Working with Mini-ITX

Mini-ITX

Mini-ITX motherboards measure only 7x7 inches en thus is much smaller than micro ATX products. Although it's been the standard for about 4 years on the market, the format is not actually a real success. Nevertheless, ITX managed to make some success, primarily in the industrial market. Now that small pc's are totally in fashion and people become more aware of the energy used by computers, the mini-ITX popularity is growing by computer enthusiasts. There are after all enough possibilities that come to mind where there is an advantage for small and low-energy pc's. Think of a small and quiet fileserver you can put somewhere in your house, a low-energy download computer or a stylish Media Center machine.

Until recently there was always the issue of low performance of the VIA processors. Even de newest VIA C7 was, performance-wise, laughable. For some users that was of low importance - like the 24/7 download machine we mentioned - but for a lot of different options, a little up-to-date performance would be just great. Fortunately, a number of Motherboard fabricators now have Mini-ITX boards suitable for use with Intel and AMD processors. Even for the most recent Intel Core 2 Duo there are ITX-solutions. Aside of that, more and more Mini-ITX cases are becoming available

Mini-ITX allow you to build a super small, silent and energy efficient PC'.

Small, smaller, smallest

Mini-ITX is not even the smallest sized motherboards available. VIA also has developed the Nano-ITX standard. These motherboards measure only 4.7x4.7 inches. This size is used very infrequently, but in some situations can come in very handy. Because of the limited size, Nano-ITX boards have a clear lower functionality than Mini-ITX and for example, the standard use of DIMM-modules is not possible.

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