This review is on the Biostar X370GTN Mini ITX motherboard, which was the first mini-ITX motherboard released on the AM4 platform for AMD Ryzen and Bristol Ridge processors. The X370GTN joins a very short list of mini-ITX form factor AMD Ryzen compatible motherboards, but it comes in at one of the cheapest.

Other AnandTech Reviews for AMD’s Ryzen CPUs and X370/B350

The AMD Ryzen 3 1300X and Ryzen 3 1200 CPU Review: Zen on a Budget
The AMD Ryzen 5 1600X vs Core i5 Review: All Ryzen 5 CPUs Tested
The AMD Zen and Ryzen 7 Review: A Deep Dive on 1800X, 1700X and 1700

To read specifically about the X370/B350 chip/platform and the specifications therein, our deep dive into what it is can be found at this link.

Boards in the Works

• $260 - ASRock X370 Professional Gaming
• $230 - ASRock X370 Taichi
• $210 - GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming 5
• $120 - ASRock B350 Gaming K4
• $110 - Biostar X370GTN [this review]
• $98 - MSI B350 Tomahawk

The Biostar X370GTN Overview

With smaller form factor motherboards, the cost is in paying for the privilege of a smaller, more space friendly option. This should be more prevalent in AMD's recent product portfolio, as the size of the socket offers zero favors when it comes to layout: when the socket is large, everything else has to be smaller. Biostar, known for being at the cheaper end of the market, is attempting to combine the smaller form factor with a small price compared to other mini-ITX boards on the market. 

One very interesting implementation from Biostar is the Realtek RTL8118AS Gigabit controller, which Realtek calls their 'Dragon' network controller in direct competition to the Killer network controllers we see on other boards. The reason why this is interesting, aside from the controller being relatively rare on consumer motherboards, is that (we were told) this is the physically smallest network controller available for consumer use. So there is some thought behind controller choice other than cost! That being said, Biostar uses 5k solid caps rather than the 10k/12k models we see on most other motherboards, which is a clear sign of cost-cutting (despite 5k being supported in the specification manuals).

Biostar and Realtek advertise the Realtek 'Dragon' network controller as favorable for games, as it is 'optimized' to offer better performance for traffic with small data packets. We asked about the information behind this when we saw an earlier controller on a competitor's board, but the details are proprietary. Another Realtek addition on this board is the inclusion of the ALC892 audio codec which is generally found on the more budget-orientated motherboards and I’m not entirely surprised to see it used here.

The X370GTN has four SATA connectors, which is fairly standard for ITX motherboards; these ports allow the use of RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays. In addition to the SATA ports, Biostar has included a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 port on the rear of the PCB which allows for use with SATA and PCIe use. USB is aplenty, and there are also additional USB headers for front panel connectors. 

Biostar has advertised that the Biostar X370GTN is designed with gamers in mind, placing inside its 'Racing' line of motherboards. For such a low-cost option, especially in a mini-ITX form factor, it will be an interesting scenario to see if the board can perform.

Biostar X370GTN Overclocking

In the west, Biostar is not as prevalent as certain other motherboard vendors in overclocking. However, based on personal testing their recent offerings, they have been showing great promise with each iteration. The idea of hammering out lots of MHz on an ITX board doesn’t exactly sound plausible, but being on the X370 chipset, users may expect at least some element of headroom to play with. It should be noted that the Biostar X370GTN only allows overclocking through the BIOS when it has been updated to at least AGESA 1006 BIOS.

The Biostar BIOS is relatively basic, which has upsides and downsides. The X370GTN is as simple to overclock as virtually any other motherboard with a changeable multiplier and basic voltage control, but it lacks some of the finer tuning of other motherboards (especially if a user wants to go for extreme, sub-zero cooling). The overclocking settings are in a screen titled O.N.E. Apparently it keeps all the core overclocking settings in O.N.E easy place.

A caveat I have with the BIOS is with regards the voltage adjustments for overclocking. The only option for adjustment is via offsets, rather than having set values. This can mean that for users already familiar with the platform, the overclocker can end up second-guessing themselves with respect the voltage that actually needs to be applied. This could potentially cause damage, even with experienced users. One way around this is to use the Ryzen Master overclocking software, which should translate a voltage value into a specific offset for the BIOS, although for experienced users this is not an ideal scenario. 

Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with POV-Ray and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Overclocking Results

I managed to push our Ryzen 7 1700 CPU to 3.9GHz with 1.375v set according to Ryzen Master. This is actually a limitation of our processor rather than the board - regardless of voltage (within reasonable temperature), at 4.0GHz OCCT showed variable instability at all times. This is still fairly reasonable, giving some of the known limits of AMD's silicon (a steep voltage requirement around 3.9-4.2 GHz for most silicon).

I do have to mention I probably wouldn’t go much further than 3.9/4.0 GHz on this specific board with this chip anyway, even if it were capable. The small power delivery heatsinks were already getting pretty warm at load, and there was a level of personal discomfort running a sub-$110 board to such a degree. There is also only a single 4pin 12V CPU power connector, which may become a limiting factor pushing further.

The base Ryzen 7 1700 processor we are using has a 3.0 GHz base and a 3.7 GHz turbo, and is rated at 65W. Our stock load power numbers were surprisingly low (more about that later in the review), but when overclocked to 4.0 GHz (during brief periods of stable) the overall power consumption taken at the wall was pushing above 185W.

Board Features

Biostar wasn’t just the first manufacturer to release and produce an ITX motherboard for the AM4 platform, but the X370GTN is one of the cheapest X370 boards on the market. One of the benefits that some vendors are exploiting is that users can build a small and affordable system with 8-core processors with Ryzen, although few are reluctant to go into the mini-ITX form factor. 

Biostar X370GTN Mini ITX Motherboard
Warranty Period	3 Years
Product Page	Link
Price	$110
Size	Mini-ITX
CPU Interface	AM4
Chipset	AMD X370
Memory Slots (DDR4)	Two DDR4 Supporting 32GB Dual Channel Up to 3200 MHz
Video Outputs	HDMI 1.4 DVI-D
Network Connectivity	Realtek RTL8118AS
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC892
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)	1 x PCIe 3.0 (x16)
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH)	None
Onboard SATA	Four, RAID 0/1/10
Onboard M.2	1 x PCIe 3.0 x4, on Rear
USB 3.1 (10 Gbps)	1 x Type-C 1 x Type-A
USB 3.0 (5 Gbps)	4 x Rear Panel 1 x Header
USB 2.0	2 × via header
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 4-pin CPU
Fan Headers	1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x System (4-pin)
IO Panel	4 x USB 3.1 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 x USB 3.1 (USB 3.1 Gen 2) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 1 x Network RJ-45 1 x DVI-D 1 x HDMI 1.4 1 x Combo PS/2 5 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port

The size of the motherboard means that there is only two memory slots, although Biostar lists these as supporting up to DDR4-4000. Although RGB does not enhance performance, it is a popular feature (especially for marketing), and the X370GTN has an RGB header that is controllable through software as well as some embedded LEDs on one of the heatsinks.

In The Box

We get the following:

• Four black SATA cables
• User manual
• Driver installation disk
• I/O shield

Inside the box, we have the minimum number of accessories which you would expect to find with any motherboard. This includes four black straight SATA cables, one for every SATA port. If Biostar were going to plug the 'gaming' aspect of the package, we might have expected something a little extra here, however, the cost is also a factor.

Visual Inspection

The X370GTN features a fairly basic layout, with an all-black PCB and a pair of small racing styled heat sinks, one covering the power delivery and one on the chipset. The power delivery heatsink is small and contains a wave of RGB LED lights integrated into it. While this heatsink manages to cover what is intended, the size seems relatively inadequate and it doesn’t have much mass to it. The chipset heatsink is also light, to which Biostar are using push pins for mounding and equipped it with a subtle carbon effect wrapper to enhance the look.

There are only two fan headers on the board, found either side of the two memory slots. This used to be normal for mini-ITX motherboards, although recently the main manufacturers have started supporting three as a standard. Looking to processor power connectivity, only a single 4pin 12V power connector is required to power the board. This is more than capable of running any Ryzen CPU at stock, but might not be sufficient for large overclocks. 

A noticeable feature on the Biostar board is the use of 5k rated solid state polymer capacitors, which is a little disappointing. Most AM4 motherboards usually have 10k or 12k rated caps, which corresponds to their longevity. These caps are unmarked/unbranded, so it is unclear where Biostar is sourcing them from. At the bottom end of the motherboard, Biostar has equipped four SATA ports, with two of them running parallel above the single PCIe x16 slot, and the other two next to the memory slots. Also in this area are a pair of USB front panel headers, with one for USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) and the other for USB 2.0.

