You sort of mentioned it with the CPU cooler, but note that this board uses the narrow-ILM LGA2011-3 socket, rather than the standard square-ILMversion. Compatibility with aftermarket coolers (which generally use the square-ILM) may be compromised.
Supermicro makes some decent ones and the Noctua NH-9DX i4/NHU12DX i4 work pretty well also. The latter probably wont fit well in a smaller chassis though.
Having installed two of those Supermicro tower coolers on a narrow ILM server motherboard, I would not recommend them for this board.
When using the narrow ILM mount, the heat pipes infringe on the nearest DIMM slot on each side of the processor, rendering them unusable. On the server motherboard with 8 DIMM slots and only 4 DIMMs, it wasn't an issue, but on this board it would limit you to only one DIMM. Thus the reason why ASRock will bundle a cooler with this motherboard.
Astronman, I've had good success with ASRock over the last five years. Asus and ASRock have provided great MB for a dozen workstation builds. What's the issue with them?
A X99 motherboard that limits the system to dual-channel and a single PCI-Express port.
What's the point? Getting an 8-core Haswell-E into mini-ITX? "Oh I need a $1800-worth 8-core/16 thread server but I only have this tiny little space to put it"?
"Oh I need a $1800-worth 8-core/16 thread server but I only have this tiny little space to put it"?
I hope you are being sarcastic, because yes, that's precisely what this is for. Socket 1155 has some CPU performance limitations (even with "8-core" Xeons) that only the X99 platform, even while using half the memory channels and half the PCIe lanes can offer.
A tiny server is not really practical because the Haswell-E CPUs have high TDP,and a small heatsink is not going to cool it properly,unless you have a server room and don't care about 10000RPM fans running at full speed.However,if you have a server room,then you have the space... It is a paradox.This is basically for ITX cases/case mods,not really for lots of compactness.
Well they _could_ have put 4 SODIMMs there,but they chose not to.So yeah... Hope Asus come up with a Rampage V Impact with actual quad channel Memory boasting 4 SODIMM Slots.Also would be nice if they add custom PCIe ports that have adapter cables to external PCIe slot.
I can see the extra PCIe lanes going to additional M.2 slots. Of course such aboard wouldn't be able to put them horizontally, parallel with the motherboard. However they can go perpendicular like a PCIe card.
That works, but man, I dread the day I upgrade the M2 SSD on my Asrock H97 that has it on the flipside. Will probably be a 2 hour upgrade because the case, like most cases, has no cutouts on the motherboard tray.
I was thinking the same thing, but there's no DDR4 SODIMMs out. X99 requires DDR4, right? Maybe they'll have a four channel SODIMM version later when DDR4 makes it into the mainstream.
There are Haswell-E based Xeon's running DDR3 in certain OEM servers. I remember reading about them awhile back but the CPU SKU's are OEM only and Intel doesn't plan to make very many.
I honestly don't know why they're making them at all...unless it is for precisely what we are talking about (tiny rack/blade servers that need SODIMMs)
To the best of my knowledge, ddr4 So-DIMMs are not yet publicly available, and so unless asroc somehow managed to get ddr3 to work with Haswell-E, that isn't going to happen.
While 4 SO-DIMM slots would make a lot more sense so you could retain quad channel memory... I don't believe anyone is manufacturing DDR4 SO-DIMMs right now, probably because no mobile platforms use it yet.
either way it makes sense for SFF builds whether it be gaming, workstation, or yes, even server. Even high end ITX builds can be built to fit easily into carry on luggage... and while Clevo can do quite a bit with DTRs, its still far short of HEDT, even when cut down like this.
true, but i was thinking more in terms of as a consumer/prosumer option (hence X99 as opposed to C612), the 5820K is 6 core and price competitive with the 4 core 4790K, and a potentially far more enticing option for someone looking for some SFF power, or at least more than what the 4770K/4790K could provide.
throwing an 18-core into a shoebox build would be a bit nuts :P
And the amusing thing is that Intel just launched Xeon-D, which is precisely a product for people who want eight Broadwell cores and a PCI slot, and want it to fit in a teeny box and use limited electricity.
