Physical Components

Now that the innards of the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 are free of the case, the layout of the system becomes clear. When building within the STX form factor, every cubic millimeter counts. The front of the motherboard is dominated by the stars of the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060, which are the MXM slot populated by a GTX 1060 on the left and the Intel 8th generation CPU socket on the right. ASRock equipped this sample with an Intel i7 8700, a top-tier choice that will properly showcase the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060's potential.


A closer inspection of the front of the motherboard shows the two SO-DIMM slots in the bottom-right corner. For this sample, ASRock provided a TeamGroup 16 GB kit running at 2400 MHz and 16-16-16-39 timings.


Also featured on the front, near the CPU socket, are the VRM heatsinks, which appear tiny to my eyes, at least compared to their full ATX counterparts. While the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 can hold some serious hardware, the STX form factor only has room for so much. ASRock wisely left most overclocking features, such as CPU voltage tuning, out of the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 BIOS.


The back of the motherboard tray features a large cutout for access to the three M.2 slots as well as the M.2 WiFi slot. Also hiding at the top of the cutout are the two SATA ports. The ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 supports up to two 2.5" drives that can be mounted to the bottom of the motherboard tray and connected using the included cables.


While the clever design of the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 gives users access to any component without removing the motherboard from its tray, I wasn't satisfied until I got the whole system pulled apart. I'm glad I made the effort since this board is a beauty. I am always fascinated by tiny versions of things, and the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 STX motherboard is a perfect example.


For a proper size comparison, I placed the ASRock DeskMini GTX 1060 motherboard next to its Z370 counterpart, and the ATX board simply towers over it.