The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact: A Sharp $430 Impulse on X570
by Gavin Bonshor on October 25, 2019 11:30 AM ESTOne of the most interesting unveilings from the X570 launch earlier this year came from ASUS, with the reintroduction of the ROG Impact series of small form factor motherboards. Not seen since the days of Intel Z170 days, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact is the first truly AMD high-end SFF model from the vendor. Accompanied by its SO-DIMM.2 slot for dual PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 SSDs, a SupremeFX S1220 HD audio codec and support for up to DDR4-4800 memory, the Impact looks to leave its mark on AM4 for enthusiasts just like previous iterations have done on Intel platforms. The only difference this time round is that it's not a true Mini-ITX like the previous Impact designs.
What Is Mini-DTX?
When ASUS unveiled the ROG Crosshair VIII Impact, a lot of users were somewhat confused as to why the manufacturer adopted the unconventional mini-DTX form factor over the more commonly used mini-ITX. One of the primary caveats with small form factors such as mini-ITX is space. The bigger the standard, the more of an advantage features like space for an extra expansion slot can be taken advantage of - it could be the difference between two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots and none.
In order to best use this space, ASUS has (among other things) included it's special dual M.2 riser module, known as a SO-DIMM.2 slot. This is a way to add dual M.2 slots with a vertical mount to save additional PCB space. It's not the first time it's been done - other high-end models from its line-up including the ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex uses the same technology.
There is also a PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot at the bottom, underneath the full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, but this is populated with a SupremeFX S1220A HD audio codec and ESS ES9023P DAC mounted onto an M.2 add-in card. This saves some PCB space and effectively makes the audio a more modular component.
The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact also has a single Intel I211-AT Gigabit Ethernet controller as well as an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface which provides Wi-Fi and BT 5.0 connectivity. While the board does allow users to use up to two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives via the SO-DIMM.2 slot, there are also four SATA ports which support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. The slightly larger ROG Crosshair VIII Impact uses the traditional AM4 cooler mounts with a cleaner socket area with not just compatibility with the full range of AM4 coolers, but allows for enthusiasts to install the best cooling in the business without fanfare.
Equipped with a 10-phase power delivery which is running with eight teamed TDA21472 70 A power stages for the CPU are a particular highlight and one that helps justify its enthusiast-level market price of $430. The ASP1405I is an 8-channel PWM controller and is operating in 4+2 mode. The other factor to consider is thermal performance and the Crosshair VIII Impact is using a heatsink across the CPU power delivery section, with a 30 mm cooling fan directing airflow to aid in cooling; there is a second 30 mm fan which is directed over the X570 chipset.
Another enthusiast-level feature is support for DDR4-4800 memory which two slots allowing for users to install up to 64 GB of system memory, as well as supporting the DC double height and double capacity UDIMMs that ASUS supports on its two slot Intel Z390 models.
ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact Block Diagram
Looking at the performance of the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact in our test suite and it displays a strong and stable showing. In our system-specific tests, the Crosshair VIII Impact posted some of the fastest POST times we have seen from an X570 model, as well as solid results in our power consumption tests. In our computational tests, the X570 Impact also competed well with other models on test with the best performance coming in our 3DPM test; the new highest performer from all X570 models tested. This smaller mini-DTX creation has the equipment to take on its larger flagship counterparts.
One of the biggest aspects to consider when manually overclocking with the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact is the level of VDroop when the LLC setting is set to automatic. Applying 1.250 V on the CPU VCore between 3.6 and 4.2 GHz on our Ryzen 7 3700X equated to between 1.212 V and 1.219 V at load which is around 0.038 V of VDroop. Moving up to 4.3 GHz which required a CPU VCore value of 1.350 V in the BIOS ran with a load CPU VCore of 1.356 V which was overcompensated by the firmware by just 0.006 V; quite tight and expected given the boards focus for enthusiasts and extreme overclockers. There is an LN2 mode jumper which will bypass certain AMD restrictions for users looking to push silicon to its hard limits, but this should be left well alone for users on ambient cooling. The Precision Boost Overdrive can be enabled but to little effect compared to the default settings with a slight improvement, but the three levels of PBO enhancement proved to be similar in performance with different levels, albeit minimal levels of CPU VCore voltage observed.
