ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR First ATX12VO Motherboard in the DIY-channel

[btarunr]

The winds of change are beginning. The ATX12VO PC power-supply standard, earlier thought to be an OEM-mainstay with later introduction in the DIY retail channel, has already reached it. The ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4SR is the first board. Gone is the 24-pin ATX power connector, a smaller 5-pin pure-12 V input takes its place. A 6-pin PCIe connector takes in additional 12 V input. The 8-pin EPS connector (another pure-12 V input) is right where it should be, near the CPU VRM area. There are two small 4-pin connectors, which could be 5 V and 3.3 V outputs from the motherboard, to SATA power connectors.

The part of the PCB next to the memory area is bustling with a few more power phases than vDIMM. These convert 12 V to 5 V and 3.3 V (essentially what a PSU with DC-to-DC switching does). The rest of the board's I/O feature-set is fairly standard: four SATA ports, a single M.2-22110 slot, an M.2 E-Key slot holding an 802.11ac WLAN card, 6-channel audio, and 1 GbE wired networking driven by an Intel i219-V controller. The company didn't reveal pricing or availability.



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[Phuncz]

The main advantage of this solution is not so much with large ATX cases, but with compact SFF cases where the 24-pin cable becomes an issue. This allows for a much more flexible and smaller cable bundle. In SFF, many SATA drives are also more not the norm, but with the DC-DC stage on the board, splitting the power from the board, also allows for more flexible options if both the PSU and motherboard have SATA power options.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So why only one M.2 slot on this board? That seems like a missed opportunity to start with...
It seems like they wanted to test the waters, yet made a board no-one would really want to buy. Great way of proving to yourself that it won't sell...

 

[XL-R8R]

I cant wait for the 304 thousand forum posts from people (who are new to the PC obsession) regarding the confusion caused by having multiple 4 and 8 (10, 6, 3, 2...)pin connectors they've gotta shove into holes....


Besides, this seeming only complicates the motherboard.. that's not the best of things when such crazy times are upon us again as 300w+ cpu power draws and 450$£€+ prices.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I cant wait for the 304 thousand forum posts from people (who are new to the PC obsession) regarding the confusion caused by having multiple 4 and 8 (10, 6, 3, 2...)pin connectors they've gotta shove into holes....


Besides, this seeming only complicates the motherboard.. that's not the best of things when such crazy times are upon us again as 300w+ cpu power draws and 450$£€+ prices.

The additional cost for doing 12V to 5V and 3.3V is no more than $1.
PSUs will cost less, as they become simpler to make and needs less wires, which is actually a big percentage of the cost.

Pure 12V PSU Standard, Named ATX12VO, Debuts Later This Year

Back at CES, at the FSP booth, we spied an inconspicuous-looking PSU with a curious 10-pin connector in place of the 24-pin ATX. The FSP500-30AKB turned out to be the first public exhibit of a the pure 12-Volt PC power supply standard being pushed by Intel, which is called "ATX12VO," which...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[newtekie1]

So why only one M.2 slot on this board? That seems like a missed opportunity to start with...
It seems like they wanted to test the waters, yet made a board no-one would really want to buy. Great way of proving to yourself that it won't sell...

On a lower end board like this, if they use one M.2 it's a miracle.

 

[TheLostSwede]

On a lower end board like this, if they use one M.2 it's a miracle.

The point was, why introduce something new like this, on a meh board?
It makes no sense.

 

[ppn]

Would have been better if PSU keeps the 3.3 and 5V for drives but the motherboard to get the new 10pin and make its own 3.3 and 5 for local use only.

 

[Fourstaff]

The point was, why introduce something new like this, on a meh board?
It makes no sense.

Probably experimental board to see how this works out. It will be PR disaster to put faulty new tech on their top end.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Would have been better if PSU keeps the 3.3 and 5V for drives but the motherboard to get the new 10pin and make its own 3.3 and 5 for local use only.

Today, maybe. A few years down the road when SATA is no longer a thing, not so much.
That said, we might very well see "hybrid" PSUs to start with, IF this new standard takes off.

Probably experimental board to see how this works out. It will be PR disaster to put faulty new tech on their top end.

