Our next X299 motherboard review shrinks down from the large ATX and E-ATX sized motherboards to the sole Mini-ITX offering for the X299 platform. The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac is a diminutive board that offers nearly all of the same features as its larger counterparts but in a package well suited for SFF systems. Users will find four SO-DIMM DRAM slots for quad channel operations, dual Intel NICs, six SATA ports, three M.2 slots (!), plus integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. 

ASRock X299E-ITX/ac Overview

The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac is currently the only available Mini-ITX board for the X299 platform. EVGA, MSI, and ASRock do offer MicroATX sized boards, but none are like this. Typically with Mini-ITX boards, their small dimensions yield an obvious lack of real estate for adding functionality. In order to squeeze more out of what was available, motherboard manufacturers have had to be creative, and often built up (quite literally). For example, additional slots on the motherboard to go vertical.

On the X299E-ITX/ac, this means an extra daughterboard slot just behind the back panel IO, and a second on the opposite side of the motherboard. The first pairs a riser card with a single M.2 device, and the second holds a storage array setup. This latter module holds the six SATA ports, as well as external USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 headers. Curiously, that card is large enough to cover the VRM heatsink, which might hinder air flow to the area around there. One of the other major space saving design choices used here is to locate two M.2 slots on the back of the motherboard. Impressively, three M.2 slots, four SO-DIMM slots, and six SATA ports all manage to find a home on a tiny motherboard. 

The feature set it brings to the table on such a small platform is impressive. However, that creativity will fetch a premium price. Currently selling for $399 on Newegg.com, it places the X299E-ITX/ac in the high-end segment as X299 motherboards currently top out at $499+ and have a floor of $209. Pricewise, this places it in the crosshairs of the GIGABYTE X299 AORUS Gaming 7 ($399), ASRock X299 Gaming i9 Professional ($389), MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK ($379), and the ASUS ROG Strix X299-XE Gaming ($369). Most of those boards have three M.2 slots and six or more SATA ports, however, it would be near impossible to shoehorn an ATX sized board in a SFF case - heavy modifications notwithstanding. In the MicroATX world, the EVGA Micro is $289 with only one M.2 slot, while the dual M.2 slot MSI offerings are still to be released in North America. In other words, there isn't competition in the space as there are not any other boards this size currently found on the market. 

One of the main concerns about going to such a small motherboard is the loss of certain features to which the X299 platform provide. In previous HEDT mini-ITX motherboards, for example, users were limited to two memory modules and dual-channel operation, as seen in our review of the X99E-ITX/ac a couple of years ago. For this board, ASRock has put SO-DIMM memory on instead, offering quad-channel DDR4-4000 support up to 64 GB. This isn't the full 128 GB of most X299 boards paired with Skylake-X processors, but does give full bandwidth.

The other element of loss is on PCIe. For chips that have 28 or 44 PCIe lanes, having only one PCIe x16 slot is a bit of a kicker. To that end, ASRock has placed three M.2 slots on the board, and the X299E-ITX/ac comes with one reinforced full-length PCIe slot at x16. There are bifurcation options in the BIOS if a user has a riser card that can split the slot into dual x8/x8, though this feature was untested in the review. This makes much more use of the PCIe lanes than one would have normally expected.

On the network side, the board has a 2x2 802.11ac Intel AC 8265 card with wireless speeds to 867 Mbps. Additionally, there are two Intel NICs, an I219-V and I211-AT, for wired traffic. On the back panel IO, USB consists of two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports with one Type-C, and four USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) ports driven by ASMedia chips. Adding to that, on the riser card is are a USB 2.0 header and USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) header managed by the chipset. Finally, audio functionality is carried out by the high-end Realtek ALC1220 codec. 

Connectivity wise, while the board is has a lot of features, that doesn't go to say there aren't some missing. Front panel USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) support isn't here, nor is the ability to use more than 64GB of memory. Granted, most users do not need it, but the option just isn't there. Six SATA ports can be a limitation for storage heavy users who haven't moved on to M.2, but I'd imagine those who use more than six SATA ports and three M.2 drives are rare in the consumer segment. Overall, the real estate appears to have been used wisely on this densely packed board. 

In the realm of performance, the board happily trudged through our testing without batting an eye. Multi-core performance was a bit slower than the rest, but this is due to how the board deals with the number of cores and its frequency. Turning MCE on was a different story as it happily turned up all cores to 4.5 GHz and went through the testing suite. The power delivery heatsink was without a doubt warmer than any I have checked while testing X299 motherboards at stock. When overclocking and testing, it was hot to the touch. If the plan is to push a high-power CPU to high overclocks on this tiny board, I would suggest a well-ventilated case or spot cooling on that VRM to keep temperatures low. 

For our ITX system, a special thanks goes out to GSkill who provided us with new high-speed DDR4 SO-DIMMs. The set they gave us, F4-3800C18Q-32GRS, is not currently found on the website. The 4x8GB kit is rated to DDR4-3800 @ CL18-18-18-38 with 1.35V and supports Intel's XMP 2.0 profiles. 