As it stands, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact is in a product segment of its own. It is the only mini-DTX model in existence in the desktop segment, and we can either compare it to smaller boards or slightly larger boards. Users can make similarities in other small form factor models including the ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Gaming ($299), the recently reviewed ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 ($240) which did impress us, and the GIGABYTE X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI ($220) which at present, is the cheapest small form factor X570 model available on the market. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact has a list price of $430 at Newegg and is nearly double the cost of GIGABYTE's mini-ITX model; the Impact is targeted at a much more specific enthusiast level market than the other models with performance and enhanced componentry which further bolsters its high price tag.
Read on for our extended analysis.
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Holliday75 - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
Been a bit disappointed in Zen2, X570/PCI4 boards in general and fans certainly do not help. Bleeding edge for sure, but bleeding edge issues as well. My I7-3770k (longest lasting CPU I ever had) is going to have to last another year. Hoping Zen3 things settle down and the tech is mature enough to jump on board.hansmuff - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
On any decent board you can set a fan curve and effectively silence the fan. On my Gigabyte X570 it never runs at all even in intense benchmark or gaming sessions. I do agree that having fans back on motherboards is just crap and should have been avoided. I can only guess that there are edge cases that made AMD demand this level of cooling, I just haven't found it yet.Korguz - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
all these people complaining about the chipset fan.. the 2 fans for my cpu cooler would probably drown it out, and is probably louder, let alone the other 6 case fans i have in my case...PeachNCream - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
Concerns from most people are about fan longevity and not noise, although I will readily admit that after using several low end laptops that rely purely on passive cooling and eMMC or other form of solid state storage, the silence is difficult to give up in exchange for what feels like a archaic, non-portable box filled with fans. That's really where I'm at in computing these days. My needs, even gaming, are met by passively cooled, tiny laptops and I really see no reason to go back to desktop computers, dedicated GPUs, and systems that need cooling fans.Korguz - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
i have fans from 5+ years ago, spinning 8-10 hrs a day, that still work just fine, i even booted up an old A64 fx60, with an Asus board, that has a chipset fan, and it still works just fine. so i dont get the longevity aspect..sorry PeachNcream, but you always comparing a desktop vs a notebook, kind of makes your view moot. a desktop will, for the most part, always be louder then a notebook, and the fact that you use passively cooled ones on top of that, further makes it moot
you needs may be met by such a laptop, but, what games do you play???????? that's the key, my guess, nothing that was released in the last few years if they run fun on such a laptop, or facebook type games. i have some old games, that i bet, would make your laptop cry, and on the one i have, to get them to play, its medium graphics or less. but each use case is different, but also, cant compare them, equally.
PeachNCream - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
Your older motherboard is a sample size of one.TheinsanegamerN - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
I have a nforce 2 motherboard running windows xp, and it has had its chipset fan replaced several times before getting a large heatsink upgrade to be rid of that annoyance.I vividly remember my pentium II/III PCs getting new fans every year, because those tiny fans would gum up and become rattly garbage.
I still replace laptop fans on the regular that are 3-4 years old and are used on a daily basis.
There is a reason so many people have an aversion to tiny fans. They are junk.
Oliseo - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
If you've no interest, why read the articles, let alone argue with people in the comments.AshlayW - Monday, October 28, 2019 - link
No one cares that you use a passive mobile potato for your Facebook gaming needs. This website is about hardware enthusiastsPeachNCream - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
Ah, I understand now. Because I don't use a computer in the same way you do and my opinion threatens yours, it's clearly the case that we need to make up rules here at Anandtech that disallow somone from reading an article until they can prove that it is directly relevant to the computing choices they currently make.What a flawed method of arguing -- of all things, over the presence of a small cooling fan. Feel threatned about a couple of 30mm fans that might fail? Defend the lack of noise! On wait, it's isn't about noise?! You're not allowed to be here arguing in the first place with your point about fan failures!
What children you're acting like over your toys and hobbies.