Gigabyte AB350N-Gaming WiFi Review | Daxdi

With its AB350N-Gaming WiFi motherboard, Gigabyte goes small and lets you pack your gaming-quality hardware into a Mini-ITX PC chassis.

That's not overly novel, except for the fact that this board uses the budget-minded AMD B350 chipset, bringing less-often-seen support for AMD AM4 CPUs and APUs to small, single-video-card gaming PCs.

The board isn't as inexpensive as MSI's competing B350 Tomahawk ($129.89 at Amazon) , but the AB350N-Gaming WiFi sports some features that might convince you make room in your build budget.

Anyone shopping for a Mini-ITX board that supports AMD's Ryzen CPUs will want to check out Gigabyte's potent little $109.99 gamer, which includes display outputs for those opting to use AMD's recent G-series CPUs with built-in Vega graphics; you can build a tiny, respectable budget PC with no video card at all.

A PCB That's Jam-Packed

Smaller even than MicroATX motherboards, Mini-ITX boards measure 6.7 inches square (170mm by 170mm).

The dimensions provide just enough room for a single PCI Express x16 slot, limiting the PC to a single video card and just two memory slots.

But Gigabyte makes good use of the space it has with the tiny AB350N-Gaming WiFi.

The AM4 socket eats up a large portion of the tiny AB350N-Gaming WiFi.

Despite the close quarters, the board doesn't look cluttered—at least, while it's free of add-on components.

Once you install the CPU, its cooler, the memory modules, and your video card, you'll have a tough time seeing much of the PCB.

Mini-ITX boards have different designs than standard ATX layouts, of course.

Memory slots take up the entire right side of the AB350N-Gaming, forcing all the standard right-edge headers and connectors elsewhere.

The dual-channel memory slots are bright red and look great when the board is empty, but you won't be able to see much of the slots once the memory (and other components) are installed.

The two slots support up to 32GB of DDR4 memory or 16GB of ECC DDR4 memory.

(For more on motherboard lingo, check out our primer Buying a Motherboard: 20 Terms You Need to Know.)

Gigabyte covers the B350 chipset with a thin heatsink that is too small for any kind of interesting RGB LED flair to be embedded in it.

Instead, Gigabyte opts for "Gigabyte Gaming" on one edge of the heatsink.

The chipset stands in the upper-left corner of the board.

The lone PCI Express x16 slot stands along the lower edge of the AB350N-Gaming WiFi, also crowding out the connectors that would line that edge on a large motherboard.

The slot is red, like the memory slots, but steel envelops most of the slot.

The steel is the more visible of two features that protect the PCI Express slot.

The shield guards against the sides of the slot bending in response to the weight of your video card.

The other feature is Gigabyte's two locking brackets, which pass through the PCB to hold the PCI Express slot itself in place.

Gigabyte solders the brackets at the back side of the board for extra strength.

The AB350N-Gaming WiFi also has two M.2 expansion slots.

One stands near the I/O panel and holds a 2240 Intel Wireless AC card.

The card stands vertically, as there isn't room on the top of the board for a horizontal storage card.

There is, however, room on the back of the board, so Gigabyte tucked an M.2 slot next to the AM4 socket's backplate.

It supports Type-2260 or -2280 devices (60mm or 80mm long) with M.2 connectors.

It's worth mentioning that Gigabyte does an excellent job of labeling connectors on the AB350N-Gaming WiFi.

The labels are bright and easy to spot (before you add components, that is) and they are detailed enough that even new DIY-ers will be able to use them.

For example, Gigabyte labels the front-panel header so that you can connect your PC case's cables without consulting the manual's diagram.

That's a time saver that almost makes up for the board not including an Asus Q-Connector-style front-panel header adapter in its accessories package.

A Look at the Ports and Headers

Gigabyte uses nearly all of the AB350N-Gaming WiFi's left side for the I/O panel, leaving just enough room for your video card.

Standard audio ports stand just above the video-card slot, followed by six Type-A USB ports.

Four of those ports are USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, while the two red ports are true USB 3.1 Gen 2.

Gigabyte also puts the Gigabit LAN port here, complete with activity LEDs.

By the way, although the audio ports don't include a S/PDIF-out port, a two-pin header sits just behind the I/O panel, in case you want to invest in an extension.

The I/O panel also sports DisplayPort and HDMI ports, along with an old-school PS/2 port and two USB 2.0 ports.

The video-outs will let you use the board with one of AMD's AM4-socket APUs or G-series Ryzen 3 or 5 chips without a separate video card.

Also, connectors for the Wi-Fi antenna poke out of the I/O plate.

