The ASRock X99 Extreme11 is a pricey board. At $649, it's almost too much for most users to accept, although I think that the price is well deserved. The huge amount of drive connectivity cannot be had without some fancy circuitry, and that circuitry costs money. The LSI 3008 on it's own will run you a couple hundred dollars, and the full functionality of that controller is available here, without taking up a PCie slot. Then there's not one, but TWO Ultra M.2 ports and the additional SATA controllers, the PCIe bridge chips and the high-phase-count VRM that all add their own costs to this product. I don't think any other board out there can offer you nearly 120 TB of high-speed storage on it's own, but this one can. If you're into video editing, you WANT this board, without a doubt.

The average user will obviously think this board is too expensive. Why do you need all these SATA ports? This board is not for the average user at all, and I can't say that any ASRock Extreme11 board ever has been. They've always been pricey, and this is the one time I cannot fault its price. SAS 12 Gb/s drives themselves aren't cheap and aren't for everyone. However, there is this thing about its fan ports...I am not impressed by this board's fan connectivity.

The software package is a bit lean as is the onboard accessories package. But a user who uses SAS and buys this board isn't really going to care about that. If all you can see is the price, this board isn't meant for you. If you drool over true high-speed storage, why haven't you bought one already?