Biostar Releases Mini-ITX Motherboard With Integrated Intel N3150 CPU

News
By Kevin Carbotte
published

Biostar released a new Mini-ITX motherboard with an integrated CPU. The N3150NH motherboard features a preinstalled Intel N3150 1.6 GHz quad-core CPU and has support for 8 GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM, or up to 16 GB of DDR3L-1066. The board comes equipped with Realtek ALC662 six channel audio and a Realtek TRL8111H gigabit LAN controller. Video output is handled through either a single HDMI or VGA port.

There are also four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports on the back, and one USB 3.0 header on the board for expansion. The USB ports feature Charger Booster technology, which Biostar has claimed can charge Apple devices up to 42 percent faster than a typical charger.

Biostar has included software called SmartSpeedLAN that monitors for the LAN controller. This application can be used to not only monitor, but can also be used to prioritize network traffic. It will let you prioritize types of traffic (streaming video, gaming, communications, etc.) and will also let you specify applications to be prioritized, or even blocked.

The N3150NH has been constructed using what BIOSTAR is calling eXtreme Durable Capacitors (X.D.C.). The company said these low ESR and high ripple solid state capacitors can have as much as 6.25 times the lifespan of ordinary liquid capacitors.

Biostar also claimed that this board is moisture proof. The company has designed a new process to create the PCB which is supposed to be far less permeable, preventing oxidation from moisture buildup. Biostar said it has been designed for use in outdoor situations such as kiosks, and rural and coastal areas that have high humidity.

In addition to the moisture protection, Biostar said it added electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection on the board, which is supposed to protect the hardware from electrostatic shock. The USB ports have a built-in fuse, which is meant to prevent USB port overcurrent, and the whole motherboard has safeguards to prevent overcurrent, overvoltage and overheating. The system will cut power when an issue is detected. To round out the safeguards, the company also installed virus protection into the BIOS to prevent boot sector and partition table viruses from writing to the drive.

The N3150NH features support for BIO-Remote2, which allows you to control the computer using an application installed on an Android or Apple device. The application will give you access to a trackpad mouse control and also features a slide show remote for Power Point presentations.

Biostar's N3150NH motherboard with embedded CPU is available now with an MSRP of $69.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rwinches
    ASROCK

    http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/N3150-ITX/
    Reply
  • quilciri
    Ok. Someone please educate me. Why does any new board still have more than two USB 2.0 ports? You only need them for setup if your OS doesn't have XHCI support. After that, there's no reason to have them.
    Reply
  • quilciri
    ...and really, if you know how to navigate through an OS install with the keyboard, you only need one ;)
    Reply
  • drtweak
    comon. Can we at least get a x8 slot for RAID Cards??? Sticking with my Dual Core 1037U until something with a x8 slot more bigger comes along
    Reply
  • Kartowl
    Ok. Someone please educate me. Why does any new board still have more than two USB 2.0 ports? You only need them for setup if your OS doesn't have XHCI support. After that, there's no reason to have them.
    if you know how a PC works you would know that a chipset handles the USB ports (not only of course) and the chipset built in there isn't a high end chipset so there can't be only USB 3.0 ports or just 1 USB 2.0 port and 5 USB 3.0 ports as far as i know, correct me if i'm wrong and show me the source
    Reply
  • quilciri
    16105408 said:
    if you know how a PC works you would know


    Wow, the condescension. Some people take anonymity as license to be a dick...at the same time, you never know who you're being a dick to....

    16105408 said:
    that a chipset handles the USB ports (not only of course) and the chipset built in there isn't a high end chipset so there can't be only USB 3.0 ports or just 1 USB 2.0 port and 5 USB 3.0 ports as far as i know, correct me if i'm wrong and show me the source

    USB 3.0 is no more expensive to implement than 2.0. For instance, VIA's host controller chip for USB 3.0 is the exact same price as their 2.0 chip.

    ZDnet speculated that Intel is intentionally slow in adopting 3.0 in order to promote it's thunderbolt/lightspeed connections. While that may or may not be true, AMD did have 3.0 connections an entire year before intel did.
    Reply
  • Grindayzier
    ...and really, if you know how to navigate through an OS install with the keyboard, you only need one ;)

    One for keyboard and one For USB device boot up and install
    In DMS systems it's hard to workout with only one USB 2
    Reply
  • quilciri
    Fair enough. Four 2.0 ports on the other hand...
    Reply
  • drtweak
    Maybe because unless you are using an external storage device the point of using 2.0 vs 3.0 becomes irevalant? I mean how many people have 10 usb 3.0 storage devices vs 10 things like mouse keyboad printer speakers web cam etc that DONT need the speed or can even max out 2.0. For me 2 3.0 ports is enough. I only have 3 usb 3.0 devices (2 thumb drives and 1 2.5 hdd adaper for booting live version of 8.1) it isnt always about moving on to bigger faster stuff.
    Reply
  • quilciri
    Mouse/keyboard/printer and the like don't even need the bandwidth of USB 2.0, yet there are no new motherbaords with any 1.X only sockets.

    Whether or not most people need that many 3.0 sockets yet is irrelevant. If it's the same cost to manufacture, then having a higher ratio of 2.0 to 3.0 sockets on lower end boards and reserving a better ratio of 3.0 for more expensive models is akin to charging extra for texting (which is cheaper for cellular carriers to send than voice).
    Reply