BIOSTAR Shows off First Mini-ITX Socket AM4 Motherboard

[btarunr]

BIOSTAR showed off the industry's first socket AM4 motherboard in the mini-ITX form-factor, the Racing X370-GTN, based on AMD's top of the line X370 chipset. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors, and supports all models of Ryzen processors, although we're curious how XFR will work with such slim power inputs. The board conditions power for the SoC using a 7-phase VRM.

The socket AM4 chip is wired to two DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR4-2666 memory; the PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, and since this is an SoC, most of the board's connectivity comes from the processor, too. This includes two out of the board's four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot (reverse side, unseen), 2-4 USB 3.0 ports, and the display I/O. The X370 chipset puts out two additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and wires out the HD audio (115 dBA SNR CODEC), and a Realtek DragonLAN GbE controller. The company didn't reveal availability details.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[wiak]

isnt this X300 chipset?
as far as i understand

• X370 = Top dog
• X300 = Mini-ITX Version of X370, this used the soc part of the ryzen cpu and no chipset
• B350 = For mainstream gamers etc
• A320 = for the lulz eerm cheap lowend
• A300 = Mini-ITX Version of A320, this used the soc part of the ryzen cpu and no chipset

 

[dj-electric]

What happened to X300?

 

[newtekie1]

isnt this X300 chipset?
as far as i understand

• X370 = Top dog
• X300 = Mini-ITX Version of X370, this used the soc part of the ryzen cpu and no chipset
• B350 = For mainstream gamers etc
• A320 = for the lulz eerm cheap lowend
• A300 = Mini-ITX Version of A320, this used the soc part of the ryzen cpu and no chipset

Nope, this is X370. You can see the little heatsink covering the chipset right under the socket. Plus, it has 4 SATA ports, and I believe X300 only supplies 2.

What happened to X300?

I think X300 and A300 are for form factors even smaller than mITX. The mITX form factor gives enough room to use a chipset, so it wouldn't be smart to limit the higher end mITX motherboards like this one by not including the chipset.

That doesn't mean the lower end mITX boards won't use X300/A300 to keep costs down. I expect we'll start to see these come out when the lower end/cost Ryzen processors start to hit the market.

 

[btarunr]

What happened to X300?

X300 doesn't even need a heatsink, it's just a ceramic chip that looks like your superIO/LPCIO chip. It doesn't even have an A-link connection to the SoC, just some low-bandwidth connectivity to keep the machine ticking.

That silver chip near the HDA jacks, that's X300:

 

[TheLostSwede]

X300 doesn't even need a heatsink, it's just a ceramic chip that looks like your superIO/LPCIO chip. It doesn't even have an A-link connection to the SoC, just some low-bandwidth connectivity to keep the machine ticking.

That silver chip near the HDA jacks, that's X300:

Not according to this post it isn't https://www.techpowerup.com/226250/gigabyte-amd-b350-socket-am4-motherboard-pictured
That's what the B350 looks like and possibly the X370 and A320 as well.

"Correspondingly, the X300 has no I/O functionality of its own, and exists instead to enable the remaining functionality of a chipset: secure boot, trusted platform module (TPM), and other security-related functionality. These hardware security capabilities fit into a chip the size of the fingernail on a human pinky finger." http://www.overclockers.com/amd-ryzen-7-1800x-cpu-review/

Also, the CPU to chipset interface is now called UMI - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMI_AMD

 

[PLAfiller]

That was fast for a Mini ITX. What I want from a mini ITX - WiFi + M2 + 1 x USB type-C ( for future proofing). That's the minimum for a long term mini ITX PC for me.

 

[suraswami]

Found my mITX server upgrade board

 

[lanlagger]

mitx for crunching - finally available. and no X99 were no sensible options there - only one board was/is available (asrock) with annoying cooler (and mount was different - so no other coolers were compatible) and price was also not very friendly

 

[GhostRyder]

Well glad to finally see some AMD MITX options, however I want to see some better than this one as to me it seems a bit on the low end for my taste.

 

[Lionheart]

Awesome, that was quick, I'll be eyeing this

 

[eidairaman1]

Well glad to finally see some AMD MITX options, however I want to see some better than this one as to me it seems a bit on the low end for my taste.

Biostar hasnt released a board that can compete with Asus Gigabyte and MSI in some time, they are floating like foxconn is barely. Might aswell see what those 3 release, unless asrock blows them all out of the water

 

[ensabrenoir]

....ok now this is cool.

 

[JMccovery]

I think I have found the board for my 1600/1600X/1700(possibly) + RX480/580/1060(Ti) portable build.

Need something with a bit more oomph than the craptop I'm currently using. Blender tends to bring it to its knees.

 

[silentbogo]

I hope BIOSTAR did not forget to put an M.2 on the back...
Other than that - I like it a lot.

Also a very nice option for upcoming 9000-series APUs!

 

[TheLostSwede]

I hope BIOSTAR did not forget to put an M.2 on the back...
Other than that - I like it a lot.

Also a very nice option for upcoming 9000-series APUs!

You can see the screw fixings for the M.2 card near the audio jacks.

 

[newtekie1]

I hope BIOSTAR did not forget to put an M.2 on the back...

a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot (reverse side, unseen)

 

[Nihilus]

Damn. This plus a 1600x for sure.

 

[tuklap]

I want Dual m.2s!!!!

 

[Caring1]

....Need something with a bit more oomph than the craptop I'm currently using. Blender tends to bring it to its knees.

Perhaps a Laptop with a XEON and Quadro M2000m would be better, Lenovo make such a beast, the Thinkpad P50 Mobile Workstation.