ASRock Phantom Gaming X870 Nova Wi-Fi Overview – Board Layout

Board Layout

The ASRock Phantom Gaming X870 Nova Wi-Fi is sort of imposing with its giant VRM heatsinks and intensive array of M.2 heatsinks protecting all 5 M.2 ports, with the first PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port positioned above your GPU. The rear of the PCB options a big backplate that makes use of thermal pads to passively cool each banks of MOSFETs, which is a pleasant contact given the comparatively low price ticket.

A standard supply of bandwidth sharing is between PCIe Gen 5 M.2 and USB4, right here the second PCIe Gen 5 M.2 slot shares bandwidth with these ports. Using an SSD on this slot will see the USB4 ports disabled and for some motive the M.2 port drops from x4 to x2 as nicely. This will see the PCIe Gen 5 SSD pace reduce in half, however you possibly can drive it again as much as x4 utilizing a swap within the EFI. So lengthy as you are glad to lose the USB4 ports, it is due to this fact doable to run two PCIe Gen 5 SSDs concurrently. The solely different sharing happens with the third M.2 slot—which is restricted to PCIe Gen 3—and the SATA ports, with the latter being disabled if the previous is used, whereas utilizing the fifth M.2 slot will see the second PCIE slot reduce from x4 to x2.

Something ASRock is sweet at is discovering a strategy to get energy, reset and LED POST code shows onto so a lot of its boards. These are good for out of case testing and overclocking and the LED show defaults to the CPU temperature too—helpful for double-checking your CPU cooling is okay on a brand new construct whilst you’re putting in Windows. The prime proper nook can be the place you may discover three of the seven fan headers. The CPU fan header is restricted to only 12 W/1 A, which is probably not preferrred for operating a trio of high-power followers from, however the remainder have a pool of up 36 W/3 A.

The Type-C entrance panel helps as much as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20 Gbps, so can be utilized with a number of the quicker exterior SSDs on the market. It additionally helps Power Delivery 3.0, providing as much as 36 W charging via your case’s Type-C entrance panel, which is probably helpful for charging smartphones and tablets. ASRock’s EZ-Release to your graphics card is certainly one of many implementations of enhanced launch mechanism that take away the necessity to fiddle round beneath your graphics card to search out the usual small lever. Here, you merely pull the lever to the precise and your GPU is launched.

Having simply two SATA ports is probably an obstacle in comparison with others on this worth vary, with the Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7, for instance, providing 4. The base of the PCB can be house to an additional 3-pin ARGB header in addition to a 4-pin RGB header.

The remainder of the fan headers sit in a row on the base of the board. We’d choose one to be close to the rear of the case for rear case followers. As it stands, in bigger instances, it’s possible you’ll want a fan extension cable to get from the rear fan to any of the fan headers. We additionally get a 2-pin thermistor header to be used with the included thermal probe or a 3rd social gathering coolant probe. You can assign followers to this header within the EFI or software program.

ASRock’s tool-free M.2 design extends to all SSD installations, however not all heatsinks, with solely the highest slot benefitting from a clip-on heatsink. This is at the very least cooled on either side so ought to hopefully fare nicely with our PCIe Gen 5 SSD. It’s additionally out of the way in which of your graphics card and has a little bit extra quantity and floor space than you would possibly count on from these cheaper boards.

The subsequent three slots are all beneath a single screwed-on heatsink, with the highest slot right here supporting PCIe Gen 5 SSDs and likewise benefitting from double-sided cooling. This proved to be a little bit a tough to put in, with the requirement to line up the 4 screws beneath. We’d positively wish to see a transition to tool-free right here and once more, that is one thing the competing Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 gives.

The ultimate slot gives a house for a PCIe Gen 4 SSD and is once more cooled on one facet with a screwed-on heatsink. This ought to nonetheless be capable of successfully cool any PCIe Gen 4 SSD.

The rear I/O panel within reason well-equipped with 9 Type-A ports, 4 of those being USB 2.0, three being USB 3.0 and two supplying you with 10 Gbps courtesy of USB 3.2 Gen 2. The Lightning Gaming ports supposedly provide low jitter and latency by using two completely different controller interfaces, whereas the blue Ultra USB Power Ports present 5 V energy derived from the +12 V rail, which ASRock claims gives much less voltage droop and interference in comparison with a normal 5 V rail. Being X870, USB4 40 Gbps is assured, and we now have two USB4 Type-C ports right here that assist additionally 15 W charging. ASRock does not use trendy screw-free Wi-Fi connectors right here, so there’s simply the same old thread for normal Wi-Fi antennas to faucet into the Wi-Fi 7 module. Next to those we now have an HDMI port—with the 2 USB4 ports supporting HDCP 2.3 for suitable Type-C shows—plus CMOS clear and USB BIOS Flashback buttons. The onboard audio has your typical audio jacks and optical output, whereas ASRock gives 5 Gbps Ethernet.