Agreed. I already bought the Biostar. I would have chosen this instead all things being equal. It's $50 more expensive than the Biostar though, so it would have been a toss up.
X370 is rather pointless in Mini ITX. B350 or X300 would make more sense. Biostar theoretically makes a B350 Mini ITX board, but I've never seen it available.
I'm hoping Gigabyte or Asus jumps onboard at some point.
Margins are lower on b350/x300 boards though, they can't justify them being as expensive to consumers. The lack of competition in the sff boards market means that it makes the most sense to bling them out as much as possible. And it works because sff fans also tend to be enthusiasts with a high willingness to pay.
Definitely true. SFF builders tend to think "How small, quiet, and high performance can I make this?" rather than "How cheap of a computer can I build?"
On the other hand, if I'm paying extra money with no benefit (or features I won't use), I'll choose the cheaper option.
Also, on the $50 price difference from the Biostar, I noticed that this comes with AC Wireless, and the Biostar doesn't. An equivalent AC wireless dongle is about $30, so that justifies part of the price difference.
In one of my ITX builds I have a H81 chipset board, as those could overclock. It really has all the features I need (perhaps except for pcie 3.0). I was hoping cheap boards like that would appear for Ryzen.
Seriously. Are the manufacturers dumb to not offer x370 in mATX? It's like they're allergic to money. I really want to go mAXT but I might have to settle with x370 in mini-itx if the lack of love for mATX continues T_T
It's been more than a decade since I've had an AMD rig. I've had mITX boards w/ I5 and I7 processors for some time now.
If the APU version of Ryzen isn't castrated (I really hope they release a 4ghz 8 core / 16 thread version with Vega based integrated graphics.. I'd throw real money at a processor like that), this would be a nice board to have. I really like the dual HDMI outputs on the board.
Pathetic. Looks low-end in comparison to Z270 version. 2xHDMI slots?! This is X370 board ASSrock, people are NOT going to use it with APUs! Disappointed beyond words! Now it's either ASUS (IF they release a X370i Strix), or I wait for Z370 and CL
Uhh most Z97, Z170, Z270 and presumably Z370 will have hdmi, dp, or DVI because someone, somewhere will use the iGPU. Do you have an ITX board without any display connections? Probably not. So I'm not sure how this causes disappointment. The only thing that could be considered a disappointment is only one M.2 slot.
Do HDMI ports conform to the version or formats of which the iGPU is capable or are they physically limited to a featureset? Also, I'm baffled why ASRock didn't stack the HDMI ports and throw in more USB ports or something.
Yes, because all those 3.1 gen2 drives out there are so important....
I have yet to see any drive in the wild that can use 3.1 gen2. most are 3.0 or 2.0. The need for 10Gbps usb hasnt really hit yet, and hardware is not widely available.
I'm still on the X58 platform, so yes if I'm buying high end chipset X370, then I want the 3.1G2. It's gotta last 5+ years. Why on earth would you settle for buying last gen hardware?
because there are no drives out that use it? By the time gen 2 catches on, if it ever does, AM4 will be obsolete. seriously, usb 3g2 has been out for nearly four years now, and NO drives commonly used have gen2 compatibility. a quick look at newegg shows every 3.1 drive is 3.0 speed, and most are under 200MBps.
That "last gen" hardware is already fast enough that most flash drives come nowhere close to saturating usb 3, and those that do are so fast that additional speed would be pointless. heck, 3.0 cant be last gen as the next gen appears to be DOA.
I'm not sure Anandtech's spec listing is quite correct. For one, they list 2 ethernet controllers when there's clearly only one port. Then there's the fact that most of the USB ports are the standard royal blue of USB 3.1G1, while the USB-C port and the A port above it are the light blue usually associated with USB 3.1G2. I get the feeling final specs are 1 ethernet controller, 1 USB-C 3.1Gen2, and 1 USB-A 3.1G2.
