ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Mini ITX Thunderbolt 3 AMD Motherboard Model X570 Phantom GAM ITX

For the longest time, I've been using an Asus P8H61-I R2.0, paired with an Intel i5-3470 and 16Gb of Kingston DDR3-10600. I started with some HDDs and a very crappy Geforce GTS450. Eventually, I upgraded to SSDs and an a GTX-1060. While it still performed everything I asked of it quite nicely, the new generation of hardware was too much of a temptation and decided to upgrade. The main reason I chose this board was the built-in Thunderbolt connectivity and the form factor. The RGB is a nice bonus too...After setting everything up, I haven't experienced any issues. Installing my Ryzen 7 3700x was a breeze. Space to "maneuver" is scarce, but that's a given with any mITX board. I went with a Noctua NH-L9i chromax.Black, which is one of the recommended coolers for this board and it fits in quite nicely. Make sure to install the CPU and cooler first! I was able to load the correct XMP profiles for the pair of HyperX Predator DDR4 3200MHz, plug my old SATA SSDs (which now work considerably faster, given that they are now plugged to SATA 3 ports rather than SATA 2 ports) and my GTX-1060. Even Windows 10 loaded without too much hassle, just a few bangs in device manager due lack of drivers and it complaining about "activation". Installed updated drivers, the latest BIOS, fixed Windows' activation nag and have been a happy camper since.Of course, nothing is perfect, I do have a complaint about the included manual. The one I got didn't have a board layout schematic, so it was difficult to ID the headers. To top it off, the case header is next to a USB 2.0 header which is almost identical. The board is all black and there's no text on itself to ID the headers. I downloaded one of the manuals from Asrock's website which did have the board layout schematic. Armed with that, I was reminded how much I hate plugging individual pins to a header. That's not a fault of the board, but a fault of the case. I wish Silverstone would have fitted the RVZ-02 with one of those "unified" case plugs...I read a few reviews of users complaining about the angled SATA ports, which I thought could give me a bit of trouble, but it really hasn't. I think that would depend on the case and cables, I guess.I still need to get a Thunderbolt dock, an NVMe drive, a better monitor, a different case and some water cooling to finish how I want to set everything up, but as it is right now, it's working fantastically. Everything is super snappy and I haven't even played with the overclocking yet. This board was certified by Intel for it's Thunderbolt, I doubt it'll be an issue. I've used Asrock boards in the past and have been very happy with their reliability and their longevity. I expect this to continue with this one.

Flawless with Universal Audio Apollo TB3 devices. Solid functionality. used with Apollo Quad and Apollo 8 Black face This is my second one. User the Intel 1151 heatsink and fan which fits a 2u rack case easily. Cut off the harness hook on the stock intel 1151 heatsink to get the memory in the slot closest to the heatsink. Get an M.2 extender cable so the M.2 drive isn't stuck under the board This allows an M.2 heatsink addition. Past that it should be all good. Be sure to check the CPU compatibility. I have used a Ryzen 3700X on this one. the former had a 2700X which is a bit hard to get at a good price these days. Carefully identify the pin orientation when dropping the CPU in the slot. Be sure to remove the plastic from the Chipset heatsinks too or it will run hot. Never overclocking in a DAW if you ask me. Case fans should also have a nice front to rear flow. Runs pretty cool if you follow these guidelines

This is my first ASRock board, and it will be my last. I'd always heard their boards were cheaper and not as well supported, but they work well enough. This is also the only board that is mini-ITX, supports AMD, and has a Thunderbolt 3 port. Still, this board is awful. The placement of many ports is inconvenient, and, more importantly, the BIOS is very very buggy even after updates. I'm talking sometimes it doesn't start correctly, sometimes it doesn't detect my keyboard, sometimes it takes minutes to start. Also, the BIOS doesn't support thunderbolt 3, which is infuriating since the whole point of this is to have thunderbolt 3 as the main port used for everything. An awful product. Do not buy.

The board is solidly constructed and I was able to install it with no issues. However, perhaps my board was defective, but I could not get more than one USB port to register connected devices that weren't data storage (thumb drives or external HDs), and though it detected when something was connected to the back or front audio ports, I got no sound.Everything else about the board worked great, Bluetooth, wifi, fans etc worked perfectly with none of the reported noise from the included cooling fan. I was able to run programs buttery smooth, if it hadn't been for the sound issue I might even have kept the board and connected it to a USB 3 hub. The combination of both problems was a bit much though.I wrote the manufacturer and was advised to return to seller, but I am outside the return window with Amazon as I was away from home before being able to install it and spent so long trying to get it to work I missed the deadline by 2 days. Hopefully I can get the manufacturer to take it in directly.Lesson learned, don't order PC parts if you wont be home to install them right away.