The ASRock X570 Aqua: A $1000 Ryzen Halo Motherboard Reviewed
by Gavin Bonshor on December 19, 2019 9:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to the manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.
For X570 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1903 update as per our Ryzen 3000 CPU review.
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real-world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our testbed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
Despite a heavy controller count, the ASRock X570 Aqua managed to perform above expectations, with the same load power consumption as the previously tested ASUS Pro WS X570-Ace. The results at both idle and long idle power state also show the X570 Aqua in a very positive light.
Non-UEFI POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.)
While not the fastest X570 model in terms of POST times, the ASRock X570 Aqua performs well considering the sheer number of controllers including two Ethernet controllers, a Thunderbolt 3 controller, and all the usual culprits. It should be noted that in our stripped test, the Aqua didn't allow us to disable either of the Ethernet controllers in the BIOS.
DPC Latency
Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.
If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.
We test the DPC at the default settings straight from the box, and the ASRock X570 Aqua didn't follow the trend we were expecting. ASRock desktop models tend to have the upper hand in out of the box DPC latency performance, but the Aqua performed noticeably worse this time around. It's still not the worst out of the box performance we have seen on X570, and it trades blows with the models in the middle of our results.
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vr69 - Tuesday, December 24, 2019 - link
Unlike your comment, I thought his was directly to the point and relevant -- correcting the earlier mistaken post. The waterblock itself isn't made of aluminum. That's important.Dug - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
For $999 I would like to know how the other components do such as 10Gb nic, wifi6, TB3, USB, sound, m.2 ssd's in each slot, etc. So many of these boards fail at one thing or another when loaded up.A cpu benchmark and overclock really isn't a review.
careyd - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
true. since it is specifically the combination of thunderbolt 3 and 10Gbe on the same board that has drawn me to it.coyote2 - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
I've killed a number of motherboards because only the CPU was cooled, so I'd love a board that was cooled. Unfortunately I've never made a custom loop, so I wish I could plug an AIO into it.Operandi - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
This board is literally just too much of everything to even interesting let alone rational. Way too expensive, way too overbuilt, too much bling.Its like buying a Bugatti Chiron but then platting the entire thing in 24k gold. At some point it just because extravagant for the sake of being extravagant and all you have is gaudy waste of money.
DigitalFreak - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
They're using a PCIe 2.0 switch to run 4 SATA III ports, 1 Gig Ethernet port, 3 PCIe x1 ports and the Wifi off of a single PCIe 2.0 x1 uplink. What a joke. For as much as this board costs they should have used a PEX chip.DanNeely - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
That's a surprising cheapout for as extravagant as this board otherwise is. I don't know if any PCEe x4 chips are available yet; but just staying within ASMedia's products an ASM2812 would use both remaining PCIe lanes on the chipset and run everything at 3.0 speeds instead of 2.0; and then use a 4 port sata controller instead of 2x 2 port controllers (or splurge for the 2816 which supports 12 devices and 16 downstream lanes instead of 6 and 8).Tomatotech - Friday, December 20, 2019 - link
I'm no expert in PCI lanes but this seems marginally acceptable.a) You mostly wouldn't be using wifi and the second (1gb) ethernet at the same time. The primary 10gig ethernet port would be the first port used for people only using one ethernet port.
b) Fast storage goes in the dual m.2 ports. There are 4 directly connected SATA III ports for SSDs. The switched SATA III ports are more likely just for huge slow HDDs.
c) the three PCIe x1 ports are for slower add-on cards that don't need huge bandwidth.
I'm not seeing a lot here that would overly benefit from huge bandwidth upgrades. Don't forget the board has 2 x thunderbolt 3 ports for staggeringly fast access (faster than SATA III) for more m.2 cards, eGPU, extra 10gb ethernet ports etc.
Tomatotech - Friday, December 20, 2019 - link
I'm no expert in PCI lanes but this seems marginally acceptable.a) You mostly wouldn't be using wifi and the second (1gb) ethernet at the same time. The primary 10gig ethernet port would be the first port used for people only using one ethernet port.
b) Fast storage goes in the dual m.2 ports. There are 4 directly connected SATA III ports for SSDs. The switched SATA III ports are more likely just for huge slow HDDs.
c) the three PCIe x1 ports are for slower add-on cards that don't need huge bandwidth.
I'm not seeing a lot here that would overly benefit from huge bandwidth upgrades. Don't forget the board has 2 x thunderbolt 3 ports for staggeringly fast access (faster than SATA III) for more m.2 cards, eGPU, extra 10gb ethernet ports etc.
B3an - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
I just got a Threadripper motherboard, with far better features, and even that doesn't cost as much as this ripoff. It looks better and i'm water cooling it too. If you're going to spend this much then just go for the superior Threadripper platform. This is a pig with lipstick, and not very nice looking lipstick at that.