As someone who has built servers that have to be be portable since they are regular used at different locations, I can assure you I like having mini-ITX boards with the power of Xeons. I run virtualized servers, and I now have two host servers where previously I had one large server tower. I've saved myself room & still get the results I want.
So just because you can't think of the usage scenario, it doesn't mean that no one has a use-case for a nice small Xeon server board (not Atom!)
*Chucks Rampage IV Gene and 4930K into the bin* But seriously,I would rather get a eurocom phanter instead of this board if portability is most important
unless you're wanting to transcode video and stream to a dozen+ devices, its overkill as a home server. An equally overkill, but much better option for a homserver/router would be an ITX board based on Intel Avoton either a 4 or 8 core option; some boards can have 4 DIMM slots (even 4x full size ones, not just SO-DIMM), 2-4 LAN ports (some where all 4 are Intel) + 1 IPMI LAN ports, 6-10+ SATA ports...
this product, on the other hand, is perfect for portable gaming or workstation builds where a DTR wouldn't cut it
4-5 months ago, this would have fallen straight into Shut Up And Take My Money territory. But now, with Broadwell and (possibly) Skylake on the horizon, I'd rather wait and see how they fare. It hasn't yet been worth moving away from LGA1155 (only a tiny performance bump from Ivy Bridge to Haswell).
I still have a number of friends on 1366 ;) The IPC improvement from Nehalem to Haswell is apx 25% clock for clock, and a lot of them are overclocking Bloomfield (not even Lynnfield) cores upward of 3.8GHz. I never got more than 3.5GHz out of my i7-950, and couldn't even crack 3.3GHz with my i7-920.
But amusingly, even today, LGA1366 is entirely relevant in the performance computing circles, especially the 6-core i7 and Xeon models. Many of the boards came with SAS, the memory bandwidth was enormous and it (X58) was undoubtedly the most stable platform since the 440BX.
But it's a fun creature, and the two channels should do up to eight, lower clocked cores with a big cache and compute oriented workload. E5 series has some fitting 4-8 core models for this curiosity, price considerations ignored of course. Maybe somebody should put this to the Lian-Li's train case for fun.
I guess Asrock should send a representative over here to apologize to everyone for trying something unique and different. They should have known better - I'm sure you're right, nobody will be able to find anything to use this for.
Seriously though, their are plenty of dual GPU cards out there, so you can get dual GPU's on this board. Also, not everyone cares about overclocking anymore and you can easily get around the heat issue with a good ITX gaming case. There are some of us who do value portability - I have only built ITX in the last 2 years because I need a small desktop. I would love to have an 8 core on my computer for photo and video editing, this would actually really really save me a ton of time when rending videos. Plus I could put this in a case that will fit in a backpack.
"Sorry, we're using an odd socket so you can only use tiny server coolers on it." Or, with fairly minimal effort (a mounting plate with the correct hole spacing, already available for Swiftech blocks), closed-loop watercoolers.
That's a bit unfair. Yes, the dual channel memory is disappointing, and yes the odd cooler is going to be a hassle, but all of the other jabs you took at the board are things people have already come to terms with if they're building an ITX box. There's never been a multi-GPU ITX board, there usually isn't a hell of a lot of overclocking room in a case the size of a shoebox and you already pay a premium for ITX compatible components. However, if anyone out there needs more then a quad core, this is the only board that satisfies that. It's really quite exciting for what it is.
My comment was as much (actually more) about what boards Anandtech chooses to review, as what Asrock decides to produce. If asrock choose to churn out a million boards in an effort to differentiate themselves, then that's their business model, people will find something relevant in it.
The last review was for a storage-behemoth oriented board where Anandtech's reviewer *decided not to bother* testing the storage. "Here's an unusual board, if you want to know if it's any use, just make some guesses based on something we reviewed years ago." That is frankly unforgivable, and the antithesis of what Anandtech has stood for since it was founded. No short cuts, no laziness, no leaving the reader to make up guesses about the product being reviewed, that's what made Anand stand out from the crowd. It's a disgrace.
