X99 on mITX: ASRock X99E-itx/ac

SaperPL said:
In case you didn't notice - the board will ship with water cooler mounting bracket:

X99E-ITXac_w_600.jpg


http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-x99e-itx-ac-mini-itx-motherboard,28831.html
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OH WOW! Nice find! Don't think that bracket was mentioned in the initial release info. Looks like a much more solid buy now! Other no quad channel for the DDR4, everything else seems solid. Can't wait until reviews comes out.
 
Indeed, that is new ! But good, now it can serve as a compact workstation build without producing rackserver-like noise.
 
If somebody could do a quick benchmark suite on dual- versus quad-channel on 2011v3, that'd be fantastic for this board (and it's marketshare).
 
So if i put 2 ram modules of 16gb each,a 8 core intel and a high end gpu woud there be any chokes on the system?I know its still not out but im not sure if the motherboard will handle the ram.
 
There is already almost no real benefit to go from 8GB to 16GB just for games, 32GB is not going to improve anything. Going from a quad-core i7 to an octo-core i7 is going to be massively dependant on the game and most likely <10% difference with a single GPU. You would basically pay about $ or &#8364; 1,000-1,400 more for the same difference a GPU overclock could achieve. Unless you play 4K and your idea of a high-end card is a Titan X, but I guess everything's possible if you keep throwing money at it.
 
I'm more interested in the 4 slots for a VM host with 32 or 64gb ram, as you're almost always ram limited for virtualization
 
Is the included water-cooling mounting bracket ONLY compatible with the Cooler Master Seidon 120V?

Can I use it with a Corsar h100i or other Cooler Master option?
 
Titansfan said:
Is the included water-cooling mounting bracket ONLY compatible with the Cooler Master Seidon 120V?

Can I use it with a Corsar h100i or other Cooler Master option?
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At teh very least you could use it as a template to get one made up for one of those coolers.
 
Phuncz said:
There is already almost no real benefit to go from 8GB to 16GB just for games, 32GB is not going to improve anything. Going from a quad-core i7 to an octo-core i7 is going to be massively dependant on the game and most likely <10% difference with a single GPU. You would basically pay about $ or € 1,000-1,400 more for the same difference a GPU overclock could achieve. Unless you play 4K and your idea of a high-end card is a Titan X, but I guess everything's possible if you keep throwing money at it.
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I was going to use it as a portable workstation(cpu rendering)and thats why was wandering if i plug 32gb in to this will the motherboard be able to keep up.
 
Curiositie said:
At teh very least you could use it as a template to get one made up for one of those coolers.
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It's just a bit weird, because the ASRock website does not mention the cooler master 120V exclusive compatibility whatsoever in the text or in the video. Both just say "water cooling mounting plate." The ASRock website even says the user "...may choose their desired solution for keeping cool." http://www.asrock.com/news/index.asp?id=2710

The Tom's Hardware article seems to imply it can only be installed on the cooler master 120V AIO though, which is very odd. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-x99e-itx-ac-mini-itx-motherboard,28831.html
 
Titansfan said:
It's just a bit weird, because the ASRock website does not mention the cooler master 120V exclusive compatibility whatsoever in the text or in the video. Both just say "water cooling mounting plate." The ASRock website even says the user "...may choose their desired solution for keeping cool." http://www.asrock.com/news/index.asp?id=2710

The Tom's Hardware article seems to imply it can only be installed on the cooler master 120V AIO though, which is very odd. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-x99e-itx-ac-mini-itx-motherboard,28831.html
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Check this video out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZiFBwhZZvQ

At 0:53, it says "so that it supports water cooling, also by Cooler Master"

I feel like, they collaborated with CM, and in fact CM threw this bracket in, to support only their AIO solutions. I might be wrong, but all signs indicate that...

Edit: I think I just confirmed it. Go here: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99E-ITXac/
Scroll down, midway on the page it says "* Compatible with Cooler Master Seidon 120V Plus/120V CPU Coolers. "

Edit 2: You can also see the said bracket here: http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-liquid-cooler/seidon-120v-plus/
 
theGryphon said:
Check this video out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZiFBwhZZvQ

At 0:53, it says "so that it supports water cooling, also by Cooler Master"

I feel like, they collaborated with CM, and in fact CM threw this bracket in, to support only their AIO solutions. I might be wrong, but all signs indicate that...

Edit: I think I just confirmed it. Go here: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99E-ITXac/
Scroll down, midway on the page it says "* Compatible with Cooler Master Seidon 120V Plus/120V CPU Coolers. "

Edit 2: You can also see the said bracket here: http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-liquid-cooler/seidon-120v-plus/
Click to expand...

