Layout
At a first glance the ASRock
Fatal1ty X99M Killer leaves a very good impression with its
good looking design. The manufacturer decided to go for a combination of black and
red, which suites nicely and in the end you get an aesthetic
looking product. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers. The fact that there are SATA connectors which have been angled by 90 degrees allows
for an easy installation of oversized graphics cards.
Meanwhile ASRock is using very similarly shaped cooling blocks on all
motherboards in order to unify the design language. The only thing that gets
changed is the color.
The ASRock
Fatal1ty X99M Killer comes with a digital 12+4 phase power design, whereas the CPU is backed
up by twelve phases and the memory by four.
Like we've already explained on the features page ASRock is making use of an
extensive solution. There are for instance Dual-Stack MOSFETs, NexFET MOSFETs as
well as 12K Platinum caps on this motherboard. The Dual-Stack MOSFETs are taking
care of stable and efficient current delivery to the CPU and compared to
standard MOSFETs the offer a significantly lower RDS(on) value of just 1.2
milliohm. The memory gets backed-up by NexFET MOSFETs, which also offer a very
low ROD(on) value of 2.9 milliohm. Last but definitely not least there 12K
Platinum Caps that are good for no less than 12'000 hours of on time.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the
ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer. Officially supported are DDR4 3000 (O.C.) / 2800
(O.C.) / 2666 (O.C.) / 2400 (O.C.) / 2133 (O.C.). There is enough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which
means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders.
Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 2.0.
On the Fatal1ty X99M
Killer PCH as well as current converters got separate cooling
blocks. ASRock decided to connect two VRM coolers with a heatpipe in order to
improve heat transport. Other than that the weight
of this board is quite high, which is partially due to cooling blocks.
Subjectively speaking a high weight is a first indicator for a quality
motherboard.
ASRock X99 OC Formula Review 