MSI Releases The Mini-ITX B350I PRO AC AM4 Motherboard
by Gavin Bonshor on January 6, 2018 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- MSI
- Mini ITX
- Trade Shows
- AM4
- B350
- CES 2018
MSI has now released the B350I PRO AC, a mini-ITX option for those looking to build a small form factor system featuring AMD’s Ryzen processors or a 7th generation Raven Ridge APUs. Deviating from their more recent AM4 offerings primarily marketed towards gamers, the B350I PRO AC has been designed to cater for all users including professionals and has a number of new features commonly seen on the bigger high-end boards.
The MSI B350I PRO AC sports a formidable 9 phase power delivery design (6+2+1), using 'high efficiency' drivers and chokes - normally we would see this configuration on higher-end motherboards that would be promoted users looking to do a little bit of overclocking, so it is clear that MSI is going for stability here. Due to the size, a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot features MSI’s Steel Armor to reinforce against damage from heavy graphics cards that might apply some torque to the slot.
This Mini-ITX B350 has support for dual channel DDR4 memory with speeds of up to DDR4-3200 and with two memory slots being present, the B350I PRO AC can be installed with modules with a total maximum capacity of 32GB. The B350I PRO AC offers multiple storage solutions including four SATA 6Gb/s ports and a single M.2 slot that supports a PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA drive. This board does support RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays via the SATA 6Gb/s ports.
On the rear panel, the MSI B350I PRO AC has two USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports thanks to the inclusion of the ASMedia ASM3142 controller. Also included is a further two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, two USB 2.0 ports and a single PS/2 combo port for keyboards and mice. Audio wise, this model features a Realtek ALC887 codec with three 3.5mm audio jack inputs included on the rear panel. The single Gigabit LAN port is driven by the more budget Realtek 8111H Gigabit LAN controller and also included is an Intel dual band 3168 Wi-Fi module which has support for Wi-Fi 802.11ac, (2.4/5GHz), and this also includes Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity. Lastly, for users of AMD's Raven Ridge APUs, MSI has implanted a DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 port to make the most out of the onboard graphics.
| MSI B350I PRO AC | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
| Price | N/A |
| Size | Mini-ITX |
| CPU Interface | PGA 1131 (AM4) |
| Chipset | AMD B350 |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Two DDR4-3200 (OC) Supporting Up to 32GB Dual Channel |
| Network Connectivity | Realtek 8111H Gigabit LAN Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 3168 |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC887 |
| PCIe Slots | Single PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Onboard SATA | 4 x 6 Gbps, Supports RAID 0, 1, 10 |
| Onboard SATA Express | None |
| Onboard M.2 | 1 x Supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA |
| Onboard U.2 | N/A |
| USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) | 2 x Type-A (back panel) |
| USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) | 2 x Type-A (back panel) 2 x Type-A (via header) |
| USB 2.0 | 2 x Type-A (back panel) 2 x Type-A (via header) |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin EATX 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V |
| Fan Headers | 2 x 4-pin |
| IO Panel | 1 x RJ45 port 2 x USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports 2 x USB 3.1 5 Gbps ports 2 x USB 2.0 1 x Audio Stack (3 x 3.5mm) |
| Onboard Headers | 2 x 4-pin RGB 1 x Clear CMOS jumper 1 x Front panel audio 1 x Chassis intrusion |
Pricing and availability are currently unavailable at the time of writing, but this will hopefully be revealed soon.
Source: MSI
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19 Comments
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Pheoni - Saturday, January 6, 2018 - link
Can we get the tx/rx antenna count added for the wireless card? Intel says it's 1x1. ( https://ark.intel.com/products/94854/Intel-Dual-Ba... )WorldWithoutMadness - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
It is 1x1, the other antenna is probably for BT or usually just main and aux.ToTTenTranz - Saturday, January 6, 2018 - link
Still no HDMI 2.0 for Raven Ridge?:/
Gc - Saturday, January 6, 2018 - link
Specification Detail tab on MSI page has a footnote that says the video specs are "Only support when using a 7th Gen A-series/ Athlon™ processor."AMD "Raven Ridge" APU laptops like the HP Envy x360 are advertising DP 1.4. That is a claimed benefit of Raven Ridge over the Intel i7 models which implement DP 1.2a rates.
So I suspect MSI is being careful not to leak Raven Ridge desktop APU specs before they are announced, and specs might be amended once AMD "Raven Ridge" desktop APU specs are announced.
ET - Saturday, January 6, 2018 - link
Seems like overthinking to me. Bristol Ridge advertises HDMI 2.0, and no motherboard has it so far. Won't surprise me if HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.2 remain for Raven Ridge.jrs77 - Saturday, January 6, 2018 - link
Nice to see them mITX boards finally make an appearance for AM4-socket. Now all we need is the Raven Ridge chips to actually hit the shelves and be any decent.artifex - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
There's already the GIGABYTE GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI. In fact, I'm hoping to see a comparison once this hits shelves.I hope to buy one of the two and pair it with a plain Ryzen 5-1600. (The 1600x is like $10 more, but I'd have to jump from 65W to 95W, and I'm trying to keep the watts down just to see if I can, on my first ITX build.) I might even pair it with an RX 560 ITX-size GPU that doesn't need another power plug. Have no idea what speed memory to put in it, though. Since I don't really plan to overclock, just 2400? Ideas?
artifex - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Oh, and I see there's actually more: a Biostar 370-based one here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11858/the-biostar-x... and mention of an ASrock board in the comments there, and perhaps more.Gavin, please do a roundup of all the ITX ones, though apparently you may want to wait til after March, because I saw rumors of 450/470 and Ryzen+ while looking this up.
jrs77 - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
A dedicated graphics card totally defeats the purpose of this form factor imho.Icehawk - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
Not for me - the only thing in my box is a video card and 2 SSDs and a ton of open, useless space. Even mATX is overkill volume-wise, as long as I can fit a full size video card and a 450W PSU with good cooling I want as small as I can get.