Motherboard Mini-STX - here to stay for Ryzen?

IntoxicatedPuma

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Feb 26, 2016
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didnt Asrock just post on the forum last week that AM4 microSTX is pretty much impossible unless you remove the MXM slot? I can't see who would benefit from that.
 
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GuilleAcoustic

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Was talking about mini-STX, not micro-STX ;-).

Decent 1080p gaming from an iGPU, while being small and cheap. Enough for couch gaming.

I actually run an i7-4785T with GT1030 on Asus Q87T and even a game like Path of exile can't be maxed out (have to turn vsync off to prevent stuttering). GT1030 is the absolute limit, power wise, to anything plugged to a pcie-4x slot.

There are powered risers , but it feels more like some DIY solutions and 12V motherboard are pretty much inexistent (you need passthrough from 19v to DC-DC, or dual PSU with loadswitch). AM4 APU on mini-STX would make an elegant solution for light coop cough gaming.
 
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jtd871

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Jun 22, 2015
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What are the "official" differences between mini STX and micro STX? I am thinking that mini STX is the Intel 5"x5" format. What's micro STX?
 

jtd871

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Jun 22, 2015
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Mini is the 5"X5", micro is the extended with MXM.
The relative terms "mini" and "micro" seem to denote the physically smaller and larger form factors, respectively - which seems to be the opposite one might expect from the relative literal sense of the terms. No wonder I'm confused.
 
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Therandomness

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Sorry for a minor thread necro, but I just had a thought.


Looking at this, for an STX board, wouldn't the chipset be completely optional? You'd have your 2 SATA ports, the M.2 slot could be carried with ease from the PCIe 3.0 x4 lane, and you could really do whatever else with the PCIe x16 lane. Also, the 4 USB 3.1 ports would be fine for I/O. Of course, I've not really thought about any other port at that point, but still.
 

GuilleAcoustic

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Sorry for a minor thread necro, but I just had a thought.


Looking at this, for an STX board, wouldn't the chipset be completely optional? You'd have your 2 SATA ports, the M.2 slot could be carried with ease from the PCIe 3.0 x4 lane, and you could really do whatever else with the PCIe x16 lane. Also, the 4 USB 3.1 ports would be fine for I/O. Of course, I've not really thought about any other port at that point, but still.

Here is a quote from Anandtech, this should be doable from my understanding.

What differs with Ryzen and Summit Ridge is numbers: sixteen lanes for add-in cards and four SATA 6 Gbps ports plus an x2 NVMe (or two SATA plus an x4 NVMe). What AMD is doing with AM4 is a half-way house between a SoC and having a fully external chipset. Some of the connectivity, such as SATA ports, PCIe storage, or PCIe lanes beyond the standard GPU lanes, is built into the processor. These fall under the features of the processor, and for the current launch is a fixed set of features. The CPU also has additional connectivity to an optional chipset which can provide more features, however the use of the chipset is optional.
 

EdZ

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May 11, 2015
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Looking at this, for an STX board, wouldn't the chipset be completely optional?
Psssst. The X300 and A300 'chipsets' are not really 'chipsets' at all, just the CPU itself. It's why they're the only two Ryzen 'chipsets' to offer PCIe 3.0 lanes from the 'chipset' rather than PCIe 2.0 as with all the others: that PCIe 3.0 x4 link is what would otherwise be going to the PCH.
 
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Therandomness

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Nov 9, 2016
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Psssst. The X300 and A300 'chipsets' are not really 'chipsets' at all, just the CPU itself. It's why they're the only two Ryzen 'chipsets' to offer PCIe 3.0 lanes from the 'chipset' rather than PCIe 2.0 as with all the others: that PCIe 3.0 x4 link is what would otherwise be going to the PCH.
Oh, oh wow. With that, I don't see why extremely small form factor (cough mSTX cough) don't exist yet.
 
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ChainedHope

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Jun 5, 2016
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Oh, oh wow. With that, I don't see why extremely small form factor (cough mSTX cough) don't exist yet.

Probably because @ASRock System is the only company making them? They already have quite a few SKUs to manage on the intel side for miniSTX and the microSTX variants of the RX and GTX deskmini systems along with the skus for the boards by itself.

Each new board costs a lot in development, prototyping, and production. And when they split it down into more SKUs thats more to add to marketing, packaging, and even copyright. Probably won't be seeing anymore unless they decide its worth the investment or more companies start using the mini/micro STX form factors.
 
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ChainedHope

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Jun 5, 2016
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Asus are also doing STX boards. They have one in particular that's quite interesting - the H110S2 - because it has two ethernet interfaces.

Guess I should have said "currently" making STX boards. H110 came out in... 2015? I know Asus and Gigabyte have miniSTX boards from the 100 series, but to my knowledge Asrock is the only one with 200 series and 300 series boards.
 

Kmpkt

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I don't believe there was ever a 200 series Mini STX motherboard was there? I believe there are plans to refresh the platform for the 300 series, but don't quote me on that.