• ASRock Super Alloy
  - Premium 50A Power Choke
  - Sapphire Black PCB
  - High Density Glass Fabric PCB
  ASRock Intel^® 4-Layer Memory POOL (Planes on Outer Layers) Technology
  ASRock Steel Slot
  ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
  ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
  ASRock Full Spike Protection (for USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
  ASRock Live Update & APP Shop
• - Supports 9^th and 8^th Gen Intel^® Core™ Processors (Socket 1151)
  - Supports CPU up to 95W
  - Digi Power design
  - 8 Power Phase design
  - Supports Intel^® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
• - Intel^® B365
• - Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
  - 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
  - Supports DDR4 2666 / 2400 / 2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
  - Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
  - Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB*
  - Supports Intel^® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0
  - 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
  

  *Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows^® 32-bit OS. For Windows^® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.
• - 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support
  - ACPI 6.0 Compliant wake up events
  - SMBIOS 2.7 Support
  - CPU, DRAM, PCH 1.0V, VCCIO, VCCSA, VCCST Voltage Multi-adjustment
• - Supports Intel^® UHD Graphics Built-in Visuals : Intel^® Quick Sync Video with AVC, MVC (S3D) and MPEG-2 Full HW Encode1, Intel^® InTru™ 3D, Intel^® Clear Video HD Technology, Intel^® Insider™, Intel^® UHD Graphics
  - DirectX 12
  - HWA Encode/Decode: AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265 8-bit, HEVC/H.265 10-bit, VP8, VP9 8-bit, VP9 10-bit (Decode only), MPEG2, MJPEG, VC-1
  - Three graphics output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI
  - Supports Triple Monitor
  - Supports HDMI 1.4 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096x2160) @ 30Hz
  - Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
  - Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
  - Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI 1.4 Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
  - Supports HDCP 2.2 with DVI-D and HDMI 1.4 Ports
  - Supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) playback with HDMI 1.4 Port
  

  *Intel^® UHD Graphics Built-in Visuals and the VGA outputs can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated.
• - 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec)*
  - Premium Blu-ray Audio support
  - Supports Surge Protection
  - ELNA Audio Caps
  

  *To configure 7.1 CH HD Audio, it is required to use an HD front panel audio module and enable the multi-channel audio feature through the audio driver.
• - Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
  - Giga PHY Intel^® I219V
  - Supports Wake-On-LAN
  - Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
  - Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
  - Supports PXE
• - 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3: single at x16 (PCIE1); dual at x16 (PCIE1) / x4 (PCIE3))*
  - 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slot (Flexible PCIe)
  - Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
  - 1 x M.2 Socket (Key E), supports type 2230 WiFi/BT module
  
• Storage
  - 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel^® Rapid Storage Technology 17), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug*
  - 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**
  - 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**
  

  *If M2_2 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA3_0 will be disabled.
  **Supports Intel^® Optane™ Technology
  Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
  Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
• - 1 x COM Port Header
  - 1 x TPM Header
  - 1 x Chassis Intrusion and Speaker Header
  - 2 x RGB LED Headers*
  - 1 x Addressable LED Header**
  - 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)***
  - 1 x CPU/Water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)****
  - 3 x Chassis/Water Pump Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)*****
  - 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
  - 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector
  - 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
  - 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
  - 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.1 Gen1 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
  

  *Support in total up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip
  **Supports in total up to 5V/3A, 15W LED Strip
  ***The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.
  ****The CPU/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
  *****The Chassis/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
  CPU_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN1/WP, CHA_FAN2/WP and CHA_FAN3/WP can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
• - 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
  - 1 x D-Sub Port
  - 1 x DVI-D Port
  - 1 x HDMI Port
  - 2 x USB 2.0 Ports
  - 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C Port (Supports ESD Protection)
  - 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
  - 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
  - HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
• Software
  - ASRock A-Tuning
  - ASRock Polychrome SYNC
  - ASRock XFast LAN
  UEFI
  - ASRock EZ Mode
  - ASRock Full HD UEFI
  - ASRock My Favorites in UEFI
  - ASRock Instant Flash
  - ASRock Internet Flash
  

  *These utilities can be downloaded from ASRock Live Update & APP Shop.
• - Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar
• - Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
  - 2 x SATA Data Cables
  - 3 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
  - 1 x Standoff for M.2 Socket
• - Temperature Sensing: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
  - Fan Tachometer: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
  - Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature): CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
  - Fan Multi-Speed Control: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
  - CASE OPEN detection
  - Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, DRAM, PCH 1.0V, VCCSA, VCCST
• - Micro ATX Form Factor: 9.6-in x 9.0-in, 24.4 cm x 22.9 cm
  - Solid Capacitor design
• - Microsoft^® Windows^® 10 64-bit
• - FCC, CE
  - ErP/EuP ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)

• 1 X M.2 Slot (key M) 2

Most solid-state drives released within the last year or so have been too fast for the bus they're connected to. The 6Gbps SATA III spec was finalized in the days when rotational hard drives still ruled and SSDs were rare, ludicrously expensive, and relatively unreliable.

Aug 15, 2014 M.2 is a new form of connectivity that allows a SSD to connect directly to the PCI-E bus allowing for theoretical speeds as high as 2GB/s. However, M.2 drives are complicated in that they allow for a variety of physical dimensions, connectors, and even multiple logical interfaces.

