Asrock x570 phantom gaming x review in Spanish (complete analysis)

ASRock has also wanted to join our X570 plate party with no less than three models. ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X is the brand's best- performing gaming model, with the permission of its top-of-the-line Aqua range with liquid cooling. With a truly eye-catching design full of lighting with its extensive heatsinks, up to 3 M.2 PCIe 4.0 slots and Wi-Fi 6.

One of its great improvements from our point of view has been its VRM, more phases and above all, better temperatures to withstand the powerful Ryzen. In addition, it is presented at a competitive price for its level. We will shed this plate thoroughly to see if it is just as beautiful inside as it is outside.

And we do not forget to thank ASRock for giving us this, and other boards for analysis, a manufacturer that should always be on the top list.

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X technical characteristics

Unboxing

The manufacturer has opted to put its ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X in a hard cardboard box with a very Premium appearance and in the form of a suitcase even with its handle to transport it. We only found a large brand logo in the central area of ​​the case and a whole shiny black background.

We open it, and this time we have a plate attached with two polyethylene foam molds and without an antistatic bag to protect it. As always one of the foam molds is attached to the plate by four annoying plastic clips that we will have to cut.

Inside this bundle we find the following elements:

• ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming Motherboard X User Guide Support CD 4 SATA 6 Gbps cables Dual bridge Nvidia SLI connector Antenna with dual connector for Wi-Fi Screws for installing M.22 spacers for M.2 sockets Flat screwdriver

A fairly complete bundle in general, with multiple connectors and always the great detail of accompanying it with an SLI in case we have two old GPUs in parallel. We say old because the new ones obviously bring an NVLink, which we would have to buy separately. The only thing we do miss is a cable for RGB strips that other manufacturers usually bring.

Design and Specifications

As far as external design is concerned, this ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X bets on a PCB entirely painted in matt black with many elements covered by heatsinks. As always at ASRock, its construction is based on a high-density glass-fiber substrate to separate the different copper layers that carry energy. This gives it a light weight as well as enough resistance to bending.

We have integral aluminum heatsink armor in the chipset area and M.2 slots. This means that to connect an SSD we will always have to remove the three screws that keep it attached to the board. Each hole has its own silicone thermal pad prepared to stick it to the SSD. And you cannot miss the active cooling system in the powerful chipset, which in this case is a normal and ordinary fan.

In the upper area, we find a large EMI protector on the rear panel made of aluminum, along with the VRM double XXL heatsink with intermediate heat pipe. The three main PCIe slots have steel reinforcement in them, but this is not the case for DIMMs in RAM.

We take the opportunity to turn the plate over and see that it also has a large metal armor on the back. Alongside it, we have the backplate for the pre-installed I / O panel and a large side lighting strip that joins the available chipset and EMI shield lighting. All of it will be compatible with ASRock Polychrome RGB and manageable from the component to component program.

At the bottom we also have the Debug LED panel that shows the BIOS status messages in real time, and two interesting buttons to reset or boot the motherboard. Just to the right, the on-board Clear CMOS button can also be clearly seen.

VRM and power phases

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X is one of the brand's reference models in terms of gaming and performance, and above it we only have a version with integrated liquid cooling for custom assemblies. In any case, the VRM is made up of 14 power phases whose current supply will go through a double solid 8 and 4-pin connector.

This VRM is controlled by a DrMOS chip that intelligently manages the voltage signal through PWM and controls it through the BIOS of the entire system. In the first stage we have MOSFETS DC-DC SiC634 built by Vishay, whose name is barely visible in the image. They have a capacity of 50A under an operating frequency of 2 MHz. But these receive the current through a Renesas ISL6617A phase duplicator, so it uses a system similar to that of MSI with phase duplication.

In the second stage of throttling, we have 60A solid CHOKES that are also the ones that the manufacturer has used in previous models. Finally we find a system of 820 µF and 100 µF capacitors to smooth the signal entering the Vcore and that withstand high temperatures in case of overclocking. These are accompanied by other Nichicon FP12K capacitors that withstand at least 12, 000 hours of use.

