Need to Build Small Form Factor - mini ATX vs mini ITX ?

I haven't built a rig since the computer in my signature. It's definitely on its last legs.

I want a QUIET, small form factor. My current case it just too large, and too noisy. I'm tired of the fans humming in the background. I'm looking for a fast, quiet (maybe not possible, non water cooled), small form factor rig.

I'm definitely a gamer, RTS's and FPS's as well. While I have AMD, I'm not opposed to going with Intel at this point. Multi-core, 64-bit sounds like the way to go, correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't need a monitor. So, I'm willing to put my money into the mobo, video card(s), PSU, RAM, and hopefully a quiet case.

Can I build a mini ITX system that can handle such demands? Or, am I better off going with mini-ATX ?


I'll read any and all suggestions as well. I've been reading over the years, but now there are so many options I'm unsure what direction I should go in.

I don't need the very best. However, I tend to build in between a mid-range to high-end system. Enough to last at least 3 years based on current gaming technology. Price maybe $1200 through $1500 (MAYBE a bit more if really worth it)

I'll answer any questions you guys may have.

Thanks in advance

Any suggestions???

http://www.overclockers.com/gaming-tight-spaces-miniitx/

In short: It's doable.
If there are SandyBridge ITX boards available, that'd be a glorious setup.

A sandybridge mini-ITX gaming build << Some are being assembled. No sense in re-inventing the
wheel.

Of course there are likely many others.

Thank you both. I'm debating which would be better mini ITX or micro ATX. Aside from size, are there any inherent pro's/con's with either??

I found this website a few moments ago..maybe others would like it too? www.itxgamer.com/

1. Over the years the general example of mATX boards that were in the market had a tendancy to be "lesser" boards if you intended a big overclock. Because of the lesser real estate of the mATX board, this gave little extra room for all the voltage regulation phases to support large overclocked cpu current draw. ITX seems even smaller in some dimensions. Room for power circuitry, would also be limited with an ITX.

2. Those same mATX boards were with internal graphics and as chipsets progressed, the chipset also supplied most other needed peripheral connections and thus were very much in use by OEM computer assemblers. Those OEM assemblers had no real need of a heavy duty board for overclocking.

3. However I believe that the computer market overall is in flux/change. Change that has n0t reached a full maturity as of yet. WHAT will come is only maybe 40% visible today. That would surely make it difficult to move to a market segment that is in great movement.

4. So with say, gaming in mind, you need about 3.0Ghz of cpu speed and as much video card as you can fit in a case quietly. Remember super performance video cards today are "long" and have fairly noisy fans mounted on them. About 4 to 8 gigs of ram would be likely more than enough. So now with something like that as a criteria, you can search since most do such and then make your choice based on what you really need and can afford. Luck man.

Type Asus Gene into g00gle and you will see the variations on the "Gene" series and in the mATX size they have more power phases than most mobo's in mATX forum factor and are intended to withstand some overclocking. I doubt they are cheap, but something along those lines setup adequetely would n0t be so quickly dated is my thinking.

Depending on exactly how much gaming demand you have you may want to consider the new AMD A series APUs they are getting great reviews all over. There is also a passive 6670 that you can pair up with the APU's integrated graphics which would add no noise.

Above and beyond that in my experience there really arent any great gaming cards out there that are not obnoxious out of the box so an aftermarket cooler is an absolute must if noise is a consideration..

I appreciate the information. It sounds like I should go with miniATX so I can have the space for some of the larger video cards perhaps. I will look as you suggested. I'd love a super small space, but I'm certainly concerned with proper cooling in such a small space (miniITX). I will think some more.

I have considered passive cooling, but I seriously don't know enough about it.

The passive GPU cooler is just an oversized cooler with bigger fins so that it can dissipate heat into the air without aid of a fan. In a case with reasonable airflow these will run slightly higher than actively cooled variants but within tolerances. In a case with exceptional airflow they would theoretically perform better than a stock cooled card.

Adequate cooling can be achieved in any form factor it is only limited by your creativity. You could easily mod a ~180-200mm fan into the side panel of a mITX case to keep the noise down and push up airflow numbers.

I am personally working on a mITX setup for gaming using the (not on the market until 7/9/12) Bitfenix Prodigy case shown here

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811345016

It will be a z77 board, I5 3450, 8GB ram, and a GTX 670 it is possible and there are several videos to show more about the case. This case is what is making me want to build this computer.