ASRock's Previous Mini-ITX HEDT

ASRock's previous mini-ITX high-end desktop board, the X99E-ITX/ac, was the first version of this design. It used the 'narrow ILM' version of the LGA2011-3 socket, and due to the limited number of consumer coolers that support that design, they shipped samples with a Dynatron cooler to fit. With this new model however, they are using a full sized LGA2066 socket for normal coolers. That is going to help integrate this motherboard into the builds that need it.

Due to Intel's new Xeon strategy, there is actually no increase in thread support from the X99E-ITX/ac to the X299E-ITX/ac. On the older board, it supported the top end Xeon E5 v4 processors, which were available up to 18 cores, albeit at a $4115 list price. The X299E-ITX/ac only supports the Core i7 and Core i9 consumer Skylake-X processors, but these also go up to 18 cores. Except this time, there are four memory channels, not two.

ASRock's X299 Strategy

Historically, ASRock doesn't push the super-high price ranges that the other three motherboard manufacturers do, preferring to sit lower in the market at both the low and high prices in its stack. For high-end desktop platforms, this usually means they are the cheapest, and we see the motherboards for X299 from ASRock range from $200 up to around $400, or $423 for the XE version of the Professional Gaming i9.

ASRock's X299 Motherboard Lineup (11/29)
	AnandTech Review	Amazon	Newegg
X299 Extreme 4			$200
X299 Killer SLI/ac		$240	$230
X299 Gaming K6		$278	$260
X299 Taichi	Review 10/31	$295	$300
X299 Taichi XE			$323
X299 OC Formula			$400
X299 Professional Gaming i9	Review 9/26	$475^	$400
X299 Professional Gaming i9 XE			$423
X299E-ITX/ac	[this review]	$510^	$400

^ = sold by 3rd party

Information on Intel's X299 and our other Reviews

With Intel's release of the Basin Falls platform, encompassing the new X299 chipset and LGA2066 socket, a new generation of CPUs called Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X were also released. The Skylake-X CPUs range from the 7800X, a hex-core part, all the way up to an 18-core 7980XE multitasking behemoth. Between the bookend CPUs are five others increasing in core count, as in the table below. The latter HCC models are set to be launched over 2H of 2017. 

Skylake-X Processors
	7800X	7820X	7900X		7920X	7940X	7960X	7980XE
Silicon	LCC				HCC
Cores / Threads	6/12	8/16	10/20		12/24	14/28	16/32	18/36
Base Clock / GHz	3.5	3.6	3.3		2.9	3.1	2.8	2.6
Turbo Clock / GHz	4.0	4.3	4.3		4.3	4.3	4.3	4.2
Turbo Max Clock	N/A	4.5	4.5		4.4	4.4	4.4	4.4
L3	1.375 MB/core				1.375 MB/core
PCIe Lanes	28		44		44
Memory Channels	4				4
Memory Freq DDR4	2400	2666			2666
TDP	140W				140W	165W
Price	$389	$599	$999		$1199	$1399	$1699	$1999

Board partners have launched dozens of motherboards on this platform already, several of which we will have an opportunity to look over in the coming weeks and months. This specific review will cover the ASRock X299E-ITX/ac. 

Other AnandTech Reviews for Intel’s Basin Falls CPUs and X299

As we are in the process of testing more and more motherboards, some of the benchmark results in this review will contain numbers from motherboards we have not published a full review yet. Here's our current list of motherboards on the go, as well as some of our CPU reviews:

• The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9-7980XE and Core i9-7960X Tested
• The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9-7900X, i7-7820X and i7-7800X Tested
• The Intel Kaby Lake-X Review: Core i7-7740X and i5-7640X Tested
• Intel Announces Basin Falls: The New High-End Desktop Platform and X299 Chipset
   
• ($400) The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac Review (this review) 
• ($390) The ASRock X299 Professional Gaming i9 Review: [link] 
• ($360) The MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon Review [link] 
• ($300) The MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic Review [link]
• ($289) The ASRock X299 Taichi Review [link]
• ($260) The MSI X299 SLI Plus Review [link]
   
• ($500) The GIGABYTE X299 Gaming 9 Review (planned) 
• ($400) The GIGABYTE X299 Gaming 7 Review (planned)
• ($350) The ASUS Strix X299-E Gaming Review (being tested) 
• ($337) The ASUS X299 TUF Mark 1 Review (being tested) 
• ($330) The EVGA X299 FTW-K (arrived)
• ($290) The EVGA X299 Micro (arrived)
• ($?) The EVGA X299 Dark (planned)

To read specifically about the X299 chip/platform and the specifications therein, our deep dive into what it is can be found at this link.

