Motherboard Incoming AM4 Mini-ITX boards

[TheHig]

Very nice to see someone get this going !

 

[confusis]

Newspost here: https://smallformfactor.net/news/biostar_racing_x370-gtn_itx

 

[Spook]

No wifi kinda blows :/

 

[confusis]

Nothing a USB dongle couldn't fix

 

[gffermari]

So, what are the screws next to chipset about??

 

[dick_cheney]

So, what are the screws next to chipset about??

M.2 on reverse side maybe ? Really excited for any ITX board that can run stock speeds fine, finally a portable 8 core machine that won't break the bank.

 

[mantide]

They say Ryzen is an SOC. Does ryzen need a south bridge?

 

[cadiguno]

Still feeling weird about that 'Vivid LED DJ', but ecstatic to finally see an ITX AM4 board.

 

[|||]

They say Ryzen is an SOC. Does ryzen need a south bridge?

See my post here. There is PCI-e, SATA, and USB I/O coming directly off of the CPU, but there are still lanes going to a chipset that handles things like ethernet, etc.

 

[Boil]

A dual M.2 slot MB would be nice, both front mounted would be extra nice…

And if I could have one CPUFan & two SysFan 4-pin PWM fan headers, please…

 

[Ceros_X]

No wifi kinda blows :/

You're right. I get that we're supposed to be supportive of this company because they took the first step and made the first ITX Ryzen board, but no wifi ITYOOL 2017? Really? Come on son. Why should we have to waste one USB port on a wifi dongle (which probably doesn't have an external antenna).

Nothing a USB dongle couldn't fix

 

[MarcParis]

A dual M.2 slot MB would be nice, both front mounted would be extra nice…

And if I could have one CPUFan & two SysFan 4-pin PWM fan headers, please…

Well,well, dual m.2 is quite unique feature of asus z270i..so dual m.2 on recto side of mini itx board seems unprobable right now...but let's see, maybe they will stack m.2 in future

 

[|||]

What's with this "dual M.2" fan-boying? The mSTX board from ASRock has triple M.2 storage capabilities

And bear in mind that triple M.2 has been possible since the previous generation 100-series chipset...

...yet only one Gigabyte E-ATX board had the slots for it

AM4 only has the 4 lanes coming directly off of the CPU for one M.2. There are 4 lanes the get passed through the chipset, but those will probably be used for other things, except on possibly the X370, where they could potentially be used for a second M.2. But, keep in mind that one will directly attach to the CPU and the other will be switched through the chipset.

 

[MarcParis]

I was meaning on current mini itx market..

 

[|||]

Yeah, I understood that, but my point was that you can put three M.2 on a small board; there's nothing stopping them; the mSTX is case-in-point with three slot on the back side of the board.

 

[Curiosity]

So what you're saying is the chances of an AM4 board with more than one M.2 are really low?
I had a feeling it might be that way, but if you're right that seals the deal for me going Z270 + 6700T.

 

[Phuncz]

It gets a little confusing, but this is how I understand it is going down:

The (Ryzen) CPU offers two options that are dependent on the choice of the motherboard manufacturer, forgetting the chipset for the moment.

1. PCIe 3.0 x16 (GPU) + 4x SATA-600 (storage) + PCIe 3.0 x2 (storage)
2. PCIe 3.0 x16 (GPU) + 2x SATA-600 (storage) + PCIe 3.0 x4 (storage)

This is on top of the buses the chipset can offer:

So with X370 that would mean additionally:
2x SATA-600, 2x SATA Express (PCIe 3.0 x2 each) and PCIe 2.0 x8 for general purpose (sound, LAN, WiFi, whateves). The SATA Express can be split into 2x SATA-600 and PCIe 3.0 x2 -each- also.

Bringing the total to (green = chipset):

PCIe 3.0 x16 (GPU)
2x or 4x + 2x SATA-600 (storage)
PCIe 3.0 x2 or x4 (storage)
2x SATA Express (storage)
PCIe 2.0 x8 (GP)

But because the motherboardmanufacturer can fool around with this, my understanding is that the following examples (and more) are possible:

_ATX: 2x PCIe 3.0 x8 slots, 8x SATA-600, 2x PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2, 4x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, 1Gbit LAN, WiFi, Audio
mATX: 2x PCIe 3.0 x8 slots, 8x SATA-600, 2x PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2, 2x PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, 1Gbit LAN, WiFi, Audio
mITX: 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, 6x SATA-600, 2x PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 (+ 2x SATA), 1Gbit LAN, WiFi, Audio

 

[Thehack]

Yeah, I understood that, but my point was that you can put three M.2 on a small board; there's nothing stopping them; the mSTX is case-in-point with three slot on the back side of the board.

Engineering layers is probably the issue. I'm sure they will come as m.2 becomes more widely adopted but would be limited to high-end models.

 

[MarcParis]

Sure, even sata or slower m.2 are worth as it's saving space..

 

[ChainedHope]

So I mass messaged Biostar today (twitter, facebook, email, phone calls approaching stalker levels) to ask about pci-e bifurcation... They said they would ask the design lead. I really hope they say yes

Will report back when I get an answer, hopefully its soonish.