Asrock Z87E-ITX

I'm sure it's going to be ridiculously expensive at launch though.

I've still got a Plextor 256GB mSATA SSD as my boot drive myself, and got a great deal on the Crucial 960GB SSD from Amazon and American Express last week. The 960GB one replaces a HDD for my Steam game storage and recorded TV folders. As nice as it would be to get rid of another SATA cable and power connector (though I'd still have the ones for the Blu-ray drive), I doubt it'll be worth it.
 
JoeH823 said:
I'm sure it's going to be ridiculously expensive at launch though.
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My prediction is that it will be priced similar to the 2.5" Evo drives. If anything, maybe just not discounted/rebated/on-sale as much. That's how other mSATA drive pricing seems to me, thinking back on when I bought my two Crucial M4 mSATA.
 
Phuncz said:
New BIOS update !

Version 2.20
1. Update CPU code.
2. Update Intel ME.
3. Hide Intel Turbo Boost Technology if CPU does not support this feature.
4. Change BIOS "Case Open" option default to "Disabled".

Get it here: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87E-ITX/?cat=Download&os=BIOS
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For some reason, the above BIOS update was removed not long after I put this info up.

Now there is a new version:

Version 2.30
1. Add "USB Compatibility Patch" setup option in BIOS.

Get it here: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87E-ITX/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

I don't know if the 2.20 changes are included in the 2.30 version.
 
Another question

Can I fit a Swiftech H220 in the Z87E-ITX or go to the H100i?

Anyone have a pic of a H220 on this motherboard?
 
Zap said:
My prediction is that it will be priced similar to the 2.5" Evo drives. If anything, maybe just not discounted/rebated/on-sale as much. That's how other mSATA drive pricing seems to me, thinking back on when I bought my two Crucial M4 mSATA.
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Speaking of Crucial mSATA drives, there's a deal going on right now at Tiger Direct.

Crucial M500 240GB mSATA
$189.99
-$20 coupon QFU110368 exp.12/17
-$20 rebate exp.12/16
-$20 using v.Me (Visa card required)
=$130 + shipping (nope, no free shipping)

I don't have a Visa card so will be $150+shipping for me. Still considering... I have one 256GB mSATA in my Vostro 3360 notebook and another 256GB mSATA in my ASRock Z77E-ITX. Might be time to buy one to go with my Z87E-ITX. Have to decide if I'm keeping both setups or not.
 
Zap said:
Speaking of Crucial mSATA drives, there's a deal going on right now at Tiger Direct.

Crucial M500 240GB mSATA
$189.99
-$20 coupon QFU110368 exp.12/17
-$20 rebate exp.12/16
-$20 using v.Me (Visa card required)
=$130 + shipping (nope, no free shipping)

I don't have a Visa card so will be $150+shipping for me. Still considering... I have one 256GB mSATA in my Vostro 3360 notebook and another 256GB mSATA in my ASRock Z77E-ITX. Might be time to buy one to go with my Z87E-ITX. Have to decide if I'm keeping both setups or not.
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I went with the same drive myself, but from Amazon. They had it marked at $139 with no rebates so that was more appealing to me. It's $145 pn there now. Was going to wait for the new EVO drives but figured it wouldn't be much real world difference anyway
 
Rozvor said:
Another question

Can I fit a Swiftech H220 in the Z87E-ITX or go to the H100i?

Anyone have a pic of a H220 on this motherboard?
Click to expand...

I will be attempting this soon with a Cooler master 240L. hopefully it will fit.
 
Awww crud, if I had known about the $139 on Amazon... Also, Amazon now charges me tax. Still, I can get it essentially "free" with Amazon GCs. Considering...
 
Rozvor said:
Please post your impressions when you fit the 240L
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I haven't found a way yet to make it fit well with the tubes. They are pretty thick. I mounted it with the inlet/outlet vertical on the right side (Next to ram) and i'm having trouble squeezing the tubes into the case. I will try to remount it soon the other way on the left side - I think it will barely clear the CMOS battery. It will not fit in any horizontal orientation I'm pretty sure, it covers the Ram slots pretty thoroughly. I don't have VLP ram to test however.

I will say you probably want to buy a 3 way PWM splitter to link the pump, and two fans to your CPU fan header. Otherwise there's no way to control the fans. Maybe a 2 way into the Chassis fan header if you don't have any other fans in the system.
 
