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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13094/asrock-b360m-itx-ac-motherboard-review



Everyone likes a good analysis of a Mini-ITX sized board, but this time we're looking at a  B360 chipset version. This chipset offers users the ability to jump into Coffee-Lake based CPUs who do not plan on overclocking. The ASRock B360M-ITX/ac we have on the test bench is a fully featured board with a single M.2 slot, Intel Networking (LAN and Wi-Fi), along with USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports. 

ASRock B360M-ITX/ac Overview

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at several small form factor (SFF) motherboards of all types. Recently we published our ASRock Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac review, which is a board with an eye towards gaming, but here the ASRock B360M-ITX/ac doesn't really place itself into any category. The board is intended to exist as a SFF option based on a mid-range chipset in Intel's B360.

With overclocking not a possibility (among other things), users are able to save a few dollars as board partners tend to use only what is required for power delivery. Users are also to save money getting into the platform by choosing non "K" series CPUs and memory running DDR4-2666 or less. That doesn't mean it is without features. The B360M-ITX/ac includes Wi-Fi capabilities, USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports, as well as a M.2 slot. Those who are looking for RGB LED support will also have to look elsewhere as the board does not have any integrated, nor headers on the board supporting it. Users will have to bring the bling from elsewhere. 

Overall performance on this motherboard was fine, with it competitive with the other boards we have compiled data on. Single threaded performance and multi-threaded performance without AVX instructions landed just as expected, on par with other datasets and went without issue. This board did have the fast time to POST out of any board we have tested.

We did, however, run across a couple of bumps in the road when testing POV-Ray and Blender. In those heavily multi-threaded AVX enabled benchmarks, the board hit power limits during these tests and throttled the CPU back and yielded lower scores. Once the power limit was raised, scores came back up in both tests, but not quite matching the other boards. This time, instead of hitting the power limits (raised to their maximum of 130W/140W Long/Short duration power limits) it ran into a "VR Temperature limit" issue according to Intel XTU and also throttled.

This throttling didn't rear its head over a long period of time as temperatures increased, but showed up within several seconds of beginning the tests. The heatsink attached to the power bits, while small, made good contact and wasn't really warm to the touch. Even after placing a fan blowing directly over the VRM's it did not help. It just feels like out of the gate, these loads were simply too much for the board to handle.  That said, all other loads tested, including gaming, were fine and didn't show any throttling behavior. But if the planned use for this board is to use it with an i7-8700K and heavily multi-thread AVX based workloads, other choices may perform better. 

In the B360 Mini-ITX realm, there are several to choose from, with at least one from each of the major board partners vying for your money. The ASRock B360M-ITX/ac is priced at around $100 when not on sale (currently $90 at Newegg) which is the same price as the GIGABYTE B360N WIFI ($99), and the MSI B360I Gaming Pro AC ($98). The most expensive option out of the four comes from ASUS and their ROG Strix B360-I Gaming ($128).

Each board will have its own merits with the MSI and ASUS offerings giving users two M.2 slots versus one on the ASRock board and GIGABYTE. The ASUS board does have superior audio capabilities with its SupremeFX S1220A codecs (based off the latest Realtek ALC1220 codecs) as well as ASUS and GIGABYTE's Superior Wi-Fi using its Intel-based device supporting speeds up to 1.73 Gbps. There are other differences as well including RGB LED support as well as video output differences among others. 

ASRock's B360 Strategy

ASRock has brought forth around a half-dozen motherboards in the B360 lineup. The lineup includes two Mini-ITX boards, three MicroATX boards and two ATX size boards giving users a complete lineup of form factors in the B360 lineup. 

ASRock B360 Motherboard Lineup
  Size AnandTech
Review
Amazon Newegg
B360 Gaming K4 ATX   $110 $110
B360M-ITX/ac mITX [this review] $102 $90
B360 Pro4 ATX   $83 $81
B360M Pro4 mATX   $78 $78
B360M-HDV mATX   $69 $63
B360M Performance mITX   ? ?

 

Information on Intel's Coffee-Lake CPU Desktop Processors

One important piece of information to note: technically these processors use the LGA1151 socket, also used by 6th and 7th Generation processors using the Z170 and Z270 chipsets. But due to several (albeit minor) difference in the pin-layout of these two sets of processors, the 8th Generation Coffee Lake will only work in Z370 boards and are not cross-compatible. Back in October 2017, Ian Cutress reviewed a couple of processors (i7-8700K and i5-8400) in the Coffee Lake lineup - details on the rest of the product stack are listed below.

