Asrock X399 Phantom Gaming 6 Mainboard

Tom's Hardware Verdict

ASRock does an excellent job of tweaking its design to shave money off its budget-priced X399 board, delivering an adequately equipped and modestly performing motherboard. Though non quite on-par with typical X399 offerings, this interpretation of the chipset may force others to lower the cost of entry into AMD'south HEDT space.

Pros

+
Extreme value
+
Meets performance expectations
+
Like shooting fish in a barrel installation

Cons

-
Mixed overclocking results
-
Not the total X399 feel

Go to page:

Introduction and Production Description

Introduction and Product Clarification

AMD'southward X399 high-finish desktop (HEDT) platform has constitute enough of fans over the by few years, fulfilling the need for lots of processor cores, retention capacity and bandwidth, a plethora of I/O options, along with build quality that's able to handle our big budget systems. But with the the arrival of 2nd-gen Threadripper CPUs and tertiary-gen models coming later in 2019, starting time-gen thousand series Threadripper prices are falling into ranges comparable to the newer 2000 series consumer Ryzen CPUs. Those toll drops are likely luring in new potential HEDT buyers, but almost X399 boards are priced north of $300. ASRock's X399 Phantom Gaming 6 may be just the board for those upkeep-sensitive builders edging into HEDT territory. Its $240 (£182) price is cheaper than annihilation else available on this platform past betwixt $30 and $lx (around £181), depending on where you lot shop.

Specifications

Socket	AM4
Chipset	AMD X399
Form Cistron	ATX
Voltage Regulator	six+2 Phases
Video Ports	✗
USB Ports	x Gbps: (1) Type A, (1) Blazon C 5Gb/south: (8) Type A
Network Jacks	(1) 2.5Gb Ethernet (1) Gigabit Ethernet
Sound Jacks	(5) Analog, (1) Digital Out
Legacy Ports/Jacks	(i) PS/2
Other Ports/Jack	✗
PCIe x16	(three) v3.0 x16
PCIe x8	✗
PCIe x4	✗
PCIe x1	✗
CrossFire/SLI	4x / 4x
DIMM slots	(8) DDR4
M.2 slots	(1) PCIe v3 x4 xxx/42/threescore/lxxx/110mm (1) PCIe v3 x4 42/60/80mm (1) PCIe v3 x4 / SATA3 thirty/42/60/80mm (1) E Key for 2230 WiFi
U.two Ports	✗
SATA Ports	(viii) 6Gb/s
USB Headers	(two) 5Gbps (two) USB 2.0
Fan Headers	(5) iv-pin
Legacy Interfaces	(1) COM, (2) Front Panel Audio
Other Interfaces	(1) TPM, (ii) RGB, (one) Addressable LED, (1) AMD LED Fan
Diagnostics Panel	✗
Internal Push button/Switch	(i) Clear CMOS, (1) Power-ON, (1) Rese
SATA Controllers	Integrated (0/1/x)
Ethernet Controllers	(one) Dragon RTL8125AG (1) Intel® I211AT
Wi-Fi / Bluetooth	✗
USB Controllers	✗
HD Audio Codec	ALC1220
DDL/DTS Connect	✗ / ✗
Warranty	three Years

ASRock has led the charge of X399 value boards overall, sacrificing some IO and a few features to reach lower price points, and the ASRock X399M Phantom Gaming 6 takes that approach one step further. So in that location will be sacrifices if you opt for this board, which nosotros'll detail beneath. Only if you're afterward the ultimate value so y'all tin put more of your budget into a higher-stop CPU, this board is tough to beat

The Phantom Gaming 6 borrows a chip hither and there from the company's other brands, in its quest to proceed costs depression while withal delivering a desirable product. The packaging reminds the states of the Fatal1ty boards with its glossy front and red highlights, while the reduced accompaniment kit is a stark departure from previous, pricier X399 options. Plenty of documentation is arranged with the package, along with four SATA cables, an SLI bridge and a total-tiptop I/O adapter for a Wi-Fi antenna, in case y'all plan to buy a tertiary-party adapter. There is no wireless connectivity on the lath itself.

