**Understanding ITX Motherboards: A Guide to Compromises**

When it comes to building a small form factor computer, the Intel Extreme Tuning (ITX) motherboard is a popular choice among enthusiasts and professionals alike. However, with great flexibility comes great compromise. In this article, we'll delve into the common compromises you'll encounter when shopping for an ITX board.

**Fan Support: A Necessary Compromise**

One of the most significant compromises you'll make when choosing an ITX board is fan support. Manufacturers often sacrifice fan support to save space and reduce costs. As a result, many ITX boards have limited fan ports, making it difficult to include multiple case fans in your build. To mitigate this issue, manufacturers may offer extended fan hubs with six or more ports, which can cost an additional $20-$30. While this may seem like a small price to pay, it's essential to factor in the cost when considering an ITX board.

**Audio Quality: A Trade-Off for Space**

Another compromise you'll encounter is diminished audio quality due to the tight packaging of components on the motherboard. The audio chips and other electrical components can interfere with each other, resulting in slightly reduced audio clarity and background static. While this may not be a deal-breaker for most users, it's essential to consider if audio quality is crucial for your needs.

**ATX vs. ITX: A Size Comparison**

One of the primary differences between ATX and ITX motherboards is size. ATX boards are designed to accommodate more components, making them suitable for larger builds or applications that require more power. In contrast, ITX boards are designed to be compact and space-efficient, making them ideal for small form factor builds or HTPC (Home Theater PC) systems.

**Audio Quality and Video Support: A Crucial Consideration**

For those who will be using their ITX build as an HTPC system, audio quality becomes a critical consideration. If you'll be using the board to play back 4K content at high frame rates, ensure that the motherboard has HDMI 2.0 support with a bandwidth of at least 18 Gbps. This will provide the necessary bandwidth for smooth playback and future-proof your build. On the other hand, if you won't be playing back 4K content, an older HDMI version may suffice.

**Price: A Compromise Worth Considering**

Finally, there's the price factor to consider. ITX boards tend to be more expensive than their ATX counterparts due to the manufacturing process and the need for compact designs. While it's not uncommon to see ITX boards cost $20-$40 more than their ATX equivalent, this price difference is often justified by the unique features and benefits of the ITX design.

**Buying an ITX Board: Tips and Tricks**

For those considering purchasing an ITX board, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

* Be sure to research the motherboard specifications thoroughly, paying attention to fan ports, audio quality, and HDMI support.

* If you have any doubts about your build's requirements or needs, consider consulting with experts or online forums.

* Don't be afraid to spend a bit more for an ITX board that meets your needs and provides good value.

