Question 1

How many modern GPUs such as 1060, 1070 or 1080 will fit into this motherboard?

Accepted Answer

It will support 4-Way SLI or 4-Way Crossfire UNOFFICIALLY. Nvidia OFFICIALLY supports only 2-Way SLI starting with the 10-Series Pascal cards. AMD just ended their Crossfire support within the last week or so because they are putting that responsibility onto the game devs through DX12 or Vulkan.

It will fit dual-slot width cards for all of the physical x16 slots. They are labeled as PCIE1, PCIE2, PCIE3, PCIE4, and PCIE5 from top to bottom, respectively. The PCIE3 slot is only meant  to be used for add-in cards or PCIE SSDs.

Question 2

The PCIE 1 slot looks really too close to the ram. Will at GTX 1080 (video card)  fit in that slot and not be rubbing up against those ram slots?

Accepted Answer

You have EXACTLY 5mm from the PCB of your graphics card to the DIMM slot. The standard backplate from Nvidia Founder's/Reference Edition GTX 1080 cards is between 2mm and 3mm thick, so, yes, you can easily fit the card onto the PCI-E 3.0x16_01 slot. I have EKWB/EK backplates installed on GTX 980 Ti cards and those add 4.5mm of height on top of the PCB and I can easily clear my DIMM slots.

If I could upload a picture, it would show how much clearance there is even with my particular backplates.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Question 3

Does the board come with ramdrive software? my Asrock x79 board did... But the website does not list it for the x99. And if it does, is it compatible with Windows 10?

Accepted Answer

It does. The Formula Drive software suite includes the option to create a RAM drive. I actually downloaded it directly from the website just to ensure I had the latest version anyway and it works nicely on Windows 10 for me. I've got 64 gigs of RAM in my rig so plenty of a nice big ram drive.

Question 4

Whats the best power supply for this board and for using a with a v card that uses 390watts?

Accepted Answer

The power supply is the one part in your PC you do not want to skimp on. So you'll want one that has outstanding build quality and durability. The wattage you'll need will mainly be determined by how many devices you tend to connect to the board itself (cards, hard drives, memory modules, etc) followed by how much overclocking you plan to do on the components. What's important too is the load on the power supply. As a general rule you do not want to heavily load the power supply and run it near it's max load all the time. You could "get by" with a 700 watt power supply on a HEDT (High End Desktop) rig like this.

I personally use a Corsair AX1200i power supply. It's spendy but it's insanely stable, versatile for my needs, the fan rare ever runs and when it does I can't even really hear it. The monitoring software comes in handy when tweaking around with overclocks and I have plenty of wattage to grow on. At the time I bought it it came with a 7 year warranty but according to their website they're now covered for 10 years.

Also the AX series is ridiculously energy efficient and when idle (when energy efficiency generally sucks) I'm still getting 87%. While gaming it's between 96-99%. So while it is pricey up front it's been well worth the money.

But yeah when it comes to the power supply buy the best you can afford with plenty of wattage to spare. It's technically the heart of your computer system and it needs to be stable, reliable and deliver clean electricity to every component.

Question 5

will this motherboard work with liquid cooling systems?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely I am using the corsair liquid cooling on mine with zero issues.  Make sure you get a good case with room for the liquid cooler of your choice.  I am using the liquid cooler from corsair the H115i and it works great on my 5930K cpu

Question 6

Will this run ddr4 4200 MHz?

Accepted Answer

This board will run most any RAM you put into it, however NOTE THIS however, the motherboard will automatically reduce the RAM speeds automatically to match what the processor can handle.  I don't recommend overclocking unless you completely know what your doing, but i don't recommend overclocking!  Overclocking is only for experienced technicians.  As you can damage your Processor, RAM, Motherboard or all 3 if you don't know what your doing!

Question 7

Hi!
Am in the middle of building my new one with this board. I have the SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 512GB m.2 (main drive)
>What is the other "M.2_SSD (NGFF)" or "Gen2 x2 (10 Gb/s)" 
I>f I fill one of those will it cancel another SATA or PCIE slot? 
>Can somebody show me an example of them? 
>Will one of those and my 950 pro run together? The manual is vague about this.  
Thank you!

Accepted Answer

Here's the gist of it:

The Ultra M.2 slot uses PCI Express 3.0 to work. So when you install a drive in there it will disable PCIE3. There's just not enough PCI Express 3.0 lanes to work with so something's gotta go. This is because that slot is hardwired directly to the CPU which allows it to run as fast as it does. Naturally the Samsung 950 Pro will go in there.

The standard M.2 slot will use either SATA for PCI Express 2.0 so you can get a second M.2 drive that communicates over PCI Express directly or through SATA.  If you get one that communicates through SATA then the port labeled S_SATA3_3 won't be available. However, if you get one that runs through PCI Express then you won't lose anything. There's plenty of PCIE 2.0 lanes to work with.

It's worth noting that while you can put in a 2nd Samsung 950 Pro using that slot it won't run full speed nor can you RAID them together since they do not share the same interface.

All and all ASRock really did a great job working it out so you can maximize hardware connections even on a mere 28 lane CPU. It's also very solid, well built and stable as hell.

Question 8

The ram support lists down to 2133, would this board work with an E5-2603 v3 which only supports 1600/1866 according to Intel's site?

