The Board - Layout

The ASRock X99E-ITX/ac is small—almost too small. Interestingly enough, although there is a whole lot of possible functionality here, the PCB doesn't seem as "squished" together as on some other mITX boards.


One of the most interesting features to me is ASRock's choice of using the fabled "OC Socket" for this platform, which features added pins that connect with your chosen CPU to allow for some additional clocking abilities. These abilities have been tested time and again to some quite interesting results by normal users and "pro" overclockers. There are but two DIMM slots on the ASRock X99E-ITX/ac, which means that quad-channel capabilities are not available even though your CPU might support more memory channels than this board offers.


The SATA connectivity is provided solely via the on-board Intel X99 Express PCH, with four ports sticking over the board's edge while another two are located in the SATA Express slot—yet some more fancy drive connectivity with supposed boosted speeds, although no drives use it yet. Hopefully, we'll see some hit stores soon. There is also a full-speed M.2 slot that supports SATA 6 Gb/s and PCIe 3.0 x 4 drives, so you can chose the best there is and slap it into place without having to worry about impeding performance by doing so.


The wireless card attaches to the system via the mini-PCIe port found near the board's rear I/O towers. The rear I/O includes 8 USB ports, with a quad of USB 3.0 ports and duos of both USB 2.0 and USB 3.1. Each type uses a different color to make it easier to pick out. There are a Clear_CMOS button, ultra-important when overclocking, two LAN ports, audio plugs, and a PS/2 port for those who prefer such input devices over USB.