X299 Motherboard Review Notice

If you’ve been following the minutiae of the saga of X299 motherboards, you might have heard some issues regarding power delivery, overclocking, and the ability to cool these processors down given the power consumption. In a nutshell, it comes down to this:

• Skylake-X consumes a lot of power at peak (150W+),
• The thermal interface inside the CPU doesn’t do much requiring a powerful CPU cooler,
• Some motherboard vendors apply Multi-Core Turbo which raises the power consumption and voltage, exacerbating the issue
• The VRMs have to deal with more power, and due to losses, raise in temperature
• Some motherboards do not have sufficient VRM cooling without an active cooler
• This causes the CPU to declock or hit thermal power states as to not degrade components
• This causes a performance drop, and overclocked systems are affected even more than usual

There has been some excellent work done by Igor Wallossek over at Tom’s Hardware, with thermal probes, thermal cameras, and performance analysis. The bottom line is that motherboard vendors need to be careful when it comes to default settings (if MCT is enabled by default) and provide sufficient VRM cooling in all scenarios – either larger and heavier heatsinks or moving back to active cooling.

This means there are going to be some X299 boards that perform normally, and some that underperform based on BIOS versions or design decisions. We are in the process of quantifying exactly how to represent this outside of basic benchmarking, so stay tuned. In the meantime, take a look at the next motherboard for review. 

Visual Inspection

The socket, the four SO-DIMM slots, and the PCIe slot dominate the face of the black, 10 layer board. Sticking up from the board are the two daughter boards for M.2 as well as the SATA and USB connections. The brushed aluminium chipset heatsink with the ASRock name sits below the back panel IO next to a reset CMOS switch.

The board is busy, and it has to be with the connectivity it brings to the tabl,e and its size. Mini-ITX boards are a tough component to be pleasing to the eye - due to the small size it becomes more difficult to add aesthetic touches and it is more worthwhile to have more functionality instead. To that end, the ASRock X299E-ITX/ac goes without any shrouding over the back panel IO and also does not have any RGB LEDs. There is a single RGB LED header located on the top right-hand corner above the 8-pin EPS 12V connector. 

Starting off with fan headers we will find a total of three on the board, which is usual for high-end mini-ITX boards. The first, a 4-pin chassis/pump fan, is located in the upper left-hand corner above the Wi-Fi module and to the left of the VROC header. The other two 4-pin headers, for a CPU and CPU water pump, are located just above the 24-pin ATX 12V connector on the right side. These two are able to auto sense DC or PWM and adjust the control method depending on which type of fan is on the header. The CPU fan connector supports up to 1A/12W and the CPU OPT/W PUMP header is able to output 1.5A(18W). 

Audio duties are handled by the latest 7.1 CH Realtek ALC1220 codec supporting Purity Sound 4 and DTS connect. EMI protection and board separation are not found on the board, however it does use Nichicon premium audio caps. 

We took off the daughterboards and heatsinks to expose the 7-phase VRM. The X299E-ITX/ac uses 60A Intersil DRMos MOSFETs, premium 60A Power Chokes, and an Intersil ISL69138 7-phase PWM controller (one for the CPU, the other for memory). The 12K caps found on the Taichi and Gaming i9 are also used in this setup. The heatsink is small covered, and was warm while running. I wouldn't recommend overclocking heavily without good airflow, or I would suggest spot cooling if really pushing things. 

Looking at a top-down view of the right side, we can see the 24-pin ATX connector on the left, then on the riser card is a USB 3.0 header, six SATA ports, and a USB 2.0 header. To the right of it is the 8-pin EPS 12V plug, front panel header and RGB LED header. 

The primary M.2 slot is provided by a riser card plugged into a fifth 'SO-DIMM-like' slot, similar to how ASUS uses a DDR4 slot for its M.2 riser card. The riser card has a single M.2 slot which supports both SATA and PCIe 3.0 modules up to 80mm in length. The other two slots are located on the back of the motherboard supporting only 80mm length and PCIe 3.0 x4 only modules.

Spot the dual M.2 slots that say 'Ultra M.2'

The back M.2 slots are where VROC is supported. 

The next image is the riser card holding the SATA ports as well as the USB 3.0 header and USB 2.0 header. This unit is mounted to the VRM heatsink via screws and plugs into the motherboard just below and to the right of the socket.

The back panel IO shows the Intel Wi-Fi module, a CMOS reset button, the USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports in lighter blue, four USB 3.0 ports and the two Intel NICs along with the gold-plated 5 plug audio stack with SPDIF. Not a lot of USB back here, but it is to be expected on such a small board. Normally on a board this size we might see a 3-port audio solution to save space, but ASRock has given it the full stack.

In The Box

We get the following:

• Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
• 4 x SATA Data Cables
• 1 x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5 GHz Antenna
• 3 x Screws for Ultra M.2 Sockets

The included accessories are fairly sparse, however, it is enough to get running out of the box. Instructions, drivers, SATA cables, the I/O Plate, and Antenna are included. 

BIOS

The BIOS used for this review is version 1.00 which is the latest non-beta BIOS on the ASRock website. The latest beta BIOS has a couple of new options for CPU Cooling solution (options are air and water) and a multi-core enhancement to run all cores at turbo (4.5 GHz all cores). It is disabled by default.