Sure, but why not at least add two M.2 slots for drives?

 

[Fourstaff]

Sure, but why not at least add two M.2 slots for drives?

Good question. I would hazard a guess and say most people are fine with one M.2 slot. This way it also leaves them some space to introduce a premium board with two M.2 slots when they are comfortable.

I can't find any 12VO power supplies out there - do they exist?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Good question. I would hazard a guess and say most people are fine with one M.2 slot. This way it also leaves them some space to introduce a premium board with two M.2 slots when they are comfortable.

I can't find any 12VO power supplies out there - do they exist?

I think you're missing my point. If this is designed to help reduce cables, additional M.2 slots would be required, no?

Apparently there are some coming.

FSP at CES 2020: A Next-Gen Pure 12V PSU, and a UPS That Wants to See the World

Fortron's consumer brand, FSP, brought a handful new power products to CES 2020, besides its already launched CMT710 premium gaming chassis, the Hydro G Pro premium modular PSU from mid-2019, and Dagger Pro SFX PSUs. The inconspicuous-looking FSP500-30AKB looks like a cheap OEM-included PSU with...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Fourstaff]

I think you're missing my point. If this is designed to help reduce cables, additional M.2 slots would be required, no?

Average Joe who build their own PC will only require one M.2 for booting? I think I am still missing your point, please do elaborate further.

 

[EarthDog]

He wants more than one m.2... on everything.

 

[birdie]

F*** Intel and whoever decided to create this new power connector.

• Suddenly you've rendered useless billions of existing PSUs.
• You've moved some of power circuitry from the PSU to the motherboard and by doing that you've increased the mobo's complexity and fragility.
• You've made motherboards even more expensive than they were already.
• Replacing the PSU is easy while replacing/or RMA'ing the motherboard is extremely time consuming and costly.

And that's been done to increase their profits, not because they care about their users.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Average Joe who build their own PC will only require one M.2 for booting? I think I am still missing your point, please do elaborate further.

And what about that day when the average Joe's 250GB SDD runs out of space?

F*** Intel and whoever decided to create this new power connector.

• Suddenly you've rendered useless billions of existing PSUs.
• You've moved some of power circuitry from the PSU to the motherboard and by doing that you've increased the mobo's complexity and fragility.
• You've made motherboards even more expensive than they were already.
• Replacing the PSU is easy while replacing/or RMA'ing the motherboard is extremely time consuming and costly.

And that's been done to increase their profits, not because they care about their users.

As to answering your concerns, what do you think happened back in the day when we transitioned from AT to ATX? Then it wasn't just the PSUs, but cases, motherboards, add-in cards, the lot became mostly useless, as all of a sudden you didn't need a drive controller card, an I/O card etc.
Transitioning to a new PSU standard that still fits with the rest of the ecosystem is a very small transition in comparison.

DC-DC power conversion is a very simple thing these days and shouldn't cause any concerns whatsoever when it comes to the board life.

As I said above, about $1 in parts.

Again, why should be see more board failures from this? Please expand your reasoning on this.

Besides, this is going to be something that most likely takes a decade to transition to, as for the time, Intel isn't pushing this standard, they just put it out there as a common standard for the OEMs that feel that they want to make this transition. I can see this being a great standard in something like SFF systems and NAS appliances to start with. Once SATA has been move to the history books, this standard makes even more sense.

What I don't get on, this is a tech site, yet there are so many people here that seems to be against progress, just because. Technology will always progress, one way or another, if it wasn't, it wouldn't be called technology.

 

[birdie]

Just like with motherboards. Remember year 2011? Let me give you a reminder:

The cheapest $140, the most expensive $235.

Fast forward to 2020:

The cheapest is now $150 (not too much of a difference, albeit it's absolutely barebones) while the most expensive goes for $750 or even more since Maximum XII Extreme Glacial price hasn't been announced yet. Under the pretense of "improving" things for the customer they've raised the prices fourfold. Yes, I'm angry because in my country the average monthly wage is around $450 while first-country visitors of TPU appreciate everything brand new and cool because you can easily afford it which explains that so many of you are rocking 9900KS/3950X/2080 Ti's not because you need them but because you can. Shows how little you actually care about the people who are that well-off.

