• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

ASRock Returns to its Roots with Wacky X670 Upgrade Card

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
17,573 (2.40/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/yfsd9w
For those that don't remember the early days of ASRock, the company started out making some rather unusual motherboards, often with some wild and wacky upgrade paths, such as both a slot and a socket for a CPU or both AGP and PCIe graphics card slots. Since then, ASRock has become a much more mainstream motherboard maker, but the company appears to have gone back to its roots with what the company calls the X670 Xpansion Kit. Right now, the expansion card appears to be working with the B650 LiveMixer motherboard and it's unknown if it's compatible with other models from ASRock. It seems to be limited to ASRock motherboards only, due to the fact that the add-in card requires not only a x4 PCIe slot with all lanes attached, on the motherboard, but also a custom cable that is most likely for "low-speed" I/O's such as I2C, SPI and so on.

As the name suggests, the X670 Xpansion Kit allows B650 motherboards to be turned into X670 motherboards, more or less. The card is home to a second chipset, which enables not only two additional M.2 slots for PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, but it also features two SATA ports, a 10 Gbps USB-C port, three USB-A ports and—maybe most interestingly—a 10 Gbps Ethernet interface. It's unclear if this will be a retail product, but the card provided to Level1Techs doesn't appear to be an engineer unit, but a full retail ready product. It's definitely an interesting upgrade path for those that have invested in a B650 motherboard and there's no real reason why this shouldn't work as well as having the second chipset on the motherboard, especially as ASRock appears to have fitted a signal re-driver on the add-in card to make sure the PCIe signals are handled properly.





View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2012
Messages
6,881 (1.47/day)
Location
Florida
System Name natr0n-PC
Processor Ryzen 5950x-5600x | 9600k
Motherboard B450 AORUS M | Z390 UD
Cooling EK AIO 360 - 6 fan action | AIO
Memory Patriot - Viper Steel DDR4 (B-Die)(4x8GB) | Samsung DDR4 (4x8GB)
Video Card(s) EVGA 3070ti FTW
Storage Various
Display(s) Pixio PX279 Prime
Case Thermaltake Level 20 VT | Black bench
Audio Device(s) LOXJIE D10 + Kinter Amp + 6 Bookshelf Speakers Sony+JVC+Sony
Power Supply Super Flower Leadex III ARGB 80+ Gold 650W | EVGA 700 Gold
Software XP/7/8.1/10
Benchmark Scores http://valid.x86.fr/79kuh6
They let a mad scientist loose.

pcie/agp bracket addon for new cpu in coming.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2014
Messages
1,975 (0.53/day)
Location
Calabash, NC
System Name The Captain (2.0)
Processor Ryzen 7 7700X
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X670E-A
Cooling 280mm Arctic Liquid Freezer II, 4x Be Quiet! 140mm Silent Wings 4 (1x exhaust 3x intake)
Memory 32GB (2x16) Kingston Fury Beast CL30 6000MT/s
Video Card(s) MSI GeForce RTX 3070 SUPRIM X
Storage 1x Crucial MX500 500GB SSD; 1x Crucial MX500 500GB M.2 SSD; 1x WD Blue HDD, 1x Crucial P5 Plus
Display(s) Aorus CV27F 27" 1080p 165Hz
Case Phanteks Evolv X (Anthracite Gray)
Power Supply Corsair RMx (2021) 1000W 80-Plus Gold
Mouse Varies based on mood/task; is currently Razer Basilisk V3 Pro or Razer Cobra Pro
Keyboard Varies based on mood; currently Razer Blackwidow V4 75% and Hyper X Alloy 65
Joined
Jan 3, 2021
Messages
3,477 (2.46/day)
Location
Slovenia
Processor i5-6600K
Motherboard Asus Z170A
Cooling some cheap Cooler Master Hyper 103 or similar
Memory 16GB DDR4-2400
Video Card(s) IGP
Storage Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
Display(s) 2x Oldell 24" 1920x1200
Case Bitfenix Nova white windowless non-mesh
Audio Device(s) E-mu 1212m PCI
Power Supply Seasonic G-360
Mouse Logitech Marble trackball, never had a mouse
Keyboard Key Tronic KT2000, no Win key because 1994
Software Oldwin
This is so pleasantly weird. Should have a PCIe slot on top so we can stack several of those cards if necessary.
 

freeagent

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Messages
8,498 (3.77/day)
Location
Winnipeg, Canada
Processor AMD R7 5800X3D
Motherboard Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero
Cooling Thermalright Frozen Edge 360, 3x TL-B12 V2, 2x TL-B12 V1
Memory 2x8 G.Skill Trident Z Royal 3200C14, 2x8GB G.Skill Trident Z Black and White 3200 C14
Video Card(s) Zotac 4070 Ti Trinity OC
Storage WD SN850 1TB, SN850X 2TB, SN770 1TB
Display(s) LG 50UP7100
Case Fractal Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) JBL Bar 700
Power Supply Seasonic Vertex GX-1000, Monster HDP1800
Mouse Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard Logitech G213
VR HMD Oculus 3
Software Yes
Benchmark Scores Yes
I actually just watched this video while I was doing the dishes :D