Yeah you're right, actually should have been obvious from the get-go as most of the waterblocks are all different shapes.

This bracket will only support a square waterblock of the following dimensions: 62 x 62 x 36.4 mm

So the Cooler Master 120V or 120V plus. None of the other Cooler Master products fit those dimensions.

The newest H100i GTX is an octagonal shape so that won't work, but the older H100i is a square, I just can't find the dimensions for it. I wouldn't bet my paycheck that it would be compatible however.

As for the 120V Plus itself, it doesn't look all that impressive. Good review is here: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2744&page=1
I'm not sure if replacing the fan with a Noctua equivalent would yield better or quieter performance however.

Regardless, it seems that the "free" bracket that is being included is not compatible with anything else, so the choice really boils down to the Seidon 120V plus or the Noctua Air coolers.

Edit: Not sure if there is any real difference between the two regardless, but I can't actually find the "Plus" variant available for sale anywhere.
 
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majic12 said:
I was going to use it as a portable workstation(cpu rendering)and thats why was wandering if i plug 32gb in to this will the motherboard be able to keep up.
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You also said a "high end gpu" which made me assume it was for gaming. If it's for CPU rendering, the X99 will offer a lot more rendering power and if you need 32GB of RAM, it will be able to do that too ofcourse.
 
Phuncz said:
You also said a "high end gpu" which made me assume it was for gaming. If it's for CPU rendering, the X99 will offer a lot more rendering power and if you need 32GB of RAM, it will be able to do that too ofcourse.
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Thanks and my bad.By gpu i was probably gona pick a w7100 which is a r9 285 or if i have the cash a w8100 which shoud be close to a r9 290.Better for me to just sit and wait for the first review ;)
 
x99 itx.... AWESOME!! this will probably be my next board. I do freelance software and 3d work and its a blessing to be able to bring my own shoebox size machine when working on-site. I was almost ready to leave ITX for my next build because I was running out of RAM and want a pci ssd down the road but this will save me! :D

Probably could wait and get a skylake itx board with m.2 and 32G ram but the extra cores mmmmyesss please!
 
It's really not a massive job to have a bracket made to support all the asetek based AIOs.

Fractal's Kelvin series also has a square pump of dimensions 69 x 69 x 40, the seidon is 62 x 62 x 36 so could be similar mounting holes.
 
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Its available for preoder in some european countries as well, but it seems to be much more expensive than stated at ces 2015. prices ranges around 360-400€ instead of around 250€.

That is a huge extra, if it is going to cost nearly as much as the 5820k i wanted to put on it...
 
Guys ... quoting pre-order Euro prices? Didn't notice the value of the Euro versus the Taiwan Dollar dropped by 20-25%? New products made in the far east are all going to get more expensive.

GBP price is broadly inline with US price + 20% VAT.

Also, compare price with other LGA2011-3 high end workstation boards, not with LGA1150 boards.
 
I'm still thinking it's about £50 too much. Asrock's own equivalent ATX and mATX X99 boards are all sub-£200.
 
Would it be possible to use an M2 adapter to get a second PCIe slot. Seems vulgar to waste 32Gb of bandwidth on a single SSD when you could connect a dozen drives.
DSC06324.jpg


Im hoping to combine my gaming, htpc and nas all into one Mitx SFF build. This mobo is perfect for it.
 
Razzor said:
Would it be possible to use an M2 adapter to get a second PCIe slot. Seems vulgar to waste 32Gb of bandwidth on a single SSD when you could connect a dozen drives.

Im hoping to combine my gaming, htpc and nas all into one Mitx SFF build. This mobo is perfect for it.
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Was discussing this in another thread, it seems like this should be possible.
 
Razzor said:
Would it be possible to use an M2 adapter to get a second PCIe slot. Seems vulgar to waste 32Gb of bandwidth on a single SSD when you could connect a dozen drives.
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32Gb of bandwidth? its a pcie 3.0 x 4. And there are already SSDs that take advantage of (almost) that much bandwidth with more coming soon, so i wouldnt call it a waste.
 
XcPNehVYlE4A3C said:
32Gb of bandwidth? its a pcie 3.0 x 4. And there are already SSDs that take advantage of (almost) that much bandwidth with more coming soon, so i wouldnt call it a waste.
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32 Gigabits of throughput. Yes. Did I say something wrong?

