ASRock Introduces Nine AM4 motherboards - 5 Gbit LAN for X370 Professional Gaming

Stairmand

2017-02-25 11:24

Was pleased to see a pair of M.2 slots as many AMD boards seem to only include one. Then noticed that the second one was horribly restricted.

#5397864

Hilbert Hagedoorn

Administrator

2017-02-25 11:45

Yeah they seem to link a second M2 through the chipset, which is Gen 2.0. It's still ~1600+ MB/sec bidirectional though.

#5397869

Silva

2017-02-25 11:55

For someone like me who uses a Blue theme inside his computer case, these boards all look awful.

Yeah they seem to link a second M2 through the chipset, which is Gen 2.0. It's still ~1600 MB/sec bidirectional though.

That's alright for most users in my book, fast SSD's aren't cheap.

#5397886

r00lz

2017-02-25 13:07

Fatal1ty X370 Professional Gaming Looks awesome with AQUANTIA® 5Gb/s BASE-T Ethernet

#5397891

Stairmand

2017-02-25 13:23

The Samsung 960 EVO NVME drives are not 'that' expensive (especially if you intend to build high end) and already break 3200MBps. Pricing will continue to fall as more high end NVME drives appear on the market. Certainly, I'm considering a Ryzen build to upgrade from Ivybridge but would want a pair (ideally the ability to RAID them too).......

#5397903

Loophole35

2017-02-25 14:16

That Karait looks sexy.

#5397918

xrodney

2017-02-25 14:51

Yeah they seem to link a second M2 through the chipset, which is Gen 2.0. It's still ~1600+ MB/sec bidirectional though.

Its also shared with 3rd PCIEx16 slot which I intend to use for another card in which case M.2_2 is disabled. One of few reasons I went with Asus Hero instead.

#5397920

xrodney

2017-02-25 14:55

Fatal1ty X370 Professional Gaming Looks awesome with AQUANTIA® 5Gb/s BASE-T Ethernet

I thought so too at beginning, but you need other devices like switch or router supporting same and so far they are more or less nonexistent.

#5397944

FrostNixon

2017-02-25 15:53

350pro4 so far is the motherboard of my choice out of all the brands I've seen

#5397950

sverek

2017-02-25 16:01

I thought so too at beginning, but you need other devices like switch or router supporting same and so far they are more or less nonexistent.

Even if all infrastructure is supported, its cheaper to buy pci network card and go with simpler mobo. No need to buy motherboard with all this features if you cant utilize half of them.

#5397961

JAMF72

2017-02-25 16:26

You would need a puzzle-app for the motherboard game. "What if I want to run this and that, which options will be turned off?" "If I use an EVO for boot and a "mass storage" Crosspoint (3D Xpoint), which mobo's can I get?" "Which manufacturers offer X370 on mATX?" (None yet?)

#5398001

Fox2232

2017-02-25 17:58

All those boards are nasty good. yes, they trade this and that for additional features. But they give a choice. Why would I complain that one of M.2 is limited to 2GB/s when those boards are currently only AM4 boards which have second M.2? Only real issue can be DDR4 2667MHz limitation. And that's issue till we know if Ryzen gets some performance from faster memories. And then it is again only issue if there will not be BIOS update to improve compatibility with 3200MHz.

#5398002

GeniusPr0

2017-02-25 18:00

My board is already obsolete. RIP. Missing that 5Gbit port and 1220 Audio :'(

#5398022

Aura89

2017-02-25 18:47

I'm curious, the K4 says it has 3 m.2, with the last one being for wifi, where is it?

#5398024

Fox2232

2017-02-25 18:53

I'm curious, the K4 says it has 3 m.2, with the last one being for wifi, where is it?

Right in the back panel hidden under that block.

#5398025

Keitosha

2017-02-25 18:54

That X370 Taichi looks so tempting. Really thinking of buying that one and getting an M.2 SSD along with it. I'm also curious about the onboard soundcard. How would it compare to my SBZ?

#5398027

Neo Cyrus

2017-02-25 18:57

That X370 Taichi looks so tempting. Really thinking of buying that one and getting an M.2 SSD along with it. I'm also curious about the onboard soundcard. How would it compare to my SBZ?

Like pretty much every other onboard solution: It would lose horribly. Any fancy pants onboard sound you see these days is just a name and some software dumped on top of the standard run-of-the-mill ALC whatever junk. In this case the ALC 1220: http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X370%20Taichi/index.us.asp

#5398028

Pictus

2017-02-25 19:01

I thought so too at beginning, but you need other devices like switch or router supporting same and so far they are more or less nonexistent.

Yep, nonexistent... 🙁 But for overclock the specification looks impressive, 16 power phase + Hyper BCLK Engine II. Right now the ASRock Taichi and Asus Hero got my interest... 🙂

#5398029

Loophole35

2017-02-25 19:01

Like pretty much every other onboard solution: It would lose horribly. Any fancy pants onboard sound you see these days is just a name and some software dumped on top of the standard run-of-the-mill ALC whatever junk. In this case the ALC 1220: http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X370%20Taichi/index.us.asp

On-board audio is almost to the level on a SbZ now. Only real reason to get a sound card now is for high impedance headphones because external DAC is better in most cases than any PCIe sound card.

#5398030

Neo Cyrus

2017-02-25 19:03

On-board audio is almost to the level on a SbZ now.

No, no it's really not. No matter what sort of tinkering I've done with these ALC solutions it's always sounded like horse crap in comparison to my SB ZxR. That includes the latest ones.

Only real reason to get a sound card now is for high impedance headphones because external DAC is better in most cases than any PCIe sound card.

An external DAC would have to be used with an amp, so that wouldn't leave any reason for a sound card aside from price.