Asus announced the X670 Mini-ITX board last year, but only now it got into the hands of a brave person (Uniko’s Hardware), who decided to disassemble it, document the disassembly and publish it.
photo: Uniko’s Hardware
The Asus ROG STRIX X670E-I, as the board is officially called, solves the fundamental problem of how to fit two chips making up the X670 chipset into a small area and also offer connectivity to both (without which such a solution would be meaningless). Asus solves this by placing the second chip on a separate PCB with a connector connected to the motherboard. The PCB then carries another connector where PCIe 4.0 storage can be connected. PCIe 5.0 storage is then connected via a riser to the motherboard. The result is a kind of puzzle that remotely resembles the game Tetris.
PCB position with the second chip of the chipset, photo: Andreas Schilling
However, it cannot be said that this solution is free of compromises. The probably less serious one is that there is no space left for the sound card on the motherboard. This is solved by an external USB module called Hive, which, in addition to a sound box (ALC4050 + ESS Saber 9260Q DAC) with an interface for headphones / microphone, S/PDIF and volume control, also offers a USB interface including USB-C 3.2 Gen2.
Hive, photo: Asus
The Hive is also equipped with a programmable button (reset / safe boot / Aura Sync on/off), a button to control AMD Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) and a button called BIOS FLASHBACK, which facilitates updating the BIOS (just upload to a USB flash drive, insert and use button).
where what belongs, diagram: JeffreyF
For most users, the price, which is set at $449 abroad, which means a price starting at 10,000 in our country, will probably be more important.