In short, a VRM that seems to be of a high level with new generation MOSFETS, although still using duplicators. Then we will see how it behaves with a Ryzen 5 3600X installed and stressed.

Socket, chipset and RAM memory

The new AMD platform consists of the traditional AMD AM4 socket with its pin matrix installed on the CPU and a very simple socket provided with a CPU fixing lever. This ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X is compatible with 2nd and 3rd generation AMD Ryzen, and 2nd Generation Ryzen APU only with integrated Radeon Vega graphics. So the constant remains that only Asus and its motherboards are compatible with AMD Ryzen 2400G and 2200G.

We talk a little more about this AMD X570 chipset, it offers native compatibility with PCIe 4.0 with 20 PCIe lanes that throughout the review we will go through to see what its occupation is. When it comes to the heatsink, we find an active cooling system with an EBR (Enharced Bearing by Rolling) bearing fan that has an estimated life of 50, 000 hours of use at full performance. As it is not a turbine type, it is really quiet and provides a good air flow of 4.29 CFM thanks to its 36.8 mm diameter. The package consists of the visible part of aluminum with RGB lighting and a protective grille, and an aluminum plate in direct contact with the chip to capture the heat.

To end the section, we have 4 DIMM slots without steel reinforcement, although with gold plated contacts. As in the previous cases, if we have a 3rd generation processor, we will be able to install a total of 128 GB in Dual Channel and at a maximum speed of 4666 MHz of ECC or Non ECC type. In case of having a 2nd generation AMD Ryzen it will support 64 GB at 3600 MHz, and finally if we connect a 2nd generation APU we can reach a maximum speed of 3466 MHz and only Non ECC type.

Storage and PCI slots

In the case of ASRock boards, it seems that the manufacturer does not specify where we have each of them connected, although when we see it, you will see that it is exactly the same as the rest of the manufacturers.

Let's start with the storage, because in this case ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X has a total of three M.2 slots, and it will be quite important to be clear where they are connected. Starting with the first one located at the top (M2_1) it is compatible with the PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA bus, being directly connected to the CPU. Supports sizes 2242, 2260 and 2280.

After this, we will go directly to the chipset, which has the other two slots connected. The second highest position (M2_2) supports 2260 and 2280 sizes under the PCIe 4.0 x4 bus only. And finally we have the largest slot of all, supporting sizes up to 22110 (M2_3) that is PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA compliant. Of it, we must bear in mind that it will be disabled if we are using the lower PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (PCIe_5).

Right now we are going to see where and what are the available PCIe slots. We start with the top two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots (PCIe_1 and PCIe_3), which are steel reinforced and connected directly to the CPU. Let's remember that a Ryzen only has 16 lanes for these slots, so let's see how they can work:

• With 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs, the slots will work in 4.0 to x16 / x0 or x8 / x8 mode. With 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs, the slots will work in 3.0 to x16 / x0 or x8 / x8 mode. With 1st and 2nd Gen Ryzen APUs.. and Radeon Vega graphics, will work in 3.0 to x8 / x0 mode. So second PCIe x16 slot will be disabled for APU

Now we are going to go to the ones that are connected to the X570 chipset which will be one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (PCIe_5), and two PCIe 4.0 x1 slots (PCIe_2 and PCIe_4). The operation will be as follows:

• The PCIe x16 slot (PCIe_5) will work in 4.0 or 3.0 and x4 mode, so only 4 lanes will be available in it. It will be disabled if the M2_3 connector is used. Both PCIe x1 slots will be capable of 3.0 or 4.0. None of them has the shared bus, at least this is what ASRock says in its specifications.

Network connectivity and sound card

Leaving behind the convoluted main connectivity, we are going to relax and see what we have in sound and network, because being a high range we already assure you that it will not be bad.

The ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X mounts a high-end Realtek ALC1220 sound card with high-definition playback capability of up to 8 audio channels (7.1). This chip supports the iconic Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 5 codec thanks to high-quality gold-plated connectors. And that's not all, as a dedicated NE5532 Premium headphone amp has also been installed specifically for the chassis front panel connector.

Moving on to the network, we find an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 chip that we have already seen ad nauseam in many motherboard models with a maximum 5GHz bandwidth of 2, 404 Mbps. ASRock did not want to be left behind in this regard, and gives us just what we want. Similarly, a double RJ-45 port is installed , where one is connected to a 10/100/1000 Mbps Intel I211-AT chip, and the other to a Realtek RTL8125AG ch ip that provides 2, 500 Mbps of bandwidth. Both support Wake-On-Lan and PXE from the BIOS.

I / O ports and internal connections

We finished the study of the plate giving data about peripheral and internal connectivity.

Starting with its rear I / O panel we have:

• BIOS Flashback button Clear CMOS button 1x PS / 2 keyboard and mouse combo 1x HDMI 2.06x USB 3.1 Gen1 (blue) 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 (turquoise) 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C2x RJ-45 (red is 2.5Gbps) S / PDIF for digital audio 5x 3.5 mm jack for audio Two Wi-Fi antenna connectors

Notice that I find a nice detail to include an HDMI connector on a high-end board, something that is conspicuous by its absence in other manufacturers. This connector supports resolutions up to 4K (4096 x 2160 @ 60 FPS) and HDCP 2.2 with HDR. We can also realize that we only have two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, this is because the chipset already supports a large amount of internal connectivity, with PCIe slots and M.2 slots.

And the main internal ports add up to the following:

• AIC Thunderbolt2x USB 2.0 connector (with up to 4 ports) 1x USB 3.1 Gen1 (with up to 2 ports) 1x internal USB Type-C 3.1 Gen2 Front audio connectors 7x headers for fans / water pumps 1x header for M.22x fan headers for lighting (1 for RGB and 1 for A-RGB) TPM connector

Surely the connector for Thunderbolt caught your attention, although you should bear in mind that it is only compatible with the ASRock Thunderbolt AIC card. Otherwise it is quite complete connectivity, with up to 8 external USB ports and enough support inside.

Management software

For this ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X we have a good list of programs that will help the management of its various components. Among the typical ones we have sound, audio, network etc. drivers. But the most interesting will be ASRock Phantom Gaming Tuning and Polychrome Sync.

The first of them is the typical software that allows us to modify certain parameters integrated in the BIOS, such as the CPU voltage, frequency, memory voltage, etc. It is not as effective as the BIOS itself, but at least it is a good help.

Similarly, we can configure the profile of the fans connected to the board, except for the chipset, and see the status of the system on a panel. Keep in mind that for now we will not be able to overclock these Ryzen, since they are overlapped from the board and from themselves in frequency.

The second software allows us to modify the lighting of the different areas of the plate. We will be able to select some of the generic animations that we have available, either globally or zone by zone, including the installed RAM memory if it is compatible. We must say that the version we used on the day of the review had some compatibility errors with the board, we hope that it will be solved soon.

testing bench

Our test bench with the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X, consists of the following components:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
Base plate:	ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X
Memory:	16GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB Royal DDR4 3600MHz
Heatsink	Stock
HDD	ADATA SU750
Graphic card	Asus ROG Strix GTX 1660 Ti
Power supply	Be Quiet Dark Pro 11 1000W

BIOS

The BIOS has exactly the same appearance and options as that used on the Intel platform and the rest of the AMD boards. This is positive, since a user who comes from other versions, will know perfectly where to find the necessary options to configure, for example, RAM, CPU or storage. The first boot of the board has been carried out without any problem, a perfect installation of the Ryzen 5 3600X, memories and dedicated GPU.

This BIOS is compatible with the Instant Flash update system where we will only have to put a flash drive with the BIOS in a rear USB port and click on the BIOS Flashback button. It also supports a very basic RGB lighting setup, perhaps with too many extra features. We have no doubts that it is a very stable BIOS, but certainly old with SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI 5.1. When other manufacturers like Asus bring a somewhat newer standard.