Some motherboards ship with antenna poles that attach directly to the connectors at the I/O panel, leaving you little room to adjust them, but the AB350N-Gaming WiFi has a large, discrete antenna that you can move around to establish a stronger connection.

As for the connectors, they stand in clumps, eating up what little space remains on the PCB.

The front-panel headers are at the top of the board, next to the front-panel USB 2.0 and 3.0 headers.

Gigabyte also puts four Serial ATA (SATA) connectors here, all of which face up, instead of to the side of the motherboard.

The 24-pin power connector is also at the top of the board, which isn't a big issue from a cable-management perspective.

Unfortunately, the other power connector (the eight-pin) is sandwiched between the I/O panel and the power-phase heatsink, near the middle of the motherboard.

Routing the power cable to that connector isn't likely to be as easy or as neat.

Gigabyte also puts a fan connector at the top of the AB350N-Gaming WiFi.

It's one of just two total fan connectors, which will bug DIY builders who plan to include several fans.

They can solve the problem with a fan controller, but the two-header limit is bound to annoy builders who have been building with ATX motherboards for years.

Small though it may be, the AB350N-Gaming WiFi has room for some onboard RGB LED bling, along with two onboard headers for plug-in aftermarket LED strips.

The onboard LEDs run along the right edge of the board (on the back of the PCB) to create a glow against your motherboard tray.

The headers are at opposite sides of the board, near the lower edge, making them reasonably easy to reach with third-party RGB LED strips.

That's more lighting than I expected from this tiny gaming motherboard.

Accessories and Test Build

Gigabyte certainly didn't go overboard when planning the AB350N-Gaming WiFi's accessories package; it's just the basics.

You get an I/O plate, two SATA cables (one of which has a L-shaped head for cable management), and an antenna for the 802.11ac adapter.

As I mentioned earlier, I like the antenna design because it has a cord that lets me move it around while searching for the best reception location.

I also like Gigabyte's manual, which is loaded with diagrams and clear explanations of the motherboard's features.

The accessories kit may be light on fun add-ons, but it's worthwhile.

AMD's newest Ryzen processors (including the AMD Ryzen 3 2200G that I installed in my test build) won't run on older boards that haven't received a BIOS update.

The AB350N-Gaming isn't old, but some customers will end up with boards that haven't had the update.

It's an issue worth keeping in mind, but it's also not limited to Gigabyte.

The typical fix is to install an older processor and then update the BIOS.

The BIOS issue appears to be resolving, though, as many customers are reporting (on online retailers' websites) that their boards are arriving already flashed and ready for action with the Ryzen 2000 series processors.

In my case, the board had no trouble booting, once I completed the PC buildout.

The build itself went without a hitch.

The AB350N-Gaming WiFi fit neatly into a RioToro CR480 ($101.18 at Amazon) PC case and had had no trouble with the AMD Ryzen 3 2200G CPU.

I installed a bulky MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6G video card, which the steel-wrapped PCI Express x16 slot handled without complaint.

The BIOS: A Brief Look

Whether you want to or not, you'll likely end up working with the PC's BIOS at some point or another, so we took a look at what the AB350N-Gaming WiFi offers.

To get into the BIOS, press the Delete key after starting the PC.

The BIOS has an unassuming design.

Seven tabs run across the top of the page, with the current tab's options appearing below.

It's a simple layout that lets you quickly move through menus.

Trays at the right and lower edges of the screen pop out to display system info when you run the mouse cursor over the tray arrows.

Although the design isn't overly fancy, it gets the job done nicely.

Also, the BIOS has overclocking options and provides plenty of control over your motherboard's settings, including the onboard RGB lighting.

If you're looking for a quick overview of your PC's status, click Easy Mode on the lower pop-out tray.

This mode covers temperatures, component statuses, and your BIOS version.

You can access the Smart Fan 5 fan-control menu from here, or use the EZ OC button to rev up your PC—depending on your hardware.

That said, this being a Mini-ITX board, I suspect that heavy overclocking is not in the cards given the thermal constraints of such cases.

A Little Ryzen Star

Gigabyte's AB350N-Gaming WiFi is a solid option for anyone looking to build a slim gaming PC.

The board crams plenty of worthwhile features onto its small square, and it demands fewer sacrifices than you might expect from a Mini-ITX layout.

That's not to say that the board is perfect.

It has just two fan headers, which is going to drive some DIY builders away—or just irk them.

And spending $109 on a motherboard that has a single PCI Express slot may send some DIYers back to planning a standard ATX-size PC; then again, that's the breaks with Mini-ITX.

But if you're determined to go slim and plan to game, those minor drawbacks aren't likely to dissuade you from picking up an AB350N-Gaming WiFi.

Nor shall we—this is, on the whole, a very good Mini-ITX solution for the Ryzen-minded.