Is there a reason we aren't seeing the market develop lower-end motherboards with reduced I/O and no chipsets to keep the costs down?Most "Gamers" don't need 6 SATA ports, 16 USB ports, Wifi, 2x PCI-E X16 slots, etc. And all modern x86 CPUs are actually SoCs that can run without chipsets, technically.I started building a layout for a MATX board without a chipset and no video ports, just a couple of USB-A and C ports and a 2.5Gbe adapter, standard PCI-E X16 5.0, M.2 @ 5.0 speeds as well.The biggest hurdle is going to be determining whether I can get away with a 6-layer PCB and how to cool the MOSFETs. Maybe DDR5 DFM will be annoying but I'm not sure yet. I'm going to try to figure out if I can use Coreboot to build off of so that I don't need to involve Insyde or some other engineering firmThe only examples I can think of are some of the Erying boards that use the mobile processors but I'm talking about a minimalist board with an AM5 socket.
>remove audio jacks>still costs $400
clearly the SATA ports aren't what costs money
>>109059405board cost estimate with tariffs is $42 @ 1000pcs right nowit's single-sided so it doesn't even need to run through the wave solder twice and the AOI pass is way easier since it's going to be 6 layerwe're paying way too much for these mobos because they include too much dumb shit
>>109059419no, it's the chipset, that's the point of this threadit isn't 2008 the amount of PCI-E lanes these SoCs have is plenty for most people
Kinda invested in this. Would it still have front audio and front usb for a regular case? And what mATX are we taking about? The one in OP or a standard wider one? I would like it to be as small as possible since no one needs anything bigger than an ITX, in fact, and ITX board would be better.
>>109059510It would still have 10pin for FP audio, along with a Type-E for USB-C, that's it.Most ITX boards are double-sided, it might be possible at a small price premium but I don't have the budget to deal with any issues if the design is fucked up on rev 0, if anything gets missed in DFM I'm cooked. also it forces me to use double-stack USB-C ports which are a bitch to deal with EMI, current spacing of single port SMT is easier to deal with, no through hole requirementMATX is a tradeoff between a larger size vs. signal integrity, going ITX would be ideal but the reason those boards command a premium price is because it's way harder to cram so many fucking things into such a small footprint, double-sided is usually default and they are often 10-layer PCBs as well.I'm sending the design to a couple of investors and if they don't bite I may put it up on kickstarter or IGG. The entire project will be designed in public, all fuck-ups included, board design will be OSHW by default, not like the chinks aren't already getting the design when I send them the gerber files lol
>>109059393>Is there a reasonhardware backdoors
>>109059393i love model lightsabers, but good god some of these proffieboards are overpowered for something that makes noises when you swing it. why does it need bluetooth and wifi? you can't get a good signal without taking the damn thing out of the metal tube, in which you could use a USB anyway.
>>109059696the backdoor is actually in the CPU/SoC, it's called AMD PSP. I'm not trying to solve for removing that but getting rid of the chipset has a nice side-effect of reducing attack surface it might rely on.>>109059702nigga what?
>>109059393am5 chipset-freeit's called X600
>>109059393>why cant they make motherboards with no chipset like this>post pic of motherboard with chipset on the lower right corner???
>>109059828The desk mini is a proprietary physical format and doesn’t run corebootThanks for validating that the idea is both possible and commercially viable for me though
>>109060257there are itx boards
>>109059393The chipset selection, and the addition of all those dumb ports, is how motherboard manufacturers get paid. If they just slapped a bunch of PCIe on a fiberglass board then they'd have nothing to differentiate/sell.
>>109059800>the backdooris this highlander and there can be only one?
>>109059393>and no chipsets to keepwhere would mossad backdoor live then?can't have mobo without mossad backdoor
>>109059393>>109059581Do you actually have a relevant background is PCB design & electronics or are you just dunningrugermaxxing? As far as I know, modern mobo's are very hard stuff due to timings pushed to the max and other funky stuff.
>>109062382In the CPU directly goyim.
>>109062399I've only ever designed a keyboard PCB for myself, nothing else on the market had 5 rotary knobs so I just made it myself in KiCAD and sent it to JLCPCB.I'm aware of my limitations but I do understand the process and most pitfalls, which is why I'm not trying to go crazy with an ITX board my first try. Part of the goal of making the board minimalist in the first place is to reduce the number of possible failure points through design.part of the reason modern mobos are so annoying to design is because marketing teams feel like they need to add everything in order to compete on specs, but there are other intrinsics like firmware quality that people only ever talk about when it's bad.>>109062300Tha's my point though. None of these products are differentiated enough to be anything more than a commodity, but they are priced as if they are some kind of special snowflake art piece. I just want to make boards that work that are simple and reliable, and hopefully trust eventually. Yes the board will be green PCB, because it's easier to repair and has better thermals, and cheaper. Yes the MOSFET heatsinks will be bare aluminum. because painting them is another step which is additional cost and a waste of time. It's a fucking motherboard. Resin and copper and some metal bits slapped together stop trying to turn it into a van gogh painting. ASUS ironically has boards that are closest to this but they still slap a bunch of bullshit nobody uses on there. and no mosfet thermal management should be criminal
>>109060263there are no X600 ITX boards, no
>>109063709various asrock boards?are you on crack or something?the whole thread feels like someone's openclaw instance or some shit went rogue
>>109063824name even onethe deskmini is STX
>>109063284I have to say I admire your enthusiasim, not the least because I also got multipe DIY'ish electronic projects in my head which most people would rather avoid even trying. But hey, if chinks can make it with scrapheap parts, it shouldn't be impossible as we literally live in the best era ever for electronic hobbyists.In case you haven't seen this (probably have) here's a good intro into mobo designhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8YzqllIoJ4
>>109063915thanks I'll watch it.