Can someone explain mini itx boards?

[The Allfather]

Right so I've watched a few YouTube videos but nothing overly informative about mini itx mother boards.

 

What are the pros and cons of a mini itx mother board?

 

What makes it different from an ATX? Other than size.

 

 

[Mister Woof]

@fasauceome

for expert opinion

 

 

As for my opinion:

 

Pros: Small

Cons: Less RAM slots, less PCIE slots, less SATA ports, generally less power delivery, generally harder to cool in the typical cases for mini itx

 

Sometimes, being small outweighs all of that stuff, though.

[The Allfather]

5 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

@fasauceome

for expert opinion

 

 

As for my opinion:

 

Pros: Small

Cons: Less RAM slots, less PCIE slots, less SATA ports, generally less power delivery, generally harder to cool in the typical cases for mini itx

 

Sometimes, being small outweighs all of that stuff, though.

 Okay so refresh my memory here.  Sata is used for hard drives?  

 

How many PCIE slots and data ports do you need?

 

And less power delivery to what if you don't mind me asking?  CPU? 

 

 

[Fasauceome]

8 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

generally less power delivery

Everything but this, check out the vrm analysis by buildzoid on the new Gigabyte X570 I. Room is easy to spare for beefy power delivery.

[SupaKomputa]

Pros :

- Small size (obviously), if you want the smallest size pc but still retain some customization this is the ultimate platform. There are smaller platform than this, but usually employs proprietary board design that are not customisable . 

 

Cons:

- Limited expandability, only have 2 PCIe slot at most, tipically only 1. But the limitation usually balanced with an already complete integrated parts like build in wifi, m2 slots, sound, usb3 ports, gpu output etc.

- Not suited for overclocking, due to limited space, the vrm phase is limited, also the pcb crammed so many electronical connection so close that can generate more heat.

- Reduced number of memory slots (usually 2, not 4), 4 (even 2) SATA port (normally 6 or more), to save space. Some boards uses SoDimm (laptop memory) than longdimm.

- Depending on the case size, case made for ITX usually don't support long GPU size.

[The Allfather]

1 minute ago, SupaKomputa said:

Pros :

- Small size (obviously), if you want the smallest size pc but still retain some customization this is the ultimate platform. There are smaller platform than this, but usually employs proprietary board design that are not customisable . 

 

Cons:

- Limited expandability, only have 2 PCIe slot at most, tipically only 1. But the limitation usually balanced with an already complete integrated parts like build in wifi, m2 slots, sound, usb3 ports, gpu output etc.

- Not suited for overclocking, due to limited space, the vrm phase is limited, also the pcb crammed so many electronical connection so close that can generate more heat.

- Reduced number of memory slots (usually 2, not 4), 4 (even 2) SATA port (normally 6 or more), to save space. Some boards uses SoDimm (laptop memory) than longdimm.

- Depending on the case size, case made for ITX usually don't support long GPU size.

Would that rule out a 2080 super on the x570i?

[SupaKomputa]

3 minutes ago, The Allfather said:

Would that rule out a 2080 super on the x570i?

I'm making general explanation about the ITX platform.

Looks like the x570i have a unusual vrm setup (i count 8), tipically 4 or 6 on other ITX boards. But if you compared it with the bigger brother, this is also reduced, the atx version may have whopping 16 phase.

Does it rule out a 2080 super, no, as i said the limitation for GPU is the case, if the case is large enough for 2080super, then you can use it here.

 

48 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

Sometimes, being small outweighs all of that stuff, though.

Agree...

[The Allfather]

8 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

I'm making general explanation about the ITX platform.

Looks like the x570i have a unusual vrm setup (i count 8), tipically 4 or 6 on other ITX boards. But if you compared it with the bigger brother, this is also reduced, the atx version may have whopping 16 phase.

Does it rule out a 2080 super, no, as i said the limitation for GPU is the case, if the case is large enough for 2080super, then you can use it here.

 

Agree...

Do you have any helpful suggestions for videos on mother boards.  I'm a little confused about phases.  Again new to PC building. I know some stuff but have a lot of gaps.   Learning new stuff is awesome however.

 

Thanks again.

[SupaKomputa]

learning about power phases is very confusing really, myself still baffled with numerous type of chips, setup etc.

my word to you is simple : don't bother...

if you're using your pc like a normal person, not some overclocking freak, then you won't be using all that glorious features.

just make a cheklist, listdown what you need for the pc, and find out which is not supported in the motherboard.

especially for Ryzen 3000, if you wanna make use of the highend 12+ cores, you need a good vrm, this x570i got it.

check out this video which explain the board pcb:

It's hard to swallow, yes, as i said: don't bother.