The X299E-ITX/ac starts off on the Main screen, but our description starts with the EZ Mode shown below. The EZ Mode screen is both informative and allows users to change a few options. We see the CPU type and RAM installed, storage and fan status, CPU and motherboard temperatures (voltage is reading the input voltage), and boot priority. Editable fields here include XMP profile, RAID mode, fan curves, and boot priority. In order to reach advanced mode, press F6. 

The Main section is informational only outside of the ability to get into your favorite screen. It shows the UEFI version, processor type and speed, as well as RAM information including total memory, the mode it is in, and which slots are populated. The theme is black with white lettering and teal highlights for the in focus and selected items. It looks similar to the Taichi except there gears and cogs are removed for a different background design. 

The OC Tweaker section is where those overclocking will find their way. Within it, there are four sections: CPU Configuration, DRAM Configuration, Voltage Configuration, and FIVR Configuration. Also on this page is where users are able to save and load UEFI profiles. There are five internal slots and the ability to save it to a disk. 

Within the CPU Configuration section, users have the ability to change the CPU, Mesh, and Flex ratios of the processor. Turbo boost, Speestep, Speed Shift, and Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 options are found here as well as AVX offsets and power limits. Most of your overclocking will come from this screen that is not related to voltage will come from this screen. 

The next section is the DRAM configuration where all things memory related, except voltage, can be found. This is where XMP profiles can be enabled as well as manual memory speed and timings can be adjusted. 

The Voltage configuration screen allows users to tweak the main CPU Input voltage, adjust Load-Line Calibration levels, DRAM, PCH, and VccIO/VccSA voltages. 

Lastly, the FIVR configuration. Here is where Vcore voltage, CPU Mesh, System Agent Offset, and Voltage Regulated adjustments can be made.

While the BIOS has all the options needed for ambient overclocking, I realize now, compared to other board partners, the ASRock BIOSes are a bit clunky to overclock with. Where MSI and ASUS have more of the options on one page here, users will have to navigate to different sections for CPU multiplier, and Vcore voltage for one example. Where I would think Vcore would be, in the Voltage Configuration with its other often used voltages, is actually found in the FIVR Configuration page. I would expect the CPU Input Voltage to be in the FIVR section as that is what the other voltages work off of. Outside of a couple of extra clicks, I didn't have any other complaints with the UEFI implementation. 

The Tool section is where users are able to control any RGB LEDs attached to the RGB header, or install RAID, or flash the BIOS via instant flash or internet, as well as network configuration options. The Instant Flash worked just fine as I upgraded from the older BIOS on the board to version 1.00. 

The H/W monitor section displays information about CPU and Motherboard temperatures, fan speeds, and system voltages. This is also the location where users are able to adjust the fan speeds. The Fan Tuning option runs through all the headers and collects information on the lowest and fastest speeds and sets the parameters accordingly. 

The boot section, below, should be pretty self-explanatory, as are the Security and Exit sections (not pictured). More BIOS screenshots can be found in the gallery. 

Software

The driver disk contains a list of drivers and other included software which can all be installed locally. I installed the Intel ME driver from here successfully. Though note, these drivers can be stale so always check for the latest at the website. The Utilities section is where to find the Restart to UEFI software, and the Windows-based ASRock RGB LED application. The information screen contains all the guides and information. 

Once the basic drivers are installed, users can easily keep up to date with them via the Live Update and App Shop. The Apps contains some ASRock utilities, Chrome, and some lightweight games, while the BIOS & Drivers section shows a list of drivers and allows users to update through the utility. I pulled down all drivers listed and they updated successfully.

The one gripe I have with ASRock, which may be due to my location (Midwest US), are the slow download speeds. I have a 70 Mbps connection, but can barely peak over 1 MBs and often find myself running much slower. This happens through the Live Update App as well as directly from the website. 

The A-Tuning application allows users to adjust system parameters for overclocking manually as well as offering an EZ OC mode for one touch automatic overclocking (currently shows as not supported). The Main operation modes appear to adjust power states in windows. The OC Tweaker section has several options for overclocking including BCLK frequency, CPU Ratio and Mesh Ratio adjustments, as well as a handful of voltage adjustments. Missing from the A-Tuning software are any DRAM options. The System Info section display live system statistics from clockspeeds, fan speeds and temeperatures, to voltage. Fan control options are found in the FAN-Tastic Tuning section. Users are able to create custom curves for any fans attached to the motherboard. 

ASRock RGB LED will control an RGB LED strip attached to the single header on the motherboard. It has seven pre-programme styles as well as speed and full RGB color adjustment. 

The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac does not come with the Sound Blaster Cinema 3 software found in the X299 Gaming i9 Professional flashy audio software, however the Realtek HD Audio Manager accomplishes much of the same. From Speaker configuration to Sound Effects, Room Correction, Equalizer, and DTS functions, it has plenty of options to manipulate the sound. On the right side is a display which shows what jacks have a device plugged in by not being 'greyed out'. In this case, I do not have anything plugged in either the analog or digital ports. 

