Mini ITX board choices are blooming

[zerogear]

I found a mobo by MSI that has 4 SATA ports, using Atom 230 (Fanless).

http://www.orbitmicro.com/glob...r-p-9545.html?ref=base

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832

Atom 330 4 SATA w/ fan.

 

[Zap]

Zotac's mini-ITX Ion

Wow, since I started this thread, more and more mini ITX boards are available. Zotac's been kicking ass in this area and will soon have NINE different mini-ITX boards ranging from AMD/Intel socketed to Ion-with-Atom. Wow. Just wow.

Originally posted by: 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?

I've seen mini-ITX cases for sale as cheap as around $40 shipped from Newegg, but they aren't very good IMO (lousy and loud PSUs, lack of ventilation). The thing is that mini-ITX as a form factor started out more as industrial boards and have just recently (past year?) become popular for desktop use. Take whatever ATX case is your favorite right now. Now, figure out how long after ATX usurped AT as a form factor before your favorite case was released? I think mini-ITX as a form factor has come a long way in the past year, and can only get better.

Originally posted by: zerogear
How much difference in power usage is ITX vs uATX/ATX?

None. Form factors don't specify power usage, just size/layout. With that being said, how many ATX Atom boards are there? :laugh: The small size of mini-ITX lends itself to certain applications, such as low powered systems.

Now, something important to know is power supply efficiency at low outputs. Read the power draw section of the Anandtech article I linked above. Note how the Zotac setup drew less power than the Intel setup, even though the GeForce 9400 in the Ion platform draws more power than the 945GC chipset. Why do you think that is? The Intel setup used a normal ATX power supply while the Zotac setup used a special low wattage setup. This way the power supply can work in the range where it is most efficient, unlike slapping your favorite 80+ certified 500W PSU on these things. Yeah, where's your 80% efficiency now?!?!

Normal setups can be very efficient if used with a power supply such as the PicoPSU. Since most power supplies are at their highest efficiency at around 40-60% output, a setup with an Atom (maybe Ion platform) and a couple hard drives would be in the perfect range for these low output PSUs. Most PSUs plummet in efficiency below 20% output, so your 80+ 500W PSU may be only 50% efficient putting out 50W while an 80W PicoPSU will be around 90% efficient with the same platform. That means power draw from the wall of 55W for the PicoPSU versus 100W with the ATX PSU.

Note that I'm making up the numbers here, but it was intended to be a generalization.

Originally posted by: fatpat268
Only complaint with mini-itx though, is if you want a small system, most of them are loud as hell.

That's because mini-ITX has its roots in embedded/industrial systems. Give it time. A calendar year ago what mini-ITX boards did we have to choose from compared to what we have now?

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: fatpat268

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

I just bought the Intel BOXD945GCLF2 mobo with the atom 330. I splurged and spent $3 when I got it an replaced the northbridge fan that was a lot quiter. It sits in my office which has no room fans to mask noise and I can barely hear the thing. I have it tucked in a Morex 3677 case. Of course I wish I had the money for a SSD, but right now I am using a laptop hard drive which makes no noise. So all in all they have gotten pretty quiet. The atom 330 is a nice cpu.

 

[IlllI]

that zotac DOES look promising

oh and i used to love modding these old netvista cases Text, used to be able to find them on ebay for about $9. but actually those would probably be too large for these mini itx mobos now

 

[funks]

this is really tempting , too bad that ION zotac board doesn't have an expansion slot I need an expansion slot to make it my router / linux server for home.

 

[funks]

Has anybody here used http://www.chenbro.com/corpora...ucts_detail.php?sku=49]Chenbro's PC878 Mini-ITX case?[/URL]

It seems to come with a power brick which I'm assuming will work with the Zotac Ion board right? But how can one make it work w/ mini-itx mobo's that has a normal psu connector?

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: funks
this is really tempting , too bad that ION zotac board doesn't have an expansion slot I need an expansion slot to make it my router / linux server for home.

the 7100 and 9300 lga 775 ion boards have itx.


The only board reviewed so far is the zotac ion board with power supply. it looksl ike hte power circuits are on the spot where a pci-e slot could be.