 

The ASRock B360M-ITX/ac Review

In this review, we have the following pages:

  1. Overview
  2. Visual Inspection
  3. BIOS and Software
  4. Board Features
  5. System Performance
  6. CPU Performance
  7. Gaming Performance
  8. Conclusions


Visual Inspection

The ASRock B360M-ITX/ac looks like just about any other Mini-ITX board with its black PCB, two DRAM slots, and single PCIe slot. With real estate at a premium on small boards like this, there are a lot of features in a small area. The board includes four SATA ports and a single M.2 slot for either SATA based of PCIe NVMe drives. Being a B360 based board that does not overclock, we see the VRM heatsink isn't as large as we have seen on Z370 Mini-ITX we reviewed in the past. That said, it looks like your typical small form factor board in all black which should fit in many build themes. 

 

One of the first things we talk about is an RGB LED implementation, but this one will be easy. It doesn't have any RGB LEDs on the board - not even an RGB LED header to add a strip to down the road. So if RGB LEDs are a need on the motherboard, one will have to look elsewhere. That said, this may be a positive to some as many simply do not want them in the first place and this likely saves a couple of dollars on the cost of the motherboard.

The board does have a total of three 4-pin fan headers in various locations, which is usually one more than most mini-ITX boards. The CPU fan header is located above and to the right of the CPU socket. Directly to the left of it is the Chassis Fan/Water pump header which supports up to 2A (24W) power whereas the other two headers output 1A (12W). The Chassis Fan/Water pump header also supports smart fan speed control and will auto-detect if a 3-pin or 4-pin (DC or PWM) fan is in use. The fans can be controlled through ASRock's FANtastic Tuning application in the BIOS or in Windows through the A-Tuning software. 

Power delivery on this board is set up as five total phases with the MOSFETs and chokes to the left of the socket and the Intersil 95866C PWM regulator above it. The dual N-channel MOSFETs are from Fairchild Semiconductor (FDPC5030) and rated at 25A each while the chokes are rated at 60A. Power is supplied through a single 8-pin EPS 12V plug. 

On the right side of the board, we are able to clearly see the two DRAM slots which hold down the sticks with a one-sided locking mechanism. On the bottom left corner, we can see the front panel header (closest to the edge) and a USB 2.0 header. To their right, we can see the four vertically oriented SATA ports. Continuing to move right, we can see a chassis fan header along with a front panel USB 3.0 header. Last is the 24-pin ATX plug. 

The bottom portion of the board is where we will find the full-length PCIe x16 slot. Unlike other more expensive boards, the B360M-ITX/ac does not fortify the slot. Just above the PCIe slot is the M.2 slot which is capable of supporting both PCIe NVMe devices, as well as SATA based M.2 modules. When using a SATA based M.2 module, SATA port 0 will be disabled. 

The rear IO is fairly simple but should offer users what is needed, perhaps not in the quantities many would like to see though. The left side has the video outputs, HDMI, DVI-D, and a DisplayPort for using the integrated graphics on the CPU. To the right of that, we can see a legacy PS/2 port and the Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet port. Below these are four USB ports (2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 3.1 - the latter under the Ethernet port). Continuing right, we see the 802.11ac Wi-Fi module which supports speeds up to 433 Mbps (a bit slower than most, but still enough for most users).  Last but not least is the audio stack. Here we see a 3-plug implementation that is fed to the ALC887 codec. 

  • 1 x HDMI
  • 1 x DVI-I
  • 1 x DisplayPort 1.2
  • 1 x PS/2 port
  • 2 x USB 3.0 ports
  • 2 x USB 3.1 ports
  • 1 x RJ45
  • 1 x Wi-Fi module
  • 1 x 3-plug Audio stack

In the Box

ASRock includes the following: 

Also a fairly barren accessory package, but it still includes what is needed to the system up and running. 

  • Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shields
  • 2 x SATA cables
  • 2 x ASRock Wi-Gi 2.4/5 Ghz antennas
  • 1 x Screw for M.2 socket

 



BIOS

When users first boot their system the first thing they are greeted by is the BIOS screen. In this case, an EZ Mode is what users will see first. The BIOS has an advanced mode which displays all the options able to be changed. On this particular board, the ASRock UEFI uses a black background with some monochrome graphics in the bottom right-hand corner. The white fonts and blue highlighting are easy to read against the black background. Overall the BIOS has most everything a user would want on this platform 

The EZ Mode screen above is an informational display with some functions able to be edited/adjusted. In this screen, we see high-level information such as processor type and speed, as well as total memory in the system and its current speed. There is also temperature and voltage information from the CPU as well as fan speeds, and boot priority, both adjustable through this screen. Users will also be able to implement XMP profiles here as well. Anything else will have to be done in advanced mode. 

Our first screen in advanced mode is the Main tab. In this section, again it is informational displaying data about the BIOS, processor, and memory. Also within this section users are able to access the 'My Favorite' portion of the UEFI where users are able to set up a custom page with their most frequently used options. 

The next tab is the OC Tweaker section. Here is where users are able to configure their overclocks...if this was an overclockable chipset. Since it isn't we do not see the typical BCLK and CPU multiplier options normally found here. Instead, the CPU Configuration section has options for power saving modes as well as power and core limits for the CPU. The DRAM tweaker has options for XMP, reference clock and manual frequency settings with the board supporting up to DDR4 2666 sticks. There are also options for setting a lot of memory timings as well, several screens worth, in fact. The voltage configuration section has options to adjust DRAM, PCH, and VCCST voltage. We do not find an option to adjust the core voltage.  This makes sense on a board that cannot overclock, but some users like to lower voltage at the same clocks as well to save power which cannot be done. 

The Advanced tab displays several options underneath including CPU, Chipset, Storage, Super IO, ACPI, and USB configuration sections. 

 Under the Tool tab, users are able to email tech support through the UEFI, flash the BIOS through instant flash (via USB stick) or through internet flash which will go out to the ASRock repository and download the latest version. Network configuration options can also be found here. 

The H/W monitor section is pretty self-explanatory showing users a status of the system temperatures, CPU fan speed as well as system voltages. Within this section, users are able to adjust fan speeds and select pre-defined curves as well as set up custom curves. 

The Security tab is where users are able to setup passwords, secure boot settings as well as enable Intel Platform Trust technologies. 

Last but not least, the Boot section contains all options associated with bringing the PC up. From boot device options and priorities to fast boot and other options, they can all be found in this section. 

Overall we did not run into any issues in our use of the BIOS. 

Software

Typically, motherboards include some kind of software disk that includes drivers to get the system started, and other applications the vendor deems 'useful'. In this case, a driver disk allowed us to get the drivers needed to get started as well as the included applications. 

The driver disk includes a list of drivers in the Drivers and Software section needed to get the PC up and running as it was intended. ASRock includes extra software like Google Chrome and Google Toolbar on this page but it is mostly for drivers. The Utilities page has one option, Restart to UEFI. In essence, users will get most everything they need from the Drivers and Software tab. 

Once everything is installed, ASRock also includes a Live Update & App Shop application designed to keep users up to date on the latest software versions of the drivers and software. I updated the INF driver and Audio through here after testing which went without a hitch. 

ASRock's A-Tuning software does work with their B360 based boards but will do so in a more limited capacity than with the overclockable Z370 chipset. The OC Tweaker section is limited to being able to change the same three voltages we observed in the BIOS Voltage section (DRAM, PCH, and VCCST). Users will not find BCLK or CPU multiplier adjustments here. The System Info section lists information about the CPU clocks and ratio, fan speed and temperature, as well as Vcore and power supply voltages on the main rails. The most useful function on this series motherboard will be the FAN-tastic Tuning section where users are able to adjust fan curves to find a balance between acceptable temperatures and noise from the fans. 

Last is an image from the Realtek HD Audio Manager. This is your typical vanilla Realtek software with options to edit speaker configurations, sound effects, and adjust for room sizes. The board uses the Realtek ALC887 codec which isn't the latest and greated but should be acceptable for most users. Again, we are looking at the B360 boards which have costs in mind. 



Board Features

The ASRock B360M-ITX/ac is intended to be an inexpensive solution to get into the Coffee-Lake platform for those who may not want to overclock and find real estate for a desktop at a premium. The Mini-ITX size board does include many 'big board' type features including an M.2 slot for PCIe and SATA based M.2 modules, a full-length PCIe port for graphics, as well as including an Intel I219-V Gigabit NIC and integrated dual-band Wi-Fi rated to run at 433 Mbps. The board also includes USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports of the type-A variety but a Type-C port will not be found on this budget board. Overall the B360 has the features most would want in a budget board and supports the flagship i7-8700K. 

