Update, 4/20/17, 8:20am PT: Biostar responded to our questions about the differences between the Racing X370GTN and Racing B350GTN with the following statement: "BIOSTAR had mentioned being the first to put AMD mini-ITX motherboard onto the market, BIOSTAR believes that despite having the same appearance, the delicate differences between the chipsets within the B350 and X370 tailors for different end-users and allow these PC enthusiasts to choose what fits them best." We've asked the company for more specific "delicate differences."
Original article: 4/18/17, 8:35am PT:
So far, the manufacturers rushing to release AM4 motherboards to support AMD's new Ryzen processors have focused on the Micro-ATX form factor. Biostar decided to buck that trend and embrace the Mini-ITX form factor with its new Racing X370GTN and Racing B350GTN motherboards.
As their names imply, the Racing X370GTN and Racing B350GTN support the X370 and B350 chipsets, respectively. We suspect they'll be followed by a Racing A320GTN--the entry-level AM4 chipset AMD introduced alongside its Ryzen 5 processors earlier this month--before too long. Not that it will make much difference, because the boards announced today are identical despite featuring chipsets with ostensibly different capabilities.
They're identical, that is, except for their prices. The Racing X370GTN costs $129, and the Racing B350GTN costs $109. It's not clear, though, what the extra $20 is going towards when the board offers none of the X370 chipset's advantages, such as the two additional SATA-III and PCI-E 2.0 Gen 2 lanes, over the B350 chipset. Right now it seems like you're going to be better off pocketing the difference by going with the Racing B350GTN.
Even the Biostar public relations team seems confused--the press release about these two boards (plural) said the company was announcing the "first and only" Mini-ITX motherboard (singular) for Ryzen. Given the apparent lack of differences between these boards, it's easy to see where they got the impression that Biostar was only announcing one product. We've reached out to the company to learn more about the situation.
| Product | Biostar Racing X370GTN | Biostar Racing B350GTN |
|---|---|---|
| Socket | AM4 | AM4 |
| Chipset | X370 | B350 |
| Form Factor | Mini-ITX | Mini-ITX |
| Memory Support | 2 x DDR4 3,200(OC) / 2,933(OC) / 2,667 / 2,400 / 2,133 / 1,866MHz | 2 x DDR4 3,200(OC) / 2,933(OC) / 2,667 / 2,400 / 2,133 / 1,866MHz |
| Onboard Graphics | 1 x HDMI, resolution up to 4096 x 2160 @24Hz or 3840 x 2160 @30Hz1 x DVI-D Connector, resolution up to 1920 x 1200 @60Hz | 1 x HDMI, resolution up to 4096 x 2160 @24Hz or 3840 x 2160 @30Hz1 x DVI-D Connector, resolution up to 1920 x 1200 @60Hz |
| Audio | Realtek ALC892 | Realtek ALC892 |
| LAN | Realtek RTL8118AS - 10/100/1000 Controller | Realtek RTL8118AS - 10/100/1000 Controller |
| Storage | 4 x SATA-III (6Gbps) Connector -Supports RAID 0, 1, 101 x M.2 Key M 32Gbps Connector, - Supports M.2 type 2260/ 2280 SATA 6Gbps & PCI-E Storage(on the back of the motherboard) | 4 x SATA-III (6Gbps) Connector -Supports RAID 0, 1, 101 x M.2 Key M 32Gbps Connector, - Supports M.2 type 2260/ 2280 SATA 6Gbps & PCI-E Storage(on the back of the motherboard) |
| USB | 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Port1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Port4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Port1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Header1 x USB 2.0 Header | 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Port1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Port4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Port1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Header1 x USB 2.0 Header |
| Price | $129 | $109 |
There is PLENTY of demand for it. I'm sure I'm
Sure I'm not the only system builder with customers lining up for Ryzen 7/5 mITX systems.
Once Asus/msi /Gigabyte start rolling out their mITX boards I'll be getting one. Have an 1800x just waiting.
sorry if I missed it in the post
i checked all the usual sites, but no sign of them
I really doubt that. There a lot of people (including myself) that have been switching over to ITX systems over the last few years for multiple reasons. Gaming, portable Work station, small foot-print case on the desk, Ect. (There a reason there been an explosion of gaming capable ITX cases since 2014 on the market).
If you start browsing around the web, you find plenty of people that have been asking for these ITX board before the launch of the R7 cpu's.
Now of course, the HTPC market is still a big area for the ITX board (where APU's make sense) but the other market segments for ITX boards have become fairly large and would benefit from having these more powerful R7/5 Cpu's.
Eh... You could make a few arguments for both sides, having video ports and no video ports.
You could have it just like you said, without them, you could have more useful ports or a cheaper price for the lack of ports (because of lack of products to use the video ports).
For other people, they could view it as the ability to swap hardware to fit your changing needs (maybe you want a lower power bill and dont use the power of your gpu/cpu anymore) or giving someone a part of your system as your upgrading said part.
(could be the motherboard where you needed some features that your current one lacks but you'll still be using the same GPU and CPU. That new owner of your old motherboard can just a slap an APU in it to get it up and running.)
So you could view it a long term flexibility for the reason why they're on there. Or could just view the motherboard markers as crazy fools that dont know what processors are currently on the market. lol.
I've been hearing rumors about and ITX board from gigabyte coming around the end of this month to sometime next month.
Although I would take it with large quantities of salt until gigabyte announces it.
Havent heard about the others.