We have noticed that this BIOS automatically detects the RAM memory that it has installed and activates the corresponding XMP profile and supplies the voltage that it has preconfigured. These Trident Royal Z RGB Royal has worked perfectly at its maximum frequency of 3600 MHz. The maximum voltage that we can enter is 1, 356V for them.

The voltage supply we also see is good and adjusts to the needs of a CPU like this in full stress. With a stable TDP at all times and an amperage that is certainly far from the VRM limit. In general, we see that at the beginning they have proposed a BIOS quite well optimized for the new Ryzen, which invites us to think that ASRock have a good grasp of this platform. Now it only remains to admit more frequency of these CPUs, which are far from their limit.

Temperatures

As in other cases, we have not been able to upload the Ryzen 3600X processor at a faster speed than what it offers in stock, it is something that we have already discussed in the review of the processors and the rest of the boards. We have decided to do a 12-hour test with Prime95 to test the 14 phases of powering this board with the 6-core CPU and its stock heatsink.

We have taken thermal captures with our Flir One PRO to measure the temperature of the VRM externally. In the following table you will have the results that have been measured in the system about the chipset and the VRM during the stress process.

	Relaxed Stock	Full Stock
VRM	33ºC	41ºC
	Minimum observed	Maximum observed
Chipset	56 ° C	62 ° C

Far are the very high temperatures that we saw in the reviews of the Z390 plates a while ago. In this case we have only reached 41 ° C during long hours of CPU stress and an ambient temperature of 24 ° C. While it is true that a 6-core CPU like this where it does not reach its frequency limit or overclocking, it will not put the power phases in a bind. When all of this is unlocked, things are going to get much more difficult, so for now, overcome with note, we can't say anything else.

The chipset yes we see it quite warm already from the start, although we can intuit that the stress of this is not going to be too pronounced for a normal user, but this vertical flow fan has not been too good for its thermal efficiency.

Final words and conclusion about ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X

In general, we see that this ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X board is a worthy high-end among the great list that we already have on the market. It has an excellent exterior appearance with metal armor in the rear area and a large lighting section, although the compatibility with the software remains to be polished.

As for the BIOS, it has left us very good feelings, with a very simple management and perfectly identifiable interface of the house. ASRock has applied this "if it works well, why touch it" because the options are practically the same as on other platforms. Always with the limitations placed on overclocking the Ryzen for now, but with great stability.

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The VRM has given us excellent temperatures and very tight and optimized voltages for these new Ryzen, something that is appreciated so as not to force more than enough new CPUs and still little rolling. It only remains to wait if these 14 phases will behave so extremely well when they can be given more cane.

We have 3 M.2 slots, 3 PCIe 4.0 x16 and support of up to 128 GB of RAM at 4666 MHz, which places it as a serious reference, and almost reaching the maximum of 4800 MHz of the platform. We just need more USB 3.1 Gen2 10 Gbps connectivity, it's the price to pay for adding so much storage and PCIe to the chipset lanes.

This plate is already available on the market for a price of approximately 403 euros. Seeing similar boards in its range, we must say that it is a very competitive price, and it also includes dual LAN and Wi-Fi connectivity 6. We can't ask for much more, really.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ DESIGN AND RGB LIGHTING	- VRM USES PHASE DUPLICATORS
+ VERY GOOD VRM TEMPERATURES	- SO MUCH EXPANSION CONNECTED TO THE CHIPSET, SACRIFIES USB GEN2
+ M.2 TRIPLE WITH HEATSINKS AND TRIPLE PCIE
+ GREAT NETWORK CONNECTIVITY WITH DOUBLE LAN AND WI-FI 6
+ VERY STABLE BIOS AND GOOD VOLTAGES

The Professional Review team awards you the Platinum Medal and Recommended Product:

ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X

COMPONENTS - 91%

REFRIGERATION - 91%

BIOS - 88%

EXTRAS - 91%

PRICE - 89%

90%