X99 on mITX: ASRock X99E-itx/ac

SSD 'works' fine with the mobo, and installs and boots an OS. But all writes were totally crippled on my system.

RE: FUA, I did try drive on NUC and benchmarked in ubuntu and worked fine. Win 10 huh? Good to know.
 
Looks like the Gigabyte U.2 adapter is available on newegg now (and is even being bundled with the 2.5" Intel 750). Might try to swap out the ASRock one for it as the vertical connector is going to make cable management much easier.

As for the 951 NVMe, you don't even need the CSM on.
 
I'm now thinking about going Intel 750 2.5" seeing all the issues samsung has, but apart from that m2 to u2 adaptor you also need to power the drive don't you? quite a few extra cables vs m2.
 
Yes, it requires power (uses a SATA power plug). Same number of cables as any other 2.5" drive in the end.
 
FUA doesn't seem to be an issue on my system. It just takes a long time to POST ~18s! Then ~10 for the OS (Ubuntu).

Curiosly, the BIOS registers the NVME drive but under the Storage tab, the Ultra M.2 is not detected.
 
That part of the UEFI only shows SATA devices. There is a separate NVMe menu item that appears under certain conditions (with no settings to change).
 
So yeah, my X99E-ITX arrived yesterday. I'd originally specced and bought myself a nice 5675C/Maximus VII Impact ITX system but had an 11th hour change of heart and decided to go X99.

Only problem is that they forgot to ship my DDR4 with it so i'm waiting until later today to get that fitted and the whole thing powered up and running.

I'm still not 100% sure everything will work. I upgraded from an H77 system with an mSATA SSD in it, and i'm trying to reuse that by buying an mSATA to M.2 converter and plugging it unto the M.2 slot on the board. It's a tight fit but i'm more concerned the BIOS will just throw a wobbly and refuse to use it.

The rest is as follows:

i7-5820k
X99E-ITX/ac
32GB GeIL White Dragon DDR4 (had to buy a separate 4GB stick of value RAM to do the BIOS flash to get support for 16GB sticks)
500GB 840 Evo mSATA (with M.2 converter)
GTX970
Corsair H100i
Silverstone SX600-G

So er... yeah. Proud owner of this fabulous little board!
 
The M.2 to mSATA connector works fine. The BIOS picks it up like a normal M.2 drive. Excellent.
 
For those of you using this board with an Ncase M1, what are my AIO watercooling choices? I was thinking of a H100i or H100i GTX, but will a Swiftech H220x work or will I need a custom bracket?
 
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H100i with washers/spacers for the included mounting bracket.

H100i GTX with Asetek's narrow-ILM kit would work in theory but the tubing is too long to be comfortably enclosed within a reasonably packed Ncase. To-date there has not been a single user that has been pleased with this choice for the Ncase regardless of the motherboard involved.

The H220 and most other AIOs non-Asetek (except the CM Seidon 120V) will require a custom bracket. The H220X will not fit as the inbuilt pump/reservoir on the radiator gets in the way.
 
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Thanks for the info. I guess the H100i is the simple choice.

I'd love to get a more powerful cooler like the H220 though. Maybe I'll look into a custom loop.
 
H105 fits with no modifications. You'll need to buy the adapter off eBay for $5, but it's what I'd recommend. It's what I'm running myself.
 
Idle is about 30C. Loaded is about 50C. This is with the fans set to the lowest speeds.
 
Anyone having trouble with the WiFi driver on Windows 10? ASRock doesn't provide a Windows 10 driver, so I used the Windows 8.1 driver when I set up the computer. Started using WiFi for the first time yesterday, and it was working fine. After I woke my computer from sleep, the WiFi connection had disappeared from network connections. Windows can't find a driver for it, and obviously the 8.1 driver has some issues under Windows 10.
 
It's the dang Wi-Fi card.

Replace the AzureWave Broadcom card with an Intel 7260 and your wireless will be faultless with a much stronger signal. The card bundled with the motherboard seems to have compatibility issues. The only way I could have it not die was to unplug/replug the PSU every now and again but that's obviously not sustainable.

I wish more people would leave lukewarm reviews on Newegg/Amazon mentioning issues with the included wireless card.
 
Is there any 120mm, 37mm thick AIO (like H80i, Nepton 120XL, etc) that are supported for this motherboard without modding? Not the H80i GT due to space constraint.
 
Are any owners of this board having problems with Windows 10? I was stable on 8.1 for about 2 months before upgrading and now every time I leave the computer for a few minutes it'll freeze or hang just a few seconds before it is supposed to go to sleep. I have the computer set to sleep after 5 minutes. Sometimes it'll sleep, sometimes it'll hang and require a forced reboot. I noticed that whenever I do wake up from sleep, the WiFi card stops working. I thought that maybe because the WiFi card is known to be faulty, it was causing problems so I disabled it in BIOS and the problem didn't go away.
 