XFast LAN is a network monitoring and traffic shaping software. The monitoring element is a small widget installed to the bottom of the desktop, while the editing works through the browser. Right clicking on the monitoring window brings up several options including traffic shaping, cFos Speed Test, Ping Statistics and Usage Graphs. XFast LAN can be an overwhelming tool with all the options, but many will just find themselves in the traffic shaping section and ping/usage statistics. 

Board Features

The diminutive board brings ATX sized functionality and features to the Mini-ITX form factor. Currently, the X299E-ITX/ac is the only Mini-ITX board out for the X299 platform so if this size board is what you want/need along with the horsepower the Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X CPUs bring to the table, there isn't another choice.

That said, overall it is a good choice feature wise. All the basics are there from quad channel memory (support to 64GB at DDR4-4000), fast Wi-Fi capability with its 2x2 802.11ac implementation, as well as two Intel NICs for wired networking capabilities. There are two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports on the back panel, one each of Type-A and Type-C, as well as using the latest Realtek ALC1220 codec with DTS connectfor audio. The high-end VRMs found on the Taichi and Gaming i9 didn't reappear here, but the 7-phase Digital PWM with DrMOS power stages didn't flinch in our testing, but were notably warmer than the other boards we tested, especially when overclocked. 

About the only thing missing here is perhaps more USB ports on the back panel IO as there are 'only' six. There is also the ability to run SLI/Crossfire, through burification that seems to be possible with a riser card (not included), but we were unable to test it. Any RGB LEDs will have to come through external means using the onboard header and ASRock RGB LED software for control.

Outside of all this, the board does NOT support Kaby Lake-X CPUs, only Skylake-X. Refer to the compatibility list at the website. 

ASRock X299E-ITX/ac
Warranty Period	3 Years
Product Page	Link
Price	Newegg US
Size	Mini ITX
CPU Interface	LGA2066
Chipset	Intel X299
Memory Slots (DDR4)	Four DDR4 SO-DIMMs Supporting 64GB Quad Channel Up to DDR4-4000
Network Connectivity	1 x Intel I219-V 1 x Intel I211-AT  1 x Intel AC8265 802.11ac Wi-Fi Module
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC1220
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)	1 x PCIe 3.0 @ x16
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH)	N/A
Onboard SATA	Six, Supporting RAID 0/1/5/10
Onboard SATA Express	None
Onboard M.2	1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4
Onboard U.2	None
USB 3.1	ASMedia ASM3142 10 Gbps:  1 x Type-A 1 x Type-C
USB 3.0	ASMedia ASM1074 5 Gbps: 4 x Rear Panel 1 x Internal Header
USB 2.0	1 x Internal Header
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU
Fan Headers	1 x CPU (4-pin PWM Only) 1 x CPU Opt/Water Pump (Smart Fan 1.5A/18W) 1 x Chassis Fan (Smart Fan)
IO Panel	2 x Antenna Ports 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) 4 x USB 3.0 Ports  2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports  1 x Clear CMOS Switch HD Audio Jacks

 

Test Bed and Setup

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible for that frequency. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend our testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency/monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Test Setup
Processor	Intel i9 7900X (10C/20T, 3.3G, 140W)
Motherboard	ASRock X299E-ITX/ac BIOS 1.00
Cooling	Corsair H115i
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Memory	GSkill Ripjaws 4x8GB DDR4 3800 CL18-18-18-38 SO-DIMM
Memory Settings	DDR4-2666 CL16-18-18-35 2T / XMP
Video Cards	ASUS Strix GTX 980
Hard Drive	Crucial MX300 1TB
Optical Drive	TSST TS-H653G
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

 

Many thanks to...

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically but is used in other testing.

Thank you to ASUS for providing us with GTX 980 Strix GPUs. At the time of release, the STRIX brand from ASUS was aimed at silent running, or to use the marketing term: '0dB Silent Gaming'. This enables the card to disable the fans when the GPU is dealing with low loads well within temperature specifications. These cards equip the GTX 980 silicon with ASUS' Direct CU II cooler and 10-phase digital VRMs, aimed at high-efficiency conversion. Along with the card, ASUS bundles GPU Tweak software for overclocking and streaming assistance.

The GTX 980 uses NVIDIA's GM204 silicon die, built upon their Maxwell architecture. This die is 5.2 billion transistors for a die size of 298 mm², built on TMSC's 28nm process. A GTX 980 uses the full GM204 core, with 2048 CUDA Cores and 64 ROPs with a 256-bit memory bus to GDDR5. The official power rating for the GTX 980 is 165W.

The ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB (or the full name of STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5) runs a reasonable overclock over a reference GTX 980 card, with frequencies in the range of 1178-1279 MHz. The memory runs at stock, in this case, 7010 MHz. Video outputs include three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI 2.0 connector, and a DVI-I.

Further Reading: AnandTech's NVIDIA GTX 980 Review

 

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX300 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB MX300 units are strong performers. Based on Marvell's 88SS1074 controller and using Micron's 384Gbit 32-layer 3D TLC NAND, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 92K random read IOPS and 530/510 MB/s sequential read and write speeds.

