Has anyone found a good comparison of the ITX AM4 boards available now/soon?
Does anyone know of a Mini_ITX AM4 motherboard with 2 M.2 slots (for storage) and 2 1GB NICs? Can't seem to find anything out there...
Asrock are the best ones so far; they have on-board audio with sound card grade features.
It's not that simple. The Gigabyte board has the same audio chipset. However, the ASRock board has optical audio.
The biggest concern with the ASRock board is it's lack of USB 3.1, which makes it even harder to justify the model an X370 model. For me, this was a deal breaker. The biggest concern with the Gigabyte board is the unusual placement of the 24 pin and 8 pin power connectors, which make it potentially unusable in some cases... this could be a nightmare if you don't do your research.
What AM4 board to get based on paper specs
Get the Gigabyte AB350N board if:
- You want LED lights; this board has strip of lights built in on one side and connectors for extra for lighting strips
- You require USB 3.1 or more USB ports (the ASRock board has no USB 3.1 support, and has fewer ports)
- You want a more neutral theme; this board has some red accents, but it is less obvious than the ASRock board. The back-plate is matte black on the Gigabyte board, but the ASRock board has a stylised back-plate with a strong red decal that could clash with your case.
- You plan on using integrated graphics, and require DisplayPort (the ASRock board lacks this port)
- (UNVERIFIED) You intend to use a custom wireless antenna (the ASRock board has small spacing between the connectors which might make it unsuitable for some antennas)
Get the ASRock AB350 board if:
- Your case or PSU cable length demands the 24 pin and 8 pin connectors to be in a traditional place (the Gigabyte board has these in a position which may be unsuitable for some cases, especially ultra small cases)
- You require optical audio, perhaps for home theatre use (the Gigabyte board lacks the optical port)
- You require USB-C (the Gigabyte board does not have this port either)
- You plan on using integrated graphics, and require two HDMI outputs (the Gigabyte board has 1x HDMI and 1x DisplayPort, potentially annoying for a multi-monitor setup)
- You want to use it as a server, or some other application involving heavy outgoing network traffic. The ASRock board has Intel NIC, compared to the Gigabyte board which has Realtek NIC. There is a belief that Intel solutions tend to be more reliable and better equipped to deal with top-end networking applications (this does not include playing online games or downloading files).
Get the ASRock X370 board if:
- You want PCIe bifurcation and SLI support
- (UNVERIFIED) Possibly faster wireless networking.... it's not clear if this is because it has better wifi built in, or just because it has two antennas (the B350 has one and it looks like 3rd party antennas might not fit because of the spacing, but this is unverified)
Please correct me if any of this is wrong.
I just received my B350 board and can confirm it has two antennas with dedicated cables to the two standard snap-on posts on the Intel 3160 Wi-Fi card. I am replacing it with my own 8260 card I pulled from my old system that also only came with just a 3160 card stock. Since I prefer these right angle antennas to the standalone antennas, this makes the B350 board actually slightly preferrable over the X370 one.
- (UNVERIFIED) Possibly faster wireless networking.... it's not clear if this is because it has better wifi built in, or just because it has two antennas (the B350 has one and it looks like 3rd party antennas might not fit because of the spacing, but this is unverified)
Your negative statements require some clarification, if not qualification. What do you base these observations on? Hearsay? I think your opinion will be found to be subjective rather than objective, and as such are meaningless in a technical forum.
Wifi and Bluetooth are not present, I do not recall denying that, however that in itself would be no great loss to me and if I wanted these features would avail myself of some of the many perfectly adequate dongles n the market.
I think his opinion is valid, I personally also don't see the use of metal-reinforced PCIe slots (in SFF cases), don't really need LED lighting or Wi-Fi. You're making a list solely on what you think is the best choices out there. But not everyone will have all those options available or dislikes any of the other brands for whatever reason.Your opinion on LED lights, steel PCIe slots, and wifi isn't important here. I was only giving examples of the extra features that the other boards have. Even if you personally don't care about those extra features, you are still getting more for your money. Why would you choose to get the board that has less and costs the same?
I do not think the Biostar board is a bad board, I just can't think of a reason it could be recommended over the other two.