ASRock Shows Off Its X99 WS LGA2011 Motherboard

[Cristian_25H]

With two more weeks left to the official launch of Haswell-E and the X99 chipset, ASRock decided to reveal another one of its X99-based boards, the 'workstation level' X99 WS. Seen below, the upcoming LGA2011 motherboard makes use of the Super Alloy technology (extra large aluminum alloy heatsinks, premium alloy chokes, dual-stack MOSFET, 12K platinum capacitors) and features eight DDR4 slots allowing up to 128 GB of RAM, ten SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, one Ultra M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4) connector and no less than six PCIe x16 slots (SLI and CrossFire are supported).

The X99 WS also has dual Intel Gigabit Ethernet, Purity Sound 2 7.1 channel audio, one eSATA port, four USB 3.0 connectors, and a debut LED. Unfortunately ASRock hasn't shared any info regarding the board's price tag.



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[micropage7]

i like that, and they use nice color

 

[The Von Matrices]

I feel like there's some sort of gentleman's agreement that at least one motherboard manufacturer must be producing a motherboard series with blue heatsinks all the time. It started with Gigabyte in the 4 and 5 series then switched to ASUS in the 5, 6, and 7 series, MSI in the 6, 7, 8 and 9 series, and now to ASRock in the 9 series. I wonder who will be next.

 

[Cristian_25H]

I feel like there's some sort of gentleman's agreement that at least one motherboard manufacturer must be producing a motherboard series with blue heatsinks all the time. It started with Gigabyte in the 4 and 5 series then switched to ASUS in the 5, 6, and 7 series, MSI in the 6, 7, 8 and 9 series, and now to ASRock in the 9 series. I wonder who will be next.

Must be a union thing .

 

[mr2009]

why it need 2 molex power connector? one on top of first pcie slot and one on the bottom? or all x99 do have 2 molex connector?

 

[Cristian_25H]

why it need 2 molex power connector? one on top of first pcie slot and one on the bottom? or all x99 do have 2 molex connector?

Those should be providing extra power for the PCIe slots, so when you have four, five, or maybe all slots occupied, there's enough juice for every card. Another ASRock X99 board, the X99X Killer has one MOLEX connector but it also only has three PCIe x16 slots.

 

[Assimilator]

All the X99 boards I'd seen up until now had dual USB 3.0 front headers - sad to see ASRock bucking this trend.

ASRock also needs to get with the times and ditch Molex power connectors in favour of PCIe ones. PWM fan connectors are also way overdue.

 

[Jorge]

All the X99 boards I'd seen up until now had dual USB 3.0 front headers - sad to see ASRock bucking this trend.

ASRock also needs to get with the times and ditch Molex power connectors in favour of PCIe ones. PWM fan connectors are also way overdue.

No matter what the power connectors or ports there is no one configuration mobo design that suits everyone.

 

[Suka]

No matter what the power connectors or ports there is no one configuration mobo design that suits everyone.

That is very true

 

[lastcalaveras]

All this needs now is to replace the intel controller with a kickass LSI controller instead for insane raid performance.

 

[Aquinus]

All this needs now is to replace the intel controller with a kickass LSI controller instead for insane raid performance.

Just not the ones they used on the Extreme11. I would like to have support for RAID 5 and 6, not just 0 and 1.

The colors aren't bad, however I don't like the gold caps against the color of the rest of the board.

 

[heydan83]

Why any MoBo makers design a gamer MoBo with blue colors?, ok you could use this for gaming, but it doesn´t have the same features as its gamer gamma like the Gigabit Ethernet Killer E2200 and has the article says, it is the worksation MoBo.

 

[cadaveca]

ASRock also needs to get with the times and ditch Molex power connectors in favour of PCIe ones. PWM fan connectors are also way overdue.

No. Molex provides more than just 12V, PCIe is 12V only. PCIe uses more votlages than just 12V, and using a PCIe connector would require additional power circuitry on the board itself, which may introduce noise.

 

[The Von Matrices]

No. Molex provides more than just 12V, PCIe is 12V only. PCIe uses more votlages than just 12V, and using a PCIe connector would require additional power circuitry on the board itself, which may introduce noise.

PCIe slots have 12V for the main power and 3.3V for standby. There's no 5V power as part of the PCIe slot, so the Molex connector provides no advantage. There's also so little draw on the 3.3V line that the power supplied from the ATX connector is sufficient and no 12V to 3.3V power circuitry is needed.

A PCIe power connector is superior in all ways to a Molex power connector in this application because it provides the same voltage required but allows higher current and is easier to connect.

 

[cadaveca]

PCIe slots have 12V for the main power and 3.3V for standby. There's no 5V power as part of the PCIe slot, so the Molex connector provides no advantage. There's also so little draw on the 3.3V line that the power supplied from the ATX connector is sufficient and no 12V to 3.3V power circuitry is needed.

A PCIe power connector is superior in all ways to a Molex power connector in this application because it provides the same voltage required but allows higher current and is easier to connect.

When you want to OC multiple AMD cards, 3.3V DOES matter, and matters enough that ASUS boards have had specifically designed circuit to deal with this. Rather than link my own review about this...:

Many VGA cards rely heavily on the delivery of +3.3V for its display PLL and VSynch functionalities. Furthermore the +3.3V rail also asks as a major source of pull-up for various parts of the GPU. ASUS has now made a dedicated PCI Express 3.3V Power Generator, which generates its own power to the +3.3V Aux used by VGA cards. This allows the VGA cards to consume +3.3V Aux power independent from what was made available through the +3.3V rail of their power supply. At the end of the day this feature allows better overclocking capabilities especially for multi GPU setups.

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=785&page=2

You are right, it's a small amount that is needed, but many boards skimp on this. Tried and tested by the gurus pushing the records.

Also, DP connectivity uses 3.3V, it's not just idle. So when you build big Eyefinity systems...


it takes less hardware, and board heat, switching down from 5V to 3.3V instead of 12V down to 3.3V.

Also ,when connecting many VGAs, the number of available PCIe power plugs can be an issue, where MOLEX connectors aren't used so much, making them the better choice for those that build high-end multi-GPU systems.

 

[ypsylon]

It's good to know that whoever planned this board knew what NIC really is. Instead of some Big Fuge Kooler NIC or some Realtek rubbish, Ascrock went with dual Intels. Nice.

Put couple RAID cards inside and off you go... but I'm still not impressed by X99 thing. Will wait for tests, but I doubt we'll see some real progress CPU-wise.