The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 360TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX300 (750 GB) Review

 

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with Vengeance LPX DDR4 Memory, HX750 Power Supply, and H115i CPU Cooler. 

Corsair kindly sent a 4x8GB DDR4 2666 set of their Vengeance LPX low profile, high-performance memory for our stock testing. The heatsink is made of pure aluminum to help remove heat from the sticks and has an eight-layer PCB. The heatsink is a low profile design to help fit in spaces where there may not be room for a tall heat spreader; think a SFF case or using a large heatsink. Timings on this specific set come in at 16-18-18-35. The Vengeance LPX line supports XMP 2.0 profiles for easily setting the speed and timings. It also comes with a limited lifetime warranty. 

Powering the test system is Corsair's HX750 Power Supply. This HX750 is a dual mode unit able to switch from a single 12V rail (62.5A/750W) to a five rail CPU (40A max ea.), and is also fully modular. It has a typical selection of connectors, including dual EPS 4+4 pin four PCIe connectors and a whopping 16 SATA power leads, as well as four 4-pin molex connectors.

The 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan remains off until it is 40% loaded offering complete silence in light work loads. The HX750 comes with a ten-year warranty. 

In order to cool these high-TDP HEDT CPUs, Corsair sent over its latest and largest AIO in the H115i. This closed loop system uses a 280mm radiator with 2x140mm SP140L PWM controlled fans. The pump/block combination mounts to all modern CPU sockets. Users are also able to integrate this cooler into the Corsair link software via USB for more control and options. 

 

For our ITX system, a special thanks goes out to GSkill who provided us with new high-speed DDR4 SO-DIMMs. The set they gave us, F4-3800C18Q-32GRS is not currently found on the website. The 4x8GB kit is rated to DDR4 3800 @ CL18-18-18-38 with 1.35V and supports Intel's XMP 2.0 profiles. 

Benchmark Overview

For our testing, depending on the product, we attempt to tailor the presentation of our global benchmark suite down into what users who would buy this hardware might actually want to run. For CPUs, our full test suite is typically used to gather data and all the results are placed into Bench, our benchmark database for users that want to look at non-typical benchmarks or legacy data. For motherboards, we run our short form CPU tests, the gaming tests with half the GPUs of our processor suite, and our system benchmark tests which focus on non-typical and non-obvious performance metrics that are the focal point for specific groups of users.

The benchmarks fall into several areas:

Short Form CPU

Our short form testing script uses a straight run through of a mixture of known apps or workloads and requires about four hours. These are typically the CPU tests we run in our motherboard suite, to identify any performance anomalies.

CPU Short Form Benchmarks
Three Dimensional Particle Movement v2.1 (3DPM)	3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, derived from my academic research years looking at particle movement parallelism. The coding for this tool was rough, but emulates the real world in being non-CompSci trained code for a scientific endeavor. The code is unoptimized, but the test uses OpenMP to move particles around a field using one of six 3D movement algorithms in turn, each of which is found in the academic literature.
	The second version of this benchmark is similar to the first, however it has been re-written in VS2012 with one major difference: the code has been written to address the issue of false sharing. If data required by multiple threads, say four, is in the same cache line, the software cannot read the cache line once and split the data to each thread - instead it will read four times in a serial fashion. The new software splits the data to new cache lines so reads can be parallelized and stalls minimized.
WinRAR 5.4	WinRAR is a compression based software to reduce file size at the expense of CPU cycles. We use the version that has been a stable part of our benchmark database through 2015, and run the default settings on a 1.52GB directory containing over 2800 files representing a small website with around thirty half-minute videos. We take the average of several runs in this instance.
POV-Ray 3.7.1 b4	POV-Ray is a common ray-tracing tool used to generate realistic looking scenes. We've used POV-Ray in its various guises over the years as a good benchmark for performance, as well as a tool on the march to ray-tracing limited immersive environments. We use the built-in multi threaded benchmark.
HandBrake v1.0.2	HandBrake is a freeware video conversion tool. We use the tool in to process two different videos into x264 in an MP4 container - first a 'low quality' two-hour video at 640x388 resolution to x264, then a 'high quality' ten-minute video at 4320x3840, and finally the second video again but into HEVC. The low-quality video scales at lower performance hardware, whereas the buffers required for high-quality tests can stretch even the biggest processors. At current, this is a CPU only test.
7-Zip 9.2	7-Zip is a freeware compression/decompression tool that is widely deployed across the world. We run the included benchmark tool using a 50MB library and take the average of a set of fixed-time results.
DigiCortex v1.20	The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up.

 

System Benchmarks

Our system benchmarks are designed to probe motherboard controller performance, particularly any additional USB controllers or the audio controller. As general platform tests we have DPC Latency measurements and system boot time, which can be difficult to optimize for on the board design and manufacturing level.

