ROG brings X570 to compact form factors with their Crosshair VIII X570 Impact and Strix X570-I

ROG brings X570 to compact form factors with their Crosshair VIII X570 Impact and Strix X570-I

ROG brings X570 to compact form factors with their Crosshair VIII X570 Impact and Strix X570-I

ASUS is ready to join the ITX X570 party with their new ROG Crosshair VIII Impact and ROG Strix X570-I, bringing high-end features to PC building’s smallest form factors. 

Yes, some manufacturers were early to market with their compact X570 designs, but ASUS is coming to market with advanced features like integrated WiFi 6 and dual PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots. 

Starting off with the DTX, Crosshair VIII Impact, we can see that ASUS is thining outside of the box with its latest compact offerings. Have you ever heard of the DTX form factor? Probably not, but thanks to ASUS you now do! With the X570 Crosshair VIII Impact, ASUS wanted to bring their high-end ROG brand back into the small form factor PC ecosystem, something greater than their ROG Strix X570-I, but similarly suitable for compact gaming PCs. 

What DTX promises is more space. DTX is designed explicitly to make use of the extra space that’s included in most Mini ITX cases. You see, most MITX cases ship with enough space for a dual-slot graphics card, a factor that leaves unutilised space under a MITX motherboard’s bottom PCIe slot, space that could be utilised to mount more components or enable additional features. The DTX form factor utilises this space to enable superior product designs within a form factor that fits within a large proportion of Mini ITX PC cases. 

ROG brings X570 to compact form factors with their Crosshair VIII X570 Impact and Strix X570-I

Meet the Crosshair VIII Impact, a motherboard which is designed to make the most out of the DTX form factor by dedicated more space to the board’s VRM cooling and power phase design. Here, ASUS uses TDA21472 power stages in an 8+2 configuration, each of which is capable of pushing 70A to better feed power to high-end CPUs, such as AMD’s new Ryzen 7 3800X or Ryzen 9 3900X.

To help keep things cool, the Crosshair X570 Impact adds a fan to the board’s VRM heatsink and connects the VRM’s cooling system to the motherboard’s aluminium backplate. This will help users of compact systems to keep their VRMs cool under load, even while overclocking their systems. 

Using a SO-DIMM.2 module, ASUS has also allowed their ROX Crosshair VIII Impact to support dual PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots without using the back side of the motherboard, allowing both M.2 slots to be occupied without removing the motherboard from your system. ASUS has also mounted the board’s SuperemeFX S1221 audio codec and all associated circuitry on a dedicated PCB, which will limit potential signal interference. 

While ASUS has packed a lot of features into this compact motherboard, the DTX form factor remains restrictive, though it cannot be denied that ASUS has packed a lot of features into this motherboard while retaining full compatibility with a large selection of Mini ITX cases. The extra space has also enabled ASUS to make all SATA ports use a right-angled connector, making them more visually appealing. 

Moving on to the ROG Strix X570-I, we can see that ASUS uses the standard Mini ITX form factor. With the Strix X570-I, ASUS has utilised an actively cooled heatsink to ensure that they are ready for everything that AMD has to throw at them. Yes, even AMD’s 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X. 

With the Strix X570-I, ASUS has also designed their motherboard to support all of AMD’s Wraith cooler designs. This is not guaranteed on some competing X570 ITX designs. The X570-I also features dual PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots and ships with a Wi-Fi 6 adapter with Bluetooth 5.0 support. 

  

ROG brings X570 to compact form factors with their Crosshair VIII X570 Impact and Strix X570-I  

Both the ROG Crosshair VIII Impact and the ROG Strix X570-I will be available in the UK soon with MSRP prices of £383.99 and £289.99 respectively. 

You can join the discussion on ASUS’ Crosshair VIII X570 Impact and Strix X570-I motherboards on the OC3D Forums.Â