ASRock Unveils X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX TB3 Motherboard

[btarunr]

ASRock is ready with its own mini-ITX motherboard based on the AMD X570 chipset, the X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX TB3. This tiny powerhouse one-ups other mini-ITX motherboards in its category by offering 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3 connectivity over USB type-C, in addition to USB 3.2. This Thunderbolt port also includes a DP pass-through from your discrete graphics card.

Expansion includes one PCI-Express 4.0 x16. Storage connectivity includes one M.2-2280 with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gbps connectivity; and four SATA 6 Gbps ports. Networking options include 2.4 Gbps 802.11ax WLAN, Bluetooth 5.0, and 1 GbE driven by Intel i211-AT. The board pulls power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, conditioning it for the SoC with a 6+2 phase VRM. A chunky fan-heatsink cools the chipset, shedding some of its heat to the enlarged VRM heatsink cloaked under the I/O shroud.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[HwGeek]

TB3 on AMD platform? Finally!
So what do you think will stop Apple from dual sourcing CPU's from AMD also?

 

[ChrisDD]

TB3 on AMD platform? Finally!
So what do you think will stop Apple from dual sourcing CPU's from AMD also?

I sincerely hope AMD pays you well.

 

[TheLostSwede]

TB3 on AMD platform? Finally!
So what do you think will stop Apple from dual sourcing CPU's from AMD also?

Nothing in reality, however, Apple has to decide if it wants to work with AMD for CPUs or not. It will also depend on if AMD can cope with the extra business if it happens. Nothing has prevented Apple to work with AMD in the past, but obviously the opening up of thunderbolt makes it a lot easier.

 

[asmotan]

What’s insane about this mobo is that since it is heavily congested where they cannot use AM4 cooler, they decided to make it LGA1151 compatible instead.

 

[HwGeek]

I sincerely hope AMD pays you well.

Actually it can be Intel if I decide to work there after I graduate since they have many job's offering here in Israel .

 

[Nuckles56]

I wonder how much it is going to cost, as if it is somewhat reasonable then this will be my next mobo with a 3700x

 

[Dammeron]

Just 4xUSB A and 1xUSB C. Is that really enough? There's so much free space on the back panel...

 

[Valantar]

1st thought: "TB3 X570 ITX? This will be my next motherboard!"
2nd thought: "Only one m.2? DAMN."
3rd thought: "I don't have Intel-style mounting hardware for my water block. Moving on ..."

Still, these ITX (and DTX) X570 boards will be fighting it out over my money in a little while.

Just 4xUSB A and 1xUSB C. Is that really enough? There's so much free space on the back panel...

It has TB3 and dual USB 3.2. Get a hub if you need more ports - it definitely has the bandwidth to support one. I agree that 4+1 ports is on the low side, but I currently only use three myself: One for my monitor's built-in hub (which has the keyboard and mouse attached), one for my USB DAC+amp, one for my Xbox controller receiver. Along with front panel USB, that should be enough for most people - and beyond KB+M and audio gear, there isn't much that is in any way harmed by the slight added latency of a hub. Still, I wouldn't mind them ditching that PS/2 port for another couple of type-As, though.

 

[F-man4]

What’s insane about this mobo is that since it is heavily congested where they cannot use AM4 cooler, they decided to make it LGA1151 compatible instead.

Really glad to see that.
I hate AM4 exclusive heatsink mounters.

 

[Dammeron]

It has TB3 and dual USB 3.2. Get a hub if you need more ports - it definitely has the bandwidth to support one. I agree that 4+1 ports is on the low side, but I currently only use three myself: One for my monitor's built-in hub (which has the keyboard and mouse attached), one for my USB DAC+amp, one for my Xbox controller receiver. Along with front panel USB, that should be enough for most people - and beyond KB+M and audio gear, there isn't much that is in any way harmed by the slight added latency of a hub. Still, I wouldn't mind them ditching that PS/2 port for another couple of type-As, though.

I wouldn't mind ditching all that empty space for 4 additional type-A ports. Seriously:
Year 2011 - 12 USB on the back panel (Asus P8P67 Deluxe)
Year 2019 - 5-7 USB for most high end motherboards

How can we call it 'advancement'?

 

[SL2]

ASRocks AM4 Mini-ITX boards in the past, haven't they been disappointing with RAM speeds, unlike the larger form factors?

 

[micropage7]

nice, small size with 4 sata, so you can pack regular board into small thing

 

[Octavean]

TB3 on AMD platform? Finally!
So what do you think will stop Apple from dual sourcing CPU's from AMD also?

