One has to ask : Why? I can MAY BE understand the utlity on a Xeon board but 22 SATA ports for a desktop motherboard? I can't see a plausible utlility.
What immediately comes to mind to me is a massive home media/gaming server. As we enter the age of personal cloud gaming, I could see placing a monster gaming PC on my basement rack connected via HDMI/DP over CAT6a to all my displays or using Piston or Shield to play games anywhere in the house. Load FlexRAID on there and fill it with 22 hard drives to store 80TB of Blu-ray backups and Steam games.
This is likely a niche within a niche within a niche, but who cares? It's awesome. :)
4-way SLI implies you'll get at least four mechanically x16 PCI-E slots. In fact, the previous version of this board (the X79 chipset) had seven x16 slots (it used some bridge chips). Fill those slots with LSI 9201-16i cards and the Extreme 11 ends up with 134 SATA ports.
I'm not sure why you'd want that many ports in a single consumer machine (I wouldn't trust a 134 drive RAID setup without ECC RAM), but you *could*, and that's pointlessly awesome.
Its exactly why Im looking for the MoBo with most SATA ports: so I can build a HOME MEDIA SERVER with huuuuuge capacity for storage, as now Im using my PC with three 3 TB HDDs shared for this porpouse and they are 95% used by now, so Im looking to transfer this content and also be able to increase the capacity and have enough room so I dont have to worry for future capacity allocation or having two DIY NAS, so 22 SATA ports with 8TB HDD would be around 200TB.... that would be enough space to at least 4 or 5 years of home storage for 4 members family. (y)
Because maybe you want to attach lots of disc to a machine without paying the Xeon tax. There's no requirement to buy stuff with an expensive ENTERPRISE label on the front to do large-scale work.
Unfortunately, there are a few "enterprise" features that you really really want before you put that many drives in a single machine. ECC being one of them. You can handle a lot at the software layer with something like ZFS, but even ZFS won't help against memory corruption.
Because you can never have enough SATA ports. The article did say it's SATA/SAS, I believe SAS can be daisy chain, but it only possible through a SAS expander port. The SAS on this board is only 1 device per port. SAS expander can connect up to 4 devices.
You can use reverse breakout cables and take SAS ports 0-3 to a single SFF-8087 connector and plug it into an expander or route to an external HBA for a DAS hookup. I used to do this with my ASUS Z8NA-D6 and an HP Expander.
This would require 16 GB unbuffered memory which have yet to be released in any sort of volume. Haswell supports it if they ever do appear on store shelves. Right now it is best you can get on this board is 32 GB.
It's probably an LSI2116 chip, or an as-of-yet-unreleased SAS3 (12Gbps) controller. The LSI2116 is an HBA chip (non-RAID) that is found in their LSI 9201-16(i|e) cards.
What I really want to know is this: The Z77 chipset supports SSD-Trim in RAID-0, but only on 2 ports. Will the Z87 chipset support SSD-Trim in RAID-0 on all six SATA 6Gbps ports?
"But the peak speeds showcased by ASRock were half this value at 5.5 gigabytes per second, suggesting that these LSI ports may be SATA 3 Gbps limited." I dont think this is accurate..if you go back and look at the IOMeter Screenshot it is showing IOPS, not Throughput.
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dishayu - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
One has to ask : Why? I can MAY BE understand the utlity on a Xeon board but 22 SATA ports for a desktop motherboard? I can't see a plausible utlility.arthur449 - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Only one reason comes to mind:because shut up
Arnulf - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Because you're st00pid ? It is a valid question, besides finding room for 22 drives is yet another obstacle.Death666Angel - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Get a big tower with some backplanes for the 5.25" slots and you are set. If you use 2.5" drives/SSDs, even easier.KamikaZeeFu - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
On desktop? One reason : pronVepsa - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Because it would make a great home storage server board.nathanddrews - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
4-way SLI/CF22 SATA ports
What immediately comes to mind to me is a massive home media/gaming server. As we enter the age of personal cloud gaming, I could see placing a monster gaming PC on my basement rack connected via HDMI/DP over CAT6a to all my displays or using Piston or Shield to play games anywhere in the house. Load FlexRAID on there and fill it with 22 hard drives to store 80TB of Blu-ray backups and Steam games.
