ASRock makes mini-itx motherboard with Intel X299 chipset

ASRock shows a mini-itx board with lga2066 socket on the Computex. This makes it possible to build the future Core i9 processors with up to 18 cores in a very small system. The motherboard has four memory slots for quad-channel DDR4 support.

To accommodate the huge lga2066 socket of the X299 chipset on the small board, ASRock moved some components to two riser cards. One has two m2 slots and a number of controllers. The other elevation contains an m2 slot, the SATA connections and USB headers.

The board has a PCI-e 3.0 x16 connection, has two Intel gigabit Ethernet ports, 7.1 audio from Realtek and an 802.11 ac Wi-Fi module from Intel. There must be a 24pin and 8pin plug in the board for the power supply and the motherboard has seven phases.

The previous itx-format hedt motherboard from ASRock, the version with X99 chipset, was limited by the presence of two memory slots. As a result, a quad-channel arrangement of DDR4 memory could not be made. This is no longer the case with the X299 board, despite the larger socket. There is also support for overclocked memory, but users will have to find quick bars in sodimm format.

According to ASRock, the sign will cost about $300. Converted with VAT, that is about 323 euros. In addition to the small ASRock X299E-ITX/ac, the manufacturer shows a complete line-up of X299 motherboards at Computex. In total there are six variants.