I am happy with my new Desktmeet B660 mini pc. I have installed 128G of DDR4-3200 and o/c to DDR-3600 no problem. I really appreciate the four (4) DIMM slots for RAM/memory. I have installed an "M.2 M-key to PCIE4x4" extension cable to a 10Gbe AQC-113C PCI card which I mounted inside the unit. The PCI4x16 slot is taken by a MSI RTX4060TI VENTUS 2X BLACK 16G OC which is approved in the associated Asrock QVL.
It's all good. But I need USB4/TB3 40Gb ports. I am looking for a good ASM4242 x4 2xUSB4 PCIe card. If I can find this card then I will move the AQC-113C M.2 connection to the A+E M.2 slot and put the ASM4242 on the PCIe 4x4 M.2 slot. The AQC-113C runs at full b/w with only 1 lane of PCIe 4.0.
Unfortunately, MSI has already come out with an ASM4242 in the format of the old proprietary motherboard vendor locked Thunderbolt 4 cards. The old AIC/GPIO connectors required by these obsolate boards were so mangly that MB OEMs started putting proprietary PCIe card tabs on their proprietary TB4 cards. One (1) internal *power-only* cable is fine, but no more AIC/GPIO cables, please.
I hope that AsRock takes a different path from MSI. There is no reason for proprietary nonsense. Seriously, any MB OEM who wants to be in the PCIe card business will make more sales and $$$ by building a cost-efficient ASM4242 card, test/certify for their MB, post on website & sell. Avoid the mess of proprietary.
If AsRock really wants beat their competition, release an ITX board with surface-mounted AQC-113C and ASM4242 chips, built-in, no need for cards.
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