Switching to mini-itx

[Johnsmith45]

I recently bought the cooler master nr200 as I was hoping to switch to mini itx. I have a i7 9700k and I have been looking at itx motherboards. However for some unknown reasons the intel 8th/9th gen itx motherboards are soo expensive. They are priced between £160-£250. Unless I buy an unbranded motherboard for £50 which I don't want to do. Why are motherboards so expensive? The alternate option would be to upgrade to a newer platform. Not sure what to do as I didn't expect itx motherboard to be that expensive especially for an old platform. The motherboard is more expensive than the CPU which seems ridiculous to me. 

 

[Tetras]

ITX always tends to be expensive and availability poor, except for boards based on the most basic chipset.

 

Since the value of your i7 is quite high (due to being one of the best performing CPUs on the socket), I'd recommend selling it and switching to a newer platform. The motherboard will still be expensive, but the potential performance available to you will be higher.

[Motifator]

Those are always old prices and they never bother to re-work on them, as such you're seeing the MSRP of a board that is straight 5 years old.

Your best bet would be jumping on a new platform, indeed. However, as pointed, do expect higher pricing on the ITX front, alongside of lesser availability of options.

[GuiltySpark_]

30 minutes ago, Johnsmith45 said:

However for some unknown reasons the intel 8th/9th gen itx motherboards are soo expensive.

When shopping for 5+ year old parts that are LONG out of production, all you'll just be finding new-old stock. If there is no demand, retailers who are still holding on to this stuff can do whatever they want with the prices as desperate individuals like yourself will come along and pay it anyway as its the only option.

 

Ideally, you'd get something for a modern platform instead.

[dizmo]

Are you looking at buying new or used?
Used boards should be quite cheap. New boards will be horribly inflated, and frankly not worth the money.

As others have said, a newer platform just makes sense at this point, unless you're willing to buy used.

[podkall]

51 minutes ago, Johnsmith45 said:

Why are motherboards so expensive?

because they're small, and industry standard is what gets produced more, therefore it's cheaper because you produce more of it, therefore the medium sized MB are cheaper by default on any platform/socket

 

(and you fit more features on bigger boards too, which is more convenient, and more space without worrying stuff will fit, less compromises)

[Tetras]

2 hours ago, podkall said:

because they're small, and industry standard is what gets produced more, therefore it's cheaper because you produce more of it, therefore the medium sized MB are cheaper by default on any platform/socket

 

(and you fit more features on bigger boards too, which is more convenient, and more space without worrying stuff will fit, less compromises)

I think ITX has always had a 'cool' factor too, 'cos super small is funky, kind of like the white tax on white stuff.

[Johnsmith45]

12 hours ago, dizmo said:

Are you looking at buying new or used?
Used boards should be quite cheap. New boards will be horribly inflated, and frankly not worth the money.

As others have said, a newer platform just makes sense at this point, unless you're willing to buy used.

I have been looking at used boards on ebay and aliexpress. It shouldn't be more expensive than a high end cpu on that platform. 

[DeerDK]

Find a bundledeal with a mITX motherboard and go with whatever cpu that follows along. 

Maybe a 5700x3d + b550i or something like that. 

No reason to spend a ton of money of a discontinued motherboard. 

 

Good luck with build. I'm a huge fan of mITX, and they are a lot of fun. 

[Johnsmith45]

31 minutes ago, DeerDK said:

Find a bundledeal with a mITX motherboard and go with whatever cpu that follows along. 

Maybe a 5700x3d + b550i or something like that. 

No reason to spend a ton of money of a discontinued motherboard. 

 

Good luck with build. I'm a huge fan of mITX, and they are a lot of fun. 

I was waiting for the next line of cpu and motherboards to release so I can purchase the current cpus at a cheaper price or go with latest release.