AM4 ITX for Ryzen

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Kanadian

Junior Member
Oct 16, 2013
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Just checked, they're back in stock at newegg. Hopefully they'll be listed on the Canadian site soon...
 
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krumme

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2009
5,952
1,585
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Asus kicked their own ass for beeing slow and Intel friendly here.
Biostar took an easy opportunity.
Will sell like hotcakes. Prices seems very fair considering their position.
 

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,460
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I would like to see reviews of Biostar's mITX boards, and at least one of them doesn't have WiFi which is a big minus for this type of motherboard. Is there a M.2 slot for a WiFi card?
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
1,792
508
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I would like to see reviews of Biostar's mITX boards, and at least one of them doesn't have WiFi which is a big minus for this type of motherboard. Is there a M.2 slot for a WiFi card?
As far as their specs say, no. There's a standard m.2 slot for storage on the back of the board, so you could put a PCIe x1 m.2 Wifi card there I guess, but that's less than ideal in a number of ways. Given Biostar's low market penetration, my guess is reviews will be few and far between. Hopefully someone has some connections at Biostar, or at least with a store that's willing to lend out a review sample.

Now, for them to get distribution in Europe going ...
 

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,460
1,570
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As far as their specs say, no. There's a standard m.2 slot for storage on the back of the board, so you could put a PCIe x1 m.2 Wifi card there I guess, but that's less than ideal in a number of ways. Given Biostar's low market penetration, my guess is reviews will be few and far between. Hopefully someone has some connections at Biostar, or at least with a store that's willing to lend out a review sample.

Now, for them to get distribution in Europe going ...
The first two computers I've built for myself had Biostar motherboards. While the first system had no problems with it, the other one died on me and since then I have never brought another Biostar board. Has their QC improved since then their AMD nForce models?
 

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
3,979
839
136
kind of interested in putting together a Ryzen 5 ITX mini workstation... or server

i have several Biostar ITX boards, though embedded CPU, and from what I gather they are still working just fine
 

Mockingbird

Senior member
Feb 12, 2017
733
741
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What are some benefits of having a X370 chipset over a B350 chipset in an ITX form factor?
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
1,792
508
136
BitWit on YouTube has a (typically Youtubey and light, but okay) review of the Biostar X370GTN up. Looks good, but I wish we got to see more of the BIOS features. Runs a 1600X at 4.1GHz, although the voltage (1.425V) is scary.

As for the benefits of X370 vs. B350 in ITX, I don't think there are any substantial ones either, but I saw a comparison (not ITX) of two boards in terms of OC capabilities, and the B350 could only adjust VCORE as an offset, not actual values. The ony differences we'll see are probably minor ones like that, unless they decide to artificially gimp the B350 versions.
 

ScottAD

Senior member
Jan 10, 2007
730
75
91
Pretty but I still can't see the allure in a 370 board on such a small footprint. Aside from maybe better VRM on the 370 board.
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
1,792
508
136
Pretty but I still can't see the allure in a 370 board on such a small footprint. Aside from maybe better VRM on the 370 board.
I agree, but it seems like that's the way its going. I doubt the silicon is any different between B350 and X370, so the cost difference is probably small. Oh, and judging from the heatsink on my Biostar X370GTN (and the fact that I can't see the edges of the chip beneath it), these chipsets are tiny.
 

lukart

Member
Oct 27, 2014
172
8
46
Yea, dont know why they took so long to come up with their ITX.. usually they are pretty fast. :/
 

Glo.

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2015
5,661
4,419
136
Asrock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac was supposedly 159$, the rumors said.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,227
9,990
126
How do these AM4 ITX boards even make any sense, until we have AM4 Zen-based APUs? Srsly.

Having to put a video card on one of these units makes NO sense. If I want to use an USFF case, then I DONT want to put a video card in. Out of the cases that I would want to use, you literally can't fit a video card anyways. But I would love to have the computational capability of Ryzen in such a small package.
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
1,792
508
136
How do these AM4 ITX boards even make any sense, until we have AM4 Zen-based APUs? Srsly.

Having to put a video card on one of these units makes NO sense. If I want to use an USFF case, then I DONT want to put a video card in. Out of the cases that I would want to use, you literally can't fit a video card anyways. But I would love to have the computational capability of Ryzen in such a small package.
The way I see it, the argument for ITX with a dGPU is that the dGPU is the only AIC 99% of users ever install. To add to that, most users these days don't have more than 2-3 storage devices. As such, why waste space on having a huge motherboard that you'll only use the most basic functionality of? And why waste space on a case large enough to fit that unnecessarily large motherboard?

Even though it's still in my old Define R4 (plans for an Enthoo Evolv ITX are for now on hold due to airflow concerns) I'm very happy I went with the Biostar X370GTN. Has everything I need, and works beautifully. Do I feel a bit silly with an ITX board in an ATX case? Sure, at times, but at least now I won't be held back by my hardware when I find the SFF case I really want - unlike my previous ATX setup.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
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The way I see it, the argument for ITX with a dGPU is that the dGPU is the only AIC 99% of users ever install. To add to that, most users these days don't have more than 2-3 storage devices. As such, why waste space on having a huge motherboard that you'll only use the most basic functionality of? And why waste space on a case large enough to fit that unnecessarily large motherboard?

I agree that is in general true.....but some folks who use their computer as a workstation might want more than one card.