The board has a 4+3 phase power delivery design, which is typical given the size of the board and price point. The X370GTN features seven ER30 1712 Ferrite chokes, seven NIKO Semiconductor MOSFETs and is controlled by the Intersil ISL95712. The 4+3 phase is split into two separate sections with four being dedicated to the CPU, with the other three likely in place for upcoming APUs (Ryzen with bundled graphics).

On the rear panel, we find a four USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) ports, and two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports, with the latter having a Type-C and Type-A. The Realtek Dragon networking chip provides the gigabit networking port, while the Realtek ALC892 provides the audio jacks. A PS/2 combo port is also present, and video outputs are a single DVI-D connector, supporting resolutions of up to 1920 x 1200 @ 60Hz, and a sole HDMI 1.4 output supporting 3840 x 2160 @ 30Hz. These video outputs are for users who are investing in the current Bristol Ridge APUs, or looking to potential future APUs supported on the platform.

Even though the rear PCB of the Biostar X370GTN is mostly covered up by the AMD cooler installation backplate, Biostar has included a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 port to the rear. When using the M.2 port in PCIe mode, Ryzen processors will offer a maximum bandwidth rate of up to PCIe 3.0 x4, while Bristol Ridge APUs allow for up to a maximum of PCIe 3.0 x2. Both 2260 and 2280 sized options featuring M key type connectors are supported by this board.

BIOS

Looking at the Biostar X370GTN BIOS on the whole, the first thing that springs to mind instantly its simplicity: it is very plain. Unlike a lot of motherboard manufacturers, Biostar is one of the only mainstream vendors that has a simple GUI without splitting modes between basic and advanced. A more apt enthusiast will be itching to plough through an advanced section to check out all of the settings, but this is a relatively low-cost mini-ITX offering, so we wouldn't expect a lot of wiggle room in terms of voltage and core clock control.

The main screen is split into two main sections, with a center panel with all the customizable and changeable settings, and a skin on the left which has vital data including clock speed, memory speed, the amount of memory installed and even the average fan speed. 

The Biostar Racing BIOS featured on the X370GTN has seven main tabs, although only a couple of them offer customization. The first of these screens is an advanced tab which allows for tweaking of many different settings and offers the ability to enable or disable components and controllers such as SATA ports and even on-board audio.  Also available is the ability to turn on/off AMD specific features such as Cool and Quiet or C-State options.

Having the ability to change specific USB options is handy if you wish to do so, but more useful to most is being able to switch IOMMU on and off. Users can also disable features such as the audio or networking functionality here, and RGB LED control is later in the BIOS.

With the Boot tab, managing certain aspects of boot priority can be ascertained through the options available on this screen, although there is not a menu for single 'click to Boot on this device' as with some other motherboards.

With the O.N.E screen, we find Biostar’s simplified overclocking options for CPU and memory. Only after updating to an AGESA 1006-enabled BIOS do the overclocking features appear, however. Overclocking is possible through adjusting the multiplier, or increasing the base frequency. Voltage adjustments come only with an offset, making it difficult to pin down an exact voltage. There is no Load Line Calibration setting either.

One perhaps disappointing omission from the BIOS is the inability to call upon XMP profiles from any installed memory. The easiest way to set rated speeds and timings is to simply enable XMP, but the lower-tier vendors mostly do not include this option, requiring users to set things manually. This can be an issue if there are other adjustments to be made in the secondary and tertiary sub-timings, and the motherboard vendor does not open those up (or users do not know what they are). XMP saves a lot of effort. It is worth noting that without the a BIOS built on the AGESA update, memory frequency multipliers are limited to a maximum of 3200MHz.

The BIOS also has an RGB LED lighting customization tool, for the RGB LEDs embedded in the power delivery heatsink and the RGB headers. Users have the option to enable or disable the lighting as well as changing the lighting effect and setting the red, green and blue values. 

Software

Perhaps expected given previous Biostar reviews, the included software doesn’t amount to the volume you would expect from the primary motherboard manufacturers. What Biostar has included is the 'Biostar Racing GT Software' for adjusting LEDs and monitoring the system, and a 'Fly.NET' utility that uses the gaming-focused network controller on the board to prioritize software network access over others.

