ASRock reveals Ultra Quad M.2 card – Takes aim at ASUS
ASRock reveals Ultra Quad M.2 card – Aims at ASUS
With this design ASRock has decided to be bold, calling out ASUS directly for what they perceive to be sub-optimal design decisions on their Hyper M.2 16x riser card. Â
The first change that ASRock has made is to tilt their M.2 slots at a 45-degree angle, with the M.2 interface being placed as close to the PCIe lane as possible, offering support for full-length 20100 (110mm long) M.2 cards while minimising the length of their traces. ASUS’ design does support the same length of M.2 cards, but their variant requires longer traces, adding a little extra latency to the model. Â
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ASRock also claims to offer better thermal performance than ASUS’ counterpart, delivering thermal results that are 3-11 degrees cooler. ASRock has achieved this with a larger cooling fan on their M.2 card, while also offering longer (110mm) thermal pads to connect the M.2 drives inside to the card’s metal shell. ASRock stated that ASUS’ thermal pads are only 80mm long.Â
A 6-pin power connection has also been added to ASRock’s design, allowing the device to use more power hungry M.2 drives than its ASUS counterpart, while also offering users a software utility to monitor the M.2 devices on the M.2 card. This utility can also be used to control the device’s fan.Â
While ASUS’ Hyper 16x M.2 card has come to the market first, ASRock claims that they have come to the market with a better design, offering features that are designed to improve the device’s performance and reliability.Â
ASRock officially supports NVMe RAID on these products with Intel X299 and AMD X399 systems, with the card being expected to retail for $69.99.
  
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You can join the discussion on ASRock’s Ultra Quad M.2 card on the OC3D Forums.Â
ASRock reveals Ultra Quad M.2 card – Aims at ASUS
With this design ASRock has decided to be bold, calling out ASUS directly for what they perceive to be sub-optimal design decisions on their Hyper M.2 16x riser card. Â
The first change that ASRock has made is to tilt their M.2 slots at a 45-degree angle, with the M.2 interface being placed as close to the PCIe lane as possible, offering support for full-length 20100 (110mm long) M.2 cards while minimising the length of their traces. ASUS’ design does support the same length of M.2 cards, but their variant requires longer traces, adding a little extra latency to the model. Â
 Â
ASRock also claims to offer better thermal performance than ASUS’ counterpart, delivering thermal results that are 3-11 degrees cooler. ASRock has achieved this with a larger cooling fan on their M.2 card, while also offering longer (110mm) thermal pads to connect the M.2 drives inside to the card’s metal shell. ASRock stated that ASUS’ thermal pads are only 80mm long.Â
A 6-pin power connection has also been added to ASRock’s design, allowing the device to use more power hungry M.2 drives than its ASUS counterpart, while also offering users a software utility to monitor the M.2 devices on the M.2 card. This utility can also be used to control the device’s fan.Â
While ASUS’ Hyper 16x M.2 card has come to the market first, ASRock claims that they have come to the market with a better design, offering features that are designed to improve the device’s performance and reliability.Â
ASRock officially supports NVMe RAID on these products with Intel X299 and AMD X399 systems, with the card being expected to retail for $69.99.
   Â
You can join the discussion on ASRock’s Ultra Quad M.2 card on the OC3D Forums.Â