I'm looking forward to cheaper ITX boards built on the lower-end A300 chipsets, along with APUs to match. For the current Ryzen CPUs (which require a dGPU) I think mATX is sufficiently compact. Which is a possibility for my next rig, mATX X370 build. But for ITX I'd rather see budget boards and APUs so I can build inexpensive and compact TV-friendly builds.
I'm not saying higher-end ITX boards don't have a market, but I personally am not interested in an X370 board smaller than mATX.
I am going to get so much hate for saying this for I am effectively talking out loud, but what is the point of mini itx at 170mm height and width vs micro atx 244 mm height and width aka 6.6 inches by 6.6 inches vs 9.6 inches by 9.6 inches. IF (and this IF is the reason for the post) you are going to end up with a single slot graphic card, or a single slot graphic card but the height not of the motherboard but instead the case is big enough that you can put a double slot graphic card in there.
Sure there are many workloads that are cpu only and no gpu. But how many people build their own PC if this is their goal and a single slot GPU is enough.
Yet if a single slot graphic card is enough why not just get an APU, since APUs compete with what you are going to get with a 75w single slot gpu?
What I am saying is I see a VERY SMALL market for this, people who want AMD Ryzen with 6 or 8 CPU cores and hyperthreading yet at the same time care little about graphic power and think the 4 cores APUs of AMD Raven Ridge is not worth the wait and not worth the limits of 4 cores and hyperthreading when you can instead have 6 or 8.
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I am all for small form factor pcs I just can't foresee the market for this being very large. That said most of my complaints is not really about this motherboard in general but instead the dimensions of the itx motherboard and the lack of alternate solutions for gpus than the standard form factor without doing something like a riser cable or such. How hard would it be for the motherboard company to embed an integrated graphics with a standard low end AMD GPU on the motherboard. Wait I know the answer to this and the answer is even less worth it than having an ITX motherboard without integrated graphics. We simply do not do that anymore now that graphics is on the APU or on a dedicated separate card, and if you are going single slot cards you are just putting in a crappy effectively an APU graphics. If die size was the only concern we could do a separate cpu die and a small integrated graphics die like they did with clarkdale but they do not do that anymore for the volume is just not there.
Well this is not really a problem if you use an riser cable and you have a case designed for a riser cable but how popular are those things really.
I love itx for small form factor office PCs with integrated graphics but if you are going to do a 6 core / 12 thread behemoth just spend an extra 3 inches of height, it is worth it. That or spend 30 dollars for a riser cable and get a case designed around putting the GPU in a different angle than perpendicular with the itx motherboard. There is just a limit of how much you can cram into a case with the standard atx form factor parts instead of us moving to some different style form factor.
Now that thunderbolt 3 is royalty free and open to everyone (as of May 2017 aka this month, Intel announced the change for they they are embedding it into their future cpus they are now allowing anyone to make thunderbolt 3 to promote the thunderbolt 3 being the new usb.) Note the physical die size of the old 2015 thunderbolt 3 controller is 10 mm by 10 mm aka it is barely bigger than a usb c port I will not be surprised that in the future we will see AMD and other motherboard people doing an off the shelf thunderbolt chip since the old cost for the thunderbolt chip was $6.45 for a single thunderbolt port and $8.00 for a two thundersports and this price is before volume discounts and now that it is royalty free we may see motherboard makers include it on their $150 motherboards just like they include wifi chips and so on with some other chip maker making the thunderbolt port not that is a commodity. Aka we may finally move to phones docking stations and laptop docking stations using wires, but also things like 8 cpu cores 16 threads in a small form factor with a connection to a docking station that gives you graphics card, power, usb, and so on.
Put down the Dew, Red Bull, Monster, or whatever you're drinking. Back away from the KB. Drink some water. Take a nap. Wake up fresh. Collect your thoughts. Try again.
Well firstly, in trying to downplay the size difference you actually highlighted the extent of it, ITX is nearly 30% smaller than MicroATX, that's no small thing [pun intended].