 
Joined
Jan 3, 2021
Messages
3,477 (2.46/day)
Location
Slovenia
Processor i5-6600K
Motherboard Asus Z170A
Cooling some cheap Cooler Master Hyper 103 or similar
Memory 16GB DDR4-2400
Video Card(s) IGP
Storage Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
Display(s) 2x Oldell 24" 1920x1200
Case Bitfenix Nova white windowless non-mesh
Audio Device(s) E-mu 1212m PCI
Power Supply Seasonic G-360
Mouse Logitech Marble trackball, never had a mouse
Keyboard Key Tronic KT2000, no Win key because 1994
Software Oldwin
I actually just watched this video while I was doing the dishes :D
Can people multitask? Sure! (It's just that the results are poor)
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2012
Messages
6,881 (1.47/day)
Location
Florida
System Name natr0n-PC
Processor Ryzen 5950x-5600x | 9600k
Motherboard B450 AORUS M | Z390 UD
Cooling EK AIO 360 - 6 fan action | AIO
Memory Patriot - Viper Steel DDR4 (B-Die)(4x8GB) | Samsung DDR4 (4x8GB)
Video Card(s) EVGA 3070ti FTW
Storage Various
Display(s) Pixio PX279 Prime
Case Thermaltake Level 20 VT | Black bench
Audio Device(s) LOXJIE D10 + Kinter Amp + 6 Bookshelf Speakers Sony+JVC+Sony
Power Supply Super Flower Leadex III ARGB 80+ Gold 650W | EVGA 700 Gold
Software XP/7/8.1/10
Benchmark Scores http://valid.x86.fr/79kuh6
When channels do that blown eye gimmick I get irate. fkn childish.
 
Joined
May 9, 2012
Messages
8,520 (1.86/day)
Location
Ovronnaz, Wallis, Switzerland
System Name main/SFFHTPCARGH!(tm)/Xiaomi Mi TV Stick/Samsung Galaxy S23/Ally
Processor Ryzen 7 5800X3D/i7-3770/S905X/Snapdragon 8 Gen 2/Ryzen Z1 Extreme
Motherboard MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk/HP SFF Q77 Express/uh?/uh?/Asus
Cooling Enermax ETS-T50 Axe aRGB /basic HP HSF /errr.../oh! liqui..wait, no:sizable vapor chamber/a nice one
Memory 64gb DDR4 3600/8gb DDR3 1600/2gbLPDDR3/8gbLPDDR5x/16gb(10 sys)LPDDR5 6400
Video Card(s) Hellhound Spectral White RX 7900 XTX 24gb/GT 730/Mali 450MP5/Adreno 740/Radeon 780M 6gb LPDDR5
Storage 250gb870EVO/500gb860EVO/2tbSandisk/NVMe2tb+1tb/4tbextreme V2/1TB Arion/500gb/8gb/256gb/2tb SN770M
Display(s) X58222 32" 2880x1620/32"FHDTV/273E3LHSB 27" 1920x1080/6.67"/AMOLED 2X panel FHD+120hz/7" FHD 120hz
Case Cougar Panzer Max/Elite 8300 SFF/None/back/back-front Gorilla Glass Victus 2+ UAG Monarch Carbon
Audio Device(s) Logi Z333/SB Audigy RX/HDMI/HDMI/Dolby Atmos/KZ x HBB PR2/Moondrop Chu II + TRN BT20S
Power Supply Chieftec Proton BDF-1000C /HP 240w/12v 1.5A/4Smart Voltplug PD 30W/Asus USB-C 65W
Mouse Speedlink Sovos Vertical-Asus ROG Spatha-Logi Ergo M575/Xiaomi XMRM-006/touch/touch
Keyboard Endorfy Thock 75% <3/none/touch/virtual
VR HMD Medion Erazer
Software Win10 64/Win8.1 64/Android TV 8.1/Android 13/Win11 64
Benchmark Scores bench...mark? i do leave mark on bench sometime, to remember which one is the most comfortable. :o
now, that's something i like from ASRock (and i am used to ...)

