ITX ATX

[kermit]

I came across a pretty good deal for an ITX MB w/CPU. It's for light duty
desktop use and I'd like to swap it into my existing ATX midi-tower case.
Will that work? That is, will the MB mounting holes in the mini-ITX board
line up with those in the existing case I have? Will the rear panel access
points (audio, video, keyboard, mouse, etc) fit in the ATX case? I'm not
familiar with ITX.

Thanks.

 

[Paul]

I came across a pretty good deal for an ITX MB w/CPU. It's for light duty
desktop use and I'd like to swap it into my existing ATX midi-tower case.
Will that work? That is, will the MB mounting holes in the mini-ITX board
line up with those in the existing case I have? Will the rear panel access
points (audio, video, keyboard, mouse, etc) fit in the ATX case? I'm not
familiar with ITX.

Thanks.

The mini-ITX does bear some resemblance to the ATX holes.

http://www.ibertronica.es/detalle/MiniITX-60Detalle.jpg

You could compare the dimensions on page 6 here...

http://www.via.com.tw/download/mainboards/3/4/EPIA V Operating Guidelines Version 1.30.pdf

to the ones for microATX here on page 12.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\matxspe1.2.pdf

I would hope there is a better spec, that addresses VIA's standard,
on their web site. I'll take another look for it a little later.

Paul

 

[Paul]

The mini-ITX does bear some resemblance to the ATX holes.

http://www.ibertronica.es/detalle/MiniITX-60Detalle.jpg

You could compare the dimensions on page 6 here...


http://www.via.com.tw/download/mainboards/3/4/EPIA V Operating Guidelines Version 1.30.pdf


to the ones for microATX here on page 12.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\matxspe1.2.pdf

I would hope there is a better spec, that addresses VIA's standard,
on their web site. I'll take another look for it a little later.

Paul

I found this on the formfactors.org site.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\mini_itx_spec_V1_1.pdf

Now the question would be, whether VIA complies with the spec, or
formfactors is attempting to comply with VIA. At least Figure 2
in that document is encouraging.

Paul

 

[kermit]

I found this on the formfactors.org site.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\mini_itx_spec_V1_1.pdf

Now the question would be, whether VIA complies with the spec, or
formfactors is attempting to comply with VIA. At least Figure 2
in that document is encouraging.

Paul

Thanks Paul. I guess I wouldn't really know if the ITX board would fit in
the ATX case until I actually had it in hand but the document you cite
suggests there shouldn't be any problems. I wonder how common ITX is? The
smaller board does seem to offer certain advantages.

 

[Paul]

Thanks Paul. I guess I wouldn't really know if the ITX board would fit in
the ATX case until I actually had it in hand but the document you cite
suggests there shouldn't be any problems. I wonder how common ITX is? The
smaller board does seem to offer certain advantages.

There are a couple vendors who have a selection of that stuff.

Initially, all the boards were VIA processor based. For things like
video, you could never be sure there was enough horsepower to do
things properly. But now if you check the list, there are boards
that take conventional processors. You can see some listed here.
The upper half of the table, you could trade heat and noise, for
additional horsepower (up to the power limit set by the Vcore
around the processor socket).

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=2

Nvidia has at least one chipset (ION) for mini-ITX now, so
that changes the video assist picture as well. This board has
no expansion slot, but does have a more capable GPU. The latest
announced board, uses a dual core Intel Atom.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-500-029-S02?$S640W$

You can see the amount of real estate the Nvidia chip takes,
compared to the processor. The processor here is a single
core atom. AFAIK, the dual core one has two silicon die on it.

http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0489-01.jpg

So the form factor does have a few more choices now.
I guess it really depends on how restrictive the expansion slot
is to your projects.

This one has a PCI Express x16 slot on it, and an LGA775 CPU socket.
(Zotac Geforce 9300-ITX). So if you needed to put a high bandwidth
card in the system, that is the kind of expansion slot that would
come in handy.

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/images/4012-01l.jpg

So there is a better selection of boards than what was originally
available. The VIA stuff is still interesting, if power or cooling
is limited. With the VIA stuff, it might all fit in one of the
smaller cases, designed for such things. On cases like this,
you'd use something like a laptop optical drive.

http://store.mp3car.com/v/vspfiles/photos/ENC-010-2T.jpg
http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=361

Depending on the power needed, you can get small DC-DC
converters, to make the power that would normally come
from an ATX supply. These use a wall wart, for inside the
home. Some of these DC-DC converters, are also designed to
work with a car electrical system (can handle transients).

pico-PSU-120WI-25V
http://resources.mini-box.com/online/PWR-PICOPSU-120-WI-25V/moreimages/image2.jpg

3.3V @ 6A, 5V @ 6A, 12V @ 6A, 5VSB @ 1.5A, -12V @ 0.1A
Could need forced air cooling. 94% efficient.

http://resources.mini-box.com/online/PWR-PICOPSU-120-WI-25V/PWR-PICOPSU-120-WI-25V-manual.pdf

I bet there are forums that specialize in this stuff, in which case
you'll find more enthusiasts there. There are at least a few people
who use them in cars.

Paul