Micro ATX or Mini ITX?

I'me gonna build a new pc to use for home entertainment etc. I was going to use a microATX board and case to keep size down but i've just been looking at mini ITX cases and thought that one of those would look pretty cool in my living room.

I'me just wondering what limitations there are with mini ITX in terms of performance. Like with what components you can use. Obviously i am aware that there is only room for say 1 HDD and 1 CD/DVD drive. I was thinking more in tems of chips mobos and memory etc.

Ta

 

Most (if not all) ITX mobos have only memory slots, which isn't a big deal really, because 4gb of memory should be plenty, but many of these ITX boards support 4gb memory modules, meaning you could use 2 of 'em for 8gb total. Also, many ITX boards are Atom based, but there's also plenty of boards available that will accept just about any Intel chip you want, including the Core2Quad. I think the main issue with these ITX home theater PCs is cooling. They're so small that internal temps can quickly rise, and adequate cooling can be tricky in such small systems. So, that's the main thing I'd look for when picking out the case: cooling options, fan sizes and locations, and overall dimensions so you can determine if an after-market 3rd party CPU cooler can be installed if necessary. The stock Intel coolers are notorious for being less-than-stellar when it comes to cooling, but if the CPU is run at stock speeds, the included cooler should be OK. Another thing with cooling is sound. You're going to want silent fans and a silent CPU cooler, and that's where things get REALLY tricky. It's a fine balancing act of sound vs. cooling, so you're going to want to research this pretty carefully. Generally speaking, the more quiet the fan, the less it cools; the louder the fan, the more it cools. The idea is to find a nice middle point of acceptable loudness plus adequate cooling.

I hope this helps! Good luck, and keep us posted!

[dlb]

 

Yeah thanks very much. well initially i was going for the microATX but i just know that if i built one i would wish i had gone for ITX because the size is just awesome. It would suit me perfectly. I've seen a pretty good mobo which i'm quite interested in but need to figure out what cpu will work well with it. heres a link to the mobo http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Zota...-s-SATA-RAID-Mini-ITX-w-WiFi-OnBoard-Graphics
what do you reckon?

 

right i think i'm gonna go for this mini ITX mobo: J&W MINIX 780G-SP128MB.
I need help picking a cpu though. I have been looking at a
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, Sok AM3, 2.8GHz, 7.5MB Total Cache, 95W

but will it work with the mobo?? the mobo is AM2+ socket and the cpu is AM3 socket..

If not, can anyone suggest a CPU??

 

Generally speaking, the 780 chipset has a max TDP of 95w... however.... because the board you listed is a mini ITX, the TDP has been scaled back to 65w maximum which greatly limits the choice of CPUs available, but also greatly reduces the heat generated which is important in a small platform. You can use the new AthlonII X2 200 series, the X3 PhenomII 705e and 700e, and the PhenomII quads 900e and 905e. These CPUs may require a BIOS upgrade before they will work, so be sure you know the BIOS version before investing in one of these CPUs. Otherwise, you'll stuck... if the CPU isn't supported, you can't boot up to upgrade the BIOS... if you can't upgrade the BIOS, you can't use the CPU.... the ol' catch-22... if you have an older socket AM2 chip, you should hang to it so you can upgrade the BIOS if needed. Anyway, the main thing to remember is the 65w limit. A list of supported CPUs can be found at this link. I hope this helps! Good luck, and keep us posted.


[dlb]