Interesting idea about a motherboard with no chipset from Buildzoid
Chipset-less Mini-Itx Ryzen 3rd Gen Motherboard
- Thread starter cmyk78
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Interesting idea about a motherboard with no chipset from Buildzoid
ASRock already makes that, the A300M-STX, but it is APU only...
I saw that too. I also posted an offhand comment about SFF enthusiasts salivating over such an idea or somesuch so sorry for speaking so poorly of us.
That said, I'm not sure how much I'd personally be invested in the idea since I do have a higher number of drives and USB devices than might be natively supported from the CPU I/O die by itself. Still, I support any innovation which helps the hobby so long live the chipset-less 3950X build crammed into a cheese grater!
Even with its limitations (4x USB 3.1G2 as the only USB, either x4 NVMe or x2 NVMe + 2xSATA, pretty much nothing else) I'd say this would be tempting as a basic, low-cost ITX solution. If the 4 "chipset uplink" PCIe lanes could be used for, say, a WiFi card and another USB controller, this would be an amazing setup. Should be cheaper to make due to the less cramped board layout and smaller amount of PCIe traces needed, let alone the lack of the chipset and any heatsink for it, which could leave room for a decent VRM and good RAM traces. X500, anyone? I would be very interested in this.
This would be my ideal board, planning to go to a 3700X and I don't have a need for so much I/O.
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IMHO, the actual number of rear I/O ports is waaaaaay too high. HDMI (audio and video), mouse and keyboard (2x USB 2.0 OR USB 2.0 + P/S2), ethernet, and 2 USB 3+ are more than enough for most people.
Internally, considering the increase in disk size these days, 2 sata ports and 1 m.2 slot for storage (plus another one for wifi) are also more than enough for the average Joe.
Internally, considering the increase in disk size these days, 2 sata ports and 1 m.2 slot for storage (plus another one for wifi) are also more than enough for the average Joe.
Remember, this (currently nonexistent) solution doesn't have that m.2 wifi slot (unless they're able to use the chipset uplink lanes like I said, or bifurcate the x16). No ethernet either - that also requires PCIe. No USB 2.0 either - that's in the chipset. Also, we're not talking rear I/O, but all I/O, so adding front USB would mean only two ports on the rear. If one of those is needed for a WiFi or ethernet dongle, suddenly you're running out. Then again, I wouldn't mind if they split off some lanes from the x16 for a use case like this - x8 is plenty for GPUs anyhow.
I can understand thinking how some boards are way overdone in terms of I/O (who needs 10-12 rear USB? I use 4, and that's with a gamepad dongle and external DAC), but what you're sketching out is so barebones as to hurt compatibility. No DP? No thanks.
"who needs 10-12 rear USB?"
Me, I love I/O. However I will generally be happy to use a ATX M/B to get it. The reason being is because I'll also wan't nicely spaced PCIe as well, so that dictates the size. And as I'm sure many will agree, you don't always need a massive ATX case to have ATX. Certainly I've recently been won over on not needing a ATX case for mATX. And I was a real offender there in the past.
So if the question is who needs 12 USB ports on ITX, then I agree, I don't. It would be nice to have USB C and/or Thunderbird though. Then an adaptor solves all my problems.
Me, I love I/O. However I will generally be happy to use a ATX M/B to get it. The reason being is because I'll also wan't nicely spaced PCIe as well, so that dictates the size. And as I'm sure many will agree, you don't always need a massive ATX case to have ATX. Certainly I've recently been won over on not needing a ATX case for mATX. And I was a real offender there in the past.
So if the question is who needs 12 USB ports on ITX, then I agree, I don't. It would be nice to have USB C and/or Thunderbird though. Then an adaptor solves all my problems.
I guess I started my post with IMHO for a VERY good reason... also, I like DPs too, but i tend to use the ones from my GPU.
