There is only a handful of mini ITX AM4 motherboard released in the market as of today; despite the popularity of AMD’s new Ryzen processors. ASRock, Gigabyte and Biostar have already released their mini ITX AM4 motherboards; and MSI doesn’t seem to have any plans on releasing one (anytime soon). Just recently, an Asus mini ITX AM4 motherboard was spotted from an online store – Inset. Asus’ first AM4 mini-ITX motherboard for Ryzen is the ASUS ROG STRIX B350-I GAMING Mini ITX. It’s been a while since we last saw Asus making a mini-ITX motherboard for AMD’s platform. And I think a B350 chipset is just fine for a mini-ITX motherboard considering that a mini ITX motherboard has (very) limited connections anyway. More details about the Asus ROG STRIX B350-I Gaming mini-ITX AM4 motherboard below.
Asus STRIX B350-I GAMING Mini ITX Ryzen AM4 Motherboard Specs and Features
The Asus ROG STRIX B350-I GAMING is probably one of the best, if not better, looking mini-ITX AM4 motherboard for AMD Ryzen. The look and feel is similar with the full sized Asus STRIX X370/B350 motherboards; black PCB with metallic/silver accents and a touch of RGB lighting. It features AMD’s B350 chipset, instead of X370, thus the name “STRIX B350-I GAMING”; and supports all AMD Ryzen processors for socket AM4. It has two DDR4 memory slots that can support up to 32GB of RAM and 3200MHz speed.
Like most mini-ITX motherboards, the ROG STRIX B350-I GAMING has 1 PCIe x16 slot for a graphics card. It also has an M.2 slot for M.2-based SSDs and a number of USB ports, from USB 2.0 up to USB 3.1 Gen 2. It also has four SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, an Intel I211-AT Ethernet port, WiFi connection (most probably with Bluetooth as well), and a SupremeFX 8-channel HD audio S1220A 5.1 for its audio.
Let’s not forget the RGB features (Asus’ Aura Sync RGB)! What would be a motherboard in 2017 without an RGB? Just kidding! But the Asus ROG STRIX B350-I GAMING does have RGB lighting (as seen from the photos), and some RGB header as well for RGB strips. There’s also a dedicated header for an AIO pump, aside from the usual CPU fan header and chassis fan headers.
This is going to be a really attractive option for small form factor builders who are planning to build their next (gaming) rig using an AMD Ryzen processor. Inset listed the motherboard with a retail price of 1,899 kr (Swedish Krona), which is around $234 USD. We don’t know yet what will the SRP be in the US, but for comparison purposes, the Asus Z270I Gaming motherboard retails for around $180. I’m guessing that the Asus STRIX B350-I GAMING AM4 might be priced below $200 in the US.
Source: Inset.se via TechPowerUp
Not even one HDMI or DiaplayPort? This board just lost (likely) half the MINI-ITX market. Yea, I know there isn’t a Ryzen APU shipping now, but AMD doea have a socket AM4 APU “placeholder”.
Too bad….. Hopefully Asus will have more and better options in the coming months.