This is likely a niche within a niche within a niche, but who cares? It's awesome. :)
Guspaz - Friday, June 7, 2013 - link
4-way SLI implies you'll get at least four mechanically x16 PCI-E slots. In fact, the previous version of this board (the X79 chipset) had seven x16 slots (it used some bridge chips). Fill those slots with LSI 9201-16i cards and the Extreme 11 ends up with 134 SATA ports.I'm not sure why you'd want that many ports in a single consumer machine (I wouldn't trust a 134 drive RAID setup without ECC RAM), but you *could*, and that's pointlessly awesome.
drawde_bono77 - Thursday, December 31, 2015 - link
Its exactly why Im looking for the MoBo with most SATA ports: so I can build a HOME MEDIA SERVER with huuuuuge capacity for storage, as now Im using my PC with three 3 TB HDDs shared for this porpouse and they are 95% used by now, so Im looking to transfer this content and also be able to increase the capacity and have enough room so I dont have to worry for future capacity allocation or having two DIY NAS, so 22 SATA ports with 8TB HDD would be around 200TB.... that would be enough space to at least 4 or 5 years of home storage for 4 members family. (y)piroroadkill - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Overkill. For the lulz. Who cares. It's available. You don't have to buy it. I'm glad they make stuff like this.TomWomack - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Because maybe you want to attach lots of disc to a machine without paying the Xeon tax. There's no requirement to buy stuff with an expensive ENTERPRISE label on the front to do large-scale work.Guspaz - Friday, June 7, 2013 - link
Unfortunately, there are a few "enterprise" features that you really really want before you put that many drives in a single machine. ECC being one of them. You can handle a lot at the software layer with something like ZFS, but even ZFS won't help against memory corruption.b3nzint - Sunday, June 9, 2013 - link
damn right.anand u should do a review on this mobo, with say a 20 SSD in raid 0. coz people may actually build it.
Etern205 - Saturday, June 8, 2013 - link
Because you can never have enough SATA ports. The article did say it's SATA/SAS, I believe SAS can be daisy chain, but it only possible through a SAS expander port. The SAS on this board is only 1 device per port. SAS expander can connect up to 4 devices.Nitrobass24 - Tuesday, June 11, 2013 - link
You can use reverse breakout cables and take SAS ports 0-3 to a single SFF-8087 connector and plug it into an expander or route to an external HBA for a DAS hookup.I used to do this with my ASUS Z8NA-D6 and an HP Expander.
jabber - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
It's done for a very specific reason.It's called "Wouldn't it be interesting/fun if we......"
It's also called having an inquiring imagination. Something a lot of people lack these days.
arthur449 - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Thank you. Some people just don't understand "because we can."This would be an entertaining platform for a case building hobby.
watersb - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
Maximum RAM? (guess: 32GB)ECC support? (guess: no)
I can wish for a Haswell workstation-class board, but I may have to wait for new Xeons. Sigh.
watersb - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
(also: are guys sleeping much? (guess: no)thanks for the info on these new boards! this new Haswell surge is exciting.)
ssj3gohan - Friday, June 7, 2013 - link
If it's haswel, max RAM would be 64GB. No ECC without C-series chipset.Kevin G - Sunday, June 9, 2013 - link
This would require 16 GB unbuffered memory which have yet to be released in any sort of volume. Haswell supports it if they ever do appear on store shelves. Right now it is best you can get on this board is 32 GB.Duraz0rz - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
If only I could afford 22 SSDs to populate all the SATA ports :DPCTC2 - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
It's probably an LSI2116 chip, or an as-of-yet-unreleased SAS3 (12Gbps) controller. The LSI2116 is an HBA chip (non-RAID) that is found in their LSI 9201-16(i|e) cards.Travis Jackson - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
What I really want to know is this:The Z77 chipset supports SSD-Trim in RAID-0, but only on 2 ports. Will the Z87 chipset support SSD-Trim in RAID-0 on all six SATA 6Gbps ports?
clille - Friday, June 7, 2013 - link
Nope, it is not 2116, but it is LSI ... I have a picture of the specs ... let me get the picture out of the camera and I'll sent itclille - Friday, June 7, 2013 - link
Sorry ... got sidetracked a little with the photo ... there was an earthquake right now in Taiwan, and I felt it -Anyway: back to the motherboard, it is the LSI 3008 controller, I will sent the pictures to Ian, and then he can add them to this article
Nitrobass24 - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link
"But the peak speeds showcased by ASRock were half this value at 5.5 gigabytes per second, suggesting that these LSI ports may be SATA 3 Gbps limited." I dont think this is accurate..if you go back and look at the IOMeter Screenshot it is showing IOPS, not Throughput.IanCutress - Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - link
That was the first thing we noted, and ASRock said the screen shot was showing the wrong text. 5500 IOPS would be low.