ASRock B360M-ITX/ac
Warranty Period 1 Year
Product Page LINK
Price $102 (Amazon) 
Size Mini-ITX
CPU Interface LGA1151
Chipset Intel B360
Memory Slots (DDR4) Two DDR4
Dual Channel
Supporting 32GB
Up to DDR4 2666
Network Connectivity / Wi-Fi 1 x Intel I219V GbE
1 x Intel Wi-Fi 802.11ac (433 Mbps) with Bluetooth 4.2
Onboard Audio Realtek ALC887 7.1ch surround
Video Outputs 1 x HDMI
1 x DisplayPort (1.2)
1 x DVI-I
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)  1 x PCIe 3.0
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) N/A
Onboard SATA 4 x RAID 0/1/5/10
Onboard SATA Express None
Onboard M.2 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA modes
Onboard U.2 None
USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) 2 x Type-A back panel
USB 3.0 (5 Gbps - includes 3.1 Gen 1) 2 x back panel
2 x via internal header
USB 2.0 2 x via internal header
Power Connectors 1 x 24-pin ATX
1 x 8-pin CPU
Fan Headers 1 x 4-pin CPU (1A/12W)
1 x 4-pin Chassis/Water Pump
1 x 4-pin Chassis
IO Panel 2 x Antenna ports
1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard port
1 x DVI-I
1 x HDMI (2.0)
1 x DisplayPort 1.2
2 x USB 3.1 Type-A ports (10 Gbps)
2 x USB 3.0 ports (ESD protection)
1 x RJ-45
3 x HD Audio Jacks

 

Test Bed

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC sub timings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend our testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency/monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Test Setup
Processor Intel i7 8700K (6C/12T, 3.7G, 95W)
Motherboard ASRock B360M-ITX/ac (BIOS P1.40)
Cooling Corsair H115i
Power Supply Corsair HX750
Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 4x8GB DDR4 2666 CL16
Corsair Vengeance 4x4GB DDR4 3200 CL16

used in 2x 4/8GB capacity on dual Channel Platform
Memory Settings DDR4 2666 CL16-18-18-35 2T
Video Cards ASUS Strix GTX 980
Hard Drive Crucial MX300 1TB
Optical Drive TSST TS-H653G
Case Open Test Bed
Operating System Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Many thanks to...

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this testbed specifically but is used in other testing.

Thank you to ASUS for providing us with GTX 980 Strix GPUs. At the time of release, the STRIX brand from ASUS was aimed at silent running, or to use the marketing term: '0dB Silent Gaming'. This enables the card to disable the fans when the GPU is dealing with low loads well within temperature specifications. These cards equip the GTX 980 silicon with ASUS' Direct CU II cooler and 10-phase digital VRMs, aimed at high-efficiency conversion. Along with the card, ASUS bundles GPU Tweak software for overclocking and streaming assistance.

The GTX 980 uses NVIDIA's GM204 silicon die, built upon their Maxwell architecture. This die is 5.2 billion transistors for a die size of 298 mm2, built on TMSC's 28nm process. A GTX 980 uses the full GM204 core, with 2048 CUDA Cores and 64 ROPs with a 256-bit memory bus to GDDR5. The official power rating for the GTX 980 is 165W.

The ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB (or the full name of STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5) runs a reasonable overclock over a reference GTX 980 card, with frequencies in the range of 1178-1279 MHz. The memory runs at stock, in this case, 7010 MHz. Video outputs include three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI 2.0 connector, and a DVI-I.

Further Reading: AnandTech's NVIDIA GTX 980 Review

 

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX300 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB MX300 units are strong performers. Based on Marvell's 88SS1074 controller and using Micron's 384Gbit 32-layer 3D TLC NAND, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 92K random read IOPS and 530/510 MB/s sequential read and write speeds.

The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 360TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX300 (750 GB) Review

 

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with Vengeance LPX DDR4 Memory, HX750 Power Supply, and H115i CPU Cooler

Corsair kindly sent a 4x8GB DDR4 2666 set of their Vengeance LPX low profile, high-performance memory for our stock testing. The heatsink is made of pure aluminum to help remove heat from the sticks and has an eight-layer PCB. The heatsink is a low profile design to help fit in spaces where there may not be room for a tall heat spreader; think a SFF case or using a large heatsink. Timings on this specific set come in at 16-18-18-35. The Vengeance LPX line supports XMP 2.0 profiles for easily setting the speed and timings. It also comes with a limited lifetime warranty. 

