SFF.Network [SFF Network] BIOSTAR Announces the RACING B150GTN Mini-ITX Motherboard

BIOSTAR announced yesterday their new RACING B150GTN Mini-ITX motherboard. As far as I can tell, it's a variant of the H170GTN board that was shown at Computex earlier this year. The only differences I see at a glance is of course the Intel B150 chipset instead of H170, there is no slot for a wireless card on the B150GTN, and a more sensible U.2 port. Full specs are available at the product page here.

Read more here.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
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May 9, 2015
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The M.2 and U.2 combined, both with PCIe 3.0 x4 is remarkable. I don't think there is an mATX board that has this yet.
I like the all-black design, the stickers on the heatsinks ruin it but I guess those could be removed although I'm not sure how the RGB lighting is installed on those.

If overclocking is not a requirement, this is a very nice board on paper.
 

Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
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Feb 1, 2016
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If they'd called it the "L33t Racer Gaming" and added a few more LEDs, I'd defenitely buy five or six of these. Seriously these companies need to hire new marketing companies or something. This is getting ridiculous.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
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Feb 22, 2015
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I think all the RGB LEDs on products lately is to appeal to the east Asian market where those kind of things are popular.
 

iFreilicht

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Feb 28, 2015
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Well, if the "heatsinks" are backlit fully behind those stickers, it would make a very intersting mod to swap those out for something more subtle or your own logo even.

Also, it seems like there is an RGB header at the top which you could connect an RGB LED strip to directly, so that's neat if you're going for a loud look.

Seriously, considering all the ITX boards that currently offer U.2 (this and the ASUS one), this seems to be a very good option.
 

Curiosity

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I kinda dig the LED inclusion.
The only thing I'm not really liking about the board is no wifi, doesn't seem to have BT built in either.
But those can be added with tiny adapters so I guess it's not too big a deal.
 

iFreilicht

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Feb 28, 2015
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But those can be added with tiny adapters so I guess it's not too big a deal.

Only USB, though. So if you want an internal solution, you need an internal adapter from pin-header to USB-A and then a USB-WiFi controller that has a connector for an antenna, and then a hole in the case to feed that out. Though to be honest, I never really used the WiFi chip on my PC, I could probably live without one.
 

Curiosity

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I've used mine occasionally, at the moment I don't have an ethernet connection in my basement where I do VR, so I use the wifi for that.
Never actually used my onboard BT, I think.

But I agree, it's not a huge deal, just a small nitpick.