Update: ASRock clarified the system comes with a 120W power brick. We adjusted the text accordingly.
ASRock's suite at CES 2019 held a rare gem for small form factor enthusiasts: A new DeskMini A300 Series system that comes with an A300-STX AM4 motherboard that the company claims is the world's smallest. Surprisingly, the diminutive barebones system will retail for only $119 when it comes to market next month.
ASRock's DeskMini A300 is yet another product in the company's line of DeskMini SFF systems, which also includes Z390 and B360 systems that come with MXM GPUs.
The A300 model comes with a custom A300-STX motherboard that adheres to the micro-STX form factor, meaning the board only measures 5-inches x 5-inches. Shrinking down the board to such a small size required eliminating a PCIe slot, and the board also doesn't support MXM graphics cards. That means you'll need an AMD processor that comes with integrated graphics, which limits your options to AMD's Raven Ridge and Bristol Ridge processors, albeit with a 65W TDP limitation.
Considering its small size, the board comes packed with quite a bit of connectivity. The board includes two M.2 sockets that support SSDs with the 2280 form factor, with one socket on the top of the motherboard and the other tucked away on the bottom. It also has two SATA 6Gb/s ports for traditional storage devices.
The two SO-DIMM memory slots support up to DDR4-2933 with Ryzen and DDR4-2400 with A-series processors. Display outputs consist of HDMI (4K @ 60hz), DisplayPort, and D-Sub. The board also sports USB 2.0 and USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports on the rear I/O section and two additional USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C and Type-A ports on the front of the board. There are also accommodations for an M.2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module.
The board resides in the 1.9-liter DeskMini chassis that measures 155 x155 x 80mm. A 120W power brick feeds the five-phase power delivery subsystem through a rear DC-in jack, but the brick isn't as large as some of the beefier 225W models that come with GPU-equipped DeskMini models. The limited power budget, not to mention the limited cooling options in such a small case, takes overclocking off the table.
The barebones system comes without memory, storage, or a CPU, which explains the low asking price. ASRock also sells several accessories separately, like VESA mounts, low-profile CPU coolers, Wi-Fi ac kits, and audio cables. The DeskMini A300 comes to market next month.
