AMD + ITX + TB3? It's the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Motherboard Review
by Gavin Bonshor on October 9, 2019 12:00 PM ESTOverclocking Ryzen 3000
Experience with the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3
Sometimes it's assumed that smaller form factor motherboards tend to not overclock as well as larger ATX boards. In the real world, the differences are relatively minute, mostly being limited by cramped builds and cooling that doesn't perform as well. In an open environment, there have been mini-ITX motherboards capable of taking world records. Another issue is that on the smaller boards, there is certainly less room for some componentry and when it comes to overclocking, there is much less room for error with the need for vendors to get things right from the outset. But when the hardware is done right, users shouldn't expect much difference.
From the perspective of overclocking, ASRock's Phantom Gaming firmware is wholesome with plenty of options to overclock both processors and memory. To achieve most overclocks, users only need to concern themselves with settings including CPU Core Frequency, CPU VCore voltage, and with the excessive heat generated by AMD's 7nm desktop processors, adequate cooling. For memory overclocking, users can enable X.M.P profiles within the OC Tweaker section or go about customizing settings through the memory frequency, memory voltage, and the FCLK/Infinity Fabric frequency settings. For more advanced tuning, ASRock offers a DRAM Timing Configurator which allows users to tweak primary, secondary, and tertiary memory settings.
Aside from a couple of high-performance memory overclocking profiles, enabling Precision Boost Overdrive, and an Eco CPU profile, there is nothing else terms of automatic overclocking options. Unlike some of ASRock's firmware, the main screen actually lacks anything of real substance and users looking to enable X.M.P memory profiles have to navigate around the OC Tweaker section looking for it. It would have been nice to have more options in regards to overclocking profiles, but it's not surprising given the limitations of overclocking the current generation of Ryzen 3000 processors. There's a lot of heat to deal with at what is considered the middle of the run overclocks such as 4.3 GHz, and if and when AMD's second-generation on 7nm comes around, users will be expecting a little more from firmware and core clock speeds.
Overclocking Methodology
Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with POV-Ray and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.
For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from the previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (105ºC+). Our testbed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.
Overclocking Results
The ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 is a solid example of VDroop working correctly with the load line calibration settings set to default settings. When manually overclocking, the variation of VDroop ranges from 0.006 V at 4.3 GHz, to 0.013 and 0.019 V on the CPU VCore at full load when compared with what was set in the firmware. All of the VDroop observed was undervolted meaning it had a very positive impact on power consumption at full load, and we experienced very consistent POV-Ray performance as we went up in each 100 MHz increment.
The highlight is the Eco mode which the firmware states is set to 45 W with our Ryzen 7 3700X processor. This is a 65 W TDP processor and when using the Eco Mode profile, we saw good POV-Ray performance with an equally good showing in power consumption too. In relation to manual overclocks, the Eco Mode on the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 performed similarly to our POV-Ray result at 3.8 GHz; not for users looking for high-performance, but perfect for small form factor enthusiasts looking for a good 24/7 mode where heat may be a limiting factor.
Unlike our experience with the GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Xtreme motherboard, enabling precision boost overdrive on the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 had little to no effect on performance over the default settings which suggests the firmware is at fault somewhere. Our default run did run a little on the warm side compared to what we have seen in previous X570 reviews and the extra heat can be attributed to a load CPU VCore value of 1.337; there is nothing 'leet' about this and we expected a little better.
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GreenReaper - Wednesday, October 9, 2019 - link
I think that's because Thunderbolt at a lower level works over individual 10Gbps lanes. You can have multiple "ports" but then you'll have multiple interfaces - perhaps you can team them at a higher level? But if it's Alpine Ridge you'll almost certainly be limited to low-power 10Gbps.firewrath9 - Wednesday, October 9, 2019 - link
huh? 18TB of SSD storage?My asrock Z87 Extreme11, with its 22 sata ports can do EIGHTY-EIGHT TB OF SSD
WOAH
also if 10gbe costs 100$, why is the X470 Taichi Ultimate only 50$ more than the non-ultimate? (it also has other additonal features)
lmille16 - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link
Your board is an EATX board. DCide is talking about mITX boards....siuol11 - Friday, October 11, 2019 - link
I'd settle for 2.5 or 5G ethernet, both have readily available chips that cost under $10, and Intel is about to release one (the 225V) that costs less than $2.50.masteraleph - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link
No, the M.2 is a big deal. If you're stuffing this into a small case- and plenty of people buying X570 ITX boards will- there's a big advantage to not having any 2.5" drives in the case, whether for airflow, cables, what have you.Calamarian - Thursday, April 16, 2020 - link
Shabby:You could always bifurcate the slot and add a 10GB NIC!
