Mini ITX board question

[B32R]

Hi,

 

For future reference are most if not all mini PCs using a Mini-ITX board such as Zotac series and ASUS?

 

Is it worth building a PC at this form factor?

[harrynowl]

Most manufacturers have a mini ITX board on the market, not sure if they've released any for Z170 yet (edit: turns out there are some, read other responses below) but MSI Had the Z97i-AC, ASUS had the Z97-I Plus, Gigabyte had the Z97N-Wifi, ASRock had the Z97I (ac)... you get the picture.

 

And it depends, you pay a premium for the board and you restrict some hardware choices and upgrades but the plus side is you get a small computer that either fits in a small space or is nice and portable.

[JoaoPRSousa]

Welcome to the forums

 

Always follow your topics, quote or tag us to get some attention and mark your topics as solved when you are done.

 

Enjoy your stay

 

You can choose whatever iTX motherboard you want, it just needs to be compatible with the rest of your components.

 

I have an iTX system myself, and it is worth it for many reasons, it's easier to carry around, if needed, and, obviously, it's smaller and lighter. There are other things that might not be so good about it, such as, you can't have a multiple GPU configuration, unless you have a double GPU, such as a 295X2 or a GTX 690, cable management might not be that easy (but that depends on the case), and building on an iTX isn't that easy, since it is smaller, and if you have big hands, fitting things inside it might not be as easy as doing so in a (i.e.) ATX form factor PC.

[ThinkWithPortals]

@B32R please follow your posts

I'd say it's completely worth it to buy an M-ITX PC. I have one myself and it's smaller (duh), easier to transport, and is able to hold all the hardware I could possibly need. Unless you are doing a multi-GPU setup, or a home server/NAS, plan to do some massive upgrades in the near future or want the bragging rights I see few reasons to go for a full-size system. That said, smaller systems are generally harder to work in, and cable management isn't as easy (the Corsair 380T my system is in was a b**tch to cable manage, at least for me. 

[TheRandomness]

Most manufacturers have a mini ITX board on the market, not sure if they've released any for Z170 yet but MSI Had the Z97i-AC, ASUS had the Z97-I Plus, Gigabyte had the Z97N-Wifi, ASRock had the Z97I (ac)... you get the picture.

 

And it depends, you pay a premium for the board and you restrict some hardware choices and upgrades but the plus side is you get a small computer that either fits in a small space or is nice and portable.

EVGA Stinger Z170, Z170 mITX is on the market.

[Walker998]

most small form-factor builds use mini itx.

it ultimately depends on your needs or what you would personally like, you are sacrificing reliability and easy build difficulty (and lower cost to an extent) for something cube or rectangle-shaped, maybe you don't have much space or you need something more powerful as a laptop but cheaper and where you do there will be a keyboard mouse and monitor to connect it to 

[ThinkWithPortals]

not sure if they've released any for Z170 yet 

 

There are a few, not many though

https://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#f=8&c=110

[Elehat]

There are quite a few ITX Z170s available, with the viii impact expected later this year. Imo the best current offerings come from Gigabyte. I own a vii impact and will skip 1151 boards, but they look decent, though none have got it quite perfect yet. You can get gen 3 m.2s, good internet, wifi, decent audio on these boards. 

 

If you value size (if you're writing the question I guess you do) then ITX is great, even for a powerful setup; You can fit any normal card in a 11.4 L case with a 120 rad (or 140 with a short card), or a 240 rad in a 13 L case. By comparison, I can't see anything mATX less than about 30 L  

 

Pros:

Size

Looks cool/unbelievable for the power inside

Planning and build is more interesting

 

Cons: 

You pay a premium for parts that fit, which is a bit more noticable than the premium when jumping down from ATX to mATX. Mobos, cases with exact specs, short gpus, coolers that fit, maybe sfx psus and maybe low form RAM all cost a little more

You can only fit so much in the case, though it's actually not noticable for most people. Only really a problem if you want SLI/Xfire, expansion slot for a particular reason (though you might be able to solve by mobo selection), multiple 3.5 HDDs or a beefy optical drive. 

Thermals are a bit more of a consideration, but can actually be more efficient as there's nowhere for airflow to stagnate. OCing can be reduced as your fan/rad situation is an issue.

 

Other than that it's pretty much the same but now it fits in your bag and doesn't hog your desk and looks cool and is generally awesome . 

[NumLock21]

For itx, get the one with the most features, that way you won't have to grab external usb adapters later on.