Does someone use Z87E-ITX with ESXi? What about network card compatibility and VT-d support?
 
the z87e-itx board I got from ncix yesterday is not C2 stepping... have to go exchange it hopefully they got c2 T_T its DECEMBER and they still have non C2..
 
Just went through this C1 / C2 lottery with the Z87M OC Formula. Ordered three of them from Newegg and all three were C1. Returned them and will wait a few more months or maybe just cave and get the Z87E-ITX from SuperBiiz or Microcenter. I know they stock C2 versions of the Z87E-ITX.
 
could not get my hands on a c2 stepping board, guess I will still keep it because it came with 30 MIR .... =(
 
balance101 said:
could not get my hands on a c2 stepping board, guess I will still keep it because it came with 30 MIR .... =(
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Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how can you tell if the board is C2? Just got mine from Newegg, I've read from others that the box will have a "C2 Stepping" sticker. Mine does not, but it does have a "New Version" sticker.
 
hyper.nova said:
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how can you tell if the board is C2? Just got mine from Newegg, I've read from others that the box will have a "C2 Stepping" sticker. Mine does not, but it does have a "New Version" sticker.
Click to expand...

well the c2 sticker on the box should tell you if it is if not you can always use cpuz software to tell.

my local store did not have c2 stepping.. T_T
 
Just finished up my M1 build and have noticed the fan control on this motherboard is uses voltage regulation not PWM. None of my fans attached to a Swiftech splitter are able to be controlled using FAN-Tastic Tuning. Does anyone know the amount of power provided by the Chassis Fan Header or whether it will be able to support 3 fans on a different splitter?

Edit: If the type of fans matter, 2 Cooler Master Blade Masters and 1 Gentle Typhoon AP-15 (1850). Thanks ahead of time for any help.
 
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FreeGordonMan said:
Just finished up my M1 build and have noticed the fan control on this motherboard is uses voltage regulation not PWM. None of my fans attached to a Swiftech splitter are able to be controlled using FAN-Tastic Tuning. Does anyone know the amount of power provided by the Chassis Fan Header or whether it will be able to support 3 fans on a different splitter?

Edit: If the type of fans matter, 2 Cooler Master Blade Masters and 1 Gentle Typhoon AP-15 (1850). Thanks ahead of time for any help.
Click to expand...

usually its 1 amp on mother fan header.

I order a pci fan controller Lian Li PT-FN03. I use 3 pin fans only :D
 
Rozvor said:
Another question

Can I fit a Swiftech H220 in the Z87E-ITX or go to the H100i?

Anyone have a pic of a H220 on this motherboard?
Click to expand...

Seems to fit just fine. I think you could even put it in any orientation you want. I put it this way so there was room for the tubing to go above the RAM. (I haven't quite decided how to route everything yet)

http://imgur.com/a/4HNej#0

FreeGordonMan said:
Just finished up my M1 build and have noticed the fan control on this motherboard is uses voltage regulation not PWM. None of my fans attached to a Swiftech splitter are able to be controlled using FAN-Tastic Tuning. Does anyone know the amount of power provided by the Chassis Fan Header or whether it will be able to support 3 fans on a different splitter?

Edit: If the type of fans matter, 2 Cooler Master Blade Masters and 1 Gentle Typhoon AP-15 (1850). Thanks ahead of time for any help.
Click to expand...

I was testing this all day yesterday with my H220 + splitter. It seems that the sysfan header was using voltage to control the fans when I was using the splitter. When I would plug one of the included fans directly in, it seemed to work without issue. CPU fan header doesn't appear to have this problem.

I was going to test with a Y cable with the sense wire going to one of the fans, but I currently don't have one handy.
 
Rozvor said:
Thanks for the pics man, question solved

Regards
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I can verify this as well. No problems

ZeeKay said:
I was testing this all day yesterday with my H220 + splitter. It seems that the sysfan header was using voltage to control the fans when I was using the splitter. When I would plug one of the included fans directly in, it seemed to work without issue. CPU fan header doesn't appear to have this problem.

I was going to test with a Y cable with the sense wire going to one of the fans, but I currently don't have one handy.
Click to expand...

I also posted this in the M1 thread but my cpu header yesterday went out and seems to be stuck at 100%. I thought maybe using the chasis fan header and the H220 splitter would work but like you mentioned, it's running 100% no matter what. So maybe tread with caution? I only had the H220 pump plugged into it for 1.5 months
 
You sure its not just set at 100% in the bios/settings? You can use the fan app to adjust the levels.

