Small kind issue boards are at all times a key speaking level for any desktop market. The typical breakdown on Mini-ITX gross sales for any given era is normally round 10%, and since these boards find yourself within the lower-cost methods, there tends to be a concentrate on the cheaper finish of the spectrum, even relating to the Z collection chipset which is the one with all of the bells and whistles. With Intel’s new Comet Lake-S processors, starting from Celeron all the best way as much as Core i9, and with the brand new socket for Comet Lake, there can be a renewed demand for these trying to construct a small kind issue Intel system. One of the favored mini-ITX low-cost boards in every era is from BIOSTAR, and at present we’re testing the Z490GTN.
Building the Biostar Battleship
All the arguments for constructing a small kind issue system have been mentioned advert nauseum: the house theatre mini PC (HTPC), the small kind issue gaming machine, the single-use server choice, or the low energy desktop or work machine. Throughout the last decade, motherboard firms have different between low value mini-ITX designs, saving lots of pennies in design, all the best way to the excessive efficiency, excessive value, flashy fashions that value greater than lots of respectable ATX full-sized motherboards. We can see these motherboards, on Z-series chipsets, vary from $120 to $350+, and it’s an fascinating train to see what worth segments find yourself being promoted by which era.
With the brand new Z490 chipset, Biostar has gone for a extra mid-range design within the Z490GTN. This $200 mannequin is within the worth bracket typically seen as hyper-competitive. At that worth, it is maybe too-high for a primary system (watch for the B-series chipset model), which signifies that Biostar has to make an effort to offer sufficient mid-range options to make the motherboard worthwhile. With the Z490GTN, the important thing highlights embody a PCIe 3.zero x4 NVMe slot, useful connector and header placement (typically a difficulty on these sized boards), a strengthened PCIe 3.zero x16 slot, and assist for 64 GB of DDR4-4000.
The GTN vary of Biostar mini-ITX boards have been well-liked through the years, typically on account of their simplicity and the value. There’s nothing considerably wonderful about these boards – they appear to have the ability to operate and supply a no-nonsense implementation. The Z490GTN is one such instance, implementing a easy 6+2 section design on the facility supply, SATA ports that do not block one another when utilizing angled connectors, assist for legacy connectivity, an Intel gigabit ethernet controller, and price range Realtek audio. One factor I ought to level out that whereas Biostar states that this motherboard has the power to assist Wi-Fi 6, it is just although an add-in card, which isn’t bundled with the motherboard.
Biostar is eager to advertise its use of upper density pin connectors within the 24-pin ATX and 8-pin 12V connections, which the corporate says reduces in-wire resistance and subsequently affords a decrease wire temperature, resulting in fewer points with pin degredation. It appears that maybe Biostar’s motherboards are utilized in areas the place this is a matter, equivalent to high-humidity nations or in nations the place the room temperature is 30ºC+ (typically these areas go collectively, too).
Results Summary
On the entire, we noticed no main surprises from the Biostar Z490GTN, and it retained a great deal of competitiveness in opposition to our different Z490 platforms. Out of the boards examined to this point, the Z490GTN scored its important win in idle energy, which is commonly a key component for these small kind issue motherboards. Everything else was inside margin with different motherboards.
Overclocking and thermals with a mini-ITX board is commonly a key battleground, because it balances good design with good firmware in addition to how a lot is spent on the facility supply and cooling.
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