Gigabyte launches X870 Mini-ITX motherboard for $299

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NeverMind_ThatShit@reddit

What a cutie, I really wish they'd put 10GBe on a Mini ITX board this round, it's really the only thing preventing me from getting one.

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holdencross12@reddit

Yeah that's why my number one pick for the x870e is the pro art right now

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springs311@reddit

All that$ n no post code. And asus's lane sharing on that board... isn't it odd as well?

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I get what you're saying, I think think/hope they just worded things poorly. It's a bit silly but I know why they did it. Because I'm the weirdo that purchased the adapter in my x570 for what they just integrated into the x870's I find it more strange they didn't put a single 1xpcie slot altho I guess intel never plans on making and pcie gen5 Nics even tho I'm very sure plenty of people would use them.

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Fadelesstriker@reddit

and fit a cheeky little post code

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NeverMind_ThatShit@reddit

Yes, it's criminal that's not standard by now.

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nanonan@reddit

I don't see that happening unfortunately. The demand for it comes from a niche within a niche.

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Fadelesstriker@reddit

Troubleshooting isn’t very niche.

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nanonan@reddit

Troubleshooting is someone elses problem for 99% of people.

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Fadelesstriker@reddit

POST codes would dramatically bring costs down for support. If you could hop on a support call and just pass on a code instead of manually going through a process of elimination of concepts you might know nothing about. It could mitigate having to ship it to a repair shop and it would be beneficial to everyone’s bottom line, no?

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nanonan@reddit

There's a reason there's only an engine warning light and not a complete diagnostic in cars, because that's all the information most people need. Yeah it sucks for us shmucks who need to fix this stuff, and I'd also love post codes everywhere, but I doubt there's never going to be large enough demand for the status quo to change.

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kuddlesworth9419@reddit

They do m.2 10Gb ethernet cards.

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jigsaw1024@reddit

Where do you put the jack though? Part of going ITX is form factor. A GPU will most likely cover all open slots on the case, unless you are possibly going to water cool so you can bring the GPU down to a single slot.

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kikimaru024@reddit

https://www.amazon.co.uk/IO-Crest-Gigabit-Ethernet-Expansion/dp/B0BWSLSK78

M.2 slot on back of motherboard
Ethernet port on spare PCI slot by buying a 2-slot GPU

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kuddlesworth9419@reddit

I have no idea, I like going ATX with a few spare PCI slots for this very reason. I just know they make m.2 expansion card things so I thought it might be a good option if you need ITX.

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jigsaw1024@reddit

I think you have to go Thunderbolt if you want to go over 2.5Gb reliably. And that gets expensive. But we are also talking ITX, and many people who build in this form factor are willing to pay to maintain form factor.

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kuddlesworth9419@reddit

Is Micro ATX much bigger then ITX? Because then you could run one of the thunderbolt cards or just a 10gbps card. I'm not really in the world of micro systems but I like the idea of it just not terribly practical when I want a while bunch of USB ports and other stuff.

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jigsaw1024@reddit

This article shows the size differences inside a typical case to help visualize: https://www.wepc.com/tips/motherboard-choose-atx-micro-atx-mini-itx/

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kuddlesworth9419@reddit

Probably too big for an ITX case but I should think a micro ATX case isn't going to be all that much bigger. This case looks pretty nice and doesn't cost all that much but supports pretty much any full sized components. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lian-li-a3-matx-md-black-cas-lia-02630.html

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narwi@reddit (OP)

Don't we all! The situation with onboard wired networking is a total disgrace!

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bick_nyers@reddit

My thoughts exactly. Although, it does have that extra M2 slot that could be used to provide 10G. I've never understood the appeal of two mismatched speed M2 drives anyways.

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VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit

Why would mismatched speed matter? The only thing I can think of is RAID 1, which is rarely used and in many cases strictly worse than a hot spare computer synced by btrfs send/receive.

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pilg0re@reddit

I’ve done side by side tests and while sequential read and writes are leaps and bounds ahead of my Samsung 990 pro on my T705 the random reads and writes are near identical. So much so I don’t think you’d notice any difference if using either one as a boot drive FWIW

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jonathanwashere1@reddit

I have a pcie 4 drive as my main and a pcie 3 as a backup

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DarkHelmet@reddit

USB 4.0 / Thunderbolt let you use an external 10Gb nic at least. I've been using one for years and it works fine. Adds a bit more size though.

Realtek announced a 10Gb chip recently so hopefully we will see a built in one soon.

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airmantharp@reddit

Cool, we’ve been stuck with the Marvell solution that adds US$100 to whatever they stick it on for years

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GladiatorUA@reddit

It's not going to cost $300

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BrideOfAutobahn@reddit

10GbE USB NICs work pretty well

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clumsyfork@reddit

I am considering going MicroATX next time and use an addon card because of this. The Ncase M2 might be a good fit for me coming from a Dan C4.