I've got a gaming ITX setup that is awesome for my needs and completely silent when I'm not gaming. I built mine for around $1700 last December, so you should be able to easily get something under $1500 considering price drops. For reference, I spent around $450 on my 128gb SSD + RAM and you can get them now for $200 on sale.

Granted mine is watercooled but for the CPU you can get close to silent, the real noise producer in a small case is the GPU fan, which won't rev up unless you're gaming anyways. Dave mentioned the Prodigy case, that is an awesome new option for ITX builds. The case is a bit on the large size for ITX, but supports pretty large coolers, unlike many of the current ITX offerings.

You might also consider the new evga ITX board coming out in the next month or so if you're not in a rush. The current offerings aren't awesome, the ASUS board looks nice but I have heard that the digital VRM board interferes with some of the larger (and more silent) air coolers. The ASRock board seems to be one of the better out of the three currently available. I've had a handful of Zotac boards die on me so I would not recommend them.

With the space the Prodigy offers you could easily get a decent tower cooler, put in plenty of fans and have room for a full length GPU.

I threw together a good baseline build and attached it. I went with a fully modular PSU, in an ITX case you'll want it. Things you'll need are a good CPU cooler (research what size will fit in the Prodigy) and a video card, just pick a card that fits your budget and get the best possible for the money. You're only at $900 with these parts, leaves tons of room in the budget for even a $500 graphics card and a really nice tower cooler then pick up your choice of silent fans/fan controller/DVD drive, etc.

Good luck and hope you enjoy the build

Thanks guys, I saw that bitfenix, and thought it would be a great case. I may still go w/mATX as I don't have the time to do a lot of modding to the case itself.

I'm ready to buy now as the modem from my cable modem pushes data faster than my on board NIC can handle it. My page loading on basic web sites is terrible. But on my modern, wireless connected netbook, it's super fast! I really need a new rig badly.

That motherboard supposedly has a Gigabit port...I don't think it's the NIC?

On the form factor decision, it's basically this: are you ever going to add more cards than just a GPU? Yes, mATX. No, miniITX.

You wouldn't have to modify that case for air cooling, it even supports watercooling fairly easily. It is quite a large case for ITX, about the size of a normal mATX case.

Knufire really makes the point with expandability. ITX will only have one PCIe slot and you'll never be able to add another card.

Knufire said:

That motherboard supposedly has a Gigabit port...I don't think it's the NIC?

On the form factor decision, it's basically this: are you ever going to add more cards than just a GPU? Yes, mATX. No, miniITX.

Click to expand...

skyline93 said:

You wouldn't have to modify that case for air cooling, it even supports watercooling fairly easily. It is quite a large case for ITX, about the size of a normal mATX case.

Knufire really makes the point with expandability. ITX will only have one PCIe slot and you'll never be able to add another card.

Click to expand...

I know..I think I'm going with mATX just in case for expandibility JUST in case. I dont know if I'm going with another vid card yet or not, but I'd like to have that option just in case.

Knufire said:

That motherboard supposedly has a Gigabit port...I don't think it's the NIC?

Click to expand...

I could be wrong. What I know is Cox cable gave me a new Netgear Wireless Cable Gateway (Router/Cable Modem built into 1 unit). Model #CG3000D

When I plug an ethernet cable into any of the 4 ports with my old rig in my sig file below, the light is lit up amber (it indicates a slower speed, I called to learn that one), and when the cable guy plugged in his laptop, and/or I plugged in my netbook, the ports would be lit up green (indicating maximum speed).

Doing speedtests on the net, and JUST watching page loading, clearly indicate it is something with my computer. One person at Cox suggested it may be this modem uses DOCSIS 3. I really don't know what the problem is, but the page loading is like 1998 highspeed 3-6Mb/s.

My netbook has speeds rated at what my service should be (15-18Mb/s).
I may post this in a different forum, so I dont' hijack my own thread haha.

mITX is more expensive and less flexible than mATX. I prefer the options of extra expansion capability.
Quieter is also easier in mATX.
There is a slide show on tomshardwarehttp://tomshardware.com from a boutique producer of a 3750K/GTX680 mITX. See "Tiki"
OTOH I am a cheapskate, so I need add on capability.