Powering the test system is Corsair's HX750 Power Supply. This HX750 is a dual mode unit able to switch from a single 12V rail (62.5A/750W) to a five rail CPU (40A max ea.) and is also fully modular. It has a typical selection of connectors, including dual EPS 4+4 pin four PCIe connectors and a whopping 16 SATA power leads, as well as four 4-pin Molex connectors.

The 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan remains off until it is 40% loaded offering complete silence in light workloads. The HX750 comes with a ten-year warranty. 

In order to cool these CPUs, Corsair sent over its latest and largest AIO in the H115i. This closed-loop system uses a 280mm radiator with 2x140mm SP140L PWM controlled fans. The pump/block combination mounts to all modern CPU sockets. Users are also able to integrate this cooler into the Corsair link software via USB for more control and options. 



System 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.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Corsair HX 750 power supply. This power supply is Platinum rated. As I am in the US on a 120 V supply, leads to ~87% efficiency > 75W, and 92%+ efficiency at 375W, 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 test bed 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.

Power: Long Idle (w/ GTX 980)

Power: OS Idle (w/ GTX 980)

Power: Prime95 Blend (w/ GTX 980)

Power use on the ASRock B360M-ITX/ac displayed average results when compared against all boards we have tested so far. 

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 10 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.

Non UEFI POST Time

The POST times for this board are the fastest we have seen yet at 15.9 seconds default and 15.1 seconds stripped. The board was tested using default configuration with XMP enabled. The Fast Boot option is disabled by default. 

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. 

Deferred Procedure Call Latency

Our DPC latency results for the B360M-ITX/ac hit 110 µs which is about par for the course after our minor script adjustments. No sound issues were heard during the limited testing. 



CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have the maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We leave the BIOS settings at default and memory at JEDEC for the supported frequency of the processor for these tests, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

Rendering - Blender 2.78: link

For a render that has been around for what seems like ages, Blender is still a highly popular tool. We managed to wrap up a standard workload into the February 5 nightly build of Blender and measure the time it takes to render the first frame of the scene. Being one of the bigger open source tools out there, it means both AMD and Intel work actively to help improve the codebase, for better or for worse on their own/each other's microarchitecture.

Rendering: Blender 2.78

In our Blender tests, we can see the B360M-ITX/ac taking notably longer to complete the test than the other boards did with the same processor. After some investigation, it appears that Blender makes the power limit trip on the board which sends the clock speeds tumbling down and making the test take longer to complete. Raising the power limits to the maximum, 130W, helped and the time it took to complete this test was within the normal range, though it was the slowest at 316 seconds.  

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7: link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 1-2 minutes on high-end platforms.

Rendering: POV-Ray 3.7

Our POV-Ray results show a similar story. Here the ASRock B360M-ITX/ac scored 3000 points per second, around 10% worse than the slowest result. After investigating here, we found that it is the same issue. The low power limit. After running it again, the score was still low reaching almost 3200 PPS - still notably lower. This time around Intel XTU was telling showing throttling of the VRM due to temperatures. Even when starting from ambient (system off all night, powered on and started testing), it still trips up the VR temperatures in a matter of seconds after starting the benchmark. The heatsink on the VRM makes good contact but wasn't warm/hot to the touch - mostly because the test was so short. That said, during this testing, no matter what the VRM temperature would still cause the CPU clocks to fall back from the typical 4.3 GHz we see to lower values. There isn't an option to raise the temperature limit or disable it so this behavior will likely show itself in your environment as well under these conditions. 

Compression – WinRAR 5.4: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30-second 720p videos.

Encoding: WinRAR 5.40

Moving on to WinRAR, here we see the ASRock B360M-ITX/ac completing this benchmark in a much more timely manner and comparable with the other boards in the graph. Nothing anomalous here.

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

Encoding: 7-Zip

Our 7Zip results show this tiny ASRock B360 board landing in the middle of the pack of some tight results. Nothing to worry about here either. 

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz, and IPC win in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.

System: 3D Particle Movement v2.1

In 3D Particle Movement tests, the B360 is at the bottom of the results, but not by much. Removing the top result, an outlier, results are within 100 points from the 2nd place result and 50 points from a middling result.  

