Motherboards with LVDS & LCD panels

[JustMe21]

Since there are more and more affordable Thin ITX motherboards coming out with LVDS, I was wondering how it works exactly. Do these motherboards provide the inverter, LCD Controls, and power or is there even a separate device for it? I've LCD controllers that come with VGA and HDMI, but is there one that just compliments what's already on Thin ITX motherboards?

This site shows the most LCD controllers I've found.
http://www.lcdparts.net/LCDC.aspx

 

[alaricljs]

Are there more (new!) boards coming out? The Gigabyte GA-H97TN can't be found for sale and isn't even mentioned on their own Thin Mini-ITX sub-site. All the others that I have found are 8* series chipsets.

If you look into the 8* series boards you'll find both LVDS and eDP and that they include additional connectors and even voltage options for the backlight. The tough part can be getting the necessary specs for the panel you want and the right cables to go between. There should be nothing additional necessary beyond the right cables.

I'm curious if Intel is even going to continue with the Thin mini-ITX standard. I see them putting more effort into the NUC.

 

[alaricljs]

And looking at the H97TN's specs. 8GB RAM limit? WTF?

 

[TheStu]

There are some manufacturers (like gigabyte) selling All-in-One enclosures that include a panel, you just need to plug things in.

What I like about Thini-ITX is that you use an external power brick, allows for a smaller total system. You could easily build a system with a footprint only slightly larger than the board, and 2" tall. There's room next to the cooler for a couple of 2.5" drives in that space, plus the mSATA (or 2 in the case of an Asrock board that I saw) port and you have a pretty slick HTPC).

 

[alaricljs]

I'm interested in putting together a portable. All these boards take 19V input which can easily be had out of a laptop power bank. I already use an external KB/Mouse w/ my laptop and I'm not a size/weight weenie so more heft or thickness is no big deal. My biggest issue is that I don't want to buy into a setup that is a dead-end and I'm not convinced Thin Mini-ITX isn't.

I'd expect to be able to do a system in quite a bit less than 2" thickness. The total stack height of the mobo is less than 0.8" and the Intel cooler is just barely over 1" thick. Pretty sure that 1" is the lower limit on internal case dimensions if you can manage to get all your other components to the sides of the board.

 

[TheStu]

I'm interested in putting together a portable. All these boards take 19V input which can easily be had out of a laptop power bank. I already use an external KB/Mouse w/ my laptop and I'm not a size/weight weenie so more heft or thickness is no big deal. My biggest issue is that I don't want to buy into a setup that is a dead-end and I'm not convinced Thin Mini-ITX isn't.

I'd expect to be able to do a system in quite a bit less than 2" thickness. The total stack height of the mobo is less than 0.8" and the Intel cooler is just barely over 1" thick. Pretty sure that 1" is the lower limit on internal case dimensions if you can manage to get all your other components to the sides of the board.

If you are talking about the intel heatpipe cooler, then you should be able to go ~1" thin (the cooler is actually 26mm, and you'll want a little bit of additional space, plus the thickness of the case material), but that sticks out to the side (obviously). I think silverstone makes a htpc case that's designed for this.

The 2" thickness was if you're using the standard intel cooler.

 

[piasabird]

Raspberry PI 2b kit with a screen. It is a little on the low end but it also has a HDMI slot and another slot for a camera. Has Ethernet, and USB to set up wireless.

 

[piasabird]

Thin Mini-ITX may be considered an OEM only industrial part.

This shows up on the B2B website as an embedded solution. Newegg also has an embedded section under motherboards.

Just go to www.amazon.com and search for "Thin mini itx" a lot of stuff will come up.

 

[alaricljs]

There's lots of Thin mini-ITX stuff available, it's just all 8* series chipsets. There's only 1 9* series board I've found and that's from Gigabyte and it's not for sale anywhere. After checking Intel's Ark for low power 5th gen CPUs it's not too much of a surprise as there are only 65 watt options. The 4th gen is still the only place to go for 35w socketted CPUs.

 

[piasabird]

Generally the lower end parts like i3 and pentium and Celeron are the last thing to come out. I would expect some kind Of IRIS i7 CPU's to be coming out. However, most of that may go into products like AIO Systems, or procucts like Gigabyte BRIX.

http://www.directron.com/boxnuc5i7ryhr.html

I know that this doesnt have a LVDS Connector The motherboard inside might.

 

[alaricljs]

Hmm... Perhaps gen5 is going to be very slim pickings and they're gunning for SkyLake? Here's an ASRock in LGA 1151 at a tech show... And Skylake's first-release targets look to be the low power chips.

Perhaps we will get lucky? Same small power envelope and more performance is always good to have.

 

[alaricljs]

So SkyLake details say no LVDS, just eDP unless it's a 3rd party add-on, which I doubt. So my desires are once again screwed by the march of progress. I have yet to find an eDP 15.x" 1920x1200 LCD/LED display. I might have found a CCFL one, but with only 1 source I'm not likely to attempt a purchase and I really want LED efficiency without spending stupid money on a conversion.