Secondly, graphics support is case limited not motherboard limited, unless you consider the tiny tiny percentage of SLI/Crossfire users as the only real enthusiasts out there. Most enthusiast MiniITX cases have 2 or even 3 PCI brackets for dual or triple slot cards, and are big enough to fit the majority of even 1080 Ti variants out there. Just look at the NCASE M1 or the Fractal Design Node 202 or even the DAN A4, people are building truly beastly systems in those tiny cases because they were designed from the ground up for enthusiast hardware.
MiniITX is never going to be a massive market, but that doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile or healthy market.
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Solidstate89 - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Finally, something other than Biostar.barleyguy - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Agreed. I already bought the Biostar. I would have chosen this instead all things being equal. It's $50 more expensive than the Biostar though, so it would have been a toss up.X370 is rather pointless in Mini ITX. B350 or X300 would make more sense. Biostar theoretically makes a B350 Mini ITX board, but I've never seen it available.
I'm hoping Gigabyte or Asus jumps onboard at some point.
nissefar - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Margins are lower on b350/x300 boards though, they can't justify them being as expensive to consumers. The lack of competition in the sff boards market means that it makes the most sense to bling them out as much as possible. And it works because sff fans also tend to be enthusiasts with a high willingness to pay.barleyguy - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Definitely true. SFF builders tend to think "How small, quiet, and high performance can I make this?" rather than "How cheap of a computer can I build?"On the other hand, if I'm paying extra money with no benefit (or features I won't use), I'll choose the cheaper option.
Also, on the $50 price difference from the Biostar, I noticed that this comes with AC Wireless, and the Biostar doesn't. An equivalent AC wireless dongle is about $30, so that justifies part of the price difference.
nissefar - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
In one of my ITX builds I have a H81 chipset board, as those could overclock. It really has all the features I need (perhaps except for pcie 3.0). I was hoping cheap boards like that would appear for Ryzen.meacupla - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Looking at the differences between X370 and X300X370 supports CF/SLI, has more USB3.0 ports, 6x SATA + 1x NVMe x2 ports. (or 4x SATA + 1x NVMe x4) and 8x PCIe lanes from chipset.
X300 supports 4x USB3.0 ports, 2x SATA + 1x NVMe x2 port. (or 0x SATA + 1x NVMe x4) and 4x PCIe lanes from chipset.
It looks like ASRock makes use of most of those extra features in this board.
Samus - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
I think Asrock hit this one out of the park, it's seemingly perfect on paper and absolutely worth $150.The fear from Asus is they will screw it up putting a killer NIC or some bs on it, when this one keeps things relatively simple (and Intel based)
agjwilson - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
About bleeding time... Demand will be high... Searches for pre orders.agjwilson - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
When you order before reading the specs... *_* crunch timequagga - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Right now the chart says "2 × Intel GbE controllers" but looking at that photo ...creed3020 - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
It looks great. It would be a logical swap into my RVZ01 once my Haswell system needs to be replaced. Hopefully by then we'll already be at Zen 2.Xajel - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Still waiting for X370 high-end microATX... Better from ASUSCloudFire - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Seriously. Are the manufacturers dumb to not offer x370 in mATX? It's like they're allergic to money. I really want to go mAXT but I might have to settle with x370 in mini-itx if the lack of love for mATX continues T_THardwareDufus - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
It's been more than a decade since I've had an AMD rig. I've had mITX boards w/ I5 and I7 processors for some time now.If the APU version of Ryzen isn't castrated (I really hope they release a 4ghz 8 core / 16 thread version with Vega based integrated graphics.. I'd throw real money at a processor like that), this would be a nice board to have. I really like the dual HDMI outputs on the board.
Stuka87 - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
There is no way an APU Ryzen is going to have a Vega GPU on it. Maybe an 8-12CU Polaris or the like.silverblue - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Hasn't this already been confirmed, though? As far as I can tell, AMD were never going to put Polaris into an APU.pfdman - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Yes, it has already been confirmed. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amd-ryzen-...PixyMisa - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Vega architecture confirmed. Leaks say 11 to 16 CUs.PixyMisa - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Initial APUs will be 4 core. Ryzen 2 APU might be 6 core.TheinsanegamerN - Friday, June 9, 2017 - link
they cant manage to sell a 4GHz 8/16 chips now, a chip that speed with vega on board would make the nuclear reactor 9590 look like a netbook chip.Glock24 - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Good to finally see more companies offering mini-ITX Ryzen boards.I don't see the point in using the x370 chipset though. Maybe after the APUs are announced/released we'll see more variety of boards.
