Gigabyte AB350N Gaming WiFi
$150 | WWW.GIGABYTE.COM.AU Perfect for those looking for a budget build.
If you want a budget build, look no further. There’s a catch, however. Until the release of the A-series Athlon APU, you’ll be limited to using a Ryzen processor thanks to the AMD B3350 chipset, which requires a discrete GPU, adding another $100 or so to the cost. Thankfully,the A-Series is just around the corner.
For such a cheap price, you can’t expect top of the market features nor performance. The B350 chipset is one of AMD’s more affordable chipsets, and has a slight performance drop over the X370. It also doesn’t overclock as well, with the DDR4 memory topping out at 3,200MHz, though this doesn’t make a lot of difference in the real world. Unlike Intel, though, it can use ECC memory where data integrity is of the utmost importance.
We’re happy to report that this board includes both HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, though you’ll be limited to 4K at 24Hz if you use the former. Realtek’s ALC1220 audio codec has been wheeled out once again for audio duties, and supports 7.1 via 3.5mm minijack, or surround via SP/DIF. A single LAN port is included, and to our amazement, there’s even an 802.11ac Wi-Fi module that you can use to fill the single M.2 slot. A single PCIe 3.0 x16 physical lane is also included. Four SATA 3 ports is standard in this mini-ITX board, though USB 3.0 ports are lacking, with just two alongside the four USB 2.0 ports.
Still, at this price point, this will be a fantastic budget platform when the A-series APUs are released, provided they’re not too expensive.
Verdict
Aimed at the budget end of the market, its lack of features is sweetened by the price.