I can see this being a great standard in something like SFF systems and NAS appliances to start with.

Such systems could use their own power delivery standard - I welcome it. However now we are talking about bog standard ATX/mATX motherboards. And I'm sorry, I'm NOT happy about that.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Meh. I'm keeping with the 24-pin ATX + 4/8-pin or 8+8/8+4-pin EPS connectors. Screw ATX12VO standards.

 

[zlobby]

The additional cost for doing 12V to 5V and 3.3V is no more than $1.
PSUs will cost less, as they become simpler to make and needs less wires, which is actually a big percentage of the cost.

Pure 12V PSU Standard, Named ATX12VO, Debuts Later This Year

Back at CES, at the FSP booth, we spied an inconspicuous-looking PSU with a curious 10-pin connector in place of the 24-pin ATX. The FSP500-30AKB turned out to be the first public exhibit of a the pure 12-Volt PC power supply standard being pushed by Intel, which is called "ATX12VO," which...

www.techpowerup.com

Plus, dropping all non-12V rails will simplify the PSU design and allow more headroom for making the 12V better (noise, ripples, slopes, etc.)

The only drawback is that the mobos need to have good 5V stages for the modern USB devices and their charging.

 

[Fourstaff]

Chill guys. its just PSU. We vote with our wallet, if this one is not economical it will pass. Someone will create an adapter for 24 pin to 10 pin, and there will be peace under heaven.

 

[EarthDog]

We vote with our wallet, if this one is not economical it will pass. Someone will create an adapter for 24 pin to 10 pin, and there will be peace under heaven.

But this.. absolutely this. There will likely be adpaters... or buy another. 20+ years wasnt enough for a better way to do things to move on (and be so utterly pissed off about? Come on....lol.

 

[Tomorrow]

The additional cost for doing 12V to 5V and 3.3V is no more than $1.
PSUs will cost less, as they become simpler to make and needs less wires, which is actually a big percentage of the cost.

Pure 12V PSU Standard, Named ATX12VO, Debuts Later This Year

Back at CES, at the FSP booth, we spied an inconspicuous-looking PSU with a curious 10-pin connector in place of the 24-pin ATX. The FSP500-30AKB turned out to be the first public exhibit of a the pure 12-Volt PC power supply standard being pushed by Intel, which is called "ATX12VO," which...

www.techpowerup.com

But PSU's last longer than motherboards. And yes the implementation cost may be low cost (i highly doubt it's 1$ as nothing in modern mobos is that cheap) but those cost are doubled or tripled and passed on to the consumer. So currently buying a quality PSU that can last 10-15 years is much better than buying a new motherboard every 3-5 years.

Today, maybe. A few years down the road when SATA is no longer a thing, not so much.

As long as HDD's exist SATA will be a thing. Can't see HDD's moving to PCIe bus anytime soon.
And motherboard makers are very conservative with their ports. Hell even brand new 700$+ boards come with a PS/2 port still. And USB 2.0 ports. Atleast we got rid of PCI and DVI/VGA.

 

[95Viper]

Please get back on topic.
Stop the ranting and BS.

Thank You & Have a Sunshiny Day

 

[moproblems99]

Considering the CPU I have now will last until I die in 50 years (likely sooner but who's counting?), I'm not that shaken up about it. Just keep feeding me GPUs and I'm good.

I agree that having all this extra shit on a MB sucks as RMAing that sucks, but let's be honest, voltage reduction is trivial and cheap, and if that part fails, the rest of the MB didn't stand a chance anyway.

 

[Nater]

What sucks about this is the resistance to change. We're going to stick to the 24V like a PS/2 port. Niche use, going to still be stuck on everything.

I already wish SATA would go away, and we'd get some sort of riser card to stuff full of M.2 drives. Won't stick off the board more than the width of a typical M.2 kinda thing.
It'd even make more sense to have a bunch of USB3/-C ports RIGHT on the board and stuff M.2 drives w/ adapters into the typical bays a 2.5"/3.5" drive would take up.

Move all the legacy SATA drives to your NAS/Server. I don't know anyone personally that fills their desktop up with SATA drives anymore. Maybe one or two tops for a local backup.