There are a couple of different standards that have been created to solve this problem, and they both solve it in the same basic way. One, SATA Express, uses the same physical connector as older SATA drives but uses PCI Express lanes rather than the SATA bus to boost storage speeds. The other, which will be more common in space-constrained mini-desktops, all-in-ones, and Ultrabooks, is called M.2 (previously NGFF, for 'Next-Generation Form Factor').

M.2 Key M (gen2 pcie x4) pinout. There shouldn't be any difference between whether the pin is on an M.2 Key M board or a native version of the slot. Posted 11:14 PM The publicly available diagrams show that the notched pins on the M key are 59-66. On the E key, these pins carry a second pex lane. 2 slot B key M.2(NGFF) Card PCI Express x 1 lanel PCIe Adapter Card. Supports Standard and Low Profile Bracket Introduction Shentek release 2 slot B Key(SATA base) M.2 Adapter Card, The card design with SATA III 6G(SATA II 3G, and SATA I 1.5G) Transfer Rate.

M.2 is interesting not just because it can speed up storage with PCI Express lanes, but because it can use a whole bunch of different buses too; it stands to replace both mSATA and mini PCI Express, two older standards that have been used for SSDs and Wi-Fi cards in laptops for a while now. Intel's new Broadwell CPUs and their chipsets include native support for M.2 and PCI Express boot drivers—neither PCIe-connected storage (hi Apple) nor the M.2 connector itself are new, but beginning with Broadwell systems each of those two things will become much more common.

Let's start with the physical connector and the things that connect to it. There's a lot to unpack, starting with the fact that there's more than one kind of M.2 connector, more than one type of interface that can be used with M.2, and more than one kind of M.2 card.

Getting to know M.2

Pictured at the top of this article are four different M.2 cards. The one on the left is a combo Wi-Fi and Bluetooth card. The next one to the right is a Sandisk SSD that uses the SATA bus. The next one is an Intel SSD that also uses SATA. The one on the right is a Samsung SSD that can use up to four PCI Express lanes.

Pay attention to two things as you compare and contrast these cards. First, the physical connector on each card is different; each card has different cutouts in the bottom and exposes different pins. Second, the cards are of different lengths and widths. All of this is accounted for in the M.2 spec (PDF).

The different connectors signify different M.2 'module keys.' Each key exposes a different set of interfaces to each card—M.2 can connect directly to the PCI Express bus, but different pins can be used to connect to the USB 2.0 and 3.0 buses, SATA III, DisplayPort, and a variety of other less-prevalent storage buses. Cards with one notch at the bottom are keyed for one specific kind of connector. Cards with two notches can be used in two different kinds of connectors.

Above is a picture of two M.2 slots on the motherboard of an HP Stream Mini. The slot on the left uses module key E, and the one on the right uses module key B. The Wi-Fi card is keyed for slots A and E, so it fits in the left slot with no problems. The Intel SSD is keyed for slots B and M, so it fits in the right slot. The Samsung SSD is keyed for slot M, so it won't fit in either of the Stream's slots.

The table above lays out the keys in common use today—there are others, mostly placeholders to be called into service as newer buses and interfaces are introduced.

Note the four- or five-digit numbers paired with each slot. These are actually codes to refer to the physical dimensions of each card; the first two digits specify the width in millimeters and the second two or three digits specify the length. Our Wi-Fi module is 16mm wide and 30mm long, or 1630. Two of our SSDs are 22mm wide and 80mm long, or 2280. The other SSD is 22mm wide and 42mm long, or 2242. All motherboard slots are 22mm in width, even the ones attached to 30mm-wide cards.

All current keys can give cards access to two PCI Express lanes, but otherwise interface compatibility is all over the place—so far, it's been pretty easy to guess what kind of peripheral you're dealing with based on the key it uses. Wi-Fi and WWAN cards tend to use keys A and/or E, since they only need the PCI Express or USB 2.0 buses and only need 30mm in length to fit all their key components. SATA SSDs and SSDs that use two PCI Express lanes tend to use keys B and M to maximize compatibility, since both connectors can deliver both SATA III and two PCIe lanes. The very fastest SSDs tend to be M-keyed since it's the only one that delivers four PCIe lanes.

This is a lot to digest, but it's most of what you need to know to understand M.2. There are some other stipulations around the physical thickness of the cards that you can read about in the documentation, but they aren't as important to our discussion today.

1 X M.2 Slot (key M) 2

The key system isn't always foolproof—our A- and E-keyed Wi-Fi module will physically fit into the B-keyed SSD slot even though the computer won't recognize it there. M.2 is certainly more confusing than the mPCIe and mSATA specs, but in the end it's more flexible. Components can access many different buses through one small internal connector, and you've got a lot of different physical card sizes to play with instead of being tied to either a 'full-height' or 'half-height' card.

The worst thing about M.2 right now is a general scarcity of components. OEMs buying parts directly from manufacturers probably have more choices, end users buying M.2 cards from Newegg or Amazon will find that they have few options, especially compared to the selection of mSATA and mPCIe components. That will change as M.2 goes mainstream and those older connectors begin to fade. Broadwell is a big step forward in that transition.