Stuka87 - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
So happy to see this mobo. I have a Z97E-itx/ac mobo currently. A Ryzen version of this makes me want to make the switch over to it.LogitechFan - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Pathetic. Looks low-end in comparison to Z270 version. 2xHDMI slots?! This is X370 board ASSrock, people are NOT going to use it with APUs! Disappointed beyond words! Now it's either ASUS (IF they release a X370i Strix), or I wait for Z370 and CLEj24 - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
Uhh most Z97, Z170, Z270 and presumably Z370 will have hdmi, dp, or DVI because someone, somewhere will use the iGPU. Do you have an ITX board without any display connections? Probably not. So I'm not sure how this causes disappointment. The only thing that could be considered a disappointment is only one M.2 slot.Assimilator87 - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Do HDMI ports conform to the version or formats of which the iGPU is capable or are they physically limited to a featureset? Also, I'm baffled why ASRock didn't stack the HDMI ports and throw in more USB ports or something.PixyMisa - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
I'll use it with an APU as soon as the APUs ship. Waiting for that right now.darckhart - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
great. instead of giving us the USB3.1G2 they stick us with the 6x USB3.1G1 and the 6x USB2.0. way not to look forward guys.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Yes, because all those 3.1 gen2 drives out there are so important....I have yet to see any drive in the wild that can use 3.1 gen2. most are 3.0 or 2.0. The need for 10Gbps usb hasnt really hit yet, and hardware is not widely available.
darckhart - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
I'm still on the X58 platform, so yes if I'm buying high end chipset X370, then I want the 3.1G2. It's gotta last 5+ years. Why on earth would you settle for buying last gen hardware?TheinsanegamerN - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link
because there are no drives out that use it? By the time gen 2 catches on, if it ever does, AM4 will be obsolete. seriously, usb 3g2 has been out for nearly four years now, and NO drives commonly used have gen2 compatibility. a quick look at newegg shows every 3.1 drive is 3.0 speed, and most are under 200MBps.That "last gen" hardware is already fast enough that most flash drives come nowhere close to saturating usb 3, and those that do are so fast that additional speed would be pointless. heck, 3.0 cant be last gen as the next gen appears to be DOA.
thatactuallyguy - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
I'm not sure Anandtech's spec listing is quite correct. For one, they list 2 ethernet controllers when there's clearly only one port. Then there's the fact that most of the USB ports are the standard royal blue of USB 3.1G1, while the USB-C port and the A port above it are the light blue usually associated with USB 3.1G2. I get the feeling final specs are 1 ethernet controller, 1 USB-C 3.1Gen2, and 1 USB-A 3.1G2.Alexvrb - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
I'm looking forward to cheaper ITX boards built on the lower-end A300 chipsets, along with APUs to match. For the current Ryzen CPUs (which require a dGPU) I think mATX is sufficiently compact. Which is a possibility for my next rig, mATX X370 build. But for ITX I'd rather see budget boards and APUs so I can build inexpensive and compact TV-friendly builds.I'm not saying higher-end ITX boards don't have a market, but I personally am not interested in an X370 board smaller than mATX.
Roland00Address - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
I am going to get so much hate for saying this for I am effectively talking out loud, but what is the point of mini itx at 170mm height and width vs micro atx 244 mm height and width aka 6.6 inches by 6.6 inches vs 9.6 inches by 9.6 inches. IF (and this IF is the reason for the post) you are going to end up with a single slot graphic card, or a single slot graphic card but the height not of the motherboard but instead the case is big enough that you can put a double slot graphic card in there.Sure there are many workloads that are cpu only and no gpu. But how many people build their own PC if this is their goal and a single slot GPU is enough.