impressive idea and implementation (now, the price ... pweety pwease?)
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
9,090 (3.33/day)
System Name Best AMD Computer
Processor AMD 7900X3D
Motherboard Asus X670E E Strix
Cooling In Win SR36
Memory GSKILL DDR5 32GB 5200 30
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse 7900XT (Watercooled)
Storage Corsair MP 700, Seagate 530 2Tb, Adata SX8200 2TBx2, Kingston 2 TBx2, Micron 8 TB, WD AN 1500
Display(s) GIGABYTE FV43U
Case Corsair 7000D Airflow
Audio Device(s) Corsair Void Pro, Logitch Z523 5.1
Power Supply Deepcool 1000M
Mouse Logitech g7 gaming mouse
Keyboard Logitech G510
Software Windows 11 Pro 64 Steam. GOG, Uplay, Origin
Benchmark Scores Firestrike: 46183 Time Spy: 25121
Joined
Nov 30, 2018
Messages
42 (0.02/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 9800x3D
Motherboard ASRock B650e PG Riptide Wifi
Cooling Asus Strix LC II 360
Memory 64GB(2x32) 6000c30 DDR5 Buildzoid Timings
Video Card(s) RTX 4090
Storage 1x850 Evo 250GB SSD, 2x1TB HDD 1x4TB HDD, 1x Inland Premium 1TB SSD, 1x Inland Performance Plus 2TB
Display(s) 1x Acer XV275K P3 2x LG 27GN950
Case Lian-Li 216
Power Supply 1000w ASUS TUF
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
VR HMD Meta Quest 3
This is fascinating. I wonder how much it'll cost? If it's less than $100 I might just buy one to throw in my rig down the line...
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2019
Messages
2,340 (1.15/day)
Location
Olympia, WA
System Name Sleepy Painter
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard Asus TuF Gaming X570-PLUS/WIFI
Cooling FSP Windale 6 - Passive
Memory 2x16GB F4-3600C16-16GVKC @ 16-19-21-36-58-1T
Video Card(s) MSI RX580 8GB
Storage 2x Samsung PM963 960GB nVME RAID0, Crucial BX500 1TB SATA, WD Blue 3D 2TB SATA
Display(s) Microboard 32" Curved 1080P 144hz VA w/ Freesync
Case NZXT Gamma Classic Black
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar D1
Power Supply Rosewill 1KW on 240V@60hz
Mouse Logitech MX518 Legend
Keyboard Red Dragon K552
Software Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC 1809 17763.1757
This is beyond cool.

Hopefully a way is found to use this add-in card under 'unsupported' conditions :pimp:
 
Joined
Jun 18, 2021
Messages
2,546 (2.04/day)
Personally I would have preferred more sata instead of one of the m.2 but this is great! It makes x670 almost irrelevant and gives a lot more expansion flexibility, I love it.

Hopefully a way is found to use this add-in card under 'unsupported' conditions :pimp:

It requires a "special" control header but in the video comments someone was sugesting it's just eSPI or LPC bus so it could be possible with bios hackery. It would be great to, that 'LiveMixer' asrock motherboard doesn't do this justice (too much color and marketing gimicks, not much function)
 
Last edited:

Space Lynx

Astronaut
Joined
Oct 17, 2014
Messages
17,170 (4.66/day)
Location
Kepler-186f
my guess is the cost of it will make pointless and dead on arrival, because you could just bought an x670 board to begin with after you add in the add-in cost... eh...
 

ir_cow

Staff member
Joined
Sep 4, 2008
Messages
4,446 (0.75/day)
Location
USA
my guess is the cost of it will make pointless and dead on arrival, because you could just bought an x670 board to begin with after you add in the add-in cost... eh...
exactly.
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
1,658 (0.79/day)
System Name Personal Gaming Rig
Processor Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard MSI X670E Carbon
Cooling MO-RA 3 420
Memory 32GB 6000MHz
Video Card(s) RTX 4090 ICHILL FROSTBITE ULTRA
Storage 4x 2TB Nvme
Display(s) Samsung G8 OLED
Case Silverstone FT04
It would be Frankenstein amazing If it works on a X670E and turns it into a 3-chipset monstrosity
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2019
Messages
2,340 (1.15/day)
Location
Olympia, WA
System Name Sleepy Painter
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard Asus TuF Gaming X570-PLUS/WIFI
Cooling FSP Windale 6 - Passive
Memory 2x16GB F4-3600C16-16GVKC @ 16-19-21-36-58-1T
Video Card(s) MSI RX580 8GB
Storage 2x Samsung PM963 960GB nVME RAID0, Crucial BX500 1TB SATA, WD Blue 3D 2TB SATA
Display(s) Microboard 32" Curved 1080P 144hz VA w/ Freesync
Case NZXT Gamma Classic Black
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar D1
Power Supply Rosewill 1KW on 240V@60hz
Mouse Logitech MX518 Legend
Keyboard Red Dragon K552
Software Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC 1809 17763.1757
It would be Frankenstein amazing If it works on a X670E and turns it into a 3-chipset monstrosity
...and here I am dreaming about slotting this into the CPU-connected Gen4.0 M.2 slot (via adapter) on my X570. Generational Hybridization :D
(I have 'a thing' for anachronistic and explicitly 'unsupported' combos, regardless of 'bottlenecks' or hassles to get working.)
 