I ended up splicing the two fans together at the ground, voltage, and pwm wires, and left one for the sense. Basically how the H220 splitter works, but at the pin level. Seems to work just fine.
 
ZeeKay said:
You sure its not just set at 100% in the bios/settings? You can use the fan app to adjust the levels.

I ended up splicing the two fans together at the ground, voltage, and pwm wires, and left one for the sense. Basically how the H220 splitter works, but at the pin level. Seems to work just fine.
Click to expand...

Yeah, very sure it's not set to 100%. It's been working great for quite awhile, but now wont adjust at all as of this am :(
 
So the Z87E-ITX has weak fan headers / they're easy to overpower / blow out?
 
lemkeant said:
Yeah, very sure it's not set to 100%. It's been working great for quite awhile, but now wont adjust at all as of this am :(
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Tried clearing the cmos? There's a nice button on the back that makes it easy.

EDIT: I just saw your post, and that you tried clearing the CMOS already. That just seems a really weird problem to have. Does there appear to be anything wrong with the cable/header physically? Like a pin not making contact?

Synomenon said:
So the Z87E-ITX has weak fan headers / they're easy to overpower / blow out?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that yet. The problems I was having with the fan was just weirdness where it was switching to voltage control rather than PWM. With splicing two fans into one header, its working perfectly (just running one sense cable, all others are crimped together). So its powering two fans directly off a single header with no problems.
 
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ZeeKay said:
EDIT: I just saw your post, and that you tried clearing the CMOS already. That just seems a really weird problem to have. Does there appear to be anything wrong with the cable/header physically? Like a pin not making contact?
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I even downgraded the BIOS to make sure. Nothing.

As you know, with the H220, the cable is nicely sleeved and in great shape. So no problems there.

On the oher hand, the H220 doesnt run too bad with 1 fan on full blast and the other one off to help with noise :D
 
hyper.nova said:
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how can you tell if the board is C2? Just got mine from Newegg, I've read from others that the box will have a "C2 Stepping" sticker. Mine does not, but it does have a "New Version" sticker.
Click to expand...

So did you ever find out if the one you received with the "New Version" sticker was C2 or not?
 
Synomenon said:
So did you ever find out if the one you received with the "New Version" sticker was C2 or not?
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Yup, finally got my replacement motherboard as mentioned in my other thread and got everything built last night. In the BIOS, Chipset Version is reported as C2.
 
Does anyone know if it is possible to set a hard drive password with this motherboard so I can secure my SSD with encryption? I don't seem to see a setting for this, but maybe I am missing it.
 
hyper.nova said:
Yup, finally got my replacement motherboard as mentioned in my other thread and got everything built last night. In the BIOS, Chipset Version is reported as C2.
Click to expand...

Wait, so you returned the one that had the "New Version" sticker on it? It wasn't a C2?
 
Synomenon said:
Wait, so you returned the one that had the "New Version" sticker on it? It wasn't a C2?
Click to expand...

No, no, no...sorry I have another thread going about a build that won't POST. It turned out the motherboard was bad so I had to send it back. I just got the replacement and everything works now. Both had the "New Version" sticker so both were C2.
 
Trying not to be dense here;

So both of the ones you received that had the "New Version" sticker INSTEAD of the "C2" sticker, are C2 boards?
 
Synomenon said:
Trying not to be dense here;

So both of the ones you received that had the "New Version" sticker INSTEAD of the "C2" sticker, are C2 boards?
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Yes, I believe so...the first would not POST so I can't officially confirm, but I would assume seeing as the second had the "New Version" sticker as well and I can confirm the BIOS reports C2.
 
Just some additional info for you all. I got my board from NewEgg. No C2 sticker on the box but it does have a blue "New Version" circle on the front. If I'm reading CPU-Z correctly mine is actually revision 6 (not 4 or 5) and does have C2 stepping...

MB.jpg


Edit: I also managed to hit 4.6 with ease :)
 
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Anyone have appcharger working with this board? I have tried adjusting every setting I can think of and still can't get it to charge my moto x while in sleep mode.
 
Yeah no problem, my iPad 3rd gen and iPhone 5 both charge with AppCharger, through the USB 3.0 front ports.
 
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