Yet if a single slot graphic card is enough why not just get an APU, since APUs compete with what you are going to get with a 75w single slot gpu?
What I am saying is I see a VERY SMALL market for this, people who want AMD Ryzen with 6 or 8 CPU cores and hyperthreading yet at the same time care little about graphic power and think the 4 cores APUs of AMD Raven Ridge is not worth the wait and not worth the limits of 4 cores and hyperthreading when you can instead have 6 or 8.
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I am all for small form factor pcs I just can't foresee the market for this being very large. That said most of my complaints is not really about this motherboard in general but instead the dimensions of the itx motherboard and the lack of alternate solutions for gpus than the standard form factor without doing something like a riser cable or such. How hard would it be for the motherboard company to embed an integrated graphics with a standard low end AMD GPU on the motherboard. Wait I know the answer to this and the answer is even less worth it than having an ITX motherboard without integrated graphics. We simply do not do that anymore now that graphics is on the APU or on a dedicated separate card, and if you are going single slot cards you are just putting in a crappy effectively an APU graphics. If die size was the only concern we could do a separate cpu die and a small integrated graphics die like they did with clarkdale but they do not do that anymore for the volume is just not there.
Well this is not really a problem if you use an riser cable and you have a case designed for a riser cable but how popular are those things really.
I love itx for small form factor office PCs with integrated graphics but if you are going to do a 6 core / 12 thread behemoth just spend an extra 3 inches of height, it is worth it. That or spend 30 dollars for a riser cable and get a case designed around putting the GPU in a different angle than perpendicular with the itx motherboard. There is just a limit of how much you can cram into a case with the standard atx form factor parts instead of us moving to some different style form factor.
Now that thunderbolt 3 is royalty free and open to everyone (as of May 2017 aka this month, Intel announced the change for they they are embedding it into their future cpus they are now allowing anyone to make thunderbolt 3 to promote the thunderbolt 3 being the new usb.) Note the physical die size of the old 2015 thunderbolt 3 controller is 10 mm by 10 mm aka it is barely bigger than a usb c port I will not be surprised that in the future we will see AMD and other motherboard people doing an off the shelf thunderbolt chip since the old cost for the thunderbolt chip was $6.45 for a single thunderbolt port and $8.00 for a two thundersports and this price is before volume discounts and now that it is royalty free we may see motherboard makers include it on their $150 motherboards just like they include wifi chips and so on with some other chip maker making the thunderbolt port not that is a commodity. Aka we may finally move to phones docking stations and laptop docking stations using wires, but also things like 8 cpu cores 16 threads in a small form factor with a connection to a docking station that gives you graphics card, power, usb, and so on.
Egg - Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - link
I can't figure out what you're trying to say.You can use double slot GPUs with mini-ITX motherboards.
Alistair - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
too much typing not enough thinking...Manch - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Put down the Dew, Red Bull, Monster, or whatever you're drinking.Back away from the KB.
Drink some water.
Take a nap.
Wake up fresh.
Collect your thoughts.
Try again.
This caffeinated rant is unreadable.
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
this whole comment is full of wat.thatactuallyguy - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Well firstly, in trying to downplay the size difference you actually highlighted the extent of it, ITX is nearly 30% smaller than MicroATX, that's no small thing [pun intended].Secondly, graphics support is case limited not motherboard limited, unless you consider the tiny tiny percentage of SLI/Crossfire users as the only real enthusiasts out there. Most enthusiast MiniITX cases have 2 or even 3 PCI brackets for dual or triple slot cards, and are big enough to fit the majority of even 1080 Ti variants out there. Just look at the NCASE M1 or the Fractal Design Node 202 or even the DAN A4, people are building truly beastly systems in those tiny cases because they were designed from the ground up for enthusiast hardware.
MiniITX is never going to be a massive market, but that doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile or healthy market.
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Cant wait for reviews. That will most likely be the heart of my new replacement rig.Lukart - Thursday, June 1, 2017 - link
Thats all nice, so many requests for the ITX, how about the oc-forumla for the Ryzen?I guess they dont see AMD as overclocker :P