Motherboard Incoming AM4 Mini-ITX boards

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King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
775
759
Has anyone tested if pcie bifurcation is supported by the x370gtn? Could be a nice feature to have for potential future work.

I think someone has put the request in with Biostar and they responded that they'll ask their engineering team...I don't believe I ever saw any more on that.
 

dbjungle

Caliper Novice
Apr 17, 2017
29
13
I unintentionally ripped my PCIe port off last night so back to the waiting game. Newegg doesn't know when they expect them back in stock.
 

T_Tank

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 16, 2017
137
113
o_O yeah.. how didi... well now I know why my b350m board has a reinforced pci-e bracket I thought it just be mumbo jumbo fluff feature o.o
 

Pelican

Average Stuffer
May 23, 2017
66
65
Are Biostar the only company selling AM4 Mini-ITX boards at the moment? The Biostar mobo is quite basic and it doesn't even have Wi-Fi, which I consider a deal breaker.

I understand that Gigabyte is supposed to be developing one to release at the end of June, and is ASRock?
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
5,935
There should be at least a couple revealed at Computex next week. I know the AsRock one is all but confirmed and if rumours are to believed, it is very nicely specced. I am not sure about the Gigabyte one, but wouldn't be surprised. I'm also waiting to see if the MacBook Pro, iMac or Mac Pro are released in a Ryzen variant at WWDC in a couple weeks as the Gigabyte will probably be the ultimate Hackintosh board for content production if this be the case. Honestly I know that people are excited for AM4 on mITX, but Biostar is a pretty B-grade motherboard manufacturer and this board appears to be just another instance of that.
 
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Boil

SFF Guru
Nov 11, 2015
1,253
1,094
There should be at least a couple revealed at Computex next week. I know the AsRock one is all but confirmed and if rumours are to believed, it is very nicely specced. I am not sure about the Gigabyte one, but wouldn't be surprised. I'm also waiting to see if the MacBook Pro, iMac or Mac Pro are released in a Ryzen variant at WWDC in a couple weeks as the Gigabyte will probably be the ultimate Hackintosh board for content production if this be the case. Honestly I know that people are excited for AM4 on mITX, but Biostar is a pretty B-grade motherboard manufacturer and this board appears to be just another instance of that.

That would be pretty awesome if Ryzen could be (easily) Hackintosh-ible, the cherry on top would be if Vega could show up to the (Hackintosh) party as well...!
 

cadiguno

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 18, 2016
128
116
Honestly I know that people are excited for AM4 on mITX, but Biostar is a pretty B-grade motherboard manufacturer and this board appears to be just another instance of that.

Honestly so far I've heard nothing but positives about the Biostar boards except for the lack of WiFi and the problems that come with all Ryzen boards (BIOS updates, RAM speed limits, etc). Sure the RACING branding, VIVID LED DJ, and 5050 LED FUN ZONE are dodgy af but if you look at it as Asian-oriented marketing it (might) make sense.
 
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Validifyed

Chassis Packer
May 1, 2017
16
4
Maybe someone can inform me, but Ive never really gotten the whole point of getting higher grade motherboards.
If the build quality is good, the company isnt known for doing shifty things and the specs are what you want, why is some off-brand worse than any top brand?
 
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Karamazovmm

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 15, 2016
91
93
If anyone is willing amazon jp has some boards available I just ordered from there and should have it by the end of the week.

I know Rakuten has it as well.
 
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Karamazovmm

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 15, 2016
91
93
羨ましい。。。
I miss Japan.

I am ok though, I am waiting for wifi boards.

Yeah gigabyte and as rock should offer those.

I believe I saw a rumour about msi would launch some boards as well.

I got it because I'm behind the timetable on my case and simply there would be another month or two before a good availability of those new boards and the schedule would be ruined.

Aside that I'm only using a MacBook Pro 13" from 2011 and that is driving me nuts because of the lack of power.
 
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Pelican

Average Stuffer
May 23, 2017
66
65
Maybe someone can inform me, but Ive never really gotten the whole point of getting higher grade motherboards.
If the build quality is good, the company isnt known for doing shifty things and the specs are what you want, why is some off-brand worse than any top brand?

If you pay more for a premium mini-ITX board you get Wi-Fi and bluetooth as standard usually. You'll also get more ports (extra USB, maybe DisplayPort, to name a couple). You're also more likely to get higher quality onboard audio and networking, which is obviously important when you've got one PCIe slot and it's got a GPU in it. However, it looks like the audio and networking on the Biostar board is good.

Cheaper mobos use poorer quality parts. Japanese-made solid capacitors are regarded as the best quality, but you only get them in more expensive hardware. Taiwanese capacitors are cheaper and of poorer quality, and suffer a terrible reputation to this day. I don't know how Biostar fares but given they are based in Taiwan and making cheaper mobos, I would guess they use the cheaper stuff.
 
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cadiguno

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 18, 2016
128
116
Stock of the Biostar B350/X370 GTN looks pretty okay here in Indonesia. I think they primarily aimed at the Asian markets and delivered a good amount here, not expecting the Western world to actually devour these boards from Newegg up to the state of rarity.
 

Karamazovmm

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 15, 2016
91
93
Stock of the Biostar B350/X370 GTN looks pretty okay here in Indonesia. I think they primarily aimed at the Asian markets and delivered a good amount here, not expecting the Western world to actually devour these boards from Newegg up to the state of rarity.

I believe its more of a logistical matter.

The main shipment arrives by boat, and there is a token stock that arrives by air.

Given the proximity, I believe that your main shipment has arrived, and/or the demand wasnt enough to dry the initial shipment
 

cj360

Average Stuffer
Jan 25, 2017
61
28
Managed to get a biostar x370gtn, compared to my Asrock 1150 itx board the construction seems to be good. But I say that without technical knowledge on capacitors and other components used. I like their inclusion of a usb c port in the back.
 
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Pelican

Average Stuffer
May 23, 2017
66
65
I just want to note that if you do get the Biostar mobo and it suits your needs, then great! Buying cheaper MIGHT mean it is less reliable in the future, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a problem. I usually only concern myself with the quality of the capacitors when it comes to things like power supplies. However, I do believe in investing more into the mobo and CPU, because GPU technology seems to whizz along much quicker. A good CPU can last you several years at least.
 
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szymon247

Caliper Novice
May 2, 2017
26
20
I just want to note that if you do get the Biostar mobo and it suits your needs, then great! Buying cheaper MIGHT mean it is less reliable in the future, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll have a problem. I usually only concern myself with the quality of the capacitors when it comes to things like power supplies. However, I do believe in investing more into the mobo and CPU, because GPU technology seems to whizz along much quicker. A good CPU can last you several years at least.

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).
 
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