Are you ready for TR4 ITX motherboards?

Are you ready for TR4 ITX motherboards?

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smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/sff-threadripper-motherboard-petition-thread.2340/
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>takes up whole motherboard
>what about cooling

Depends. Are APUs good yet?

I want to believe

You put a cooler on it like normal?

They're not out yet

Only if they ship with 6 port pci risers

How this could possibly be done in reality:
- VRM would need a vertical card, like the Asus Gene motherboard a few years back
- DDR Slots are going to NEED to me SO-DIMM or you have to drop 2 slots (like that Asrock X99 ITX board)
- Audio is gone, no room for the caps and the codec space could be used by a Thunderbolt controller
- Battery needs to go off-board via a header (maybe just drop it altogether - why do we even need an RTC when the system is off when we have millions if not billions of NTP servers on earth)
- 1 stripe (4 port high) of USB-A ports for the rear, everything else is USB Type C connected to a mountain of thunderbolt controllers on the rear of the board, to get them PCI-e lanes out.
- No Wifi
- Possibly even eschew Ethernet for more USB-C ports
- 2 PCI-e 16x slots, one in the standard ITX location and one slim slot directly above it, designed only support the mechanical load of a riser, not a card.
- 2 m.2 slots on the rear, running up the back of the so-dimm slots, 80mm support only.

Except that's a terrible mockup made by somebody on the SFF forums.

smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/sff-threadripper-motherboard-petition-thread.2340/

>why do we even need an RTC when the system is off

Because every mobo can be switched on by setting a timer. The mobo needs to track time when turned "off" on order to turn it on. This feature is supported by virtually any mobo since forever (even if bios hasn't got a menu entry for it) and removing something that's assumed to be there is a bad idea.

>- 2 PCI-e 16x slots, one in the standard ITX location and one slim slot directly above it, designed only support the mechanical load of a riser, not a card
But there wouldn't be a slot on the back of the case for it.
Unless you mean an M.2 riser or something like that, but your design already has 2 of those.

It's a feature zero people use.
>bbut I use it
You're literally a no one.

>But there wouldn't be a slot on the back of the case for it
That sort of the point, it's a extra slot that's only usable for riser cables, since it's not possible to have 2 slots on ITX.

Just wait.

At least TR4 doesn't need a chipset.

>You're literally a no one.

I don't. I never used this. I actually disable it. But sysadmins do. If you remove such a feature without being Apple you risk not selling your mobo.

No one's interested in X299 except 12 year olds just before Christmas.

That's not the point of the picture.
The point is showing that ASRock is insane enough to do it.
They're insane enough to even do an EPYC MiniITX.

sysadmins use magic packets, not bullshit timers.

holy shit lol

can you back that up with a single piece of evidence?

Hardware manufacturers are known to skimp on components to shave cents of the BOM. Do you really think they would keep the RTC around if it was only for a feature that nobody used?

I want to believe.

>intel gigabit ethernet
hahaha

>- Battery needs to go off-board via a header (maybe just drop it altogether - why do we even need an RTC when the system is off when we have millions if not billions of NTP servers on earth)
The CMOS battery does more than just keep the time going when the power is out.
I don't really want to have to redo all my BIOS settings after a power cut.

>- 2 PCI-e 16x slots, one in the standard ITX location and one slim slot directly above it, designed only support the mechanical load of a riser, not a card.
This is a mITX board. 1 PCI-e slot only.

>I don't really want to have to redo all my BIOS settings after a power cut.
There is no reason for that to be held in volatile memory, it's not 1970 anymore, nand is cheap.
And replaceable.

>This is a mITX board. 1 PCI-e slot only.
>missing the entire point
wew.

Just put a two pin header somewhere.
It's small as fuck if compared to a full blown battery, and only those that need it use it.

smug_baby_face.jpg

If timers are bullshit, then why do all mobos have them?

How to I reset a f*cked BIOS config when my mobo can't POST and config is in non-volatile memory?

Erasing the config file.

Holy crap.

I don't have access to that memory without soldering it from my mobo. Just removing a battery is far more convenient.

Well, you could make a jumper that when you set it and boot the machine, it resets the memory.
But this is the EXACT same size and pins you would need to connect an external battery.

Right now you don't, if we replaced volatile memory with flash, then it could by a microsd slot on the rear panel.
We could solve the issue of bad BIOS flashes along with it by keeping the BIOS on the same nand.
That's the Battery and a flash chip removed to save space (possibly 2 chips if DualBIOS - a solution no longer required)

keep in mind this is an incredibly contrived thought experiment in which space is at a *huge* premium, nobody is about to remove a battery on regular mobos but there's definitely a niche for it if it means something like tr4 on mini-itx

>But this is the EXACT same size and pins you would need to connect an external battery.
maybe if you use one of those laptop style batteries but the board would probably be too densely packed regardless

>but the board would probably be too densely packed regardless
pic related, I'll give you a minute to try and find the battery

now shit like that is what i call a retardation

Not a bad idea. The only problems I see are that sdcard are highly unreliable (making the mobo manufacturer look bad) and they are relatively expensive. Sdcard costs at least $0.75 which is three times as expensive as a battery. The memory is probable in the same price range as the battery.

So, a system with sdcard sounds more expensive to me and you'll lose the RTCC.

It's the shrink wrapped thing on the top left. That's a neat way to package a battery. Not easily replaced by normies, though.

Stuck to the port in the top left.

Not sure if violating the mobo spec but if you're already putting M.2 under the board you could also just glue a laptop RTC battery ( and ) to the bottom of the board somewhere. I don't know if connectors are standardized tho. If not, headers4life.

My dream mITX board is one that can do ECC RAM and has shitloads of PCIe expansion in form of shitloads of (i'm guessing B+M?) M.2 ports. Ethernet, WiFi, and storage all in the same mini interface. Great desu.

Frankly if normies can't replace this than it's just another proof that the dream of normie maintainable computer hardware is dead and they all should goy up shekels to the computer repairmen (such as maybe the future me if I fuck up and end up on streets [rubs hands]).