Are any owners of this board having problems with Windows 10? I was stable on 8.1 for about 2 months before upgrading and now every time I leave the computer for a few minutes it'll freeze or hang just a few seconds before it is supposed to go to sleep. I have the computer set to sleep after 5 minutes. Sometimes it'll sleep, sometimes it'll hang and require a forced reboot. I noticed that whenever I do wake up from sleep, the WiFi card stops working. I thought that maybe because the WiFi card is known to be faulty, it was causing problems so I disabled it in BIOS and the problem didn't go away.

I ran into the same problem with the WiFi card, but no stability issues to speak of.
 
Put me on the list of people who are having trouble with the Broadcom wifi card. From a cold boot W10 will "forget" the drivers and won't re-install them. Funnily enough, plugging in a USB wifi adapter brings the Broadcom card back to life, which to me, points to something messed up on the software or driver level. Whatever the issue is, I'm tired of dealing with it so I'm ordering an Intel 7260 tomorrow. I have one in my laptop and besides being slow to come up, it's been 100% reliable.
 
I've also had quirky behavior with the AzureWave card in my Z87E-ITX board, it worked or didn't at random after a reboot. When I ordered my current Maximus 7 Impact (same AzureWave card), I also ordered an Intel 7260-AC card along and replace it immediately. Back then I wasn't the only one with issues, it seems not much has changed.
 
Mine behaves perfectly under windows 10

I should also mention i didn't even bother installing the wifi card.

Nox
 
Let's separate things to two issues:

1. Those using and having problems with the WiFi card across operating systems (almost everyone)
2. Those having problems with the board in Windows 10 specifically (almost no one)

When replacing the Broadcom, just make sure the Intel 7260 is a mPCIE model supporting 867 Mbps and you'll be fine. Most of the suffix characters are for the packaging SKU.
 
Let's separate things to two issues:

1. Those using and having problems with the WiFi card across operating systems (almost everyone)
2. Those having problems with the board in Windows 10 specifically (almost no one)

I'm not saying I know for a fact that my X99 board is causing problems with Win10; I just wanted to check here to see if anyone else was having similar issues because the board is the most "unique" component of my build. If it is only me I'll start doing further troubleshooting.
 
I swapped the X99E-ITX Broadcom wifi module with the Intel 7260 in my laptop. Both cards work fine in their respective new homes. I noticed a signal strength boost with the 7260 and the included ASRock antenna, too!
 
I'm not saying I know for a fact that my X99 board is causing problems with Win10; I just wanted to check here to see if anyone else was having similar issues because the board is the most "unique" component of my build. If it is only me I'll start doing further troubleshooting.

FWIW I remember reading about W10 sleep/wake issues from W8.1 upgrades that were down to the SSD.

I would guess that your situation is independent of the motherboard.
 
Up and running with the 7260. Swapping out the old card with the C14 in place was a challenge, but doable. Had to reset the CMOS to get my GFX card output back, but Windows detected the 7260 and installed drivers on its own. Seems to be smooth sailing so far.
 
Seems like an X99 ITX board from Asus is a possibility, according to JJ on his latest youtube stream. However, they will be looking at community feedback before deciding... so make your voices heard.
 
Unless ASUS does something meaningfully different (e.g. 4x SODIMMs) I don't see it happening now that Z170 is extensively rolled out.

ASRock kind of has the market cornered for anyone looking for X99 + ITX.

X190 maybe? But heck, there wasn't even a Rampage V Gene...
 
I've had the 7260 card installed for a few days and have had zero problems with the WiFi drivers disappearing.

Only issue I can see is terribly slow Bluetooth transfer speeds. I didn't test BT speeds on the included WiFi card, so I can't compare.
 
which of the two nic ports are people using?

using the i218-v currently but only as i'm presuming its 'better as has a higher number' which isn't always strictly true...

Nox
 
After 2 months of use, my Wi-Fi card failed today. I have no other choice but to install my laptop's wifi adapter to this motherboard, then it worked great.
 
For those planning on using the H100i with this: just go for the H105. The washers needed for the H100i with the included mounting plate make it impossible to access the head unit's mini-USB port, so Corsair Link is unavailable.

The H105 with the Asetek Narrow-ILM kit will give you pump control and won't need the SATA power connection.
 
Is anyone having thermal issues after a power failure?

I came home for lunch today after leaving my computer on this morning, and it appeared to have gone to sleep, but all fans were spinning at 100%. I couldn't wake it, and could power it off and on, but would get no picture. Not until I turned it off and let it sit for 20 minutes was I able to successfully restart the computer.

The power here must have flickered this morning. Although none of my clocks reset, my NAS box was down.

The power flickered last week too, and the same thing happened with the fans spinning up to 100% and staying there. On that occasion I was able to restart the computer right away with no problems.

I'm concerned that a brief power failure is causing the thermal management features of the board to go haywire. The computer was pretty warm when I got home. I'm wondering if the graphics card overheated, explaining why I couldn't get a picture at first when I tried restarting.

I'm running everything stock with no overclocks. Power supply is an SX-500LG, video card is an Asus GTX 960 Mini.
 
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