The ASRock X99E-ITX/ac Review: Up to 36 Threads in Mini-ITX
by Ian Cutress on June 24, 2015 8:00 AM ESTASRock X99E-ITX/ac In The Box
With part of the focus of X99 on connectivity, and the size of the X99E-ITX limiting that connectivity, it makes it hard to judge what should exactly be in the box here. With only six SATA ports in play, we could get a full assortment of SATA cables but the inclusion of WiFi also brings in an antenna solution for users to play with. Also, by virtue of the narrow ILM socket used by the motherboard, in order to solve sourcing issues for coolers ASRock has bundled one form Dynatron in with the package, so every user should have an appropriate cooler.
In the X99E-ITX we get the following:
Driver DVD
Manuals
Rear IO Shield
Two SATA Cables
Dynatron Heatsink and Fan
Magnetic Liquid Cooler Bracket
WiFi Module and support
WiFi Antenna
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:
Thank you to AMD for providing us with the R9 290X 4GB GPUs.
Thank you to ASUS for providing us with GTX 980 Strix GPUs and the R7 240 DDR3 GPU.
Thank you to ASRock and ASUS for providing us with some IO testing kit.
Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with Nepton 140XL CLCs.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU.
Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX200 SSDs.
Thank you to G.Skill and Corsair for providing us with memory.
Thank you to MSI for providing us with the GTX 770 Lightning GPUs.
Thank you to OCZ for providing us with PSUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with PSUs and RK-9100 keyboards.
Test Setup
| Test Setup | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-5960X ES 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3.0 GHz (3.5 GHz Turbo) |
| Motherboards | ASRock X99E-ITX/ac |
| Cooling | Dynatron - Included in Package |
| Power Supply | OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
| Memory | Corsair DDR4-2133 C15 2x8 GB 1.2V or G.Skill Ripjaws 4 DDR4-2133 C15 2x8 GB 1.2V |
| Memory Settings | JEDEC @ 2133 |
| Video Cards | MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost) ASUS R7 240 2GB |
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX200 1TB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit SP1 |
ASRock X99E-ITX/ac Overclocking
Experience with ASRock X99E-ITX/ac
Needless to say, the X99E-ITX is not perhaps built with overclocking in mind. The only option given for automatic overclockers is 3.8 GHz in both the BIOS and the software, perhaps suggesting that ASRock feels that the small form factor systems that the motherboard is aimed at will not allow sufficient airflow. Either that or the lower mass of the narrow ILM socket also affects temperatures, or the small power delivery heatsinks might also be a limiting factor. That being said, anyone with a good cooler can still try their hand at extreme overclocking.
In our testing, the automatic overclock option actually failed at idle – the system shut off similar to an overheating system. We saw that the option actually placed the CPU at 1.200 volts, which is not very high, but there might be other factors in play here. In our manual testing, 1.200 volts actually gives a high temperature but only at load, suggesting that the automatic overclocking option actually adjusts some other factors that causes the system to fail.
Methodology
Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.
For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.
Overclock Results
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
56 Comments
View All Comments
leexgx - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
needs to be DDR4 ECC RDIMM (registered but not buffered) not buffered or Chipkill (the link you posted seems buffered or a chipkill like ram)bebimbap - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
I remember on one of the asrock boards, the z97e itx ac, had its M.2 on the back of the motherboard.With a x99 platform, if you save 16 for the cpu you have at least 12 lanes to work with, so reasonably you could add 3 M.2 slots on the back, or 6 M.2 slots each with pcie3.0-4x.
I understand there is probably a Z height restriction on the back of the board, and probably costs, since you have to plan 2 sides of the board, routing, flexing, etc. However I believe if a M.2 slot can fit, i'm sure most of the transistors and chips such as the sound, LAN, a lot of resistors, wifi, maybe another 2 slots of memory on the back, or all 4, flat of course, and maybe even the PCH with a revised heatsink of course can fit. If more items were on the back of the board, you could fit the CPU socket closer to the pcie slot and allow for all 4 channels of memory. It would be a monster of a rig. 4 channels of ddr4 + 3-6 M.2 pcie3.0x4 in raid0 + pcie3.0x16
Though it might be $400+, I'm sure there would be some interest a fractional proportion to the all out x99 extreme11 series. It would certainly interest me.
WithoutWeakness - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
I love this board. I've had it for a little over a month now running my Plex server/NAS. I had an i5-4440 on an mITX Gigabyte board but it could only handle ~3 1080p transcodes before it started to struggle. Once ASRock released this board I grabbed it and tossed a i7-5820K in and now it has no issues transcoding 6+ streams. I haven't even gotten around to overclocking the 5820K yet.Absolutely amazing how they managed to cram that socket and the powerful VRM solution on this board and still have enough space to fit things like the M.2 slot. ASRock has some impressive engineers on staff. For my use case I needed as many cores as possible in the smallest space as I had already invested in my Node 304 and really didn't want to move to another case. I did need to buy an SFX power supply as I was concerned about my ATX power supply blocking the right-angle SATA ports but that specific issue is due to the layout of the Node 304.
DCide - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
If it's like their mATX board, just start with the slowest (4GHz) OC pre-set in the BIOS. It runs very stably for me.You can fine tune it later if you want to, but in the meantime you can get significant performance benefits right away.
Samus - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
I can't wait to get mine. Just ordered it after reading this review, which provided proof of what I suspected all along...quad-channel doesn't provide much in the way of general performance, just like triple-channel didn't provide much performance on X58.Of all the things dual-channel will bottle-neck, the only program I use that would be affected is WinRAR and that's negligible.
ASRock gets a LOT of street cred for making such a bold product. This is the kind of thing DFI or ABIT would have made if they were still around. An ultra-enthusiast, niche, and risky product. It's possible they won't even break even on this considering the amount of engineering that went into it. Margins are already razor thin on motherboards so they need to sell tens of thousands of these to make any money, even at $250 a pop.
BubbaJoe TBoneMalone - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
I'm surprised the other manufacturers are not giving ASRock any competition with their own X99 Mini-ITX motherboard.T1beriu - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
Where's your Fury X review?! :(Where's your Radeon 300 series review?
Have you lost your contacts with AMD PR or lack of time?
Ian Cutress - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
Check the first sentence of the review.just4U - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
Is that something he's been battling for a bit now? We had this flu going around in Canada this past winter that easily throws you for a loop for 3 weeks.. just as you start to think your getting better it knocks you on your ass even worse. Nasty little virus.heh.. he's going to be a busy little beaver.. He mentioned something about the 960 review coming up this week as well.
Samus - Thursday, June 25, 2015 - link
When I get sick, I get sick for weeks, too. Fortunately it's only once a year for me.