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StarbeamII@reddit

With the mandated USB4 requirement taking up a lot of PCI-E lanes, X870 never had enough I/O for full-fledged ATX boards, so the lack of mATX and mITX boards on launch didn’t really make sense.

ATX X870 boards all have a lot of tradeoffs, and on pretty much all of them, using some features disabled other features - e.g. using a secondary m.2 slot would disable one of the PCI-E slots, or cut the graphics slot down to x8, or disable some of the SATA ports.

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narwi@reddit (OP)

I disagree, just replacing 1 lower speed m.2 slot with a pcie slot would solve a lot of actual connectivity problems. Getting excess m.2 slots which people then stick m.2 to whatever expansion cards in is just stupid and limiting.

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Omniwar@reddit

I don't think it's that bad if the MB designers work around the limitations. I was originally thinking of an X670E/X870E board, but ultimately ended up with a X870 Tomahawk because I don't see myself using multiple add-in cards. It can run 2x full speed M.2 without any sharing, a 3rd gen5 x2 (or x4 if you disable USB4), and a 4th at gen4 x2 (shared with a x4 slot). Rear I/O is very solid and if I ever need 10G lan I can sacrifice that 4th M.2 slot.

There are X870E boards that make pretty poor use of the extra chipset as well. For an example take a look at the block diagram for the GB X870E Aorus Elite/Pro/Master. You can only run 2x M.2 without lane sharing and the only real advantage over their X870 equivalents is that you get 2x physical PCIe x4 slots.

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AK-Brian@reddit

Additional CPU attached storage can be a benefit for some use cases, but I agree that it is a strange strategy from AMD to make this the default design mode across high end models.

On AM4, I actively sought out boards like the B550 Master and B550 Unify because they were wired similarly. It was a quick and easy way to build up a video editing workstation with three CPU-attached Gen4 SSDs - \~18-20GB/s of sequential transfer rate on a desktop. Nice.

However, users who didn't want this had plenty of alternatives available (even within the same brand). This isn't the case with X870E, which makes some X670E versions (like the X670E Master) more appealing. It's weird.

The good news, I suppose, is that even at the upper end of GPUs, bandwidth at Gen4x8 is still essentially on par. There are some conditions where performance is docked a bit, but it's more of a minor annoyance than anything else. It also won't be much of a concern for a few more years if the 50 series launches with PCIe 5.0 compatibility. It's just a strange platform decision.

I do wonder if someone at AMD finally realized that their Gen4x4 chipset uplink (which landed with X570 and has been in place for nearly six years now) is becoming a real problem. Intel's current DMI 4.0x8 (Gen4x8) link has twice the width for downstream storage and has done so since Z690 debuted in late 2021.

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BoltTusk@reddit

Only 1 USB4 port is embarrassing

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Fun_Age1442@reddit

what is usb4 used for

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DarkHelmet@reddit

10Gb external NICs.

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narwi@reddit (OP)

we wouls be much better off getting real 10gb nic in the first place.

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PM_ME_UR_TOSTADAS@reddit

Marketing

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agray20938@reddit

True, though with the only other X870 mini-ITX option being $200 higher, the real competitor for this board right now is existing B650e options -- which don't have USB4 and this is otherwise competitive with.

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Unusual_Pride_6480@reddit

Half the price of an m4 mini

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InspectorJohn@reddit

And board manufacturers keep making product design for teenagers… only nzxt has a more “industrial design” approach in board design besides Apple I think.

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JuanElMinero@reddit

I already miss the MSI Tomahawk/Torpedo boards from 1-2 generations ago, they had subtle industrial looking designs with a simple charm.

Someone thought of ruining all that with the ugliest yellow accents they could find for the current boards.

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cathoderituals@reddit

There are rare exceptions, but I would really, really love for the whole industry to grow up and stop designing everything like it’s for 14 year old boys. I remember getting an Asus ROG board awhile back and there was literally a door hanger in the box that said WARNING - GAMER INSIDE.

Like it’s cool if your mom bought you a puter or whatever, but I like to imagine most of us technically qualify as adults who work and pay bills, and maybe this stuff should at least kind of reflect that?

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agray20938@reddit

Asus ProArt, and honestly most Asus TUF boards are perfectly fine as well.

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IcedFREELANCER@reddit

ProArt looks nice but expensive for no reason, and x870 TUF boards are ugly as hell, x670 had a much better subtle design approach

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IllustriousWonder894@reddit

Where 👏 are 👏 the 👏 x870 👏 mATX 👏 boards 👏

(But seriously, the lack of mATX is bothering me. Not ONE brand released a proper mATX board with this chipset. Doesnt help that they delayed 850 so much.)

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nanonan@reddit

Presumably they don't need the extra connectivity.

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StarbeamII@reddit

X870 is connectivity-starved due to using a lot of PCI-E lanes for the mandated USB ports. mATX makes a lot more sense than ATX, since you can’t even simultaneously use all the features on an ATX X870 board (e.g. use a second m.2 slot and you lose a PCI-E slot, or knock the GPU slot from x16 to x8, or lose some SATA ports)

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