The Biostar Racing GT Software does actually provide a lot of useful information such as clock speed, motherboard information including BIOS version. Other options include Smart Ear, which increase the overall gain through the headphones.

The H/W monitor tab is much of the same, but more information including CPU/memory voltage, core and system temperature and even fan speed is present here. The fans can also be calibrated here.

Vivid LED DJ which is a very strange naming scheme as DJing has nothing to do with RGB. But the software allows for a much more comprehensive and intuitive customization of the RGB lighting compared to the BIOS options. A lot of emphasis has been placed on RGB products so far in 2017, and although there isn’t much RGB to speak of on the board, RGB LED headers are present for use of RGB strips to further enhance the bling bling.

Touching on the Fly.NET software, this allows network prioritization between different programs connected to the internet, as well as certain processes which rely on the internet. 

 

Test Bed

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Test Setup
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 1700, 65W, $300, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo)
Motherboard	Biostar X370GTN
Cooling	Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB 360
Power Supply	Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU
Memory	2x16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400
Video Card	ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost)
Hard Drive	Crucial MX300 1TB
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Many thanks to...

Thank you to ASUS for providing us with GTX 980 Strix GPUs. At the time of release, the STRIX brand from ASUS was aimed at silent running, or to use the marketing term: '0dB Silent Gaming'. This enables the card to disable the fans when the GPU is dealing with low loads well within temperature specifications. These cards equip the GTX 980 silicon with ASUS' Direct CU II cooler and 10-phase digital VRMs, aimed at high-efficiency conversion. Along with the card, ASUS bundles GPU Tweak software for overclocking and streaming assistance.

The GTX 980 uses NVIDIA's GM204 silicon die, built upon their Maxwell architecture. This die is 5.2 billion transistors for a die size of 298 mm2, built on TMSC's 28nm process. A GTX 980 uses the full GM204 core, with 2048 CUDA Cores and 64 ROPs with a 256-bit memory bus to GDDR5. The official power rating for the GTX 980 is 165W.

The ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB (or the full name of STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5) runs a reasonable overclock over a reference GTX 980 card, with frequencies in the range of 1178-1279 MHz. The memory runs at stock, in this case 7010 MHz. Video outputs include three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI 2.0 connector and a DVI-I.

Further Reading: AnandTech's NVIDIA GTX 980 Review

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX200/MX300 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB units are strong performers. The MX200s are based on Marvell's 88SS9189 controller and using Micron's 16nm 128Gbit MLC flash, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 100K random read IOPs and 555/500 MB/s sequential read and write speeds. The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 320TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX200 (250 GB, 500 GB & 1TB) Review

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with Vengeance LPX DDR4 Memory

Corsair kindly sent a set of their Vengeance LPX low profile, high-performance memory. The heatsink is made of pure aluminum to help remove heat from the sticks and has an eight-layer PCB. The heatsink is a low profile design to help fit in spaces where there may not be room for a tall heat spreader; think a SFF case or using a large heatsink.

Benchmark Overview

For our testing, depending on the product, we attempt to tailor the presentation of our global benchmark suite down into what users who would buy this hardware might actually want to run. For CPUs, our full test suite is typically used to gather data and all the results are placed into Bench, our benchmark database for users that want to look at non-typical benchmarks or legacy data. For motherboards, we run our short form CPU tests and our system benchmark tests which focus on non-typical and non-obvious performance metrics that are the focal point for specific groups of users.

The benchmarks fall into several areas:

Short Form CPU

Our short form testing script uses a straight run through of a mixture of known apps or workloads, and requires about four hours. These are typically the CPU tests we run in our motherboard suite, to identify any performance anomalies.

