Motherboard Incoming AM4 Mini-ITX boards

[wywywywy]

Fail.....................Not much use for APUs is it?

Yea I don't understand where there isn't even one DisplayPort?

 

[MarcParis]

Ah serious things are happening with Asrock support on Mini ITX AM4 MB..

Hope it can achieve proper OC on both RAM & Frequency..

 

[dbjungle]

Wow, how did that happen?

My Cougar QBX case is pretty tiny. Not only is it hard to get my GPU in and out of the case, the GPU fans also rub the bottom case fans. I took them off the GPU. This would be a non issue if I understood how to use the fan control in the BIOS properly, but it seems to have a mind of it's own. Eventually I put the fans back on due to heat concerns. Last I was playing PUBG and the GPU was running much hotter than I would prefer so I had the bright idea to turn case fans on using the Biostar Racing utility. In order to do this semi-permanently until I got another motherboard I would have to take the fans off again. Well, I guess the heat compromised the PCIe slot. When I finally got my card out it came with a plastic bracket. To be fair, it is extremely hard to reach the clip on the slot in my case, but I had already inserted / removed the card 3 or 4 times.

 

[dbjungle]

To add to that, my last board "died" on me due to the BIOS part dying. I managed to get it fixed but was without computer for a while and since then, I really understand the concept of dual BIOS (if it works as I understand it does). Also, the chipset would actually overheat without overclocking, and overclocking the CPU by more than 100mhz would prevent the whole system from turning on. Lets say those were the "glorious" days of Nvidia chipsets that had actual cooling fans on them on higher end boards, not to mention no driver support from Nvidia.
It seems like modern boards are better in general, even the lower end ones, but I still see that as the backbone of the system, especially with a platform like AM4 with promised longevity - I plan on getting a good board and sticking with it through many generations of CPUs and GPUs, thus I'd like a board that has everything I might need, and quality, Wifi and a good audio chip are worth the extra lunch or two worth of money if the alternative is living without those things for years.

I bought my AM2 board where the best reasonably priced thing there was was a 2.4ghz single core Athlon. 6 years later I had a quad core Phenom 2 running on it, as they were still backwards compatible with AM2. That board went through a six-fold CPU performance increase over its lifetime and apart from issues mentioned earlier it was a base for a high end gaming PC for 10 years going from Nvidia 7600GT with 256mb of dram to housing a GTX1070 with 8gb still on the very same board right before it retired, with 6 other GPUs in between. And it retired just this year, for a switch to AM4. Thus, especially with one of the biggest advantages of AMD being platform longevity, I care about the board being future-proof and coming with everything I will appreciate during its lifespan. It's the part that is meant to outlive all other components and the biggest hassle to replace if it does not.

It's also why I have a hard time understanding people getting on Kaby Lake now, with the 7700k being the best processor that will ever touch the current Intel socket. You're stuck with it. With AM4 you can super easily slap a Zen2 or Zen3 or who knows what on it many years from now. I'd like a board that is more likely to offer the best experience at those times, and live to tell the tale (and not die on me suddenly).

This is what keeps me from building Intel systems. My first PC build and my last Intel build was a first gen Pentium 4. I got the one with the 400MHz FSB, a month later 533 FSB was available, but required a new board, not just a new CPU. 4 months later 800 FSB was out, same thing. The whole experience left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Although I would consider an X299 build if I had deep pockets.

 

[dbjungle]

I'm a little disappointed by the rear I/O (2 x HDMI? Why?) and would have liked a front mounted M.2, but the VRM/chipset heatsink configuration looks very airflow friendly.

As a side note, I'm bummed out by the gradual reduction in the number of USB ports in newer ITX boards, especially for peripheral heavy VR builds.

Personally I would prefer 2x HDMI over the DVI like the Biostar motherboard. Ideally they could have double stacked the HDMI ports and added another set of USB ports. I have a Gigabyte FM2 ITX motherboard with the HDMI ports double stacked and it still has a DVI port as well.

 

[stree]

I would rather not use HDMI for viewing........Twice I have had HDMI display ports fail...........So any MB with only HDMI for a display option would not make my list.

 

[BeerNsoup]

For the Canadians that have been waiting for an itx board you can have Newegg auto notify you for the x370gtn here: https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ...8566&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-%zn

Not sure if they sold out already or have added it before the shipment arrival.

 

[alamilla]

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/computex-2017-gigabyte-shows-ryzen-mini-itx-motherboard.html

 

[Jonny727272]

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/computex-2017-gigabyte-shows-ryzen-mini-itx-motherboard.html

That is super exciting! The red RAM slots are disappointing, but most of it will be hidden with the sticks themselves. I'm still wishing we had another board option with dual M.2s though.

 

[Boil]

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/computex-2017-gigabyte-shows-ryzen-mini-itx-motherboard.html

That 8-pin EPS placement though...!

 

[Phuncz]

That 8-pin is a pain, but I'd be more worried about the 24-pin since it's in a location that most boards don't use. This might be a problem for more than a few small cases.

 

[Boil]

Yeah, I am not really feeling the Gigabyte motherboard...

So, unless Asus or MSI comes up with a more compelling AM4 ITX offering, looks like the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard will be the one for me...!

 

[W1NN1NG]

Yeah I'm disappointed in the power locations. They're both terrible. Actually all the port placement aside from maybe the data is awful

 

[Ionrent]

Shot of the I/O from Sweclockers. It's better than the Biostar and ASRock boards, but I agree that the rest of the layout is weird. The wifi card mounting is awful too.

 

[Karamazovmm]

For me aside the VRM and the wifi, this gigabyte mobo is actually worse than the biostar one.

I truly believe the one to wait for is the asrock b350. That has the best features and layout.

Too bad that if apple goes amd we wouldn't be able to make a decent hackintosh with air drop in it

 

[Jonny727272]

I truly believe the one to wait for is the asrock b350. That has the best features and layout.

Do we know the features/specs and layout of the other boards? I thought I've been following this thread but haven't seen anything.

 

[3lfk1ng]

Do we know the features/specs and layout of the other boards?

• Supports Ryzen and A series APU
• DDR-4 memory (dual channel / ECC & non-ECC / unbuffered supported)
• Steel slot PCI-E
• Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 3 and 120 dB SNR HD Audio
• Intel 1211 AT Gigabit LAN
• 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi / BT 4.2 module standard installed
• Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x 4)
• 2 x HDMI video output
• ASRock RGB LED header
  

 

[MarcParis]

Asrock is still really promising

 

[TheHig]

Asrock is still really promising

Totally agree. This is the best one so far feature and layout wise for me Also, I noticed 2 fan headers in addition to the CPU and LED header. Nice to haves certainly. Hoping for 150ish USD price wise.

 

[T_Tank]

Definitely looking at the asrock also just read in Google newsstand that ryzen 7 is getting a price cut with thread ripper coming out looks like it's going to be a great time for itx with all these crazy core counts