This board has clearly been chosen for review because of novelty value rather than because there is a viable market for it. Hopefully the reviewer, *this time*, will actually *test* the board, and not just play around with their imagination.
Meanwhile the vast majority of the boards on the market go untested, because Anandtech has decided that anything under $400 isn't sexy enough to bother looking at.
An attitude which would make a lot more sense if the boards they did choose actually got tested properly. Clearly there isn't a motherboard review section anymore, there's a "what motherboards would Ian like, which he isn't prepared to buy himself" section.
As mentioned in that review, for the previous X79 Extreme11 testing we were able to source drives on a temporary basis to test but not for the X99 version. The underlying chip and implementation is the same, but the socket/chipset support was updated for the next platform which is what we tested. While I would love to sit on a mountain of hardware and test every nook and cranny of every product, it's a delicate balance between time and effort. For example, the 10GBase-T board we reviewed earlier went through appropriate testing because it was the first time we had seen that implementation and we had the capability to test. When new versions of similar products came to market, Anand didn't retest the same implementation in his reviews unless necessary or if he had the time, and you are holding me to higher standards.
Over my tenure since 2011, I have reviewed ~140 motherboards for AnandTech in both the consumer and server space. At least ~115 of those (from my brief look through) have been under $400, going as low as $40 and spending plenty of time in the sub-$200 segment, especially when mainstream chipsets are launched and over the next several months when they are popular. When there is a relatively new platform catering to the high-end desktop market, such as X99, you are going to see a wave of high-end products being reviewed due to the time of launch and the relative interest of such a platform. Even then, our first four reviews for X99 were set at $230, $310, $324 and $400 and we did a substantial deep dive into the new chipset. Motherboard manufacturers want us to test their high-end equipment because for them it promotes the brand, especially if it gets a good review. We don't go overboard on testing every high-end product from every manufacturer but we take a good stab at the range, especially given that each product takes a good 35-50 working hours to test and write. It's not a testing process you can leave on overnight, either.
As for what motherboards actually get into my hands to test, it usually comes as a compromise. I ask what they would like me to test, but I also what are their best sellers and more interesting parts. More often than not, what I ask for isn't available, or what they want me to test makes no sense from a coverage perspective (there's no point testing MPower, MPower Max and an XPower as the only three MSI boards in a launch, for example).
If you have direct requests for specific reviews, specific tests within those reviews, or comments to make on my coverage, I'm always open to email and very easy to talk to. A number of our readers email me already, some on a frequent basis, and where possible I have been accommodating given the schedule I have. If you have specific requests, shoot me a email.
What is the point of working for Anandtech rather than out of your back garden, if you can't buy eighteen 120G SSDs on expenses for a test of a machine with eighteen SATA ports?
I"ll repeat this comment: As someone who has built servers that have to be be portable since they are regular used at different locations, I can assure you I like having mini-ITX boards with the power of Xeons. I run virtualized servers, and I now have two host servers where previously I had one large server tower. I've saved myself room & still get the results I want.
So just because you can't think of the usage scenario, it doesn't mean that no one has a use-case for a nice small Xeon server board (not Atom!)
You can probably get away with an Avoton for a FW/router unless you're trying to inspect something like >100M @ layer 7 (UTM) in real time at which point your budget should mean you're looking at non-homebrew solutions....
For traditional routing/stateful FW, anything above a low end haswell is complete overkill
Am I really the only one here thinking this would be a perfect base motherboard for a small, portable highend workstation to bring for some serious Oculus Rift / DataGlove / 3D-mouse showrooming? Think CAD/CAE, or architects needing some oomph for displaying latest projects or even have a small proper workstation that doesnt destroy your ears or sight? (pretty, discreet and silent cases are a no-show in PC world). Plus this could be done much cheaper than buying a Mac Pro workstation.
