AMD Strix Halo Mini-ITX motherboard flaunts 128GB LPDDR5X — add a CPU cooler, boot drive, and power supply for a slim gaming or AI rig

(Image credit: ITHome)

Chinese ODM Shanghai Sixunited Intelligent Technology Co, Ltd. (via ITHome) has revealed the company's upcoming STHT1 motherboard. The STHT1 will leverage AMD's Ryzen AI Max 300-series (codenamed Strix Halo) processors.

The STHT1 conforms to the thin Mini-ITX standard, a specification that targets AIO systems. Size-wise, it still conforms to the Mini-ITX specifications, which are 170 x 170mm. However, the difference lies in the z-height, which is substantially lower, allowing these motherboards to fit into tighter spaces, such as AIO and small form factor (SFF) systems.

Unlike the Framework Strix Halo Mini-ITX motherboard, which comes with an included CPU cooler, the STHT1 lacks one. Although Sixunited provided schematics of the motherboard, the company didn't confirm the dimensions of the mounting holes. However, judging by the eye, the STHT1 appears to have mounting holes for CPU coolers compatible with Intel's LGA 1xxx socket.

Sixunited pairs the Strix Halo chip with 128GB of LPDDR5X memory. The eight memory chips, each 16GB, are soldered to the motherboard and surround the Strix Halo processor. The STHT1 could be a very capable motherboard for a gaming system. Given the amount of memory, Sixunited may be marketing the motherboard toward AI or content creation.

Storage options include two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots for M.2 2280 SSDs. When it comes to displays, the motherboard provides two HDMI 2.1 ports and one VGA port, which Sixunited can convert to a DisplayPort output or COM port, depending on the user's preference. There's only one Gigabit Ethernet port on the motherboard, but it has an M.2 2230 port for installing a wireless module. Connectivity-wise, the STHT1 offers two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. Nonetheless, it also has USB headers to expand the number of ports.

The STHT1 draws power from a standard 19V DC IN port. It's more than enough juice for the Strix Halo, as these Zen 5 parts have a configurable TDP (cTDP) ranging from 45W to 120W.

Sixunited hasn't revealed the pricing for the STHT1 motherboard or when it'll arrive on the retail market.

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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

27 Comments Comment from the forums

rluker5

This is more like it. Hopefully one can dump extra power into it and get the full potential out of this chip.
I'd like to see how that compares to strix halo in a handheld.
Reply
Notton

Presumably standard mounting holes, but doesn't the RAM also require cooling?
Doesn't Strix Halo have 12x PCIe 4.0 lanes? Where are the other 4x?
Reply
John Nemesh

rluker5 said:
This is more like it. Hopefully one can dump extra power into it and get the full potential out of this chip.
I'd like to see how that compares to strix halo in a handheld.
Considering that there have been exactly ZERO handhelds using Strix Halo, I would say it will compare fairly well!
Reply
Li Ken-un

Notton said:
Doesn't Strix Halo have 12x PCIe 4.0 lanes? Where are the other 4x?
No PCIe slot. No USB4 ports.

This is inferior to the Framework board and the HP mini PC. The Framework board exposes almost all of the I/O native to the SOC. And the HP mini PC has ECC RAM.

The only thing left for this board to compete on is price.
Reply
MobileJAD

Li Ken-un said:
No PCIe slot. No USB4 ports.

This is inferior to the Framework board and the HP mini PC. The Framework board exposes almost all of the I/O native to the SOC. And the HP mini PC has ECC RAM.

The only thing left for this board to compete on is price.
With its lack luster expansion, it had better be cheaper.
Reply
rluker5

MobileJAD said:
With its lack luster expansion, it had better be cheaper.
It does look cheap, and it has the full AI capacity of Strix Halo in a thin ITX, the kind that often goes behind a monitor.
I imagine the ram is not the greatest for gaming with a dGPU with any of these, but that won't hurt productivity. Also the iGPU may be on par with a discrete B580 if you can give it over 100w which is quite good for many. You get a real nice CPU for productivity, a ton of ram and an iGPU that ranks up there with entry level discrete. In the smallest package available on a standard sized motherboard.
If it is $700 or less and is what you are looking for it is quite the deal.

My only concern is the ram latency might make the user experience kind of jerky with some hang times like the vastly weaker older atom mini pcs. But I have no evidence at all that this will be the case and reviews should address this.
Reply
BadBoyGreek

Li Ken-un said:
No PCIe slot. No USB4 ports.

This is inferior to the Framework board and the HP mini PC. The Framework board exposes almost all of the I/O native to the SOC. And the HP mini PC has ECC RAM.

The only thing left for this board to compete on is price.
Price, overall TDP and form factor is likely where they’re looking to position and compete. There are some very compelling use cases if all of those points can be successfully met.

In the AI space, clustering these with lower overall power consumption and cost while increasing density would be appealing. And for the majority of the gaming crowd, having a gaming PC / console / emulator with 128 GB RAM and a decent SOC graphics engine that fits into a low power and small form factor profile is equally so. But it’s all contingent on meeting all those criteria.
Reply
MobileJAD

BadBoyGreek said:
Price, overall TDP and form factor is likely where they’re looking to position and compete. There are some very compelling use cases if all of those points can be successfully met.

In the AI space, clustering these with lower overall power consumption and cost while increasing density would be appealing. And for the majority of the gaming crowd, having a gaming PC / console / emulator with 128 GB RAM and a decent SOC graphics engine that fits into a low power and small form factor profile is equally so. But it’s all contingent on meeting all those criteria.
Honesty I wonder if that's the target audience for these, people who want to try building a AI server farm without dipping into speciality and Hella expensive enterprise hardware, the biggest giveaway for that would be if the built-in ethernet ends up being faster than gigabit.
Because if this was meant for the gaming crowd, the USB options would be looking better than they are, even people in the productivity crowd who would need the iGPU for media editing would want something faster than USB 3.0 for transferring files , and unless I read that little image that shows the USB ports wrong , all it showed was USB 2.0 and 3.0.
Reply
BadBoyGreek

MobileJAD said:
Honesty I wonder if that's the target audience for these, people who want to try building a AI server farm without dipping into speciality and Hella expensive enterprise hardware, the biggest giveaway for that would be if the built-in ethernet ends up being faster than gigabit.
Because if this was meant for the gaming crowd, the USB options would be looking better than they are, even people in the productivity crowd who would need the iGPU for media editing would want something faster than USB 3.0 for transferring files , and unless I read that little image that shows the USB ports wrong , all it showed was USB 2.0 and 3.0.
These early models could just be the groundwork for what’s possible in the gaming space. For many, the SOC, if it has good FSR capabilities, could provide “good enough” graphical performance as a minimalist console or PC where you just connect controllers / network and are not depending on an eGPU and all storage is handled internally via the M2 interface. As emulation PCs / consoles, these would be absolute beasts.

Agree though that, without USB 3.1+, it doesn’t make the most sense for content creators. But later iterations will likely address many of the early shortcomings. If it can deliver on all its initial promises, the future for these types of products is bright.
Reply
Notton

On the gaming side, the competition are mini-PCs like....
AtomMan G7 Ti: i9-14900K + RTX 4070M, $1450~1600
AtomMan G7 PT: R9 7945HX + RX 7600M, $950~1100

AMD hasn't launched a mobile 9000 series dGPU
Reply

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