ASRock X570 Aqua is a $1000 Zen2-ready Liquid-Cooled Monsterboard

[btarunr]

We were pleasantly mistaken when we thought ASRock would stop at the X570 Phantom Gaming X or the X570 Taichi for AMD's new "Valhalla" enthusiast desktop platform. It turns out that they have a roughly-$1,000 monster motherboard in the pipes, called the X570 Aqua. Pictured below, the board is based on a slight variation of the X570 Phantom Gaming X PCB. The biggest change of course is the aluminium shroud that covers most of the board's front side. There's also a metal back-plate.

Beneath the metal shroud is what gives the board its name: a massive liquid-cooling monoblock that cools not just your processor (including heavyweights such as overclocked Ryzen 9 3900X chips), but also the CPU VRM, and the feisty AMD X570 chipset. The coolant channel first goes over the CPU through a large micro-fin lattice, then onto the X570 chipset, and finally over the CPU VRM on its way out. Much like the Phantom Gaming X, this board features daisy-chained dual-channel DDR4 memory slots designed to make the most OC out of 2-module setups.



Expansion includes three PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slots, the top two are wired to the AM4 SoC, and the bottom-most one is electrical gen 4.0 x4, wired to the chipset. There are three gen 4.0 x1 slots in between them. Storage connectivity includes two M.2-22110 slots (64 Gbps, PCIe gen 4.0 x4), from which one includes SATA 6 Gbps wiring; and six other SATA 6 Gbps ports. The board serves up not one, but two 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3 ports, complete with USB 3.1 and DisplayPort passthrough to the boot! USB connectivity includes six USB 3.1 gen 2 at the rear panel, including two type-C ports, and four USB 3.1 gen 1 headers. Networking includes a 10 GbE connection driven by an AQuantia AQC107 controller, a 1 GbE connection pulled by an Intel i211-AT, 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) WLAN pulled by Intel "Cyclone Peak" PHY, and Bluetooth 5.0. The onboard audio solution is premium Realtek ALC1220 fare.

We've heard from several sources that this board could command a $1,000 price, which is over two times that of the X570 Phantom Gaming X. Value-addition comes in the form of a slightly beefed up 8-layer PCB, two 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3 ports, 10 GbE replacing 2.5 GbE, additional 10 Gbps USB 3.1 gen 2 ports, the aluminium front- and back cladding, and of course, the $200-ish nickel-plated copper monoblock. ASRock is only producing 999 pieces of this board, and the one on display is uniquely marked "002/999," so there's that.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Deleted member 24505]

LOL who is gonna buy this.

 

[BakerMan1971]

Its a heck of a lot of money but man thats a nice board

 

[SL2]

LOL who is gonna use this with an APU. HDMI and Displayport...

Edit: I didn't see the "DP IN".

 

[R0H1T]

You do know that 8 core APUs are likely coming next year, right? Not to mention 9900k is an APU

 

[btarunr]

LOL who is gonna use this with an APU. HDMI and Displayport...

The DP is "in" and not "out." You plug your graphics card's output into that, and get output through the Thunderbolt ports. Lets you use Apple Cinema display and the likes.

The HDMI is an output, though.

 

[SL2]

You do know that 8 core APUs are likely coming next, right? Not to mention 9900k is an APU

Yeah but still, I doubt APU's will be popular for this board.

The 9900K doesn't fit, you know that, right? Comparing with Intel doesn't help here, since all mainstream Intel CPU's have integrated graphics, except for a few variants. This doesn't apply to AMD.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

overkill for an X570 imo. Looks decent though...

 

[R0H1T]

since all mainstream CPU's have integrated graphics

Not from AMD, not even the FX gen. Also for a grand I'd rather Asrock throw the kitchen sink in there, instead of skimping on certain things.

 

[zo0lykas]

I very like idea from factory with water block, but this price, dar to high

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

this is too grand of a price for us mainstream users. Just settle with a $100 ish ones would do the job. We're not here to aim for bench records.

 

[SL2]

Not from AMD, not even the FX gen. Also for a grand I'd rather Asrock throw the kitchen sink in there, instead of skimping on certain things.

I edited my reply, because I knew it wasn't obvious enough for you.

 

[zlobby]

Why they went for top-of-line cooling with Phantom Gaming? That board is mediocre at best!

Taichi would have made much more sense, to me at least.

 

[springs113]

Why they went for top-of-line cooling with Phantom Gaming? That board is mediocre at best!