I'm going to run this in an evga mini hadron with a titan z and 32gb of ecc ddr4, 1.2tb intel ssd 750 with hyperkit into the m.2 slot and a slot load bluray writer, 18 core E5-2696v3 xeon. What a fun build!
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liu_d - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
You sort of mentioned it with the CPU cooler, but note that this board uses the narrow-ILM LGA2011-3 socket, rather than the standard square-ILMversion. Compatibility with aftermarket coolers (which generally use the square-ILM) may be compromised.Ian Cutress - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Good catch - it was such an unexpected news post in general it completely passed me by. I'll add it in.agent4678 - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Supermicro makes some decent ones and the Noctua NH-9DX i4/NHU12DX i4 work pretty well also. The latter probably wont fit well in a smaller chassis though.PCTC2 - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Yeah. The Supermicro SNK-P0050AP4 supports both narrow-ILM and square-ILM and is decent and pretty cheap (~$40).The Von Matrices - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Having installed two of those Supermicro tower coolers on a narrow ILM server motherboard, I would not recommend them for this board.When using the narrow ILM mount, the heat pipes infringe on the nearest DIMM slot on each side of the processor, rendering them unusable. On the server motherboard with 8 DIMM slots and only 4 DIMMs, it wasn't an issue, but on this board it would limit you to only one DIMM. Thus the reason why ASRock will bundle a cooler with this motherboard.
Antronman - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
If it wasn't ASRock I might even buy it.Antronman - Friday, March 20, 2015 - link
Damnit. Didn't mean to post this as a reply.SeanFL - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
Astronman, I've had good success with ASRock over the last five years. Asus and ASRock have provided great MB for a dozen workstation builds. What's the issue with them?ToTTenTranz - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
A X99 motherboard that limits the system to dual-channel and a single PCI-Express port.What's the point? Getting an 8-core Haswell-E into mini-ITX?
"Oh I need a $1800-worth 8-core/16 thread server but I only have this tiny little space to put it"?
Samus - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
"Oh I need a $1800-worth 8-core/16 thread server but I only have this tiny little space to put it"?I hope you are being sarcastic, because yes, that's precisely what this is for. Socket 1155 has some CPU performance limitations (even with "8-core" Xeons) that only the X99 platform, even while using half the memory channels and half the PCIe lanes can offer.
fingerstuckinceilingfan - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
A tiny server is not really practical because the Haswell-E CPUs have high TDP,and a small heatsink is not going to cool it properly,unless you have a server room and don't care about 10000RPM fans running at full speed.However,if you have a server room,then you have the space...It is a paradox.This is basically for ITX cases/case mods,not really for lots of compactness.
Samus - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
Why said anything about a server, I'm putting this sucker in my FT03mini workstation and using a closed-loop cooler!fingerstuckinceilingfan - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Well they _could_ have put 4 SODIMMs there,but they chose not to.So yeah...Hope Asus come up with a Rampage V Impact with actual quad channel Memory boasting 4 SODIMM Slots.Also would be nice if they add custom PCIe ports that have adapter cables to external PCIe slot.
Kevin G - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I can see the extra PCIe lanes going to additional M.2 slots. Of course such aboard wouldn't be able to put them horizontally, parallel with the motherboard. However they can go perpendicular like a PCIe card.liu_d - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Could go on the underside of the board. They did a similar thing with mSATA ports on their Z77 ITX board.Samus - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
That works, but man, I dread the day I upgrade the M2 SSD on my Asrock H97 that has it on the flipside. Will probably be a 2 hour upgrade because the case, like most cases, has no cutouts on the motherboard tray.Mr Perfect - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I was thinking the same thing, but there's no DDR4 SODIMMs out. X99 requires DDR4, right? Maybe they'll have a four channel SODIMM version later when DDR4 makes it into the mainstream.Samus - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
There are Haswell-E based Xeon's running DDR3 in certain OEM servers. I remember reading about them awhile back but the CPU SKU's are OEM only and Intel doesn't plan to make very many.I honestly don't know why they're making them at all...unless it is for precisely what we are talking about (tiny rack/blade servers that need SODIMMs)
Dusk_Star - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
To the best of my knowledge, ddr4 So-DIMMs are not yet publicly available, and so unless asroc somehow managed to get ddr3 to work with Haswell-E, that isn't going to happen.liu_d - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Are there DDR4 SODIMMs yet?Dant2142 - Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - link
While 4 SO-DIMM slots would make a lot more sense so you could retain quad channel memory... I don't believe anyone is manufacturing DDR4 SO-DIMMs right now, probably because no mobile platforms use it yet.bunnyfubbles - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
or a 6 core...either way it makes sense for SFF builds whether it be gaming, workstation, or yes, even server. Even high end ITX builds can be built to fit easily into carry on luggage... and while Clevo can do quite a bit with DTRs, its still far short of HEDT, even when cut down like this.