I figure maybe the other variants with no power supply will have a slot there at least an x1 pci-e.

There are supposedly 4 variants. 230 or 330 , with or without onboard power supply.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Can't find many VIA nano mini-itx boards. It's kind of disappointing.

 

[hans007]

looks like the single core zotac with no power supply is available at newegg.

the power supply one is out of stock.

 

[captainsparkle]

My question is, has anybody seen some small ITX cases that do NOT have a spot for a Power Supply (given that some, like the Zontac, come with their own AC adapter Brick)?
I've seen some on ebay advertised as car-computer setups, but they seem sub-ideal.
It just seems silly to have space for a big, loud PSU for a computer designed to be low-power, low-footprint (actually footprint, not echo-footprint)...

 

[Zap]

Mini-Box (the makers of the PicoPSU) has some enclosures that are designed for the PicoPSU.

M200
aluminum
bootable Compact-Flash slot
super compact
two notebook HDDs (2.5")
no 3.5" drive support
no optical drive support
no expansion slot support
PicoPSU sold separately

M300
all the above
can handle one 3.5" HDD - or - two 2.5" HDD
one expansion slot (comes with PCI riser card)

M200-LCD
M300-LCD
same as above but includes a front panel LCD with buttons/keypad, IR receiver and USB interface
Windows SideShow support!!!

These are really nifty looking cases, just limited in drive support.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I want to see an Atom board with a PCI-E x16 slot. I dont care about the formfactor. Just a low power dual core atom that I can stick 2GB of memory on, WHS, and then put on a huge ass RAID card for file serving. Huge case, huge RAID card, and 2 SATA ports. One for a boot drive (probably a small SSD), and one for a Blu-Ray drive for ripping. Hopefully WHS 2.0 will provide support for separate boot drives outside the pool.

Use RAID 5 to give some backup to the data, and then let Windows JBOD do the rest without backing up any of the files itself.

 

[IlllI]

antec mini-itx case Text

and something even smaller, VIA EPIA-P710 (pico-ITXe) Text

 

[ric1287]

is the $30 upgrade for the DC atom worth it on those atom boards?

I'm building a 2-3 drive file server with a bluray drive

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: ric1287
is the $30 upgrade for the DC atom worth it on those atom boards?

I'm building a 2-3 drive file server with a bluray drive

Depends... what's the BD drive for? Just FYI on my single core Atom netbook I can do the basic internet tasks and even play Starcraft. However, HD media would use 100% CPU, drop frames and lose audio sync.

 

[ric1287]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: ric1287
is the $30 upgrade for the DC atom worth it on those atom boards?

I'm building a 2-3 drive file server with a bluray drive

Depends... what's the BD drive for? Just FYI on my single core Atom netbook I can do the basic internet tasks and even play Starcraft. However, HD media would use 100% CPU, drop frames and lose audio sync.

yeah I scrapped that idea, just gonna get the $80 intel one.

And just to make sure one last time, mini-itx will fit ANY mAtx case?

 

[Soulkeeper]

2GHz VIA C7 solutions have hit newegg finally

Although it's not nearly as cool after wanting it 2yrs ago ...

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: ric1287
And just to make sure one last time, mini-itx will fit ANY mAtx case?

Yes. It will just use the four screws closest to the CPU area.

 

[firewolfsm]

Although I don't understand why anyone would put this in a mATX case. There are ITX cases out there that are much smaller, or you could build your own acrylic case for cheap.

 

[Zap]

Perhaps ric1287 wants to make a WHS setup with a bunch of HDDs? Most mini ITX boxes can only hold 1-2 drives (not counting the expensive Chenbro case).

 

[IlllI]

Zotac ION dual core Atom board with 90w external PSU preorder

this might also be interesting to some xbmc

 

[funks]

are those zotac boards the new rev w/ usb power during standby?

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: 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.

What's one more?

 

[Soulkeeper]

VIA nano with PCIE slot

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Soulkeeper
VIA nano with PCIE slot

I've been thinking about getting that. It's a bit cheaper on mini-box.com also.

My other options seem to be the Jetway NF76-N1G and Jetway NF76-N1G6. Both have plain old PCI slots, but have room for a daughter board. Choices choices choices.