Close Examination

There are a few different versions of the ASRock DeskMini, each of which uses a slightly different motherboard. The board used in the DeskMini 110 is the H110M-STX. I found the CMOS battery attached to the bottom of the board via a pin header with a couple wires.


The board's VRM section has heatsinks over the MOSFETs (on both sides of the board) to help keep the power bits and that part of the board cool. The VRM controller is on the back of the board. It appears to be a Richtek-designed part.


Audio on the ASRock DeskMini 110 is provided by a Realtek ALC283 CODEC. An Intel I219V LAN controller provides LAN support.


The board's H110 chipset is bare, without a heatsink on it. Using a "stock" Intel CPU cooler will see a more than ample amount of airflow over it, although I think that it doesn't really need that much cooling anyway. The M.2 ports (one for storage, one for Wi-Fi) are near the board's edge opposite the cooler. I was happy to see the storage port up top - should you decide to use a high-speed M.2 drive like the Samsung 950 PRO, it'll have room for air to travel both over AND under it.


The ports to attach the SATA devices to the system are super-low-profile parts that allow for simple installs. Their low profile allows them to be attached to the rear of the board and fit inside the small amount of space provided under the board.