Accepted Answer

I have not directly run a Xeon on this board. I run a 5630k on this board.  I have an asrock x99 extreme 4 with the same x99 chipset which I run a 2630v3. I have not had any issue with running either 2666mhz or 3000mhz rated ddr4. Now that being said you will not get the full memory speed out of your Xeon. It will most likely run at either 2133mhz or 1866mhz. It is related to how the memory controller interacts with the ram. You should have no issues running this processor on the OC FORMULA board. It should also be noted that it is not necessary to run ECC memory with this processor.

Question 9

Anyone manage to get 128gb on this board and which ones?

Accepted Answer

I've been running two sets of "ADATA XPG Z1 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2800 (PC4 22400) Desktop Memory Model AX4U2800W8G17-QRZ".  No problems running 64GB.

Question 10

At the top of this board are TWO CPU connectors One is 8 pin one is 4 pin. I called ASRock about this, asking how to hook up the 4 pin because my supply (CORSAIR HX850i) does not have a 4 pin connector. (no it does not have a double 4 pin that splits either.)
 
The technician told me it is not really necessary, but for extra overclocking it is. I do not have the 4 pin adapter on my supply, (doesn’t have a split 8 pin either) so what kind of adapter do I need? It is described as a, “4 pin ATX 12V Power Connector.” Can I take an old-fashioned 4 pin flat Molex, and adapt it to the square 4 pin? I bought this today from a store and it’s searchable on Newegg: It is described as KINGWIN PEC-06 8" Black & Yellow Molex 4P(M) to 4P(F) Pentium 4 Extension Cable. 
Obviously, the stakes are HUGE because one wrong move will fry the CPU, Motherboard or both. 
Thank you!

Accepted Answer

Yeah the 2nd connector is primarily for giving the board extra power when/if it needs it such as when overclocking.  But basically the connector is idiot-proof. All you're doing is dishing up a 12v rail to that socket.

However since you've noted that you have a Corsair HX850i (I own a AX1200i) you should in fact have a cable that says "CPU" on the side of the connector. Two 8 pin CPU connectors come with this power supply (they're in a 4+4 config so you can split one if needed). That power supply comes with everything someone would need for a modern system.  If you're missing cables, I'd dig around or contact Corsair for replacements.

CPU Socket Type	LGA 2011-v3
CPU Type	Intel Core i7 and Xeon 18-Core Processors Family for the LGA 2011-3

Number of Memory Slots	8x288pin (DDR4)
Memory Standard	DDR4 3400+(OC)/ 2933/ 2800/ 2400*/ 2133
Maximum Memory Supported	128GB

PCI Express 3.0 x16	5 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE2/PCIE3/PCIE4/PCIE5: single at x16 (PCIE1); dual at x16 (PCIE1) / x16 (PCIE4); triple at x8 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2) / x16 (PCIE4); quad at x8 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4) / x8 (PCIE5))* * If you install CPU with 28 lanes, PCIE1/PCIE2/PCIE3/PCIE4/PCIE5 will run at x16/x0/x4/x8/x0 or x8/x8/x4/x8/x0, and PCIE5 will be disabled.
Mini Card Slots	1 x Half-size Mini-PCI Express Slot

Serial ATA (SATA)	10 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel Rapid Storage 13), NCQ, AHCI, Hot Plug and ASRock HDD Saver Technology (S_SATA3_3 connector is shared with M.2 Socket (M2_1))
SATA Express	1 x SATA Express 10 Gb/s Connector (shared with SATA3_4 and SATA3_5)
M.2	1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (ULTRA_M2), supports M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s) 1 x M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3 (M2_1), supports M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x2 (10 Gb/s)
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

Audio Chipset	Realtek ALC1150
Audio Channels	7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection

ASRock X99 OC Formula/3.1 LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 USB 3.1 USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

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LAN Chipset	Intel I218V
Second LAN Chipset	Qualcomm Atheros AR8171
Max LAN Speed	2 x 1Gbps

PS/2	1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
RJ45	2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
USB 3.1	2 x USB 3.1 Type-A Ports (10 Gb/s) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
USB 3.0	4 x USB 3.0 Ports (ASMedia ASM1074 hub) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) 2 x USB 3.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
USB 1.1/2.0	2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
USB Type-C	1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
S/PDIF Out	1 x Optical
Audio Ports	HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

Onboard USB	2 x USB 2.0 Headers (support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) 1 x Vertical Type A USB 3.0 2 x USB 3.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 3.0 ports) (ASMedia ASM1074 hub) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
Other Connectors	1 x COM Port Header 1 x TPM Header 1 x Power LED Header 2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin) 3 x Chassis Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 2 x 3-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control) 1 x Power Fan Connector (3-pin) 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector) 1 x 4 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector) 1 x HDD Saver Connector 1 x PCIe Power Connector 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector 1 x Thunderbolt AIC Connector 1 x Dr. Debug with LED 1 x Power Switch with LED 1 x Reset Switch with LED V-Probe: 7-set of onboard voltage measurement points laid Rapid OC Buttons: +/- buttons to adjust OC frequency 1 x Menu Button 1 x PCIe ON/OFF Switch 1 x Slow Mode Switch 1 x LN2 Mode Switch 1 x BIOS Selection Switch 1 x Direct Key Button

Physical Spec
Form Factor	Extended ATX
Power Pin	24 Pin

Item#: N82E16813157596