Mini ITX board choices are blooming

[Zap]

The mini ITX market is getting some excitement. Besides the usual bazillion VIA solutions...

JetWay JNC62K AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
$150
AM2+ mini ITX board that supports quad cores (Phenom). Best IGP of the bunch.

Intel BOXDG45FC LGA 775 Intel G45 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$130
The Intel G45 chipset solution that has been talked about already.
OEM version for $5 less but not worth the savings IMO.

Intel BOXDQ45EK LGA 775 Intel Q45 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$135
The Q45 version, with dual DVI for dual display support?!?!?

Intel BOXD945GCLF2 Atom 330 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
$85
The dual core Atom. Board now has gigabit ethernet on-board, making it juicier.

ECS PMI8M Intel Celeron M 600MHz 479 Intel 852GM Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
$50AR
If you just want something really, really cheap, or miss the old Intel passive versions, here's a passive Celeron M just like the old Intel ones (except at half the MHz). It actually uses a notebook chipset, so might use even less power. Comes with dual ethernet and three serial, plus a CompactFlash slot on the bottom, so geared towards the embedded market. Very interesting... and cheap!

ZOTAC NF610I-D-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$56
ZOTAC NF630I-D-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$65
These are newcomers. SPCR reviewed the lower end model. The manufacturer claims quad core support on these, unlike Intel's offerings! Really cheap too, and with pseudo-okay IGP. Only thing is no dual channel memory support (chipset limitation) and no gigabit ethernet (suckage).

All of these are actually in stock except for the dual core Atom (ETA 10/20). I love seeing all these choices! Been wanting to replace my relatively power hungry server (mobile P4 Northwood on desktop board, around 80W idle with 2x HDD) with one of these... maybe the dual core Atom?

 

[xSauronx]

interesting about the atom 330 boards: they have 2, one is in stock, one is not.

the one in stock is cheaper and the only thing different seems to be the model number, and the cheaper one doesnt have "package contents" listed. what am i missing?

 

[Zap]

Newegg also lists (OOS) an Atom 230, which is single core.

The cheaper Atom 330 board listed as in-stock is an OEM model.

Intel motherboard part numbers starting in BOX are retail boxed, starting in BLK are "bulk" or OEM.

 

[Liberator21]

Wow the Zotacs seem like deals. We're going to be seeing a lot of custom quad-core boxes made out of humidors and radios soon

 

[widefault]

The CPU on the ECS is a Shelton core, basically a cache-less Banias Pentium-M. Very low power, performance pretty much equal to a PIII at the same speed. I have one in this mini-system. I've also had the socket 479 version of the ECS board, but paid a hell of a lot more. Decent board, very basic. That said, this is a hell of a price for what's really an embedded board. Mini-box.com sells the socketed version for $160!

So very tempted to pick one up, but I already have a D201GLY, D201GLY2, DG45FC, Jetway J9F2-KHDE, MSI Fuzzy 965, and a Commell LV-676 waiting for projects.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: widefault
So very tempted to pick one up, but I already have a D201GLY, D201GLY2, DG45FC, Jetway J9F2-KHDE, MSI Fuzzy 965, and a Commell LV-676 waiting for projects.

:shocked:

 

[mooseracing]

I'm waiting for a Mini-itx with the 790 chipset....hopefully before the end of the year. Otherwise I'm going to keep trying to kill my Amd Geode by seeing how far I can overclock it with a passive heatsink.

 

[widefault]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: widefault
So very tempted to pick one up, but I already have a D201GLY, D201GLY2, DG45FC, Jetway J9F2-KHDE, MSI Fuzzy 965, and a Commell LV-676 waiting for projects.

:shocked:

And that doesn't count the four of these, two of these, and two of these. Oh yeah, and this with one of these running a Celeron-M 520. Yeesh, I better get going.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: widefault

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: widefault
So very tempted to pick one up, but I already have a D201GLY, D201GLY2, DG45FC, Jetway J9F2-KHDE, MSI Fuzzy 965, and a Commell LV-676 waiting for projects.

:shocked:

And that doesn't count the four of these, two of these, and two of these. Oh yeah, and this with one of these running a Celeron-M 520. Yeesh, I better get going.

dude!

im waiting for the atom 330's to come back in stock. again :-/

 

[aussiestilgar]

Promising, I just hope we get a lot more ITX cases to choose from too. Sure there are tons of possibilities for cool and funky case designs for such small applications.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: aussiestilgar
Promising, I just hope we get a lot more ITX cases to choose from too.

Me too. There's actually plenty of choices, but none that I would call perfect. Wait, that's what I think of normal ATX and mATX cases too!

Mini-Box and Logic Supply are two sources for mini ITX cases (besides the handful at Newegg).

