ASRock reveals world's first X99 Mini-ITX motherboard Written by Antony Leather Companies: #asrock

ASRock has announced the world's first mini-ITX motherboard that's based on Intel's X99 chipset and LGA2011-v3 CPU socket.



Announcing ahead of the CeBIT technology show in Germany, the X99E-ITX/ac appears to lack quad-channel memory support, sporting only two DIMM slots but is otherwise very well-equipped.



It has six right-angled SATA 6Gbps ports with two of these making up a SATA Express connector,, dual LAN ports, USB 3.1 support and the box also states that it offers a full x4 speed M.2 port as well.



There's just a single 16x PCI-E slot, though, but that's the usual story for mini-ITX motherboards.



Squeezing in the hefty CPU socket onto a mini-ITX form factor PCB has meant some compromises, though, and there's very little room around the CPU socket itself.



In fact, it sits right next to the DIMM slots so it's not suprising that ASRock has included a compact cooler in the package too.



We've heard rumours of at least one other manufacturer working on a mini-ITX X99 motherboard too but we applaud ASRock for taking this bold move and we're sure it will be a hit with small formfactor fans.



ASRock also announced a range of other USB 3.1-equipped motherboards too. Both the Z97 Extreme6/3.1 and X99 Extreme6/3.1 offer an on-board USB 3.1 Type-C connector while also sporting two USB 3.1 Type-A connectors courtesy of a PCI-Express card.



Pricing has yet to be confirmed but we'll report back when we here more. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

