DeAnt28790:

but I am bothered that HH has gone from using the stock Wraith cooler to the AIO liquid cooler. Its not exactly apples to apples.

Ehm, just no. But if you'd actually read the review you'd have learned as to why LCS is applied.

Again no, MSI MEG had the Wraith for testing, same for that recent ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula. Out of all the X570 reviews there was one tested with LCS, the C8H and now this one as the socket does not allow for the Wraith.

I recently built a machine around the 3700X and this board. I was able to fit a Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler, with a second fan attached. I had to be careful with the orientation of the cooler, as there is absolutely no clearance left with the shroud around the USB ports and such. Yes, I had to use the LGA 115x mounting brackets. Noctua has a great motherboard compatibility wizard (https://noctua.at/en/mainboard/ASRock_X570_Phantom_Gaming-ITX_TB3) Later, I should be able to buy an NVMe drive with a heatsink, as I put everything in a Fractal Design Define Mini C case and this line of cases has an open motherboard tray and extra clearance beyond that. Basically what I'm saying is be careful with component selection and you should be fine. One a related note, the most difficult part of the build was plugging in the ATX 12V for the CPU. The location can be hard to reach, depending on your case. It is in the back corner of the case. Also, I may have a hard time upgrading my RAM, as they're right below the CPU cooler heatpipes.

While it's no shock to anyone, performance difference between the 2 bios versions is pretty much within reason of each other. Basically people making a big deal about performance woes on the platform, blowing it out of proportion as usual.

vbetts:

While it's no shock to anyone, performance difference between the 2 bios versions is pretty much within reason of each other. Basically people making a big deal about performance woes on the platform, blowing it out of proportion as usual.

My main experience is that it it kicks up the fan speed much easier to give more cooling headroom.

vbetts:

While it's no shock to anyone, performance difference between the 2 bios versions is pretty much within reason of each other. Basically people making a big deal about performance woes on the platform, blowing it out of proportion as usual.

Although I totally agree people are more upset about the situation than they should be, the 3900X is what really struggled to keep up with clock speeds. To my recollection, a well-cooled 3700X didn't lose more than 100MHz, which isn't really noteworthy. Also worth pointing out that although most CPUs now will reach their advertised boost speeds, they won't sustain it for very long. So, aside from the fact that ~100MHz isn't enough to make a big difference, getting that extra speed for a brief moment isn't going to be all that measurable either.

schmidtbag:

Although I totally agree people are more upset about the situation than they should be, the 3900X is what really struggled to keep up with clock speeds. To my recollection, a well-cooled 3700X didn't lose more than 100MHz, which isn't really noteworthy. Also worth pointing out that although most CPUs now will reach their advertised boost speeds, they won't sustain it for very long. So, aside from the fact that ~100MHz isn't enough to make a big difference, getting that extra speed for a brief moment isn't going to be all that measurable either.

Right, maybe benchmarks it would show a difference but real world performance most likely nothing anyone is going to notice.

vbetts:

Right, maybe benchmarks it would show a difference but real world performance most likely nothing anyone is going to notice.

Definitely. Besides, the main reason you get a CPU like this is the number of cores/threads. If you really care that much about single-thread clock speed (which is what these CPUs struggle with the most) then go for a Kaby Lake i5.

I haven't really had anything but good experiences with ASRock and have used them exclusively for my last couple of builds. They've been pretty quick with getting the bios updates out too which is nice. They're my go to for MOBO's these days.

NCC1701D:

I haven't really had anything but good experiences with ASRock and have used them exclusively for my last couple of builds. They've been pretty quick with getting the bios updates out too which is nice. They're my go to for MOBO's these days.

AsRock is a brand were i never ever have problem on all the PC i have made or updated. Of course the bios isn't shiny bling bling, the package is strict minimum, but the price is good. Also this company does "real" server board that are as reliable as Asus or Tyan... Other point about ITX, there is a lot of ITX specialist that use intel 115X cooler layout because there is a lot of passive cooling chassis (inboard vehicule, IPXX, industrial... and some gaming too) that use this standard only, despite being SoC, AM2/3 or as this one AM4. So it's more easy to use even if this one is clearly gaming oriented.

schmidtbag:

Definitely. Besides, the main reason you get a CPU like this is the number of cores/threads. If you really care that much about single-thread clock speed (which is what these CPUs struggle with the most) then go for a Kaby Lake i5.

I agree, and i even don't know if single single thread info is usefull right now, of course it is an estimation of the CPU power per generation, but right now the global C/T info is more usefull as most program use multiple C/T in real world even the most basic one.

rl66:

I agree, and i even don't know if single single thread info is usefull right now, of course it is an estimation of the CPU power per generation, but right now the global C/T info is more usefull as most program use multiple C/T in real world even the most basic one.

Well, most programs nowadays are still single-threaded and will remain that way. But, multitasking has become more relevant than ever. For example with web browsers, they're still single-threaded applications, but each tab runs on its own thread. I think Firefox has a separate thread for rendering too. Most highly parallel workloads end up being better off being computed on a GPU.

While I agree that the 1% gain is nothing you will notice in daily usage, and also that the 1% difference was blown way out of proportions by some loud minority, its deffo good to have this 1% gain, instead of being informed about another security hole discovered and your CPU being crippled in a next security update... So, yea.

Havock2:

I recently built a machine around the 3700X and this board. I was able to fit a Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler, with a second fan attached. I had to be careful with the orientation of the cooler, as there is absolutely no clearance left with the shroud around the USB ports and such. Yes, I had to use the LGA 115x mounting brackets. Noctua has a great motherboard compatibility wizard (https://noctua.at/en/mainboard/ASRock_X570_Phantom_Gaming-ITX_TB3) Later, I should be able to buy an NVMe drive with a heatsink, as I put everything in a Fractal Design Define Mini C case and this line of cases has an open motherboard tray and extra clearance beyond that. Basically what I'm saying is be careful with component selection and you should be fine. One a related note, the most difficult part of the build was plugging in the ATX 12V for the CPU. The location can be hard to reach, depending on your case. It is in the back corner of the case. Also, I may have a hard time upgrading my RAM, as they're right below the CPU cooler heatpipes.

While this sounds great, I am wondering why bother with such a powerful ITX setup, what will you use it for?

Every 10 years, I like to build a small machine and see what kind of power and efficiency I can get. The last time, I was only able to go down to a Mini ATX. I have 3 screens connected and this can just about push them all at native res and reasonable FPS. The bottleneck is either single thread CPU performance or the GPU, as most games and such are still mainly single threaded. My UPS reports that the machine idles at 60W. Granted the only moving parts are the fans, as I have a NAS, that I hand built, for most of the storage. The NAS can saturate gigabit in both directions.