Just as the Xeon Sapphire Rapids announced the motherboards are coming. ASRock unveils its W790 WS, a motherboard designed to host Xeon W-3400/W-2400. An imposing model with a massive LGA-4677 socket!
W790 WS: a first board for Xeon Sapphire Rapids!
With this model, ASRock announces an imposing motherboard in E-ATX format. This board is equipped with a massive LGA-4677 socket arranged vertically as well as eight DDR5 RAM slots. We find one DIMM slot per memory channel, for a maximum capacity of 2Tb.
The PCIe part features four x16 5.0 slots and one x16 4.0 slot. When they are occupied, they work as follows: x16/x8/x16/x4/x8. Moreover, we notice that the connectors are reinforced and that the contacts are 15ยต gold plated.
For storage, there are a total of eight SATA III. These are also complemented by four M.2 connectors, all PCIe 5.0 x4 compatible. But that’s not all, because if needed, this model also supports the Blazing Quad M.2, a PCIe expansion card giving access to four additional M.2 5.0 x4. And last but not least, there is the small U.2 in PCIe 4.0 x4.
Of course, to power a big CPU, you need big VRMs and we can say that there is what it takes. This W790 WS then has a total of 20+2 power supply phases with Dr.MOS. The VRMs are also cooled by a massive heatsink with aluminum fins topped by three fans. Finally, we have a 14-layer PCB.
Finally, we end by mentioning the audio part in Realtek ALC897. For the network, we have three interfaces: two Marvell AQC112CS (10 Gbps) and an Intel I225LM in 2.5 Gbps.
For the moment, no price is known.
Here is the ASRock datasheet !