There is already a Sata Express if I want a super fast SSD. I would prefer to add a bunch of drives and use the main pci slot for a GPU.
 
Razzor said:
32 Gigabits of throughput. Yes. Did I say something wrong?

There is already a Sata Express if I want a super fast SSD. I would prefer to add a bunch of drives and use the main pci slot for a GPU.
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I thought there are already 6 sata ports on the board, which begs the question of how big the mini-ITX case you're using is that can house more than 6 drives, which again begs the question of why you went mini-ITX with a case of that size.
 
cowsgomoo said:
I thought there are already 6 sata ports on the board, which begs the question of how big the mini-ITX case you're using is that can house more than 6 drives, which again begs the question of why you went mini-ITX with a case of that size.
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Well, I think you could probably fit 6, 2.5 inch SSDs somewhere inside of an M1. As SSDs get larger and cheaper this definitely could replace large hard disks and be viable for mITX.
 
cowsgomoo said:
I thought there are already 6 sata ports on the board, which begs the question of how big the mini-ITX case you're using is that can house more than 6 drives, which again begs the question of why you went mini-ITX with a case of that size.
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Im using the Elite 130 case which will host 24 SFF disks once Im done modding it. I have cut out the equivalent of 4x 5.25 bays in the front and I plan on using four icydock 6x2.5 enclosures and fill them up with a mix of ssds and 2tb disks.

It will look like this:
2aeqf55.jpg


I chose this form factor because I wanted the smallest form factor without compromising on desktop components. It is in fact possible to build mini monster systems then why not do it?

XcPNehVYlE4A3C said:
32Gb/s is for 16x, the m2 slot is only x4 anyway yeah, nice that the m.2 adapter is there, you can go crazy, put extra NICs on it, whatever :)
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Actually, the PCIE 3.0 x16 throughput is 15.75 GB/s which is 128 Gbits/s
The PCIE 3.0 x4 throughput is 32 Gbits/s

So my point, thats a lot to allocate a single SSD drive.
 
I'd rather use the Seagate ST8000AS0002 8TB drives with better latencies than 2.5" drives. Although your madness should be applauded, asking why a mini-ITX board shouldn't cater to your niche use-case is weird.
 
Razzor said:
Actually, the PCIE 3.0 x16 throughput is 15.75 GB/s which is 128 Gbits/s
The PCIE 3.0 x4 throughput is 32 Gbits/s

So my point, thats a lot to allocate a single SSD drive.
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ahh you did say gigaBITS earlier, my fault. read too fast and thought you meant gigabytes.

anyway, definitely a crazy plan, but i love it!
 
oh man, if someone were to fabricate some custom Corsair AIO mounting hardware for that server style socket...

i'd even take a quick and dirty mod/method.
 
cowsgomoo said:
I'd rather use the Seagate ST8000AS0002 8TB drives with better latencies than 2.5" drives. Although your madness should be applauded, asking why a mini-ITX board shouldn't cater to your niche use-case is weird.
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:)

Expensive solution when you consider raid. Are you willing to give up 8 TB for a decent raid solution?
I expect the 2tb 2.5 inch disks to come down in cost and I dont mind losing 2x2tb for whatever raid solution. I should also see higher iops due to the large number of disks.
 
Razzor said:
:)

Expensive solution when you consider raid. Are you willing to give up 8 TB for a decent raid solution?
I expect the 2tb 2.5 inch disks to come down in cost and I dont mind losing 2x2tb for whatever raid solution. I should also see higher iops due to the large number of disks.
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Raid almost has no place in a home situation. Firstly it's not a backup, and secondly the purpose is maintain uptime in a server situation where downtime will mean loss of money, critical data and customers. If you have three separate copies of your data like any person who cares about their data do, you can get your uptime back by just accessing the two other cache of data.

2.5" will always be more costly than 3.5" disk per GB. A 8TB seagate has 6 platters and 12 read heads and 4x2TB 2.5" drives has 12 platters and 24 read heads, so theoretically twice the point of failures.

Also, higher number of disks will improve sequential access but not IOPS.
 
RAID is a good idea, it not being a backup is irrelevant: using RAID properly (i.e. at least RAID6/RAIDZ2) makes recovering from a disc failure much, MUCH faster and easier than JBOD or RAID5. If your multi-TB NAS has a drive eat itself, and your backups are offsite or over an internet connection, then you either need to go for a drive to get your data, or wait days or weeks while data streams back in.

I can't think of many situations in which you would have multiple drives storing data where RAID would not be a benefit to reliability.
 
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