Some cases come with!
https://www.sliger.com/products/cases/sm580/
umano - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link
I am so happy I am not alone with this, 16 cores and thunderbolt means one thing, content creator, not a gamer. I mean the cheapest thing you can attach to TB3 is a 10gbe (200$).There are a lot of video makers and some colourists (who do not need to work with 6-8k raw) that own the x299 itx because it can be portable even in a backpack.
Unless they have the crazy idea of putting a threadripper on a DTX board they lost a great opportunity. This board is a compromise for everyone, too expensive due to tb3 to who is budget-wise, as a gamer I would go with gigabyte for the 2 m2 and the backplate armour (and a very respectable 8 phase vrm) or better the dtx Asus board.
This board can be good only if someone wants a very portable setup with no GPU and they need a faster (x4 PCI 3) GPU. So almost none
I think except Asus maybe, but they were not that good either, manufacturers went very wrong with PCIe 4.0 and the x570.
Asrock could have used the 4x link from the chipset (like only Asus did on their pro board reviewed here) for the second m2, they could have swapped 2xUsb3 5gbs with 2 basic usb3 port for mouse and keyboard with the lanes shared with the wifi module (it will never need full bandwidth and how much data transfer is there for mouse and keyboard) so here you are the 10gbe.
I cannot think the number of devices that can saturate a TB3, 2 x 10gbps usb3 and 2x5gbps.
I have a Wacom tablet, 2 Eizo with 5gbps USB 3 hubs, a das, several and different external drives, HDD, SSD, and a printer. Even with one 10gbps USB, it would have been fine, we can have tb3, who needs to connect 2 nvme external drive? By the way 4 SATA ports without raid 5?
The 2080ti barely (2-3%) saturates a PCI 3 8x link, sharing the lanes between the GPU and the third m2 is not blasphemy at all, so there will be bandwidth, 12x PCIe 4, for a dual GPU card more powerful than a dual 2080ti.
So now I need to change pc and I will buy this board because of the TB3 but I hope they will understand their mistake and someone will release something better, way better
Now I have to spend 250 for the board, 300 for a thunderbolt dock with 10gbe (connected to the NAS) that I cannot use while I am using my raid das, 300+ for 64gb instead of 32gb because I cannot have a fast nvme drive for photoshop/DaVinci cache, and I still don't know how much for 2 custom water block for VRM, and other 40 for the chipset block and probably I will buy a USB DAC for headphones
So I know it is almost impossible to have a sabre and 3 m2 on an itx board but at least for me a board with that stuff and a big block for vrm and chipset, that could have saved some space for extra daughter boards, it is worth more than 900+ and still I would have saved money
I know it is insane and liquid cooling is not for everyone, but an ITX motherboard with 2 m2, tb3, 10gbe and some USB ports (maybe a second tb3) sharing the GPU link it is not unreasonable.
They probably did not do it because they want content creators going with threadripper, but 3d is not the only thing that matter, video has the largest market, and we cannot bring matx cases onset easily, especially because they are ugly and the market is accustomed to see apple products, so we get no money from it, so I will not buy threadripper even I know it is amazing
FiveOhFour - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
you have other options come onCheapSushi - Saturday, October 12, 2019 - link
Reaallly wish ASRock and others would push for Mini-DTX! With a second PCIe slot. Put the M.2 somewhere else. :OCalamarian - Thursday, April 16, 2020 - link
With both 10GB USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt I'd bet it's more an issue of available PCIe lanes than MB space...