Ian Cutress - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
If there's full Xeon support, there are 18-core possibilities.bunnyfubbles - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
true, but i was thinking more in terms of as a consumer/prosumer option (hence X99 as opposed to C612), the 5820K is 6 core and price competitive with the 4 core 4790K, and a potentially far more enticing option for someone looking for some SFF power, or at least more than what the 4770K/4790K could provide.throwing an 18-core into a shoebox build would be a bit nuts :P
Samus - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
ITX is all about being NUTS!TomWomack - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
And the amusing thing is that Intel just launched Xeon-D, which is precisely a product for people who want eight Broadwell cores and a PCI slot, and want it to fit in a teeny box and use limited electricity.romrunning - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
As someone who has built servers that have to be be portable since they are regular used at different locations, I can assure you I like having mini-ITX boards with the power of Xeons. I run virtualized servers, and I now have two host servers where previously I had one large server tower. I've saved myself room & still get the results I want.So just because you can't think of the usage scenario, it doesn't mean that no one has a use-case for a nice small Xeon server board (not Atom!)
Samus - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
YES BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!fingerstuckinceilingfan - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
*Chucks Rampage IV Gene and 4930K into the bin*But seriously,I would rather get a eurocom phanter instead of this board if portability is most important
CaedenV - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Hmmm... so combination home server and wireless router? Not entirely sure what else it would be good for.bunnyfubbles - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
unless you're wanting to transcode video and stream to a dozen+ devices, its overkill as a home server. An equally overkill, but much better option for a homserver/router would be an ITX board based on Intel Avoton either a 4 or 8 core option; some boards can have 4 DIMM slots (even 4x full size ones, not just SO-DIMM), 2-4 LAN ports (some where all 4 are Intel) + 1 IPMI LAN ports, 6-10+ SATA ports...this product, on the other hand, is perfect for portable gaming or workstation builds where a DTR wouldn't cut it
edzieba - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
4-5 months ago, this would have fallen straight into Shut Up And Take My Money territory. But now, with Broadwell and (possibly) Skylake on the horizon, I'd rather wait and see how they fare. It hasn't yet been worth moving away from LGA1155 (only a tiny performance bump from Ivy Bridge to Haswell).Samus - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
I still have a number of friends on 1366 ;) The IPC improvement from Nehalem to Haswell is apx 25% clock for clock, and a lot of them are overclocking Bloomfield (not even Lynnfield) cores upward of 3.8GHz. I never got more than 3.5GHz out of my i7-950, and couldn't even crack 3.3GHz with my i7-920.But amusingly, even today, LGA1366 is entirely relevant in the performance computing circles, especially the 6-core i7 and Xeon models. Many of the boards came with SAS, the memory bandwidth was enormous and it (X58) was undoubtedly the most stable platform since the 440BX.
Hairs_ - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
"We're releasing an x99 itx board!""Oh great, 4 channel memory in a sff box!"
"Sorry we cut that."
"Oh well, multi GPU setups, excellent!"
"Sorry, only one PCI slot. Space, you know!"
"Well, I know I'll be over clocking!"
"Sorry, we're using an odd socket so you can only use tiny server coolers on it."
"Oh.... Umm... so there's no useful difference between this and a z97 board then?"