What I would like to see in a mini ITX case is decent ventilation (instead of a single 40mm or 60mm fan), support for only a Pico PSU, support for a notebook optical drive, support for using the single expansion slot and support for one or two 3½" HDDs (with grommets). Of course it should look decent too.

Typically, a mini ITX case won't have that great ventilation (I'm thinking something like undervolted 120mm Yate Loon or undervolted 80mm Panaflo) and will either support all desktop drives, or all notebook drives.

 

[IlllI]

here is another...i think? Text using the Using the AMD 780G chipset

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: aussiestilgar
Promising, I just hope we get a lot more ITX cases to choose from too. Sure there are tons of possibilities for cool and funky case designs for such small applications.

I'm hoping for cheaper cases. I can buy a huge tower for 25-30 dollars. Yeat any mini-itx case is easily over 50.

Very frustrating.

 

[widefault]

I gave up on finding mini-ITX cases I like and am building my own. Seems like a majority are designed for the VIA boards, which means inadequate cooling for anything faster or a power supply that can't support much of a load. Also seen a few that mount the hard drive or CD in a place that will hit other components on any non-VIA board. Then there are some that are damned near the size of a MicroATX case, completely negating the idea of Mini-ITX for a small PC.

Yeah, not an option for most people, but maybe someone's home build will inspire a manufacturer to rip-off, er, steal, er, put some thought into their own ITX case designs.

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: widefault
I gave up on finding mini-ITX cases I like and am building my own.

Yep, I know how you feel. My only problem is finding time to build a nicely designed one. I would really like a metal brake just for automotive purposes, and this would help with making cases as well.

 

[widefault]

If you have a Harbor Freight Tools nearby, they usually have these on sale. http://www.harborfreight.com/c...m.taf?Itemnumber=39103

Not great, but will do the job. Make sure you have some C-clamps to hold the material in place, comes with a hold down bar but nothing else.

I have a two foot pan/box brake in storage right now with my band saw and router, not enough room at my apartment to set anything up. I'd still like to pick up a shear, but with no room to work I'll have to hold off.

 

[IlllI]

anandtech posted a mini preview about the J&W MINIX 780G-SP128MB http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=522

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: Liberator21
Wow the Zotacs seem like deals. We're going to be seeing a lot of custom quad-core boxes made out of humidors and radios soon

I dug up this thread looking for iTX mobo experience because I have a similar idea, to mod an old wooden radio cabinet as a media (mostly MP3 player) for my my receiver. If anyone has links to one already done please post or PM them to me. I found tons of mods, some are floor standing radio\turntable units but nothing with an old table radio.

I've got this one. About a year ago I gutted and old sub I had and installed the amp and other innards and it turned out very well. Now I want to find another or similar wooden cabinet for a PC mod.

 

[IlllI]

ion-based board coming out soon http://www.behardware.com/news...itx-card-from-asl.html

 

[widefault]

Came across this one the other day.

http://www.intel.com/products/...MJ/DG41MJ-overview.htm

G41 chipset, regular PCI slot, supports the -s series 65 watt quad cores, and runs about $95. Also supports up to 8GB of RAM, the other two Intel boards only support 4GB.

 

[ther00kie16]

I like the idea of the mini-itx market and all but they really lack expansion. Many boards don't even have a single expansion slot.
What they really need to do is start making more mini-dtx boards. It'd go well with the new sugo sg05 and have enough room for a PCIe-x16 slot and a PCIe-x1 slot so you can add a video card (either for gaming, hybrid power or multi-monitor support) and a tv tuner. I'd love to see and buy a board like that to set up a compact system in.
Something like this would be nice.

 

[coolVariable]

there are no cases for itx (or mini-dtx for that matter) and the few are way too expensive.
E.g. Chenbro's WHS case ... $200 are f*ing kidding me?

 

[zerogear]

How much difference in power usage is ITX vs uATX/ATX?

Edit: A lot of these boards now support 4x SATA, which is temping me to rip apart my Acer easyStore WHS (Atom 230), and put a dual-core in there so I can transcode on the fly...

Does anyone know if Ion ITX boards come out, will it support Dual-core Atom + 4x SATA or has the specs not come out yet?

 

[fatpat268]

I built a HTPC with a mini-itx barebones set ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16856107037 ). Very good setup imo and has room for one full size PCI card.

Only complaint with mini-itx though, is if you want a small system, most of them are loud as hell.

 

[EddyKilowatt]

I'm about to attempt a Home Server build using this just-released fanless Atom mobo from Intel:

http://www.intel.com/products/...D945GSEJT-overview.htm

Only two SATA ports, but I'm only storing music and photos, so the limited size and low bandwidth are a good fit. The 20-30W power budget should be nice; silent is a bonus.