System Benchmarks
Power Consumption	One of the primary differences between different motherboads is power consumption. Aside from the base defaults that every motherboard needs, things like power delivery, controller choice, routing and firmware can all contribute to how much power a system can draw. This increases for features such as PLX chips and multi-gigabit ethernet.
Non-UEFI POST Time	The POST sequence of the motherboard becomes before loading the OS, and involves pre-testing of onboard controllers, the CPU, the DRAM and everything else to ensure base stability. The number of controllers, as well as firmware optimizations, affect the POST time a lot. We test the BIOS defaults as well as attempt a stripped POST.
Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5	Testing onboard audio is difficult, especially with the numerous amount of post-processing packages now being bundled with hardware. Nonetheless, manufacturers put time and effort into offering a 'cleaner' sound that is loud and of a high quality. RMAA, with version 6.2.5 (newer versions have issues), under the right settings can be used to test the signal-to-noise ratio, signal crossover, and harmonic distortion with noise.
USB Backup	USB ports can come from a variety of sources: chipsets, controllers or hubs. More often than not, the design of the traces can lead to direct impacts on USB performance as well as firmware level choices relating to signal integrity on the motherboard.
DPC Latency	Another element is deferred procedure call latency, or the ability to handle interrupt servicing. Depending on the motherboard firmware and controller selection, some motherboards handle these interrupts quicker than others. A poor result could lead to delays in performance, or for example with audio, a delayed request can manifest in distinct audible pauses, pops or clicks.

Gaming

Our gaming benchmarks are designed to show any differences in performance when playing games. 

System 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 manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Corsair HX 750 power supply. This power supply is Platinum rated. As I am in the US on a 120 V supply, leads to ~87% efficiency > 75W, and 92%+ efficiency at 375W, 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 test bed 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.

In our power tests, we see nothing out of the ordinary. It sits in the middle of a tightly packed group or leads the group by a negligible margin. Normally we see mini-ITX boards consuming less power, due to the fewer controllers on board, however the X299E-ITX/ac is a slightly different beast.

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 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) 

POST time on for the ITX/ac was the best of all the boards tested so far with a time of 24.9 seconds on default and 23.9 seconds when stripped. The ASRock boards, so far, are leading the MSI set of boards. It will be interesting to see ASUS, Gigabyte, and EVGA boards in this list. Our next reviews should be of some ASUS and EVGA boards, so stay tuned for those.

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5

Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). For this test we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on board, as well as the Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise.

Due to circumstances currently out of our control, we were unable to get RMAA results for this board. The problem does not lie with the board itself. Once we are able to get it working properly, the space will be updated with data. 

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. 

Again, nothing out of the ordinary in the DPC Latency tests. The X299E-ITX/ac shows 243 microseconds, which is good for second place in another fairly tight grouping. 

CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We leave the BIOS settings at default and memory at JEDEC (DDR4-2666 C16) for these tests, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

Here we are including data from all the boards we have tested in the lab, including ones without a formal full review. It is noticeable that the MSI motherboards adopt Multi-Core Turbo, although different boards seem to prioritize different benchmark styles for the turbo.

Blender 2.78: link

For a render that has been around for what seems like ages, Blender is still a highly popular tool. We managed to wrap up a standard workload into the February 5 nightly build of Blender and measure the time it takes to render the first frame of the scene. Being one of the bigger open source tools out there, it means both AMD and Intel work actively to help improve the codebase, for better or for worse on their own/each other's microarchitecture.

The Blender results here for the ASRock X299E-ITX/ac are last in the pack by about 14 seconds. A fairly significant margin. Settings and results were confirmed, the ITX board ran at 3.7 GHz the entire time with the same primary memory settings as the rest of the tested boards. 

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7: link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 1-2 minutes on high-end platforms.

Nothing outstanding here with POVRay. Though it is the lowest on the charts, it is still within a couple percent difference of most on here. It is matching the overarching theme we are seeing that boards without multi-core boost are performing below those that do (but consume less power).  

Compression – WinRAR 5.4: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30-second 720p videos.

With the WinRAR test, the X299E-ITX/ac falls in the middle of the pack, though it was a couple of seconds faster than its other ASRock counterparts. 

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

Outside of the Gaming Pro Carbon AC, this is also a tightly packed group of results. 

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz, and IPC win in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.

Another tightly packed set of results here again with the X299E-ITX/ac in the middle grouping. 

Neuron Simulation - DigiCortex v1.20: link

The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates the activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up. Results are taken during the steady state period in a 32k neuron simulation and represented as a function of the ability to simulate in real time (1.000x equals real-time).

The X299E-ITX/ac manages a last place result here, but is within a couple percent of the rest of the results. 

Gaming 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.

Overclocking

Overclocking Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with POV-Ray 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 (90ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air. Room temperatures are normalized to 23C for all testing. 

Experience with the ASRock X299E-ITX/ac

To start, the ASRock X299E-ITX/ac does not currently have automatic overclocking ability, outside of Multi-Core Enhancement. MCE brings all the cores to 4.5 GHz and uses more voltage than needed (1.29V compared with manual tweaking of 1.235V). The A-Tuning application does have an auto OC tune, however the option was not available with the latest release. 

