ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac
$225 | WWW.ASROCK.COM Not quite the bang-for-buck we were hoping for.
Again we see ASRock taking on the high-end market. It’s not as dear as some of the other boards, but it’s also not quite the value proposition we’ve come to expect from ASRock.
This mini-ITX board has the usual features we’ve come to expect from these mini-backbones. There’s just a single PCIe 3.0 x16 lane for your graphics card, along with twin memory slots. Thanks to AMD’s X370 chipset, the memory is only rated to overclock to 3,466MHz, well below the 4,000MHz and above seen on Intel’s Z370 chipset, not that it makes nary a difference for most realworld users.
Like all of the X370-based boards, this one will be eventually compatible with AMD’s A-Series Athlon APU, and has the necessary video outputs to make the most of this chip’s integrated GPU. Twin HDMI ports are included but, once again, limited below 60Hz, with a maximum of 30Hz for 3840 x 2160 resolutions. This is a huge shame, as there’s no DisplayPort that could deliver 60Hz, so gamers will want to avoid this board if they’re looking for 4K gaming, despite the name.
At least there’s integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi, alongside four SATA 3 and one M.2 slot for storage, which is nothing to get too excited about. It has USB 3.1 Gen 1, with one Type C and three Type A on the rear. A single Gigabit Ethernet connection is one less than its Intel sibling.
Like the other ASRock board, we’re not sure why the company is commanding such an expensive price when more compelling options are available on shelves.
Verdict
ASRock’s miniature boards don’t offer the same bang for buck as their competitors.