"Well the parts are twice as expensive. If not more! And actually it'll be noisier and hotter."
"Who wants this board again?"
"Ian from anandtech and.,. ummmm... Well I don't know really."
I guess this answers the question of whether anandtech is worth visiting for motherboard reviews from now on.
TeXWiller - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
But it's a fun creature, and the two channels should do up to eight, lower clocked cores with a big cache and compute oriented workload. E5 series has some fitting 4-8 core models for this curiosity, price considerations ignored of course. Maybe somebody should put this to the Lian-Li's train case for fun.IntoxicatedPuma - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
I guess Asrock should send a representative over here to apologize to everyone for trying something unique and different. They should have known better - I'm sure you're right, nobody will be able to find anything to use this for.Seriously though, their are plenty of dual GPU cards out there, so you can get dual GPU's on this board. Also, not everyone cares about overclocking anymore and you can easily get around the heat issue with a good ITX gaming case. There are some of us who do value portability - I have only built ITX in the last 2 years because I need a small desktop. I would love to have an 8 core on my computer for photo and video editing, this would actually really really save me a ton of time when rending videos. Plus I could put this in a case that will fit in a backpack.
edzieba - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
"Sorry, we're using an odd socket so you can only use tiny server coolers on it."Or, with fairly minimal effort (a mounting plate with the correct hole spacing, already available for Swiftech blocks), closed-loop watercoolers.
Mr Perfect - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
That's a bit unfair. Yes, the dual channel memory is disappointing, and yes the odd cooler is going to be a hassle, but all of the other jabs you took at the board are things people have already come to terms with if they're building an ITX box. There's never been a multi-GPU ITX board, there usually isn't a hell of a lot of overclocking room in a case the size of a shoebox and you already pay a premium for ITX compatible components. However, if anyone out there needs more then a quad core, this is the only board that satisfies that. It's really quite exciting for what it is.TomWomack - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
If you need more than a quad-core, Avoton has been around for more than a year and gets you eight cores, and Xeon-D is round the corner.LukaP - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
Avoton is slow Silvermont cores. Xeon D will be embedded afaik, and since its a Xeon, you wont get any interesting things you get with consumer boardsHairs_ - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
My comment was as much (actually more) about what boards Anandtech chooses to review, as what Asrock decides to produce. If asrock choose to churn out a million boards in an effort to differentiate themselves, then that's their business model, people will find something relevant in it.The last review was for a storage-behemoth oriented board where Anandtech's reviewer *decided not to bother* testing the storage. "Here's an unusual board, if you want to know if it's any use, just make some guesses based on something we reviewed years ago." That is frankly unforgivable, and the antithesis of what Anandtech has stood for since it was founded. No short cuts, no laziness, no leaving the reader to make up guesses about the product being reviewed, that's what made Anand stand out from the crowd. It's a disgrace.
This board has clearly been chosen for review because of novelty value rather than because there is a viable market for it. Hopefully the reviewer, *this time*, will actually *test* the board, and not just play around with their imagination.
Meanwhile the vast majority of the boards on the market go untested, because Anandtech has decided that anything under $400 isn't sexy enough to bother looking at.
An attitude which would make a lot more sense if the boards they did choose actually got tested properly. Clearly there isn't a motherboard review section anymore, there's a "what motherboards would Ian like, which he isn't prepared to buy himself" section.
Disgraceful.
