ASRock Unveils the X99 Extreme11 Motherboard

[Cristian_25H]

Though there are plentiful Haswell-E X99 platforms out there, sometimes we are simply incapable of being satisfied with what we already have. Faithfully believing that the grass is always greener on the other side, then end up pursuing extremities compulsively. Well, being insatiable is just human. And also the motive to drive ASRock to produce the world's most powerful X99 motherboard - ASRock X99 Extreme11!

Storage Galore: 18 SATA3 (8 SAS-3 12 Gb/s) + 2 Ultra M.2
One thing that you can't possibly miss on this monstrous motherboard is storage connectors! ASRock X99 Extreme11 boasts a total of 18 SATA3 connectors on the side of the motherboard, including 10 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors from Intel X99 and 8 additional SAS-3 12.0 Gb/s connectors by the added LSI SAS 3008 controller chip. Tests at ASRock's lab showed that the data transfer rate could reach an unbelievable 6.1 GB/s when SSDs were connected to the storage ports!





If you thought that that was the end of the storage options for the world's most powerful X99 motherboard, then you're dead wrong. There are also two more of the world's fastest Ultra M.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 slots that can hit 2.8 GB/s with SSDs located between the PCIe slots too.

Luxurious VRM Design: ASRock 12 Power Phase Design
An insignificant yet crucial reason why ASRock X99 Extreme11 outperforms its nemeses is because ASRock's X99 motherboards implement a luxurious 12 Power Phase Design while others have downgraded to merely 6 or 8 power phases. This special VRM design allows the motherboard to score better performance with less power and at cooler temperatures, but don't just take our word for it, listen to the authority on tech - Tom's Hardware agreed too that ASRock's 12 Power Phase Design brings better power/performance efficiency. (Check out the review here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-x99-haswell-e-overclocking,3934-15.html)

Unmatched Graphics: 4-Way SLI/CrossFireX at x16/16/16/16
To claim greatness, one must walk the talk. Having sufficient PCIe slots for building 4-way SLI or CrossFireX is fair and square for any high-end platform. However it's still not enough for the world's most powerful X99 motherboard. ASRock X99 Extreme11 has five PCIe Gen3 x16 slots plus two embedded PLX PEX 8747 bridge chips for enabling either 4-way SLI or CrossFireX at x16/16/16/16 full throttle!

Primo Components: ASRock Super Alloy
ASRock X99 Extreme11 is the flagship of ASRock's Super Alloy Series. It can be powered by Intel Core i7 and Xeon 18 Core Processers (LGA 2011-3). Besides the aforementioned merits, this motherboard is also geared with XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsinks, 12 Power Phase Design, Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps, Premium 60A Power Chokes, Premium Memory Alloy Chokes, and Ultra Dual-N MOSFETs. The most effective VRM solution for generating beastlike performances while maintaining low power consumption and low temperatures. Other features include dual Intel Gigabit LAN with support for Teaming, the eargasmic Purity Sound 2 plus Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio capacitor combo. And how could anyone possibly forget the DDR4 memory upgrade on X99 systems? This motherboard comes with 8 memory DIMM slots that may support DDR4 quad channel ECC and UDIMM/RDIMM memory modules up to 3400+(OC). Seriously, there might be 99 ways to be extreme, but nothing gets more extreme than X99 Extreme11!

For detailed information about this motherboard, please check: www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99%20Extreme11

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[stinger608]

Hmm, pretty good looking motherboard.

 

[cadaveca]

Hmm, pretty good looking motherboard.

Would you like it reviewed? Enough responses, and I'll ask for one. I do have a couple of ASRock X99 boards for review already though, so without feedback, I won't ask for a sample.

 

[Silas Woodruff]

I dont know if this matters but I would like to see this reviewed simply because it has SAS connectors I dont think I ever saw those on consumer boards.

Wondering how would a raid or something similar be on this board with all those connectors.

 

[cadaveca]

I dont know if this matters but I would like to see this reviewed simply because it has SAS connectors I dont think I ever saw those on consumer boards.

Wondering how would a raid or something similar be on this board with all those connectors.

ASRock has had a few boards now with built-in LSI RAID card providing SAS ports. Just check any of the past "Extreme 11" boards. They've all been pretty good, to be honest. To me the Extreme11 boards are ASRock showcasing their engineering know-how. I have X99 WS and X99 KILLER sitting here next to me already. Will do review on one of them real soon, just working on EVGA X99 right now (had the EVGA review done, but lost it when my SSD died).

 

[stinger608]

Would you like it reviewed? Enough responses, and I'll ask for one. I do have a couple of ASRock X99 boards for review already though, so without feedback, I won't ask for a sample.

Absolutely would like to see that board reviewed Dave!!!!

 

[lastcalaveras]

Basically the review for the last few extreme11 motherboards are expensive, huge feature set, great raid performance, surprisingly good engineering from Asrock, supports xeons and mediocre overclocking performance. Ultimately just a great workstation board just short of being a server motherboard. That being said still a huge fan.

