AMD + ITX + TB3? It's the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Motherboard Review
by Gavin Bonshor on October 9, 2019 12:00 PM ESTSystem Performance
Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to the manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.
For X570 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1903 update as per our Ryzen 3000 CPU review.
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real-world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our testbed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
The ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 is one of the better performers in our power consumption testing with a strong showing in all three of our tests. A smaller PCB tends to equate to fewer controllers and circuitry and can have an impact on this. With the most inefficient designs on the smaller form factor models getting found out very quickly, the ASRock X570 mini-ITX is highly competitive.
Non-UEFI POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.)
In our POST testing, ASRock tends to field some of the best times in every platform and the X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 is no different in this regard. It posted a competitive default POST time of just over 25 seconds which in comparison to the next board above this, the GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme which has a marginally slower POST time of 25.6 seconds. With controllers stripped down to the bare necessities, we managed to shave a further 1.6 seconds off the overall time it takes to load up Windows 10 on our testbed.
DPC Latency
Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.
If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.
We test the DPC at the default settings straight from the box, and the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 performed very well as expected. ASRock desktop models tend to have the upper hand in out of the box DPC latency performance, and this board continues that trend comfortably.
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GreenReaper - Wednesday, October 9, 2019 - link
I think that's because Thunderbolt at a lower level works over individual 10Gbps lanes. You can have multiple "ports" but then you'll have multiple interfaces - perhaps you can team them at a higher level? But if it's Alpine Ridge you'll almost certainly be limited to low-power 10Gbps.firewrath9 - Wednesday, October 9, 2019 - link
huh? 18TB of SSD storage?My asrock Z87 Extreme11, with its 22 sata ports can do EIGHTY-EIGHT TB OF SSD
WOAH
also if 10gbe costs 100$, why is the X470 Taichi Ultimate only 50$ more than the non-ultimate? (it also has other additonal features)
lmille16 - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link
Your board is an EATX board. DCide is talking about mITX boards....siuol11 - Friday, October 11, 2019 - link
I'd settle for 2.5 or 5G ethernet, both have readily available chips that cost under $10, and Intel is about to release one (the 225V) that costs less than $2.50.masteraleph - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link
No, the M.2 is a big deal. If you're stuffing this into a small case- and plenty of people buying X570 ITX boards will- there's a big advantage to not having any 2.5" drives in the case, whether for airflow, cables, what have you.Calamarian - Thursday, April 16, 2020 - link
Shabby:You could always bifurcate the slot and add a 10GB NIC!
Some cases come with!
https://www.sliger.com/products/cases/sm580/
umano - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link
I am so happy I am not alone with this, 16 cores and thunderbolt means one thing, content creator, not a gamer. I mean the cheapest thing you can attach to TB3 is a 10gbe (200$).There are a lot of video makers and some colourists (who do not need to work with 6-8k raw) that own the x299 itx because it can be portable even in a backpack.
Unless they have the crazy idea of putting a threadripper on a DTX board they lost a great opportunity. This board is a compromise for everyone, too expensive due to tb3 to who is budget-wise, as a gamer I would go with gigabyte for the 2 m2 and the backplate armour (and a very respectable 8 phase vrm) or better the dtx Asus board.
This board can be good only if someone wants a very portable setup with no GPU and they need a faster (x4 PCI 3) GPU. So almost none
I think except Asus maybe, but they were not that good either, manufacturers went very wrong with PCIe 4.0 and the x570.
Asrock could have used the 4x link from the chipset (like only Asus did on their pro board reviewed here) for the second m2, they could have swapped 2xUsb3 5gbs with 2 basic usb3 port for mouse and keyboard with the lanes shared with the wifi module (it will never need full bandwidth and how much data transfer is there for mouse and keyboard) so here you are the 10gbe.
I cannot think the number of devices that can saturate a TB3, 2 x 10gbps usb3 and 2x5gbps.
I have a Wacom tablet, 2 Eizo with 5gbps USB 3 hubs, a das, several and different external drives, HDD, SSD, and a printer. Even with one 10gbps USB, it would have been fine, we can have tb3, who needs to connect 2 nvme external drive? By the way 4 SATA ports without raid 5?
The 2080ti barely (2-3%) saturates a PCI 3 8x link, sharing the lanes between the GPU and the third m2 is not blasphemy at all, so there will be bandwidth, 12x PCIe 4, for a dual GPU card more powerful than a dual 2080ti.
So now I need to change pc and I will buy this board because of the TB3 but I hope they will understand their mistake and someone will release something better, way better
Now I have to spend 250 for the board, 300 for a thunderbolt dock with 10gbe (connected to the NAS) that I cannot use while I am using my raid das, 300+ for 64gb instead of 32gb because I cannot have a fast nvme drive for photoshop/DaVinci cache, and I still don't know how much for 2 custom water block for VRM, and other 40 for the chipset block and probably I will buy a USB DAC for headphones
So I know it is almost impossible to have a sabre and 3 m2 on an itx board but at least for me a board with that stuff and a big block for vrm and chipset, that could have saved some space for extra daughter boards, it is worth more than 900+ and still I would have saved money
I know it is insane and liquid cooling is not for everyone, but an ITX motherboard with 2 m2, tb3, 10gbe and some USB ports (maybe a second tb3) sharing the GPU link it is not unreasonable.
They probably did not do it because they want content creators going with threadripper, but 3d is not the only thing that matter, video has the largest market, and we cannot bring matx cases onset easily, especially because they are ugly and the market is accustomed to see apple products, so we get no money from it, so I will not buy threadripper even I know it is amazing
FiveOhFour - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
you have other options come onCheapSushi - Saturday, October 12, 2019 - link
Reaallly wish ASRock and others would push for Mini-DTX! With a second PCIe slot. Put the M.2 somewhere else. :OCalamarian - Thursday, April 16, 2020 - link
With both 10GB USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt I'd bet it's more an issue of available PCIe lanes than MB space...