The Board - A Closer Look

Given the ASRock X99E-ITX/ac is a mITX board with an OC Socket, many of you might be concerned about how ASRock intends us to make use of that OC Socket on Intel's HEDT platform, with CPUs that START at 140W (145W for the 18-core Xeon E5-2699 v3.) Fortunately, all is well in the hood since ASRock's 6-Phase power design boasts enough power, although confined to a small space.


That small space means that the heatsink itself is not very large, merely covering the hotter 60A DrMOS bits of the VRM while looming over the 60A chokes. Yeah, that's a full 60A per phase, and yes, the X99 PCH has a tiny cooler too, but it, like the VRM cooler, works amazingly well.


The CPU VRM is controlled by an Intersil 6-phase controller, such as you would find on ASRock's much larger X99 Express products. ASRock squeezed a few bits of the VRM toward the back of the board, but as you can see, they are all shorter than the screws used to mount those heatsinks. I'm hoping someone like EK will release a full-board block. DIMM power is provided for by a dual-phase VRM, which technically gives each slot its own phase. Neat!


The CMOS battery is attached to the ASRock X99E-ITX/ac's rear I/O tower, connected to the board via a couple wires that terminate into a clip that firmly fits into the provided socket, with the 3-pin header that is also required right next to it. The BIOS chip also fits into a socket hidden near the SATA Express port, highlighted by a bright yellow sticker, which has it stand out completely against the rest of the board's color scheme.


Audio on the ASRock X99E-ITX/ac is provided for by a Realtek ALC1150 audio CODEC, one that was introduced a while ago and has proven to be more than capable to my ears. It just so happens that RMAA agrees.


An ASMedia ASM 1142 stuck to the board's surface where it can be seen takes care of USB 3.1 functionality. Unfortunately, the writing on mine wasn't all that obvious. The same goes for the Nuvoton Super I/O that provides the PS/2 port and fan control and monitoring.


LAN is provided by Intel's preferred dual-teaming combo consisting of an I218V and an I211AT. Both are pretty capable and work even better as a pair. There is also the wireless controller I covered earlier.