Manual overclocking was easy per usual, however with the ASRock BIOSes the most frequently used adjustments are in separate locations than with other BIOSes. There, most voltage options, multiplier, and BCLK were on the same page, while here there are in different sections. Not a big deal, however, it would be a bit more ergonmic if they were located on the same page. Users are able to achieve this through using the favorites page however. 

The 7-phase VRM held up nicely through our testing. Though it did get hot to the touch, I did not notice throttling in our testing. The daughterboard for the SATA ports sits right over the VRM heatsink surely hindering airflow through the small heatsink. If heavy overclocking is a need on this board, I would suggest active cooling in a SFF case. 

Overclocking Results

Using the X299E-ITX/ac we were able to achieve our typical limit of 4.5 GHz. This time at a slightly lesser voltage than most at 1.235V. Using the Auto function for LLC it defaults on Level 2 and yields pretty stable voltages. Voltage set at 1.235 V in the BIOS was measured as 1.234 V during load with Level 2 LLC. Power consumption of the system started off at 214W, and ended at 294W at 4.5 GHz. 

The SO-DIMM DRAM used for the testing is specified at DDR4 3800 CL18-18-18-38 using the XMP profile. These are a bit different than the full-size DRAM sticks we normally use which are DDR4-2666 for one set and DDR4=3200 for the other. The OC testing was completed using these sticks set at the XMP profile. No other adjustments to the system were made. 

Conclusion

The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac is priced at $399 on Newegg and lands it towards the higher end of all X299 motherboards. If we look at only the Mini-ITX space, it is in a class of it its own because it is the only ITX size board currently out for X299. It also marks the most expensive mini-ITX motherboard ever launched to consumers.

The niche this falls into is a small form factor, high horsepower, single GPU system. There are MicroATX boards available which fits the 'smaller than ATX bill', however, outside of Kaby Lake-X support and physical full-length PCIe slot count for SLI/Crossfire capabilities, the features sets between them all are quite similar with the ASRock board having the advantage of more M.2 slots and Wi-Fi compared with the micro-ATX competition. The X299E-ITX/ac requires SO-DIMM memory modules as opposed to the MicroATX boards which use full-size DRAM modules, but a quick look at pricing doesn't show too much difference.

In many cases, the small size and full-featured nature of the board gave way to a lack of aesthetic additions. For all intents and purposes, a Mini-ITX board is intended to be more functional than easy on the eyes on the first place. 

To that end, the ASRock X299E-ITX brings almost everything one needs in a PC. We can argue that it might be missing some features seen on other $400 X299 boards, perhaps such as 10 GbE, U.2 support or the ability to use 128GB of RAM, but frankly, if those are build requirements, users are likely looking to a larger board in the first place.

Although Kaby Lake-X support is not found on this board, full support is provided up the stack for Skylake-X CPUs, including the Core i9-7980XE with 18 cores, 36 threads, and 165W TDP. In order to support the latest HEDT CPUs, the board requires a decent VRM and ASRock has provided just that. The parts used are fairly reasonable, with a 7-phase solution with DrMOS integrated power stages, which handled what we threw at it. That isn't to say it couldn't be improved, at least the heatsink side, which was certainly warmer than other boards that we have tested, but the system didn't fault even in our overclocks. Not only is the VRM heatsink small, but the daughterboard for SATA/USB is located directly on top of it. We are again getting out of what most would consider to be 'normal' use of such a board too. 

Overclocking with the board and heatsink really wasn't an issue as we did not see throttling throughout testing. Through the hour plus of scripted testing, the heatsink was warm/hot to the touch, warmer than others by feel, but nothing alarming. Pushing things to 4.5 GHz our CPU cooling limit and running stress tests did manage to get it hot. This on an open test bench, which might be a more favorable scenario, although we did not apply any significant airflow over the situation. Stuffing this inside a SFF case and trying to overclock would more than likely lead to higher temperatures on the VRM and potential throttling. Good internal airflow or spot cooling is recommended if users are to really keen on this board in a small case with an overclock.

New to this review are the SO-DIMM memory sticks used. GSkill sent us 4x8 GB DDR4-3800 sticks which the board handled without issue by simply enabling the XMP profile. 

 

Overall, there isn't much to complain about, at least without considering the size of the board in the first place. For the vast majority of users looking for a Mini-ITX size board, it has most of features found on the X299 based motherboards. We can nitpick about some features being missing, but given the size it is difficult to hold it against this board. An option that might be worth examining for the future might be partitioning the audio to a separate riser card.

The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac is, at the moment, a one of a kind motherboard for X299 in the Mini-ITX form factor. We are not sure if others will be coming out with some later, but if users require Skylake-X CPUs in an ITX format, this is the only choice. It does come at a price premium, at almost $400, but for a motherboard less than half the size of ATX it has nearly all the features of larger motherboards, and in some cases even more, and is able to command such a premium. 

The Recommended by AnandTech Award
The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac
Mini Yet Mighty: A New Standard for 18-Core Small Form Factor Motherboards