mass market, but there are plenty of guys who use Mini-ITX and would choose Enthusiast CPU over mainstream, i.e No crappy TIM or integrated graphics wasting die space, extra cores etc.

This won't be for everyone, personally will really consider a Mini-ITX, X99, Broadwell -E, 8 core build over the mainstream stuff..

Dave2150 · 13 Mar 2015 at 14:09

Boomstick777 said:
Yeah I agree it's definitely not aimed at the mass market, but there are plenty of guys who use Mini-ITX and would choose Enthusiast CPU over mainstream, i.e No crappy TIM or integrated graphics wasting die space, extra cores etc.

This won't be for everyone, personally will really consider a Mini-ITX, X99, Broadwell -E, 8 core build over the mainstream stuff..

You'll probably be waiting until the end of 2016 for Broadwell-E, at the current rate of new Intel desktop CPU's.

Boomstick777 · 13 Mar 2015 at 14:18

Dave2150 said:
You'll probably be waiting until the end of 2016 for Broadwell-E, at the current rate of new Intel desktop CPU's.

Yeah that will be alright tbh, that way I can stick with what I've got now (Z97 / DDR3) and chuck in a Broadwell chip this year to get temps down a bit. Then later next year move to X99 and Broadwell -E. That seems a better option for me than Skylake tbh, as Skylake seems to be all about integrated graphics which I have no interest in my gaming PC.

Good to know we'll have the option for X99 on Mini-ITX as well.

Perfect_Chaos · 13 Mar 2015 at 14:29

If i didn't already have a new case i might've considered this, but i don't really need a compact pc. Already got some x99 stuff coming today too.

Ayahuasca · 13 Mar 2015 at 14:32

Is it worth buying into the X99 platform at this point. I'm guessing some future CPUs are going to be released on it?

Boomstick777 · 13 Mar 2015 at 14:38

Perfect_Chaos said:
If i didn't already have a new case i might've considered this, but i don't really need a compact pc. Already got some x99 stuff coming today too.

Yeah if you don't need a small form factor, then X99 in a big case is ideal. My last PC CM690III which I gave to my boys was a 5820K with Corsair H105, temps were brilliant. Having that extra room for large AIO and big fan intakes is great.

I only went Mini-ITX due to not having room for the big case anymore. It's a nice little PC for sure but if I had the room it would be full ATX X99 and mahooosive case all the way

VincentHanna · 13 Mar 2015 at 15:02

I have an ATX X99 system with Tri-fire and a small Z87 mITX (Ncase M1) system with Geforce 980GTX.

Best of both worlds

Dave2150 · 13 Mar 2015 at 15:11

ALXAndy said:
TBH dropping from quad to dual channel memory would not have any affect on gaming. Nor would only one PCIE slot, as most people run a single GPU.

What does concern me are the VRMs or lack of. I don't think you'll be doing much overclocking on this and HE CPUs have lame stock clocks.

/checks date.. Nope, not April the 1st yet so should be real..

Doubt anyone will be doing any overclocking on this board without an extremely loud fan noise:

In order to save space, ASRock has used the narrow version of the LGA2011-3 socket (many thanks to liu_d for the spot), which we saw in the our MD60-SC0 review. This narrow socket is incompatible with regular LGA2011-3 coolers, and the number of narrow-ILM CPU coolers on the market is usually limited to servers or OEMs. It would also seem that ASRock is bundling a CPU cooler with the board in order to ensure this is not an issue for the user – this looks like a 2U server cooler, but should be sufficient for 140W CPUs as long as no serious overclocking takes place. These coolers can be loud, but ASRock’s software package comes with fan controller tools both in the BIOS and in software.

4790k/Broadwell-K 65w will be a far more suitable CPU for a small factor PC imo.

ALXAndy · 13 Mar 2015 at 15:34

Ayahuasca said:
Is it worth buying into the X99 platform at this point. I'm guessing some future CPUs are going to be released on it?

It's always worth buying into Intel's high end. Put simply, due to the lack of competition from AMD, they stay main stream for ages.

The 3930k and better (the extremes) and 4930k still cannot be beaten for multi threading and multi threaded benchmarks.

I'd love to go ITX but I rely on SLI for 4k so not for me. What I may try and do is hunt down a good X79 MATX and go full water.

cheesyboy · 13 Mar 2015 at 17:12

A bit of a niche market, you would think, but Asrock is introducing a socket 2011-3 ITX board;
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9081/...x-haswell-e-at-cebit-x99e-itx-ac-with-usb-3-1

Comes with a custom cooler, as it takes the narrow 2011 cooler, rather than standard 2011 fitting. Bit of a downer, that.

Mr. May · 13 Mar 2015 at 18:16

totally pointless

ubersonic · 14 Mar 2015 at 14:04

FINALLY!

Just saw this

It was a real shame shuttle decided not to make a successor to their ITX X79 board, but now you can get one and you don't have to buy a whole bare bones just for the board

ASUS must be feeling like idiots now because people have been asking them for this on the RoG forums since X99 was announced and they have maintained that it's not worth it, there's no market, etc. Now they get to watch somebody else corner the niche lol.

This will be great for everybody who want's more than 4 cores but doesn't want a huge system

cheesyboy said:
Comes with a custom cooler, as it takes the narrow 2011 cooler, rather than standard 2011 fitting. Bit of a downer, that.

Well, it will probably get a board specific waterblock released by EK/BP/whoever which will have the advantage of cooling the CPU/VRM/PCH all with one block like they have made for Z97 ITX boards, so not being able to bolt on a H100 may be a tad annoying, but the should be options.

Plus you can just zip tie an AIO to it anyway lol.

PurplePhoenix · 14 Mar 2015 at 17:42

Awesome , but pointless until you can get 16GB ddr4 sticks IMO.

ubersonic · 14 Mar 2015 at 18:20

PurplePhoenix said:
Awesome , but pointless until you can get 16GB ddr4 sticks IMO.

You can get 16GB DDR4 sticks...

Telecaster · 14 Mar 2015 at 20:23

Whilst I applaud any ITX developments, this one seems a bit pointless, even more so when you consider the cooler restraints as mentioned above.