The Biostar X370GTN Mini-ITX Motherboard Review: AM4 Goes Tiny
by Gavin Bonshor on October 23, 2017 9:00 AM ESTBiostar X370GTN Conclusion
The target market for the Biostar X370GTN is a relatively clear niche: AMD gamers on a budget that want small form factor systems. Due to there being only a few mini-ITX motherboards on the market, the 'budget' element is perhaps inconsequential - if you want a small form factor Ryzen motherboard, there are only a few options. Biostar can’t command the same premium as boards like ASUS would, but being the first to release such a board onto the X370 chipset has set a pricing precedent for other manufacturers to follow.
Limitations on mini-ITX motherboards are somewhat expected in relation to ports and expansion slots, but this offering from Biostar produces a reasonable showing. Aside from the X370 specific features such as USB 3.1 (10 Gbps), Biostar has opted to use the Realtek RTL8118AS Gigabit controller under the guise of 'gaming', due to the size and the FLY.NET bundled software that allows for networking prioritization. When the board was announced over six months ago now, I was expecting certain sacrifices to be made in the choice of core components, so the aforementioned Gigabit networking controller and the inclusion of the more basic Realtek ALC892 audio codec was to be expected. There are a few interesting design choices, such as 5k caps. The benchmark results do not look too out of the ordinary - except perhaps that power consumption at load which we are retesting.
With something this small, Biostar had to include support of current Bristol Ridge APUs, hence the HDMI 1.4 port and a DVI-D port. The Biostar X370GTN has the foundation for a small potent gaming system, although it perhaps lacks a little finesse we have become accustomed to with so many of the motherboards from the big four having a good baseline in BIOS support and software.
With a quick note to the overclocking capabilities, I was impressed with what such a small and compact board for under $110 could do; it certainly performed no worse than any of the other ATX form factor motherboards that we tested it against (and are writing up for review). The main caveat is voltage control within the BIOS and a distinct lack of being able to set specific voltages. Instead, users need to rely on adjusting the core voltage in incremental stages with the offset, or for this particular motherboard, we recommend using AMD's Ryzen Master software.
The Biostar X370GTN is an interesting option at $110. The choice of 5k capacitors isn’t up to my personal standards, but there is a bit of give and take with smaller boards that aren't from the big four motherboard manufacturers.
We have five other AM4 motherboards already tested that we're writing up for reviews, after which we will look at some of the others available. Requests in the comments.
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BrokenCrayons - Monday, October 23, 2017 - link
Yeah, right now some of the value is lost by the lack of iGPUs on AM4, but the video outs are there for the APU version of Zen. I don't know if such an APU is worth waiting around to get since HTPC and SFF office boxes are probably fine with currently available hardware. Biostar will at least have a mITX board available for when the new APUs come out.mikestefoy - Monday, October 23, 2017 - link
I wouldnt buy anything less than HDMI v2DanNeely - Monday, October 23, 2017 - link
True, but these boards are perfectly fine for people who want to build smaller single GPU boxes and know they don't need a 2nd PCIe card. The limitations of mITX have gotten small enough that using it instead of miniATX for a smaller build is an increasingly attractive option.Valantar - Monday, October 23, 2017 - link
"One perhaps disappointing omission from the BIOS is the inability to call upon XMP profiles from any installed memory."This is just plain wrong. I don't know if it's your BIOS, your board, or your RAM, but mine can load XMP profiles just fine, and has done that since long before AGESA 1.0.0.6. I'm not running Ryzen-optimized RAM, either, just some TridentZ 3200 sticks that I bought before Ryzen even launched. This warrants some further investigation, though. I can easily provide screenshots if you want.
twnznz - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
There's just one issue I am having with this board. Every so often, the system will fail a boot, but then will short cycle power 5x before booting back into CMOS defaults.I think there's something not quite right with the BIOS.
Valantar - Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - link
I have the same issue, but from what I can tell it only happens when I run my RAM at 3200 (what it's rated for, XMP profile). At 3000 or below (same timings), it's never happened to me, at least.Oxford Guy - Thursday, October 26, 2017 - link
XMP profiles, as far as I know, are only optimized for Intel's controllers. AMD tends to not perform as well so it makes sense that you would need to lower RAM speed to use those timings.Rene23 - Sunday, October 29, 2017 - link
anyone knows if these AM4 mini-its boards POST and boot without VGA card? need this for a head-less Linux server only ;-)karan101 - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
<p><a href="http://www.mechanicalworld.in ">mechanicalworld</a></p>Duracellmumus - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
Let me save this little puppy: i choose this board, because my case have a special desing and need to use a big tower-like cooler on cpu and this board designe was the only one what can i choose.The board arived whit 1.0.0.4b bios. Simply put together with 1800x and G.skill cl14 ram and boot up.
I set 1,35V to ram, reboot, set 3200Mhz and XMP reboot. From that time it run without any problem. Later I try all of the bios settings, and choose the best conbination for smooth gameplay. It takes 42 reboot to find it.
I do update to 1.0.0.6 next month. Its able to set up manualy the memory timings, it way beter than leave the XMP on and the timeing "auto".
There is no any issue whit this x370GTN Biostar board.