Asus has showcased the Prime B100I-D D4 compact motherboard supporting the Intel N100 CPU and up to 10 USB Type-A ports alongside legacy COM and VGA interfaces.
During Computex, Asus presented the unique-looking Mini-ITX motherboard measuring 170mm x 170mm. Powered by the N100 CPU – featuring four cores and four threads clocked in at 3.4GHz turbo – the same CPU is found in the $199 Chuwi LarkBox X Mini-PC. This board is primed to tackle low-demand tasks such as smart home automation, router duties, or video streaming up to 4K 60Hz.
Since the main chip, N100, is rated for 6W TDP, it can be cooled passively via a small heatsink, leaving room on the board to tuck in up to 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory via a single SO-DIMM, one SATA port, one M.2 2280 slot linked via two lanes of PCIe 3.0 offering around 2GB/s transfer speed, plus a lonely PCIe 3.0 x1 slot.
Technically, the CPU is capable of handling up to DDR5-4800 memory and nine PCIe lanes, however Asus has apparently decided to limit the utilisation to DDR4 plus five lanes, most likely for cost-sensitive reasons.
I/O comprises two USB 3.2 Gen 2, two USB 3.2 Gen1, two USB 2.0, one PS/2 for legacy peripherals, one HDMI, one DisplayPort, three 3.5mm audio jacks (ALC897), and Gigabit Ethernet. There’s also the COM and VGA, handy for controlling old or specialised machinery. Another two USB 3.2 Gen 1 plus two USB 2.0 for chassis I/O alongside a Wi-Fi M.2 slot are also available if needed.
Asus hasn’t indicated any pricing, though appreciating Chuwi is offering a complete system for $199, a barebone board shouldn’t exceed $100.
