Asrock Announces ASRock X370 Gaming ITX/ac, the First Non-Biostar Mini-ITX AM4 Board, and it Comes with Wifi

[DocSwag]

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11473/asrock-miniitx-x370-gaming-itxac

Quote

ASRock has introduced a miniature motherboard for AMD Ryzen microprocessors, one of a few such motherboards in the industry. Despite being very small, the X370 Gaming ITX/ac offers everything that a fairly powerful gaming system might require and its price is not too high.

 

The ASRock X370 Gaming ITX/ac is based on the AMD X370 chipset and supports all currently available processors in the AM4 form-factor, including A-series APUs as well as all Ryzen CPUs. The motherboard has a digital eight-phase VRM for the CPU designed to guarantee clean power supply (stability, overclocking potential, etc.). According to ASRock, the mainboard can handle DDR4-3200+ memory (assuming that particular modules work well with AMD Ryzen processors). The new platform has two DIMM slots in total.

ASRock's Mini-ITX Motherboard for AMD Ryzen
		X370 Gaming ITX/ac
CPU Support		CPUs in AM4 form-factor AMD Ryzen and AMD A-series APUs
Graphics		PCIe 3.0 x16, or integrated in case of APUs
Chipset		AMD X370
Memory		Two DDR4 DIMM slots
Ethernet		2 × Intel GbE controllers
Display Outputs		2 × HDMI for APUs
Storage		4 × SATA 6 Gbps 1 × M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA)
Audio		Realtek ALC1220 7.1 channel audio Creative’s Sound Blaster Cinema 3 enhancing software
USB		5 × USB 3.0 Type-A 1 × USB 3.0 Type-C 5 × USB 2.0
Other I/O		802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2
Form-Factor		Mini-ITX
MSRP		$150 ~ $160

 

Quote

At present, the ASRock X370 Gaming ITX/ac has only one direct rival, the Biostar Racing X370GTN introduced earlier this year. The Racing X370GTN does not have Wi-Fi support, but it has two USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) headers, including one Type-C. Meanwhile, the X370 Gaming ITX/ac seems to have a more advanced VRM for those looking forward overclocking capabilities.

One and a half months ago Biostar introduced the first AM4 mini-itx motherboards for Ryzen. These became pretty popular, considering they were the only AM4 mini-itx boards on the market. If anyone wanted to build an SFF pc using a Ryzen CPU, they were essentially limited to Biostar. However, there were some shortcomings with using this motherboard. For one, many people complained about the bios being pretty bad, with a lot of apparently being horribly translated from a different language. As well, many people complained about it not having wifi. Now, though, Asrock is introducing it's own mini-itx am4 motherboard. This board has wifi built in and also definitely uses a better bios than the Biostar board. It's a little more expensive, but you get some nice extras with it, such as the 8 5 phase vrm design (2 for SoC and 6 3 for CPU itself).

 

I think that's it's nice that we finally have an am4 mini-itx motherboard from one of "the big 4." What are your thoughts?

[Guest]

I think Biostar should not deserve such hate among people who are shopping for Mobo. 

[SnowyMus]

It took a while, but I'm glad there's finally more competition in this. Wifi is a nice touch with small form factor builds, especially with things like home theater PCs.

[Spuriae]

5 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

8 phase vrm design.

3 phase

 

 

[DocSwag]

3 minutes ago, Nimrodor said:

3 phase

 

 

Why 3?

 

Technically 8, though two are for SoC. It looks like it's 6 for the CPU itself. I know it could be like the pro4, but I doubt Anandtech screwed this up.

[DocSwag]

11 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

I think Biostar should not deserve such hate among people who are shopping for Mobo. 

They're still sub par compared to the competition though 

[captain cactus]

That pricing....

[The Benjamins]

so does it have 1 or 2 Ethernet ports? the pictures do not match a lot of stuff.

[TheCherryKing]

They should have used SODIMM RAM slots instead so that more memory can be installed.

[Spuriae]

12 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Why 3?

 

Technically 8, though two are for SoC. It looks like it's 6 for the CPU itself. I know it could be like the pro4, but I doubt Anandtech screwed this up.

I seriously doubt they're putting an IR35201 on their ITX board. Six Vcore must then be three true phases, and they're most likely going to repeat the doubled components since that's the VRM they already have going on B350. 

[maybethisnamewillwork]

1 hour ago, Nimrodor said:

I seriously doubt they're putting an IR35201 on their ITX board. Six Vcore must then be three true phases, and they're most likely going to repeat the doubled components since that's the VRM they already have going on B350. 

I zoomed the pic and seems like it has the same voltage controller (ISL95712) as used on their cheaper B350 boards.

So maybe 3-phases (doubled to 6) for Vcore, + 2-phases for SoC(?)

[DocSwag]

58 minutes ago, Nimrodor said:

I seriously doubt they're putting an IR35201 on their ITX board. Six Vcore must then be three true phases, and they're most likely going to repeat the doubled components since that's the VRM they already have going on B350. 

 

53 minutes ago, maybethisnamewillwork said:

I zoomed the pic and seems like it has the same voltage controller (ISL95712) as used on their cheaper B350 boards.

So maybe 3-phases (doubled to 6) for Vcore + 2-phases for SoC(?)

Hm it is? Maybe I and Anandtech were wrong then. Kinda sucks that they're doing that though , especially on a $150 mobo

[maybethisnamewillwork]

12 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Hm it is? Maybe I and Anandtech were wrong then. Kinda sucks that they're doing that though , especially on a $150 mobo

Yeah it doesn't really seem to be worth over the Biostar X370GTN, at least with this price... I hope Asus will release some decent Prime/Strix ITX-board soon.

