TWO BITS

Small motherboards? Big prices?

Motherboards are almost $3,000 now?

It’s 2019. Every day people use their compact, lightweight and portable devices. Why is it then, that the stereotype of the desktop PC is still one of the chunky box mostly full of empty space, about 50 cm high and 20cm wide?

It’s all due to the ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended) standard, which goes back to 1995. It was introduced by Intel and was intended to standardise the basic PC and ensure a basic level of interoperability with a compatible system architecture. Power supply voltage specifications and connectors were also introduced. Some of the adopted sub-standards are perfectly suitable now and into the future, such as the ubiquitous rectangular I/O panel that’s found on every motherboard. The ATX standard mandated a 305 x 244mm motherboard dimension that to this day is still adhered to. Other standardised form factors such as Micro-ATX and Mini–ITX came later. ATX is still by far the most common consumer DIY form factor though.

Back in the 90s and 2000s users often needed a lot of expansion slots for things like graphics, audio, USB, SATA, FireWire, modems or network cards amongst other things. Nowadays though, most of these technologies are included as standard on virtually every consumer motherboard. The majority of users simply don’t need more than one expansion slot. Why is it then that ATX motherboards still dominate the market? High speed USB ports are easily capable of providing enough bandwidth for a multitude of external devices. You can do things like output high bitrate audiophile quality audio to an external amp and you can run something like 6-10 SATA and/or a couple of M.2 NVMe drives on even the cheapest motherboards.

Additionally, there is something appealing about having a fully capable PC the size of a shoebox. You can stick a high-end eight-core or higher processor and even a full-sized graphics card into a tiny little case that performs exceptionally well at all tasks while staying relatively cool and quiet. You can even bling it out with some RGB lighting. You can game, work and multi task just as well as any ATX PC without much in the way of compromise.

So, why does the ATX motherboard make up the vast majority of motherboard sales, and hence by necessity, the chunky ATX computer case? Does the main street buyer assume a small PC is a weak PC? Do motherboard manufacturers lack the marketing will to push Mini-ITX? It remains a mystery.

Finally, a word about motherboard pricing. Gigabyte has unveiled its Aorus X299X Xtreme Waterforce (pictured above). It goes for the eye-watering price of $2,899. That’s not a typo. $2,899 for a motherboard! Yes it has a great list of specifications and the cost of the waterblock adds a few hundred dollars, but if $2,000plus motherboards start to be accepted as normal, then the market has lost the plot. There are several other $1,000 plus motherboards on the market now, and with Threadripper 3 and TRX40 coming, it’s something that’s unfortunately going to continue. Let’s hope theoretical future X670 or Z490 motherboards don’t continue this trend. $2,000+ consumer motherboards? Put down the crack pipe!

“There is something appealing about having a fully capable PC the size of a shoebox. ”