ASRock Intros Trio of "Apollo Lake" Motherboards

[btarunr]

ASRock introduced a trio of low-cost embedded motherboards for entry-level desktops based on Intel's newest 14 nm "Apollo Lake" Pentium/Celeron SoCs. These include J3455-ITX and J3455M based on the Celeron J3455 quad-core SoC; and the J4205-ITX, based on the Pentium J4205 quad-core SoC. The J3455-ITX and J4205-ITX are based on a common board design, differing only with the SoC, while the J3455M features a narrow, 3-slot micro-ATX design.

The J4205-ITX and J3455-ITX take in power from a 24-pin ATX connector. The SoC is wired to two DDR3L SO-DIMM slots, supporting up to DDR3-1866 MHz spec. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express x1, and an M.2 (PCIe x2 electrical) connector. Besides this M.2, storage connectivity includes four SATA 6 Gb/s ports. 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, and four USB 3.0 ports complete its connectivity. The J3455M features a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x1) besides two other PCIe x1 slots, and features two standard DDR3 DIMM slots instead of SO-DIMM; and features 6-channel HD audio instead of 8-channel. The rest of its connectivity is the same as its ITX siblings.



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[Keullo-e]

Why have a physical X16 slot if it's not electrical, why just not have a smaller physical slot with an open end of the slot so it can support graphics cards etc. if neccessary?

 

[Chaitanya]

Why have a physical X16 slot if it's not electrical, why just not have a smaller physical slot with an open end of the slot so it can support graphics cards etc. if neccessary?

On many boards that have open ended PCI-E slots, there are some components like capacitors or chips which block the use of PCI-E 16x devices. Having a physical 16x slot ensures that there wont be any such issues installing add in cards.

 

[hojnikb]

On many boards that have open ended PCI-E slots, there are some components like capacitors or chips which block the use of PCI-E 16x devices. Having a physical 16x slot ensures that there wont be any such issues installing add in cards.

It also looks nicer. Almost fools you that it has an actualy x16 lane setup.

 

[alucasa]

About time it gets an update. I don't like the current gen. Hopefully, this gen will be more usable.

 

[bplus]

Looking forward to replace my wife's old J1900 with one of these.

 

[Disparia]

Cool. Some other ASRock Apollo Lake refreshes are coming soon:

 

[Keullo-e]

On many boards that have open ended PCI-E slots, there are some components like capacitors or chips which block the use of PCI-E 16x devices. Having a physical 16x slot ensures that there wont be any such issues installing add in cards.

1. Don't put anything on that space which could block installing a x16 card
2. ?
3. Profit



I tested a 7300GT on my old server which has only closed-ended x8 slots, modified the slot to an open one, and works flawlessly. Tho I didn't even check for components which could prevent the usage of a x16 card.