A $60 Mini-ITX ready to satisfy your most basic PC needs

Jun 22, 2015 15:38 GMT  ·  By

One of the main manufacturers of the future Z170 chipset motherboard that were announced at Computex has arrived with a new small form factor of 17x17cm, with an onboard Intel N3150 1.6G Quad-core processor.

Coming equipped more precisely with an Intel Celeron N3150 1.6G Quad-core processor with a turbo-boost availability of up to 2.08G and supporting up to 8GB of Memory for DDR3L-1600 OR 16GB Memory for DDR3L-1066. It also comes with one PCI-E 2.0 slot and an integrated GPU, being able to play HD content as movies and games with rather ease.

The LAN connectivity is guaranteed by a Realtek RTL8111H - 10/100/1000 controller and the USB connectivity is assured by 2xUSB 3.0 ports, 1xUSB 3.0 header and 4xUSB 2.0 ports.

Also, the Mini-ITX PCB design is also moisture proof, promising a perfect functioning in all exterior environments without any risks of short circuits. Also, the BIOS is equipped with BIO-Remote2 for remote control of the system via Android and Apple devices. Using BIO-Remote2 users will be able to use the mini-ITX as an IoC device.

Also with the Charger Booster function, users will probably be able to plug in their Androids and Apple phones into a high-powered USB 3.0 port and charge their devices up to 42% faster.

Basic specs for basic needs

Our conclusion is that Biostar's new Mini-ITX board is not meant to impress, neither to be generally useful. Equipped with only one PCIe 2.0 slot, it won't be able to actually hold anything these days, as devices ranging from graphics cards to PCIe SSDs or dedicated sound cards, all require at least a relatively ancient PCIe 3.0. Optionally selling PICe 2.0 slots for a motherboard equipped with none borders irresponsibility.

Regarding the quad-core Celeron, it's not really a breakthrough CPU, as it is basically a Braswell with its main advantage being its low wattage consumption that requires only a heatsink to cool down, being perfect for really basic enterprise application.

Compared to Biostar's new addition, Asus' N3150M-E seems like a better option for a similar price. Coming with the same quad-core Celeron it has one default PCIe 2.0 x16 slot with two SATA 6 Gbps ports.

However, when considering they both cost around $60, you can't really ask for much at that price.