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ASRock built a Mini-ITX sized RX 570 with Thunderbolt 3
June 11, 2019

On display at Computex 2019 was a interesting Mini-ITX sized product (currently) in a brand new category of its own.

The ASRock RX570TM-ITX/TBT comprises of a Mini-ITX sized motherboard with an RX570 GPU and various connectors on its IO panel.

But this is not a Mini-ITX motherboard. There is no CPU socket. The key connector here is Thunderbolt 3.

This board is designed primarily for manufacturers and integrators to build their own external Thunderbolt enclosure.

Essentially - Thunderbolt from a laptop or PC goes in one end; graphics, storage and networking connectors come out of the other.

ASRock displayed the unit in two formats.

The first was a one-off Mini-ITX enclosure courtesy of Coolermaster, with a traditional IO shield on one side and power button on the other. This would fit between your monitor(s) and your laptop or PC.

The second looked like an All In One PC with the board attached to the rear of a large Display. By connecting a laptop or PC through Thunderbolt you effectively get a monitor with built-in graphics acceleration and additional storage and connectivity.

The unit is powered by an external AC Adapter, with Thunderbolt allowing power transfer back to keep a laptop charged up.

The small size and Mini-ITX format has advantages. The RX 570 is a lower end GPU with relatively low (for a graphics card) power requirements at around 120W. It can be kept cool inside a relatively small space. If the unit makes it out into consumer territory as a standalone board - and there is no guarantee whatsoever that it will - it could be fitted into a standard Mini-ITX enclosure, perhaps next to another Mini-ITX enclosure housing the main PC.