ASRock X299M Extreme4: Micro ATX Sweet Spot
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How We Test
Additional cores create additional thermal and power loads that can push other hardware to its limits. But the parts we’re hoping to push to the limit are all on the motherboards here. Intel’s 10-core, 20-thread Core i9-7900X CPU is a great product for stressing the voltage regulators of various X299 motherboards, particularly under our full-AVX-load overclocking stability test.
Test Hardware
Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
Graphics Driver | GeForce 382.53 |
The tremendous heat produced by the Core i9-7900X required us to use nothing less than our award-winning Fractal Design S24 liquid cooler system sample. Getting its fans to blow sufficiently over each motherboard’s voltage regulator required additional design consideration: Of our leftover case review samples, Cooler Master’s HAF-XB had the best layout.
Comparison Products
The less common Micro ATX form factor pits ASRock's X299M Extreme4 against MSI's X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC. Our only other reduced-size board, ASRock's X299E-ITX/ac helps fill out the charts, while its full ATX X299 Extreme gives us additional perspective on the ATX/Micro ATX debate.
Benchmark Settings
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
PCMark 8 | Version 2.7.613Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft) |
3DMark 13 | Version 4.47.597.0Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets |
SiSoftware Sandra | Version 2016.03.22.21CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth |
DiskSPD | 4k Random Read, 4k Random Write128k Sequential Read, 128k Sequential Write |
Cinebench R15 | Build RC83328DEMOOpenGL Benchmark |
CompuBench | Version 1.5.8Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing |
Application Tests and Settings | |
LAME MP3 | Version 3.98.3Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.9.9Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19 GB 4k mkv to x265 mp4 |
Blender | Version 2.68aBMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark |
7-Zip | Version 16.02THG-Workload (7.6 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9" |
Adobe After Effects CC | Release 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144PCMark-driven routine |
Adobe Photoshop CC | Release 2015.5.0. 20160603.r.88 x64PCMark-driven routine (light and heavy) |
Adobe InDesign CC | Release 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64PCMark-driven routine |
Adobe Illustrator | Release 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit)PCMark-driven routine |
Game Tests and Settings | |
Ashes of Singularity | Version 1.31.21360High Preset - 1920x1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAACrazy Preset - 1920x1080, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA |
F1 2015 | 2015 Season, Abu Dhabi Track, RainMedium Preset, No AFUltra High Preset, 16x AF |
Metro Last Light Redux | Version 3.00 x64High Quality, 1920x1080, High Tesselation, 16x AFVery High Quality, 1920x1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF |
The Talos Principle | Version 267252Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AFUltra Preset, Very High Quality, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF |
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emeralds1000000 Hints for Asrock :Reply
When you make Micro ATX Motherboard for a CPU that has alot of lanes , make sure you add all 4 slots , and not only 3 . and make sure all four are connected to the lanes , while the chipset lanes are connected to the M2 cards . no need to waste CPU Lanes we have 44 lanes possible here .
I Agree you mite say , the GPU will take two slots and thats why only three slots because it will be covered anyways ... But you are mistaken here ...
we can use the LAST slot to the edge for the GPU card and use with it a 5 slots Micro ATX case . in this way , behind it all 3 Slots will be usable.
OR , when we use Water cooling blocks , then the dual slot GPU card will turn into single slot and we CAN add 2 Cards in 2 slots next to each others.
Now since we have 44/28 Lanes CPUs , then the Mother board slots should be configurable from Bios ,
1- Mode one 44 Lanes CPU:
Slot 1 : X8
Slot 2 : X16
Slot 3 : X4
Slot 4 Edge of motherboard : X16
Total : 44 lanes .
Make sure that the Slot on The edge is allways x16 .. so in case we have one card only we dont lose Slots by Covering. OR in case we use 2 GPU , then we still have Extra X8 Slot Available . only the X4 will be covered (if we dont use water cooling)
and in case only one GPU is used , the Last Slot can be used in one slot only.
2- Mode 2 (28 lanes CPU) :
1- Slot 1 X8
2- Slot 2 0 / X8
3- Slot 3 X4
4- Slot 4 X16 / X8
Total : 28 Lanes
Please dont waste lanes on MATX Motherboard.
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Ninjawithagun Sadly, Intel has yet to wake from it's deep sleep state. The hugely inflated prices of their CPUs proves it :DReply