 

[Tatsu]

That 12+2 VRM phase count is a big plus for me besides the lovely design.

 

[Tatsu]

... just working on EVGA X99 right now (had the EVGA review done, but lost it when my SSD died).

Look forward to it!

 

[Aquinus]

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99 Extreme11/?cat=Specifications

- 8 x SAS-3 12.0 Gb/s/SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by LSI SAS 3008 controller, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 1E and RAID 10), NCQ, Hot Plug and ASRock HDD Saver Technology

Once again, why does ASRock think it's a good idea to put a Raid-on-a-chip on their board if it doesn't support RAID-5 or 6? Half of the point (in my opinion) to getting a RAID card to have parity offloaded to the RAID controller. I don't need a RAID controller if all I'm doing is mirroring or striping. Once again I think the choice of RAID controller is terrible, just like the X79 Extreme11. I love LSI, but I love my RAID-5 too.

 

[Scrizz]

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99 Extreme11/?cat=Specifications


Once again, why does ASRock think it's a good idea to put a Raid-on-a-chip on their board if it doesn't support RAID-5 or 6? Half of the point (in my opinion) to getting a RAID card to have parity offloaded to the RAID controller. I don't need a RAID controller if all I'm doing is mirroring or striping. Once again I think the choice of RAID controller is terrible, just like the X79 Extreme11. I love LSI, but I love my RAID-5 too.

I love my RAID 10

 

[Aquinus]

I love my RAID 10

Depends on what you're doing with it. Sometimes it's useful. Sometimes it's a waste of disk space. The only benefit that 1+0 has over parity RAID levels is write performance.

 

[Scrizz]

Depends on what you're doing with it. Sometimes it's useful. Sometimes it's a waste of disk space. The only benefit that 1+0 has over parity RAID levels is write performance.

and that's what I'm after.

 

[THE_EGG]

Do you even sata port bro? Jeez that is a lot of onboard sata ports. A very tasty board indeed. ASRock X99 boards seem really well priced (compared to the competition at least) here in Australia so I'm looking forward to seeing how much this costs.

 

[GhostRyder]

This board is just something else man...it's using a PLX chip to achieve a full 16X in every lane which to me is madness!

This is the board designed for some type of crazy configuration. I could imagine some fun things to do with it! On top of that because of thebtwo PLX chips having all those mad levels of lanes means you could grab a 5820K and run similar to the 5930K for less depending on prices!

 

[lastcalaveras]

Curious to see how many pcie lanes you get if you put a 5820k on it

 

[micropage7]

whoaaah... those sata ports
and i dunno, i like the blue

 

[Jetster]

Curious to see how many pcie lanes you get if you put a 5820k on it

Well the 5820 has 28 lane. With two embedded PLX PEX 8747 chips that can each take 8 lanes and make 32 that would be 76 lanes if I understand this correctly. Still not sure how effects bandwidth

 

[Aquinus]

Well the 5820 has 28 lane. With two embedded PLX PEX 8747 chips that can each take 8 lanes and make 32 that would be 76 lanes if I understand this correctly. Still not sure how effects bandwidth

That's easy. PLX chips just switch PCI-E packets much like network packets across a network switch. A 5820k will have 28 lanes worth of bandwidth. The difference is that the PLX chip switches those packets. As consequence there is a little bit of latency introduced but you still won't have more bandwidth than a 5930k which is completely dependent on how many PCI-E lanes are running to the PLX chip; typically 16 lanes seems to be the typical. The only time this would become an issue is if you were to saturate more than 28 lanes worth of PCI-E 3.0 which is already quite a task. Just worth mentioning, the PLX8747 is a 48-lanes PCI-E switch, which would give you 4x PCI-E 16x slots.

Then I read that there are two PLX chips on this board. I'm not sure how you divvy up 28 lanes evenly as a power of 2 without only dedicating 8 lanes to at least one of the PLX chips. I wonder if one of the PLX chips is running at x8 when another is at x16 but handles fewer ports... huh.

Either way, I think PLX chips are nice when PCI-E is at a premium, not on a skt2011 or 2011-3 system imho when 40 PCI-E lanes is very realistic.

 

[Vlada011]

Motherboard look very nice, but blue or yellow, green or orange motherboards will never be my options.
Black is perfect, but red and grey are acceptable too. I would like if ASUS release Rampage 5 Extreme Black Extreme.
With silver heatsinks would be much better.
But best motherboard for multi GPU is I think X99-E WS. 4x16 too.
She looks me like real long-term board(5 years build), prepared for Xeons, with best capacitors, 8+8 pin and ASUS usually install 8+4 pin... And she is nicest X99 motherboard on market.

 

[bubbleawsome]

I would like a review.

 

[Octavean]

I too would like to see a review,....

 

[Disparia]

I bet the initial design had a couple SFF-8087 ports for the SAS controller but someone in marketing was like, no, that's not as impressive! Split out all the ports!

Anyway, I'd be interested how they connect it all up. If the LSI controller (x8) doesn't downgrade a slot when enabled then even with a pair of PEX 8747 it could be a funky configuration to make that work out.