ASUS RoG Strix X370-I Gaming
The Ryzen equivalent.
It’s fantastic to see so many AMD boards on the market since the release of Ryzen, and this has even extended into the SFF market. This board uses AMD’s X370 chipset and AM4 socket. It’d be nice if Intel and AMD hadn’t named their chipsets so similarly, as it’s bound to be an issue for consumers when choosing between a Z370 or X370 board. It’s compatible with both the existing Ryzen series of CPUs, as well as the upcoming A-Series Athlon APU, which includes integrated Radeon graphics.
This board uses the same tiny mini-ITX form factor, yet that hasn’t stopped ASUS from loading up the PCB with plenty of goodies. It’s got the same single PCIe x16 physical lane for your chunky graphics card, which is a must thanks to the board’s lack of an HDMI output. There’s a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, along with four SATA 3 ports. The outputs are not identical though, with no HDMI or DisplayPort. This is a huge omission considering it is compatible with the A-series Athlon, which requires these to make the most of the iGPU inside this APU. There’s also only three external 3.5mm stereo minijacks, though it does use the same S1220A audio codec. Six USB ports are on the rear I/O port, four of which are USB 3.1 Gen.
Considering the lack of video outputs and diminished audio outputs, this puts the AMD version of the ROG STRIX at a strict disadvantage if you’re not using a discrete video card to turn it into a gaming beast. And if you’re not, you’re better off with one of the cheaper boards.
Verdict
Considering its inability to run without a discrete GPU, this board’s price is hard to justify.