ASRock has its X99 WS motherboard, which is aimed at workstations, and if you have even one quick glance at it, you will probably agree.
Next to the LGA2011-3 socket we find eight DDR4 memory slots for quad-channel memory that will allow you to install up to 128 GB of memory when using 16 GB DIMMs. Expansion is covered by a mind-boggling six PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots. There is a Molex power connector beside the top PCI-Express slot to give a little extra power to these slots.
Storage connectivity is covered by 10 SATA3 (6 GB/s) ports, along with a single Ultra M.2 slot. The Ultra M.2 slot is driven by four PCI-Express 3.0 lanes, which is a departure from the two PCI-Express 2.0 lanes you’ll see on most motherboards.
One notable omissions to the spec list is SATA-Express, but as we mentioned in our X99M Killer post, ASRock left it off because the company feels that there aren’t yet enough SATA-Express devices on the market yet to justify its inclusion. We’re happier with the Ultra M.2 slots, anyway.
The rear I/O panel sports a single PS/2 port, four USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA port, four USB 3.0 ports, dual Intel Gigabit Ethernet, and analog HD audio, and there’s also an optical TOSLINK output. The dual Intel-driven Gigabit Ethernet and the exclusive use of PCI-Express x16 slots will be the selling points for the ASRock X99 WS.
No word on pricing yet, though we expect the board to become available around the same time as the Haswell-E CPUs are to debut, which is rumored to be August 29.