Neuron Simulation - DigiCortex v1.20: link

The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates the activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up. Results are taken during the steady state period in a 32k neuron simulation and represented as a function of the ability to simulate in real time (1.000x equals real-time).

System: DigiCortex 1.20 (32k Neuron, 1.8B Synapse)

The DigiCortex results have the B360M-ITX/ac scoring 1.13 fractions of realtime simulation. This result has it mixing in nicely with our other results after the latest changes to the testing script. All good here as well. 



Gaming Performance

AoTS Escalation

Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system don't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph. 

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - 1080p

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - 4K UHD

In AOTSe, our results fell right in line with the other results hitting 45.3 FPS in 1080p. When using 4K UHD resolution, we see the same story with the ASRock B360M-ITXC/ac reaching 33.6 FPS. Though it is towards the top of our list, most results are tightly packed together and we do not see much difference between the boards as expected. 

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.

One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.

Rise of the Tomb Raider - 1080p

Rise of the Tomb Raider - 4K UHD

Rise of the Tomb Raider results for the B360M-ITX/ac landed with the other results using the latest OS and Spectre/Meltdown patches. These results are a few percent above the other results that did not have the script changes. The results here look fine as well. 



Conclusion

Any user looking to buy Mini-ITX motherboards are quite obviously looking for a small footprint and still would like to have at least some of the latest features included on the board. When users are looking at a mid-range chipset, they should expect that perhaps not all the features will make it on the board or in the quantity wanted, but such as it goes in the market.

The ASRock B360M-ITX/ac includes a lot of what users are looking for in this platform including USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports on the back, as well as a single M.2 port for SATA or PCIe based modules. The integrated Intel dual-band Wi-Fi adapter is capable of 433 Mbps speeds. This is a bit slower than what we see in many other boards (including two B360 Mini-ITX boards competing with it), however that speed should be plenty for most users. On the audio side of things, the Realtek ALC887 codec is used and supports 7.1ch surround. 

As far as what may be improved on the board. It's a tough call. All users want all the features and at a low price, the latter what these boards are intended for. That said, I would like to have seen faster Wi-Fi module used, perhaps another M.2 slot, and dare I say, RGB LEDs or at least a header. That is hardware wise, but the elephant in the room was the multi-threaded performance and voltage regulator temperature throttling we are seeing. Boards should be able to handle any processor it says it has support for and this board simply couldn't do it, albeit in the most stressful of situations. Though understandably difficult with the limited space to work with, more USB ports of any type couldn't hurt. If a user has a USB mouse and keyboard, that leaves two on the back panel (in my case one as the G.Skill keyboard I use has two USB plugs). 

On the aesthetics front, the board doesn't really set itself apart from the other similar offerings. It uses ASRock's Sapphire black colored motherboard but forgoes the use oF RGB LEDs and even RGB LED headers. Because of this, users will have to lean on their case, case fans, and other accessories to brighten things up a bit if they choose. Outside of that, it looks like every other B360 Mini-ITX board, function over form - not that the form is bad on any of these, it is what it is for reasons all board partners are limited by real-estate and cost considerations. 

We've mentioned above there are concerns with heavily multi-threaded performance, which may be adjusted in future BIOS revisions, so we will focus on the positives. Single threaded performance and multi-threaded results without the ultra-stressful AVX instruction sets performed well compared to the other boards landing in the middle of the bell curve in most situations. So long as owners do not plan on rendering in Blender or POV-Ray, the motherboard handles things with aplomb.The ASRock B360M-ITX/ac really shined in boot times where it is currently the fastest board to get through POST I have tested so far. 

In the end, the ASRock B360M-ITX/ac brings users a board with many features users expect to see in a SFF mid-range chipset based motherboard. Performance wise it works fine with an i7-8700K so long as it isn't being pushed terribly hard on all cores and threads with AVX instructions. All motherboards should be able to run any stock CPU it is compatible with and not throttle performance. We haven't had a chance to test the other boards, but if your use model includes rendering and such or using AVX instructions, you may want to look for a different solution or a processor with a lower TDP. We imagine few to purchase the 95W unlocked i7-8700K used in testing. So for those who are looking at the 65W locked CPUs, the B360M-ITX/ac can be a solid foundation for a small form factor build. 

AnandTech Intel 300-Series Motherboard and CPU Coverage

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