8 USB3.ane Gen1 ports are available for the rear I/O, along with i Type-A and i Blazon-C of the faster USB3.1 Gen2 variety. Legacy input devices are supported with a solitary PS/two port, and the now-standard combination of five analog sound and one SPDI/F digital port provide the connection to the ALC1220 codec. Our commencement glimpse of some ameliorate-than-basic features on the Phantom Gaming vi is Realtek's RTL8125AG two.5Gb Ethernet controller. Note, though, that not all high-speed network gear will accept this connection speed. Our own 10Gb Intel NIC did not support this speed, then bank check with your infrastructure's documentation for compatibility. If 2.5Gbps is non a requirement, the Intel I211AT bit is equipped to provide standard Gigabit networking every bit well. As noted earlier, Wi-Fi is a notable omission from this production: ASRock opted to include an K.2 Eastward-Key slot for users that want to add together Wifi to save some cost with the board. Honestly, this is an excellent move since nearly higher-end builds are hardwired into Ethernet, and many builders will recall that the included antenna bracket is useless without the lead cables.

Nosotros continue to see instances of toll savings beyond the lath in the lack of superfluous IO covers. The 45-caste colored accents beyond the board aren't too distracting aesthetically, but we p[refer the design of value boards from Asus and MSI to what'due south here.

The bottom edge gives us two front panel audio ports (only one usable at a time), addressable LED and RGB headers, a trusted-platform module (TPM) connection, two 4-pin fan headers, ii USB 2.0, i USB3.0, and front-panel chassis connections. For test bench users, there are buttons instead of headers for our ability, reset, and CMOS immigration needs, though we practice miss a numeric debug LED.

Moving upwards from the bottom edge, our second major business organization on this X399 board is its selection of PCIe slots. Upward of four x16 slots are traditionally provided on X399 to maximize Threadripper'due south output, but the ASRock X399 Phantom Gaming 6 simply wires out three. Granted, ASRock has adequately spread these autonomously and run the full x16 resource allotment to all three (instead of bifurcating some slots). This could be viewed from either a positive or negative, with respect to value versus function. Most gamers or lower-end workstation users only run single GPUs for graphics output, so massive multi-GPU capability isn't this product'southward marketplace. And there are all the same a diverseness of load-outs to choose from. You could install a single GPU and two 4k capture cards for a video production workstation, or a setup a dual-GPU return rig that needs boosted network ports or the occasional external SAS card for DAS devices.

A positive note on storage devices when compared to the X399M Taichi is that the Phantom Gaming half-dozen'south extra board real estate allows information technology to wire out the total Threadripper allotment of iii PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe M.2 drives and 8 SATA3 ports, which back up RAID 0/i/10 arrays. As well, moving up the correct edge of the board, nosotros aren't forced to squeeze in the 2nd USB3.0 or 24-pin ATX header next to the fully-wired allotment of eight quad-aqueduct DIMM slots.

On to the top side of the board, the remaining RGB header is nestled side by side to the remaining 4-pin headers traditionally allocated to CPU fans or AIO coolers. Skipping past the heatsink for a second, we were surprised to see two 8-pin EPS connectors for power to the CPU, with ample room for fatty fingers. Overall, this board is uncomplicated and provides merely enough of the correct things to go builders in the HEDT door.

As we've said before, this board is non marketed towards the traditional X399 architect. It only supports Threadripper chips up to 180W (sorry, 2990WX), information technology has reduced PCIe ports, and fewer sets of IO. But ASRock doesn't try to hide these details in its marketing textile. We have very few nits to pick this time around. Nosotros'd like to see an angled USB iii.0 header on the correct edge or the inclusion of a debug LED to assistance in suspect hardware conditions. Nothing feels likewise cramped, and that fabricated the installation of this lath into our Corsair 570X chassis easy and straightforward. And then on the surface, the Phantom Gaming half-dozen delivers what it aims to.

On the UEFI front end, not much has changed since we tested the X399 Taichi and this Phantom Gaming 6 design. If you lot're curious virtually those features, you lot can check the various other manufactures where nosotros've touched on ASRock's X399 approach, as well equally some of the quirks we've hit when running the latest Threadripper hardware.

More than: Best Motherboards

More than: How To Choose A Motherboard

MORE: All Motherboard Content

Current page: Introduction and Product Description

Next Folio Test Configuration and Benchmarks