Taichi would have made much more sense, to me at least.

the taichi boards seem to not have changed much from x370. It has been said that the vrms in the taichi lineup are "flimsy" I honestly wanted this board but that price tag is a big turn off. If it was maybe $700 I can justify, the cost of the board being monoblocked, and a little markup here and there but another 300 ontop of that whew, guess I'll stick to my formula viii.

 

[phill]

I'm not sure why this would cost a $1000 but that's definitely not for me.. But hey, at least it has RGB....

 

[Dammeron]

At least one board without a fan.

 

[bonehead123]

WTH, are we back in the 90's for cryin out loud

With such a high-end, limited edition $1K board with a brand new, modern 2019-era chipset, why oh why does it STILL have a stinkin, antiquated PS/2 port ?????? Surely they could have found some other type of port from this century to take up that space, yes ?

Yea I know there are people who will insist that they are still useful, but I'm am NOT one of them......

 

[TheLostSwede]

WTH, are we back in the 90's for cryin out loud

With such a high-end, limited edition $1K board with a brand new, modern 2019-era chipset, why oh why does it STILL have a stinkin, antiquated PS/2 port ?????? Surely they could have found some other type of port from this century to take up that space, yes ?

Yea I know there are people who will insist that they are still useful, but I'm am NOT one of them......

A lot of gamers like PS/2 for n-key rollover and lower latency.

 

[EatingDirt]

Why they went for top-of-line cooling with Phantom Gaming? That board is mediocre at best!

Taichi would have made much more sense, to me at least.

Have you looked at the picture for both of those boards? They're the same board. The Phantom Gaming X has an additional LAN port, with a few added chips for it right below the VRM heatsinks & above the first M.2 slot. The capacitor & chip layout are basically identical.
https://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/X570 Taichi(L2).png
https://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/X570 Phantom Gaming X(L2).png

the taichi boards seem to not have changed much from x370. It has been said that the vrms in the taichi lineup are "flimsy" I honestly wanted this board but that price tag is a big turn off. If it was maybe $700 I can justify, the cost of the board being monoblocked, and a little markup here and there but another 300 ontop of that whew, guess I'll stick to my formula viii.

The design of the X370 Taichi was simply the best X370 design, VRM-wise. The only board that was close to it was Asus' C6H. The X370 Taichi is still better than many X470 motherboards. It's VRM was overdesigned, and still is overdesigned, so it simply didn't and doesn't need to be changed.

 

[HwGeek]

Ryzen 3000 must have great OC potential if cooled properly- this is what I think from seeing all the investment in the new X570 boards, No way we gonna have only ~5% OC headroom like we had with 2700X.

AIO, EK, Noctua and other PC cooling vendors gonna see sales go up with those 7nm parts.

 

[springs113]

Have you looked at the picture for both of those boards? They're the same board. The Phantom Gaming X has an additional LAN port, with a few added chips for it right below the VRM heatsinks & above the first M.2 slot. The capacitor & chip layout are basically identical.
https://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/X570 Taichi(L2).png
https://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/X570 Phantom Gaming X(L2).png


The design of the X370 Taichi was simply the best X370 design, VRM-wise. The only board that was close to it was Asus' C6H. The X370 Taichi is still better than many X470 motherboards. It's VRM was overdesigned, and still is overdesigned, so it simply didn't and doesn't need to be changed.

well for 8 cores maybe, but for the current 12 and possible 16, no. A very notable person who analyzes these things for a living says otherwise.

 

[Axaion]

WTH, are we back in the 90's for cryin out loud

With such a high-end, limited edition $1K board with a brand new, modern 2019-era chipset, why oh why does it STILL have a stinkin, antiquated PS/2 port ?????? Surely they could have found some other type of port from this century to take up that space, yes ?

Yea I know there are people who will insist that they are still useful, but I'm am NOT one of them......

Oi, my keyboard is PS/2 and its a better weapon than yours.

 

[r.h.p]

oh my the lions, the tigers, this is freakishly awesome .... stil i wouldn't buy it haha

 

[EatingDirt]

well for 8 cores maybe, but for the current 12 and possible 16, no. A very notable person who analyzes these things for a living says otherwise.

Huh? Buildzoid 100% said the X370 Taichi is very likely capable running a potential 16 core CPU.

Buildzoid will my X370/X470/B450/B350 mobo be good enough for Ryzen 3rd gen

So, well... that's that.

 

[EarthDog]

At least one board without a fan.

Giga Aorus Extreme doesn't!

Is there a black version available...?