[paddy-stone]

This is almost exactly the same loadout as my asrock z170 board, except 2x HDMI instead of HDMI + DP and an extra Gbe port. I am in the market for one anyway, and thought they might bring out something very similar, so good on ya ASrock, unless someone else brings out an itx x370 board with dual m.2 plus what asrock has already on this board, I'll be buying one when stock is available here. I love the b350 board I have from them too, but need the extra OC options, and this board was pretty much always gonna be a placeholder until x370 mini-itx.

[DocSwag]

1 minute ago, maybethisnamewillwork said:

Yeah it doesn't really seem to be worth over the Biostar X370GTN, at least with this price... I hope Asus will release some decent Prime/Strix ITX-board soon.

Might be worth it if you hate the biostar bios  

 

I think gigabyte is coming out with one soon though, that's probably also worth looking at.

[MageTank]

1 hour ago, Nimrodor said:

I seriously doubt they're putting an IR35201 on their ITX board. Six Vcore must then be three true phases, and they're most likely going to repeat the doubled components since that's the VRM they already have going on B350. 

Ahem...

 

ASRock takes pride in their ITX board, lol. I've pushed near 250w through a 6700k on this board, and VRM has not popped yet. 

[RadiatingLight]

3 minutes ago, MageTank said:

yet. 

famous last word

[MageTank]

2 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

famous last word

Oh, I am certain it will get the best of me eventually, lol. 

[Spuriae]

3 minutes ago, MageTank said:

Ahem...

 

ASRock takes pride in their ITX board, lol. I've pushed near 250w through a 6700k on this board, and VRM has not popped yet. 

That's actually... no, you're right. Somehow I glossed over the "gaming" in the name, probably because of comparisons to the Biostar board.

 

Still, product images have an Intersil logo on the PWM controller, so I'm not holding my breath on this particular model.

[MageTank]

Just now, Nimrodor said:

That's actually... no, you're right. Somehow I glossed over the "gaming" in the name, probably because of comparisons to the Biostar board.

 

Still, product images have an Intersil logo on the PWM controller, so I'm not holding my breath on this particular model.

Yeah, given Ryzen's very small ceiling for overclocking, it's unlikely they would need anything as hefty as an IR35201. Not only that, you can't realistically expect many people to try to keep an 8c/16t CPU cool in most ITX cases when overclocked, so it would make more sense to use a more "realistic" VRM. 

[RadiatingLight]

3 minutes ago, MageTank said:

Yeah, given Ryzen's very small ceiling for overclocking, it's unlikely they would need anything as hefty as an IR35201. Not only that, you can't realistically expect many people to try to keep an 8c/16t CPU cool in most ITX cases when overclocked, so it would make more sense to use a more "realistic" VRM. 

True, but you also have to remember that Ryzen 2 is also going to be AM4, and since that's a completely different architecture, it might have a much higher OC ceiling, and/or might need more power.

[Spuriae]

Just now, MageTank said:

Yeah, given Ryzen's very small ceiling for overclocking, it's unlikely they would need anything as hefty as an IR35201. Not only that, you can't realistically expect many people to try to keep an 8c/16t CPU cool in most ITX cases when overclocked, so it would make more sense to use a more "realistic" VRM. 

People are still happily recommending overclocking 1700's on ASRock's entry-level heatsinkless mobo because they're "only 65W" CPU's. You think silly little things like cooling are going to stop them?

 

 

 

 

[MageTank]

Just now, Nimrodor said:

People are still happily recommending overclocking 1700's on ASRock's entry-level heatsinkless mobo because they're "only 65W" CPU's. You think silly little things like cooling are going to stop them?

 

 

 

 

True. We also saw people using the 9590 on those 970 boards... RIP MSI Krait.

[goodtofufriday]

30 minutes ago, MageTank said:

True. We also saw people using the 9590 on those 970 boards... RIP MSI Krait.

I had to procure the vrm block for mt crosshair v forumla z board. With 9590 the mobo was getting quite toasty. 

[Ordinarily_Greater]

3 hours ago, DocSwag said:

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11473/asrock-miniitx-x370-gaming-itxac

ASRock's Mini-ITX Motherboard for AMD Ryzen
		X370 Gaming ITX/ac
CPU Support		CPUs in AM4 form-factor AMD Ryzen and AMD A-series APUs
Graphics		PCIe 3.0 x16, or integrated in case of APUs
Chipset		AMD X370
Memory		Two DDR4 DIMM slots
Ethernet		2 × Intel GbE controllers
Display Outputs		2 × HDMI for APUs
Storage		4 × SATA 6 Gbps 1 × M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA)
Audio		Realtek ALC1220 7.1 channel audio Creative’s Sound Blaster Cinema 3 enhancing software
USB		5 × USB 3.0 Type-A 1 × USB 3.0 Type-C 5 × USB 2.0
Other I/O		802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2
Form-Factor		Mini-ITX
MSRP		$150 ~ $160

 

One and a half months ago Biostar introduced the first AM4 mini-itx motherboards for Ryzen. These became pretty popular, considering they were the only AM4 mini-itx boards on the market. If anyone wanted to build an SFF pc using a Ryzen CPU, they were essentially limited to Biostar. However, there were some shortcomings with using this motherboard. For one, many people complained about the bios being pretty bad, with a lot of apparently being horribly translated from a different language. As well, many people complained about it not having wifi. Now, though, Asrock is introducing it's own mini-itx am4 motherboard. This board has wifi built in and also definitely uses a better bios than the Biostar board. It's a little more expensive, but you get some nice extras with it, such as the 8 5 phase vrm design (2 for SoC and 6 3 for CPU itself).

 

I think that's it's nice that we finally have an am4 mini-itx motherboard from one of "the big 4." What are your thoughts?

ASRock is the specialist for Wi-Fi boards