mini-ITX board comparisons, need opinions

[tviceman]

I've long wanted to move to a SFF setup without sacrificing discrete graphics and moderate/normal overclocking capabilities. Well last night on my slickdeals feed the fractal design node 304 case went on sale at newegg for $50 with a $10 rebate on top of that (HERE if you're interested). So I pulled the trigger. I've pretty much narrowed down my motherboard search to the GIGABYTE GA-Z87N-WIFI board here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128615

I'm 99% sure I am going with a Haswell 4670k and aiming for a 4.3-4.4ghz overclock. Is there a compelling reason to pay the difference for one of the more expensive LGA1150 boards? Does the ASUS Maximum VI Impact bring enough to the table for someone like me to warrant the $100 price difference?

Thanks in advance, and if you're interested in an i7-2600k + ASUS Maximus IV GENE-Z GEN 3 combo, I will have it for sale soon.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Its a little hard to say if another board brings any worthwhile benefits. That's something only you can be the judge of, but if the GA-Z87N-WIFI is anything like my GA-F2A85XN-WIFI, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

(the GA-F2A85XN-WIFI is the FM2 AMD platform equivalent of the Z87N)

 

[tviceman]

Thanks. I have the Maximus IV GENE-Z board now, and it's great, but I can't help but feel it's entirely overkill for my gaming needs to warrant sticking with that product line.

 

[Alan G]

The Gigabyte board is really good. I've done three builds with the H77N-WiFi. One is a workstation for my wife in the Node 304 case! The other two are HTPC builds all using the i3 with HD4000 graphics. The Node 304 case has quite a bit of room to build in. Your only concern is going to be how to cool the CPU and not interfere with either the memory slots or the PCIe slot as they are all packed in pretty tight.

BTW, all three units run off of WiFi and I've not had any issues with it.

 

[tviceman]

The Gigabyte board is really good. I've done three builds with the H77N-WiFi. One is a workstation for my wife in the Node 304 case! The other two are HTPC builds all using the i3 with HD4000 graphics. The Node 304 case has quite a bit of room to build in. Your only concern is going to be how to cool the CPU and not interfere with either the memory slots or the PCIe slot as they are all packed in pretty tight.

BTW, all three units run off of WiFi and I've not had any issues with it.

That is great to hear. I'm excited to downsize my case to the node 304. My current CPU cooler clears my ram sticks and is 118 mm from fan-to-fan (thermaltake FRIO) so I hope that it will fit with using 1 SDD/HDD bracket (the bracket opposite the video card). If not I'll have to bite the bullet and get a closed loop corsair water cooler. Don't want to do that though, trying to keep costs down.

 

[beardsauce]

Since you mentioned you intend to do overclock, this board is not the best option. Otherwise, I own a GA-Z77-WIFI and thoroughly enjoy it.

 

[Skott]

Asus, ASRock, and Gigabyte are the best choices for mitx SFF mobos IMO. Asus makes the best for the high end IMHO. Gigabyte not far behind. ASRock has some good mobos and they tend to have the cheaper pricing when it comes to budget minded. I'm not brand loyal but how I rate them is:

Asus
Gigabyte
ASRock

This is just me though. Others may have different opinions.

 

[ShintaiDK]

EVGA Z87 stinger perhaps?