Asrock - Ab350 Gaming-itx/ac Mini Itx Am4 Motherboard Review

TLDR: Every bit one of now 3 mini-itx Ryzen motherboard options, the Asrock AB350 Gaming-ITX rises to the top of the heap. WIth rock solid operation, and an fantabulous characteristic set, it is hard to vanquish.

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BUILD QUALITYxc

FEATURES85

CONNECTIVITYlxxx

PERFORMANCE95

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Ryzen is starting to mature as a platform, and with that maturation comes more mini-itx motherboards. I used the Biostar X370GTN in my start Ryzen build and wasn't impressed.

Now Asrock has released their Fatality AB350 Gaming-ITX/air-conditioning motherboard. Is information technology any good? Lets find out.

Asrock AB350 Specifications

CPU Back up	AMD AM4 A-Serial, Ryzen
CHIPSET	AMD Promontory B350
MEMORY SUPPORT	Dual Channel DDR4 up to 3466MHz(OC) up to 32GB Max
Wireless	Intel Dual Band 802.11ac WiFi Bluetooth four.2/3.0
LAN	Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/southward
PCIE	1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16
Ability	eight-Pin, 8-Phase Delivery
AUDIO	7.1 Aqueduct Realtek ALC1220
DIMENSIONS	6.7″ x 6.7″ (170.18mm 10 170.18mm)

The board has a fairly standard layout, featuring all typical connectors yous would look. What sets it autonomously a bit, is the inclusion of three PWM fan headers, and two RGB headers. For a mini-itx motherboard, this is fantabulous. One of the fan headers is even located near the PCI-east slot towards the bottom of the board, making it easier to place fans throughout your case.

Dissimilar most mini-itx motherboards, all of the SATA connectors are located on the front side. This won't be a problem for almost people, but with some example layouts like the NFC S4 Mini it could be problematic.

Rear Ports & IO

• ii Antenna Ports
• 1 PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
• 2 HDMI Ports
• 1 Optical SPDIF Out Port
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports
• one USB iii.0 Blazon-A Port
• 1 USB three.0 Type-C Port
• 2 USB three.0 Ports
• 1 LAN Port with LED

The rear IO is the merely place where this motherboard really leaves something to be desired. It has 6 USB ports, all the same ii of them are USB 2.0. The type-C port isn't even USB three.1. I plant the lack of USB 3.i to exist an odd omission, especially when it is most standard these days.

The included Intel WiFi/Bluetooth module is a 433Mbps unit. With the more expensive X370 version of this motherboard you lot get a faster 800Mbps module.

Asrock Fatality Gaming BIOS

Asrock has washed a really nice job with their UEFI. The Fatality Gaming BIOS is one of the best in the business concern. It has a practical layout, with mutual sense feature descriptions. The only visitor doing it better at this point would be Asus with their ROG Strix BIOS.

BIOS Overclock Settings

If you lot spring over to the OC Tweaker tab you volition find the CPU and RAM overclock controls. Overclocking your components couldn't be whatever simpler. Both offer manual and auto controls.

CPU Overclocking

For CPU's you lot tin adjust the cadre clock, and voltage. I was able to attain a stable overclock of 3.9GHz with a Ryzen vii 1700 at 1.39V. The board handles overclocking very well dissimilar the other two mini-itx Ryzen boards currently on the market.

CPU	OC Speed	OC Voltage
Ryzen 7 1700	3.9GHz	1.395V

RAM Overclocking

The RAM command allows you to manually manage the clock speed and timings. Information technology too has an auto timing feature. And so if you up the RAM frequency, the motherboard will suit your timings automatically. It took my Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000MHz kit from fifteen-16-16-35, to 16-17-17-36 when I raised the speed to 3200MHz.

RAM	OC Speed	OC Timings
Corsair Vengeance LPX	3200MHz	sixteen-17-17-36

VRM Temperatures

A hot topic when it comes to Ryzen AM4 motherboards has been VRM temperatures. Both the Biostar and Gigabyte mini-itx AM4 offerings reportedly have struggles cooling their respective VRM's when overclocking.

Unfortunately Asrock did non include VRM temperature sensors with this board. While I don't take a laser thermometer yet, I can ostend that to the touch on there does non appear to be a cooling event. The Biostar VRM's were noticeably hot when touched while overclocked. This lath does not seem to have the same upshot. I will update this section once I get a proper IR thermometer.

Determination

Asrock did a really good job with the AB350. It has almost every characteristic you would want from a mini-itx motherboard. Including an excellent easy to utilise BIOS, and rock solid CPU/RAM overclocking.

Some of y'all may see this adjacent to its more expensive blood brother the X370 Gaming-ITX. The simply difference between the two is the chipset, and WiFi module. The chipset difference is largely irrelevant since mini-itx motherboards just take one PCI-e GPU slot.

At this point, the Asrock Fatality AB350 Gaming-ITX is the mini-its Ryzen motherboard to shell.

For more than info the video review above shows board layout, BIOS settings, overclocking and fan control settings.

Test Organization

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 1700	Encounter Here
CPU Libation	Noctua NH-L9a	See Here
RAM	32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000MHz	Encounter Hither
HDD	Samsung 960 EVO 256GB	See Hither
GPU	Zotac GTX 1060 Mini	See Here
PSU	HDPlex 160W	See Hither
Power Brick	HP 230W	See Here

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Source: https://tekeverything.com/asrock-ab350-gaming-itx-review/

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