While the standard ATX form factor can often impress with literally thousands of components spread out across a relatively small board, offering incredible performance, but when you see that same chipset and processor squeezed into something less than half the size, you can’t help but be amazed. ASRock have done an especially good job with the Phantom Gaming ITX and we’ll go on to explain why.
In terms of outright performance, the results blend into the rest without an issue, proving that ASRock haven’t had to sacrifice anything to shrink everything into the Mini-ITX form factor. Having said that, we did notice that the VRM cooling around the CPU socket got quite hot during our extensive testing so ensuring you have some case airflow will be advantageous.
The Thunderbolt 3 port on the rear IO is rare on any motherboard, particularly one at this price point which will definitely be a key selling feature against the one competing Mini-ITX motherboard from Gigabyte. Features like the WiFi 6 AX, integrated rear IO shield and an extensive VRM design will certainly increase the attraction further.
Now if we’re to find a criticism with the motherboard, there’s only really two that we can think of.
the first being the Intel LGA 115x mounting system. ASRock have clearly ran into space constraints and been forced to ditch the larger AM4 mounting system in favour of a larger VRM heatsink arrangement. We found that our Corsair H150i Pro RGB was difficult to install and resulted in the mounting bracket having to bend considerably to accommodate the taller Ryzen processor against the usual height of an Intel CPU; there’s also the problem of the AMD Wraith cooler only arriving with an AM4 mount, for obvious reasons, so that becomes useless, necessitating the purchase of a third party cooler.
The other issue is the rear-mounted M.2 slot, this poses a real problem for cooling with little to no airflow around the back of the motherboard, and you’ll definitely have to ditch any attached heatsink. Throttling issues might also rear their ugly head under sustained loads.
If you need a small but powerful X570 system, the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming ITX/TB3 presents a compelling case, particularly with the Thunderbolt 3 inclusion.
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In terms of outright performance, the results blend into the rest without an issue, proving that ASRock haven’t had to sacrifice anything to shrink everything into the Mini-ITX form factor. Having said that, we did notice that the VRM cooling around the CPU socket got quite hot during our extensive testing so ensuring you have some case airflow will be advantageous.
The Thunderbolt 3 port on the rear IO is rare on any motherboard, particularly one at this price point which will definitely be a key selling feature against the one competing Mini-ITX motherboard from Gigabyte. Features like the WiFi 6 AX, integrated rear IO shield and an extensive VRM design will certainly increase the attraction further.
Now if we’re to find a criticism with the motherboard, there’s only really two that we can think of.
the first being the Intel LGA 115x mounting system. ASRock have clearly ran into space constraints and been forced to ditch the larger AM4 mounting system in favour of a larger VRM heatsink arrangement. We found that our Corsair H150i Pro RGB was difficult to install and resulted in the mounting bracket having to bend considerably to accommodate the taller Ryzen processor against the usual height of an Intel CPU; there’s also the problem of the AMD Wraith cooler only arriving with an AM4 mount, for obvious reasons, so that becomes useless, necessitating the purchase of a third party cooler.
The other issue is the rear-mounted M.2 slot, this poses a real problem for cooling with little to no airflow around the back of the motherboard, and you’ll definitely have to ditch any attached heatsink. Throttling issues might also rear their ugly head under sustained loads.
If you need a small but powerful X570 system, the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming ITX/TB3 presents a compelling case, particularly with the Thunderbolt 3 inclusion.
Pros
+ Keeps up with the big boys
+ Great design
+ Decent VRM power supply
+ Thunderbolt 3 included
+ WiFi 6 AX included
+ Integrated rear IO shield
Cons
- Doesn’t use the AM4 cooler mounting system
- Rear mounted M.2 will pose issues
- You can't use the AMD Wraith cooler
+ Keeps up with the big boys
+ Great design
+ Decent VRM power supply
+ Thunderbolt 3 included
+ WiFi 6 AX included
+ Integrated rear IO shield
Cons
- Doesn’t use the AM4 cooler mounting system
- Rear mounted M.2 will pose issues
- You can't use the AMD Wraith cooler
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Join in with the discussions on Discord
