The PC enthusiasts were quite pleased with the efficiencies and capabilities introduced by the brand-new Ryzen platform, but they were left wondering about one thing – where are the mini-ITX motherboards that support this new chip? Fortunately, Gigabyte is among the companies who decided not to wait and jump into the game straight away.
The GA-AB350N is a mini-ITX motherboard that’s based on AMD’s AM4 B350 chipset and features things like Wi-Fi 802.11ac connectivity, USB 3.1 Gen 2, LED lights and controls, as well as the support for PCI-Express 3.0 SSDs. Let’s analyze it in detail!
Features of the Gigabyte GA-AB350N-Gaming Wi-Fi
The model arrived in a glossy, colorful box, together with an abundance of accessories – there’s the IO shield, the Wi-Fi antenna, the documentation and the CDs, as well a couple of SATA cables. The design of the motherboard itself is a very pleasing one – it combines white, black, and red, and doesn’t have that “gaming” look like many other models do. Every millimeter of available space is used here – there are four SATA ports, and M.2 socket, the PCI-e slot, the front-panel USB, as well as the Wi-Fi – AB350N certainly ticks all the necessary boxes for being a modern mini-ITX board.
During our testing period, we were quite curious about how the model will perform with a series of new Ryzen CPUs. We tested it with the following processors – Ryzen 5 1500X, 5 1600X, and 7 1800X, and the motherboard was entirely capable of reaching 3.9GHz on all of these processors. This is unquestionably impressive when we consider how small and well-priced this model actually is – overclocking enthusiasts will undoubtedly be pleased with its capabilities.
Another thing that deserves words of praise is the included software – and here we’re talking about both UEFI and the RGB Fusion. For the more advanced options in the UEFI, one has to hover the mouse over the menus, which means no clutter and no unnecessary lists that only consume the screen space. The RGB Fusion, on the other hand, provides the user with a number of different lighting modes – such as the various pulsing and static patterns.
Specifications
- Dimensions – 8.7″ x 7.4″ x 3.1″
- Chipset – AMD B350
- CPU Socket – AMD AM4 A-Series, Ryzen
- Memory Support – Dual-channel, two slots, max 32GB
- Audio – Realtek ALC 1220Al, 8-channel
PROS
- Great for overclocking
- Industrial quality power circuitry
- Good I/O configuration & layout
- Abundance of features
CONS
- Only 2 fan ports
- No PCI-e bifurcation support
Conclusion
All in all, this motherboard features excellent audio implementation, top USB connectivity, flexible RGB support, and all of this in an impressively compact space. To make things even better, the model comes at a reasonable price, which is pretty surprising and sure to make it highly-popular in the upcoming months.
In our opinion, this a great mini-ITX motherboard for all overclocking enthusiasts – like we are. We heartily recommend it to our readers and predict a great future for it.
