The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac Motherboard Review: An 18-core No-Compromise Mini-ITX
by Joe Shields on December 4, 2017 8:00 AM ESTGaming Performance 2017: AoTS Escalation
Ashes of the Singularity
Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system doesn't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph.
Much ado about nothing here. The little board that could, continues to mix right in with the other boards.
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mkaibear - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
In before lolicabbage makes his "just buy threadripper, you never need to buy x299x comments....which would be especially funny on this article, obviously...
Hendrix2112 - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
Am I the only one who is amazed by what the engineers who designed this did? Fitting 4 channels of ram, 3 M.2 slots, VRM to handle a *cough* 165w processor, and all the other features, is really awesome.Even though I have no interest in using this board, although I would consider it if I was going to use x299, I love seeing the limits pushed of what can currently be done with motherboard.
Good job Asrock!
Vatharian - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
ASRock's engineers were always on the edge. They are like 'hold my beer' of an IT. Anyone remember H67 board that took Westmere CPUs, despite Intel saying 'It's NOT possible in any way?', or P4 combo, or KxN upgrade with additional S939/AM2/AM2+ expansion boards? Or general notion of having PCI-Express, and AGP on one board? Or general any arcane tomfoolery they are constantly pulling off? Every time they out something like that, I'm amazed. Need storage without dipping in Xeons? Got you covered, X99-Extreme11 with no less than 18 SATA ports. Only thing they have been beaten in so far was a board that decks out full PCIe x16 slots coverage, either ASUS with one of their WS boards or MSI with Big Bang Fusion 9 did it first, I believe.On a related note, where is review of any X399 board?
jordanclock - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
I had an ASRock board that had both PCI-Express and AGP as well as DDR2 and DDR memory. I think it was the 4CoreDual-SATA2. It was great for someone that could only afford one upgrade at a time over a few months.mapesdhs - Thursday, December 7, 2017 - link
I've got one of those somewhere. :D Also have a board which has the AM2 upgrade option, kinda cool.vgray35@hotmail.com - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment - a totally amazing accomplishment, and I might add for several years now I look forward to what they will come up with next. It is not long now before ASROCK implements hybrid PWM-resonant switching and resonance scaling to build VRMs with >98% efficiency (no heat sinks), where inductors are replaced by a 5mm length of copper wire. Believe it or not the X399 Threadripper will fit on a mini iTX board (expensive though).http://www.powerelectronics.com/sites/powerelectro...
Gadgety - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
I agree, ASRock makes great boards and stretch the envelope.The_Assimilator - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
Nope, this board is all around a very impressive piece of engineering, and massive and well-deserved kudos go to those who designed and built it. Oh, and then they added overclocking capabilities too.My only complaint is the use of SODIMMs - while that's a necessary compromise to get quad-channel on a board this tiny, it does mean that if you have existing memory you have to replace it, and any memory you do buy for this board you probably won't be able to reuse in any future builds. If I'd been designing this board, I'd probably have tried to go for 4x full-size DIMM slots on the rear of the motherboard (which would necessitate ditching the pair of M.2 slots, but oh well).
I'm still waiting for the first motherboard manufacturer that puts the power and SATA connectors on wires/ribbon cables from the rear of the board, which would open up a massive amount of real estate on the front side (not to mention help with cable routing).
edzieba - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link
Rear DIMM slots would also make it incompatible with every ITX (or ATX) case on the market: there is insufficient clearance beneath the motherboard for a DIMM, even lying that with no cosmetic 'heatsink'.The_Assimilator - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link
Not an issue if you right-angle the DIMM slots so that they're parallel to the motherboard instead of perpendicular - in the same way that notebooks do.