Joined
Mar 21, 2016
Messages
2,508 (0.79/day)
Can people multitask? Sure! (It's just that the results are poor)

Watched a video lost a finger while doing dishes. Go gadget go! Oddball device by AsRock going back to it roots of we put all this technology in a blender and this is what we came up with.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 18, 2019
Messages
2,340 (1.15/day)
Location
Olympia, WA
System Name Sleepy Painter
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard Asus TuF Gaming X570-PLUS/WIFI
Cooling FSP Windale 6 - Passive
Memory 2x16GB F4-3600C16-16GVKC @ 16-19-21-36-58-1T
Video Card(s) MSI RX580 8GB
Storage 2x Samsung PM963 960GB nVME RAID0, Crucial BX500 1TB SATA, WD Blue 3D 2TB SATA
Display(s) Microboard 32" Curved 1080P 144hz VA w/ Freesync
Case NZXT Gamma Classic Black
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar D1
Power Supply Rosewill 1KW on 240V@60hz
Mouse Logitech MX518 Legend
Keyboard Red Dragon K552
Software Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC 1809 17763.1757
Joined
Mar 21, 2016
Messages
2,508 (0.79/day)
I don't suggest attempting flat-pack (IKEA-style) furniture...

IKEA self assembly...
monty python kick GIF
 

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
47,215 (7.55/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Traditional ASRock is best ASRock.
 
Joined
Jul 29, 2022
Messages
501 (0.59/day)
This looks like a genuinely good upgrade card for any motherboard, not just B650 ones. Of course, I question if it has the bandwidth for all that i/o, but if you'd max out all of that you most likely bought the wrong board to start with.
 
D

Deleted member 177333

Guest
Always like seeing neat unusual stuff like this - I remember my first ASRock board and it was one of those described in the article where it had both AGP & PCI-E, giving me a nice easy upgrade path. I have an ASRock board in my main rig that I just upgraded to, and an ASRock board in my Plex server - they make pretty good stuff. Knock on wood, I've never had a single issue with any of them.
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2019
Messages
2,340 (1.15/day)
Location
Olympia, WA
System Name Sleepy Painter
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard Asus TuF Gaming X570-PLUS/WIFI
Cooling FSP Windale 6 - Passive
Memory 2x16GB F4-3600C16-16GVKC @ 16-19-21-36-58-1T
Video Card(s) MSI RX580 8GB
Storage 2x Samsung PM963 960GB nVME RAID0, Crucial BX500 1TB SATA, WD Blue 3D 2TB SATA
Display(s) Microboard 32" Curved 1080P 144hz VA w/ Freesync
Case NZXT Gamma Classic Black
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar D1
Power Supply Rosewill 1KW on 240V@60hz
Mouse Logitech MX518 Legend
Keyboard Red Dragon K552
Software Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC 1809 17763.1757
This is so pleasantly weird. Should have a PCIe slot on top so we can stack several of those cards if necessary.
Reminds me of:

stackEm.png

^not mine. Pulled off Vogons forums.
Yes, that's a PCIe HD 4850, in a PCIE-PCI bridging adapter, in an AGP-> 32-bit PCI 66Mhz adapter, in some ancient AGP mobo, w/ a K6-III...
(I consider many of these bridge chips basically "add-on Southbridges". The article's subject card, also is essentially a 'add-on Southbridge'.)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 30, 2020
Messages
985 (0.59/day)
System Name S.L.I + RTX research rig
Processor Ryzen 7 5800X 3D.
Motherboard MSI MEG ACE X570
Cooling Corsair H150i Cappellx
Memory Corsair Vengeance pro RGB 3200mhz 32Gbs
Video Card(s) 2x Dell RTX 2080 Ti in S.L.I
Storage Western digital Sata 6.0 SDD 500gb + fanxiang S660 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2
Display(s) HP X24i
Case Corsair 7000D Airflow
Power Supply EVGA G+1600watts
Mouse Corsair Scimitar
Keyboard Cosair K55 Pro RGB
Reminds me of:

View attachment 279972
^not mine. Pulled off Vogons forums.
Yes, that's a PCIe HD 4850, in a PCIE-PCI bridging adapter, in an AGP-> 32-bit PCI 66Mhz adapter, in some ancient AGP mobo, w/ a K6-III...
(I consider many of these bridge chips basically "add-on Southbridges". The article's subject card, also is essentially a 'add-on Southbridge'.)
can you go to down to a TSA slot ? lol even older than pci slots.
 
Top