Questions about Mini ITX.

[PiousSlayer]

Hello fellow Linus fans, I am curious about building a Mini ITX system for my gaming needs, for a possible alternative than going towards a Full tower build. (I am weighing my options.)

 

Questions:

1. How is cooling in a Mini ITX case? I looked at the BitFenix Prodigy Case and I am curious as to how well the fans cool in it.

2. Is there any possible way to have two GPUs? (Single, not like the R9 295x).

3. What are the main pros and cons of an Mini ITX Build in your opinion?

 

Thank you,

PiousSlayer.

[SAV1OUR]

1. iffy depends on case

2. no they only have one pci 16x slot like this board below

3. their small so you loose out on what micro atx/atx have eg sli

[Osmium]

1. Some of the better cases have good airflow. The Prodigy, Hadron, and... um... the prodigy M all have good airflow.

2. No. A standard of the form factor is that they only have one PCIe slot. Even if you get creative with PCIe risers no board is SLI/Xfire certified.

3. Airflow is bad on most of the cases, little room for expansion, not a lot of options for HDDs, your choice of PSU will be limited to small PSUs.

 

Personally I am a huge fan of the Mini-ITX form factor. Don't let the cons discourage you if you think this is something you really want I whole heartedly say go for it!

[Blueprint]

2. No you can't run SLI on an ITX board.

3. Negative - There are only 2 Dimms giving you a max of 16gb ram (2x8gb modules). This may change with DDR4 as there may be higher capacity modules.

Positive - Very small form factor along with ITX which means it is easier to transport and carry around with you (good for things like LAN gaming/tournaments)

Negative - You can't run a dual-GPU configuration.

[Heisenbleurgh]

1. Depends on each case, but most cover airflow very well. The Prodigy is very large for a mini ITX case, You can get very good cooling there, even a 240mm rad. Same with the Corsair 250D.

2. No SLI, smallest boards with SLI are microATX. miniITX only have 1 PCIe slot.

3.

pros: smaller, more portable. that's pretty much it.

cons: harder to build in, (usually) harder to get good airflow, GPU and/or PSU length limitations, storage limitations, optical drive limitations (most don't even have room for any).

 

I know it seems that there's more compromises than gains but the thing is you don't always need a massive triple SLI, 6-harddrive PC. A miniITX can usually fit everything you could need unless you're going overboard

Don't let this scare you off if you're thinking of getting one though, I'd recommend the Prodigy for a first mini ITX build, it's got enough space to avoid most of the cons. If you want to go smaller I'd recommend the Fractal Design Node 304. If I had the chance I'd probably trade my massive ATX build for a mini ITX with the same components since I don't do custom watercooling or SLI.

[PiousSlayer]

How about Micro? I've never really considered going small before, to be honest. I was going to go complete over kill with a Full tower, like the BlackHawk Ultra case by Rosewill, but with Micro or Mini, I can use my computer pretty much anywhere (Provided I have a monitor, wireless keyboard/mouse and a wifi card.)

Anyone here have a Micro ATX build? If so, what are your specs?

Thanks!