Firstly we have actually seen Thunderbolt on AMD motherboards before both at Computex and photos brought to us courtesy of TPU. It was an Asus concept motherboard when they first started to reveal the early implementations of the "TB_Header". In fact some AMD motherboards might have been shipped with a TB_Header just like the early Asus Intel (Z77 chipset ?) motherboards that had a TB_Header it was never made functional.

At the time Intel presumably used the requirement / prerequisite for Intel IGPU for Thunderbolt to nix the project.

However, in the case of Apple with respect to AMD CPU's and GPU's in the short term Apple could certainly start using AMD processors. Theoretically Apple could also just buy AMD outright since Apple likes to design their own hardware and such a purchase would make that technically true of x86 / x64 assuming the license for such manufacture / design is transferable in the event of a buyout.

Then Apple could opt to stop selling AMD CPU's and GPU's to the public and use them exclusively for their Apple computers,.....

 

[RH92]

Looks like X570 ITX boards don't bring any VRM improvements over quaility X470/B450 ITX boards so yeah .....

 

[HwGeek]

@Octavean
Or they could have developed costume CPU like Sony and MS do that only Mac will use.

 

[medi01]

New stuff is cool, but the active cooling on mainboards with those tiny whiny shitty coolers kills the groove.

So what do you think will stop Apple from dual sourcing CPU's from AMD also?

AMD will need to prove Zen is not a fluke.
Perhaps in 1 year+ from now.

Besides, Zen+ still loses to Intel on idle power consumption.

 

[Pakin]

Good news indeed. But AMD should have push for that in their mobile platform first to become a complete alternative to Intel in the laptop and ultrabook space

 

[SL2]

It seems like everyone have forgotten about putting decent heatpipe heatsinks on chipsets, well except for that one Gigabyte board, but that one isn't ITX.
Yeah, not ideal, but at least silent.

 

[Valantar]

I wouldn't mind ditching all that empty space for 4 additional type-A ports. Seriously:
Year 2011 - 12 USB on the back panel (Asus P8P67 Deluxe)
Year 2019 - 5-7 USB for most high end motherboards

How can we call it 'advancement'?

The advancement lies in how few USB devices we have plugged into our PCs these days. I know my numbers have gone way down, at least.

Firstly we have actually seen Thunderbolt on AMD motherboards before both at Computex and photos brought to us courtesy of TPU. It was an Asus concept motherboard when they first started to reveal the early implementations of the "TB_Header". In fact some AMD motherboards might have been shipped with a TB_Header just like the early Asus Intel (Z77 chipset ?) motherboards that had a TB_Header it was never made functional.

At the time Intel presumably used the requirement / prerequisite for Intel IGPU for Thunderbolt to nix the project.

However, in the case of Apple with respect to AMD CPU's and GPU's in the short term Apple could certainly start using AMD processors. Theoretically Apple could also just buy AMD outright since Apple likes to design their own hardware and such a purchase would make that technically true of x86 / x64 assuming the license for such manufacture / design is transferable in the event of a buyout.

Then Apple could opt to stop selling AMD CPU's and GPU's to the public and use them exclusively for their Apple computers,.....

TB3 AICs can be used on any AM4 build, you just need to short two of the pins on the jumper. Only issue I've seen reported is that hot-swap is iffy. Google it if you're interested

 

[Pings]

So closer but so far. I thought this might have been my next board but it only has 1 M.2 slot.

 

[Deleted member 172152]

Can't wait for thunderbolt 3 on fairly affordable X570 boards! So far it looks like only a few very high-end boards are going to get it...

Still, most X570 boards (except this ITX one) seem to be getting at least two fullfat m.2 slots, so I'm looking forward to putting a second nvme ssd in my pc without using an adapter!

 

[Valantar]

Can't wait for thunderbolt 3 on fairly affordable X570 boards! So far it looks like only a few very high-end boards are going to get it...

Still, most X570 boards (except this ITX one) seem to be getting at least two fullfat m.2 slots, so I'm looking forward to putting a second nvme ssd in my pc without using an adapter!

TB3 is a "premium" feature in the desktop space (it is in mobile too, but the only laptops we ever hear about these days are "premium"). I sincerely doubt we'll see it in anything but "premium" boards. Still, you can use widely available TB3 AICs on any platform with some relatively insignificant drawbacks simply by shorting out the right pins on the header that is supposed to connect to the motherboard - see here, for example. Hot-swap seems iffy/buggy, but that's about it. No idea if it will work on a chipset-connected PCIe slot, but there's no harm in trying - and if not, most ATX boards allow for splitting the x16 into x8+x8 anyhow, and x8 is plenty for 99.9% of GPUs.