CPU Short Form Benchmarks
Three Dimensional Particle Movement v2.1 (3DPM)	3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, derived from my academic research years looking at particle movement parallelism. The coding for this tool was rough, but emulates the real world in being non-CompSci trained code for a scientific endeavor. The code is unoptimized, but the test uses OpenMP to move particles around a field using one of six 3D movement algorithms in turn, each of which is found in the academic literature.
	The second version of this benchmark is similar to the first, however it has been re-written in VS2012 with one major difference: the code has been written to address the issue of false sharing. If data required by multiple threads, say four, is in the same cache line, the software cannot read the cache line once and split the data to each thread - instead it will read four times in a serial fashion. The new software splits the data to new cache lines so reads can be parallelized and stalls minimized.
WinRAR 5.4	WinRAR is a compression based software to reduce file size at the expense of CPU cycles. We use the version that has been a stable part of our benchmark database through 2015, and run the default settings on a 1.52GB directory containing over 2800 files representing a small website with around thirty half-minute videos. We take the average of several runs in this instance.
POV-Ray 3.7.1 b4	POV-Ray is a common ray-tracing tool used to generate realistic looking scenes. We've used POV-Ray in its various guises over the years as a good benchmark for performance, as well as a tool on the march to ray-tracing limited immersive environments. We use the built-in multithreaded benchmark.
HandBrake v1.0.2	HandBrake is a freeware video conversion tool. We use the tool in to process two different videos into x264 in an MP4 container - first a 'low quality' two-hour video at 640x388 resolution to x264, then a 'high quality' ten-minute video at 4320x3840, and finally the second video again but into HEVC. The low-quality video scales at lower performance hardware, whereas the buffers required for high-quality tests can stretch even the biggest processors. At current, this is a CPU only test.
7-Zip 9.2	7-Zip is a freeware compression/decompression tool that is widely deployed across the world. We run the included benchmark tool using a 50MB library and take the average of a set of fixed-time results.
DigiCortex v1.20	The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates the activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up.

System Benchmarks

Our system benchmarks are designed to probe motherboard controller performance, particularly any additional USB controllers or the audio controller. As general platform tests we have DPC Latency measurements and system boot time, which can be difficult to optimize for on the board design and manufacturing level.

System Benchmarks
Power Consumption	One of the primary differences between different motherboards is power consumption. Aside from the base defaults that every motherboard needs, things like power delivery, controller choice, routing and firmware can all contribute to how much power a system can draw. This increases for features such as PLX chips and multi-gigabit ethernet.
Non-UEFI POST Time	The POST sequence of the motherboard becomes before loading the OS, and involves pre-testing of onboard controllers, the CPU, the DRAM and everything else to ensure base stability. The number of controllers, as well as firmware optimizations, affect the POST time a lot. We test the BIOS defaults as well as attempt a stripped POST.
Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5	Testing onboard audio is difficult, especially with the numerous amount of post-processing packages now being bundled with hardware. Nonetheless, manufacturers put time and effort into offering a 'cleaner' sound that is loud and of a high quality. RMAA, with version 6.2.5 (newer versions have issues), under the right settings can be used to test the signal-to-noise ratio, signal crossover, and harmonic distortion with noise.
USB Backup	USB ports can come from a variety of sources: chipsets, controllers or hubs. More often than not, the design of the traces can lead to direct impacts on USB performance as well as firmware level choices relating to signal integrity on the motherboard.
DPC Latency	Another element is deferred procedure call latency, or the ability to handle interrupt servicing. Depending on the motherboard firmware and controller selection, some motherboards handle these interrupts quicker than others. A poor result could lead to delays in performance, or for example with audio, a delayed request can manifest in distinctly audible pauses, pops or clicks.

System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

The Biostar X370GTN provided some very interesting power results which does indeed make things look a little odd. In all 3 of our power tests, the X370GTN provides results at different ends of the spectrum, with the power being high at idle, but very low at load. With smaller boards there might be inefficiencies leading to high power at low loads, and lower overall power at load, but this much of a difference was somewhat surprising/alarming. We confirmed the data a couple of times, especially given the 65W processor at hand and the system pulling 185W when overclocked. We're redoing the numbers again, and will update.

Non UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) 

The Biostar X370GTN is marginally one of the slowest boards in our Non UEFI post time testing and disabling all the available controllers/fluff shaved a mere second or so off post times.  

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5

Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). For this test we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on board, as well as the Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise.

 

Performance in RMAA does yield some interesting results. Mini-ITX motherboards tend to suffer in audio performance due to electrical interference for the proximity of components. The newer codecs tend to handle this better, but against the other ATX boards we have tested, the ALC892 in the Biostar sits at the bottom of our comparison. 

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time.  This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

Not all motherboard manufacturers optimize their motherboards for DPC latency, and the Biostar X370GTN is no different here. Although it looks like a poor result, this is more than acceptable for a board of this caliber and size.

CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We put the memory settings at the CPU manufacturers suggested frequency, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

Video Conversion – Handbrake v1.0.2: link

Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. For HandBrake, we take two videos and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container: a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short. We also take the third video and transcode it to HEVC. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.

Compression – WinRAR 5.4: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2017. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second 720p videos.

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test v2.1: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here. We are using the latest version of 3DPM, which has a significant number of tweaks over the original version to avoid issues with cache management and speeding up some of the algorithms.

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7.1b4: link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

Neuron Simulation - DigiCortex v1.20: link

The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up. Results are taken during the steady state period in a 32k neuron simulation, and represented as a function of the ability to simulate in real time (1.000x equals real-time).

 

Gaming Performance

Ashes of the Singularity

Seen as the holy child of DirectX12, Ashes of the Singularity (AoTS, or just Ashes) has been the first title to actively go explore as many of DirectX12s features as it possibly can. Stardock, the developer behind the Nitrous engine which powers the game, has ensured that the real-time strategy title takes advantage of multiple cores and multiple graphics cards, in as many configurations as possible.

Rise Of The Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.

One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 4 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.

Thief

Thief has been a long-standing title in PC gamers hearts since the introduction of the very first iteration which was released back in 1998 (Thief: The Dark Project). Thief as it is simply known rebooted the long-standing series and renowned publisher Square Enix took over the task from where Eidos Interactive left off back in 2004. The game itself utilises the fluid Unreal Engine 3 engine and is known for optimised and improved destructible environments, large crowd simulation and soft body dynamics.

Total War: WARHAMMER

Not only is the Total War franchise one of the most popular real-time tactical strategy titles of all time, but Sega delve into multiple worlds such as the Roman Empire, Napoleonic era and even Attila the Hun, but more recently they nosedived into the world of Games Workshop via the WARHAMMER series. Developers Creative Assembly have used their latest RTS battle title with the much talked about DirectX 12 API so that this title can benefit from all the associated features that comes with it. The game itself is very CPU intensive and is capable of pushing any top end system to their limits.

Biostar X370GTN Conclusion

The target market for the Biostar X370GTN is a relatively clear niche: AMD gamers on a budget that want small form factor systems. Due to there being only a few mini-ITX motherboards on the market, the 'budget' element is perhaps inconsequential - if you want a small form factor Ryzen motherboard, there are only a few options. Biostar can’t command the same premium as boards like ASUS would, but being the first to release such a board onto the X370 chipset has set a pricing precedent for other manufacturers to follow.

Limitations on mini-ITX motherboards are somewhat expected in relation to ports and expansion slots, but this offering from Biostar produces a reasonable showing. Aside from the X370 specific features such as USB 3.1 (10 Gbps), Biostar has opted to use the Realtek RTL8118AS Gigabit controller under the guise of 'gaming', due to the size and the FLY.NET bundled software that allows for networking prioritization. When the board was announced over six months ago now, I was expecting certain sacrifices to be made in the choice of core components, so the aforementioned Gigabit networking controller and the inclusion of the more basic Realtek ALC892 audio codec was to be expected.  There are a few interesting design choices, such as 5k caps. The benchmark results do not look too out of the ordinary - except perhaps that power consumption at load which we are retesting.

With something this small, Biostar had to include support of current Bristol Ridge APUs, hence the HDMI 1.4 port and a DVI-D port. The Biostar X370GTN has the foundation for a small potent gaming system, although it perhaps lacks a little finesse we have become accustomed to with so many of the motherboards from the big four having a good baseline in BIOS support and software.

With a quick note to the overclocking capabilities, I was impressed with what such a small and compact board for under $110 could do; it certainly performed no worse than any of the other ATX form factor motherboards that we tested it against (and are writing up for review). The main caveat is voltage control within the BIOS and a distinct lack of being able to set specific voltages. Instead, users need to rely on adjusting the core voltage in incremental stages with the offset, or for this particular motherboard, we recommend using AMD's Ryzen Master software.

The Biostar X370GTN is an interesting option at $110. The choice of 5k capacitors isn’t up to my personal standards, but there is a bit of give and take with smaller boards that aren't from the big four motherboard manufacturers. 

We have five other AM4 motherboards already tested that we're writing up for reviews, after which we will look at some of the others available. Requests in the comments.