Ian Cutress - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
As mentioned in that review, for the previous X79 Extreme11 testing we were able to source drives on a temporary basis to test but not for the X99 version. The underlying chip and implementation is the same, but the socket/chipset support was updated for the next platform which is what we tested. While I would love to sit on a mountain of hardware and test every nook and cranny of every product, it's a delicate balance between time and effort. For example, the 10GBase-T board we reviewed earlier went through appropriate testing because it was the first time we had seen that implementation and we had the capability to test. When new versions of similar products came to market, Anand didn't retest the same implementation in his reviews unless necessary or if he had the time, and you are holding me to higher standards.Over my tenure since 2011, I have reviewed ~140 motherboards for AnandTech in both the consumer and server space. At least ~115 of those (from my brief look through) have been under $400, going as low as $40 and spending plenty of time in the sub-$200 segment, especially when mainstream chipsets are launched and over the next several months when they are popular. When there is a relatively new platform catering to the high-end desktop market, such as X99, you are going to see a wave of high-end products being reviewed due to the time of launch and the relative interest of such a platform. Even then, our first four reviews for X99 were set at $230, $310, $324 and $400 and we did a substantial deep dive into the new chipset. Motherboard manufacturers want us to test their high-end equipment because for them it promotes the brand, especially if it gets a good review. We don't go overboard on testing every high-end product from every manufacturer but we take a good stab at the range, especially given that each product takes a good 35-50 working hours to test and write. It's not a testing process you can leave on overnight, either.
As for what motherboards actually get into my hands to test, it usually comes as a compromise. I ask what they would like me to test, but I also what are their best sellers and more interesting parts. More often than not, what I ask for isn't available, or what they want me to test makes no sense from a coverage perspective (there's no point testing MPower, MPower Max and an XPower as the only three MSI boards in a launch, for example).
If you have direct requests for specific reviews, specific tests within those reviews, or comments to make on my coverage, I'm always open to email and very easy to talk to. A number of our readers email me already, some on a frequent basis, and where possible I have been accommodating given the schedule I have. If you have specific requests, shoot me a email.
extide - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
Ian is right, and the LSI 3008 controller is a known quantity at this point, it's nothing new. I think his reasoning was perfectly sound.colsanders - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
That troll Hairs shouldn't even get a reply.TomWomack - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
What is the point of working for Anandtech rather than out of your back garden, if you can't buy eighteen 120G SSDs on expenses for a test of a machine with eighteen SATA ports?romrunning - Monday, March 16, 2015 - link
I"ll repeat this comment: As someone who has built servers that have to be be portable since they are regular used at different locations, I can assure you I like having mini-ITX boards with the power of Xeons. I run virtualized servers, and I now have two host servers where previously I had one large server tower. I've saved myself room & still get the results I want.So just because you can't think of the usage scenario, it doesn't mean that no one has a use-case for a nice small Xeon server board (not Atom!)
Samus - Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - link
liquid cooling solves some of those problems.bobbozzo - Friday, March 13, 2015 - link
The dual Intel NICs onboard would be attractive for a firewall system, but I don't think the price of the board or the CPUs is going to be attractive.wintermute000 - Sunday, March 15, 2015 - link
You can probably get away with an Avoton for a FW/router unless you're trying to inspect something like >100M @ layer 7 (UTM) in real time at which point your budget should mean you're looking at non-homebrew solutions....For traditional routing/stateful FW, anything above a low end haswell is complete overkill
madgabz - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
Am I really the only one here thinking this would be a perfect base motherboard for a small, portable highend workstation to bring for some serious Oculus Rift / DataGlove / 3D-mouse showrooming? Think CAD/CAE, or architects needing some oomph for displaying latest projects or even have a small proper workstation that doesnt destroy your ears or sight? (pretty, discreet and silent cases are a no-show in PC world). Plus this could be done much cheaper than buying a Mac Pro workstation.terminalrecluse - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
No self respecting server builder would build one without ECC so all the server talk on the front page of the comments for this article is rubbish.yuhong - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
As a side note, micro ATX X99 motherboards with ECC/Registered support seems to be easier to find than the last gen X79 motherboards was.YoloPascual - Saturday, March 14, 2015 - link
My dream since sandy bridge-e is now real. Woah.BubbaJoe TBoneMalone - Thursday, March 19, 2015 - link
Looking forward to the review. Are any other manufacturers making x99 mini-itx motherboards?AaronAndrusko - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link
I'm going to run this in an evga mini hadron with a titan z and 32gb of ecc ddr4, 1.2tb intel ssd 750 with hyperkit into the m.2 slot and a slot load bluray writer, 18 core E5-2696v3 xeon. What a fun build!