By understanding these compromises and taking the necessary steps to research and plan your build, you can create a high-performance ITX system that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI get asked this question a lot Greg what are the pros and cons of choosing an ITX form factor for my next PC bill so I figured I would dedicate a video just to this question it is one of the first things I think you should decide on when you're looking to build a PC what form factor motherboard you want to go with that will ultimately decide the size of your PC you can you know build some pretty big PCS with ITX form factors but it would look kind of weird throwing an ITX motherboard into a huge you know ATX case don't don't do that so the first pro of a mini ITX form factor is as its name describes a small footprint check this out it's smaller than the span of my hand if you put it next to an ATX motherboard it is dwarfed and that's a good thing if you choose something like this it's because you want small you want portable all of those things come in one small package when it comes to motherboards now a trade-off to this and this applies to most ITX boards is peripheral placement now I'm talking about HD audio USB 3.0 things like that some of those locations on some boards can be very inconvenient and it'll make your cable management look terrible so I recommend paying close attention to where those ports are on the ITX board before you purchase it I had a gigabyte ITX motherboard with its USB 3. way over here worst placement for a USB hub period because that cable that ugly black cable just reached all the way across the board looked terrible went over my Ram over the heat sink it was terrible uh and I would not have purchased that board if I had looked closely up front so I recommend you do that before jumping on an ITX board now this board doesn't have it too bad the only odd placement is in the case of the HD audio port which is just above the x16 slot typically with ATX boards all that's below like I said uh but the x16 slot here is at the base that's where it will almost always be for for ITX motherboards and that's because you have your rear IO to the left and your 24 pin Ram slots all that good stuff on the right now another negative for ITX form factors and this applies to most boards is overclockability assuming that your chipset allows it this is the azrock fatality z270 ITX gaming motherboard and its overclocking potential is decent I'm able to get my 7600k to about 4.7 4.8 I I was able to get it to but it it crashed in Prime 95 but I could still game okay uh but that's okay that's a decent overclock but it's not what it could be with an ATX board I've been able to get the same processor to 5 5.1 GHz on comparable ATX z270 boards this one just isn't packing the power phase delivery system that is needed for those kinds of stable overclocks again though you're you're trading off those kinds of things for the small form factor and it's difficult to get rid of that heat in a small case anyway something else I suggest you look for in your next ITX motherboard is built-in Wi-Fi if it doesn't have it don't buy it that's my rule of thumb and here's why if you're looking for a portable PC which is usually what most people are looking for when they decide to go with an ITX motherboard you want to have Wi-Fi you might not have your PC in the most strategic place for which your ethernet cable can reach so if you have Wi-Fi you can rely on that just for simple streaming things like that assuming your Wi-Fi capability uh at home or in your office is strong enough but if you don't have it and let's say later on down the line you do want it how are you going to do that unless the board has a Wi-Fi a dedicated Wi-Fi card on the PCB itself you can't just plug in a Wi-Fi card into a PCI slot because the only one you have is the 16x you can make it work if you didn't have a graphics card in there but then that kind of defeats the purpose of an ITX gaming PC so you have to weigh all of these things before making a decision with a board like this there are many compromises involved with ITX boards like I said but Wi-Fi is one that I do not recommend you make another compromise many manufacturers are willing to make for their ITX boards is fan support pay attention to how many fan hubs you have built into your motherboard if you don't have enough for the number of case fans you're willing to include in your build you're going to need to buy an extended Fan Hub that has six or so ports on it that's going to cost you an extra 20 or so bucks so if you can find one that has the number of fan ports that you're willing to you know use uh just go ahead and buy that one it's better than buying a separate unit and having to run all those cables from behind your case this keeps things nice and tidy now something I haven't personally run into but that I know others have experienced it makes sense on paper is diminished audio quality because everything is so tightly packed into this form factor the audio chips the different layers that are built into those chips are often interfered with by other electrical components on the board it's it's actually a pretty complex uh explanation if you really want to get down to it uh and it some of it's Way Beyond me you have to actually study electricity and magnetism to understand how audio interference Works to that extent uh but you will have in most cases with ATX boards slightly reduced audio Clarity you'll have some kind of background static in there just because everything is so closely packed together ATX boards obviously can fix that by spacing that that real Tech audio chip whatever it might be far far away from other components that are Extremely Loud far away from inducers particularly so do keep that in mind it's not something you can just test before buying one uh but if you can find something that has like you know 5.1 7.1 support most of the time those are going to be better than the ones that just have the simple you know headphone microphone and then whatever else on top for my htpc Builders out there who are choosing ITX for their form factor of choice that makes sense I'm glad you are but who aren't using a dedicated graphics card for video support you might want to pay attention to the type of a HDMI interface you have built into the ITX board if it's 1.4 you're only going to get 4k at 24 FPS but if you have HDMI 2.0 and a compatible CPU kbl lake is a good choice for that then you can stream at 4K 60fps that's that's a that's a deal breaker for a lot of people honestly but it's something so subtle and so on the DL for a lot of Manufacturers that it's difficult to find newag is very good about listing all system specifications Amazon is a bit more finicky with that but try your best to figure out whether it is 1.4 or 2.0 that will make a world of difference in your fluidity I guess and now we've come to the last compromise of ITX boards you've probably figured it out by now if you've been shopping around for a few days it's price and it costs more to buy an ITX board for a few reasons the manufacturing process is a bit more difficult because everything is so tightly packed look there there are as many resistors and other things going on in the back of this board as there are on the front of the board and that's because space is so limited on a board this small but with that said if you can find one for anywhere between 20 to 40 bucks more than its ATX counterpart you're getting a good deal on the board I don't recommend spending 200 bucks on an ITX board unless you really need whatever it is that board offers that others don't most of the time 100 to 140 bucks is a good price for a motherboard from Intel that has an unlocked chipset right now we're still waiting on am4 if that happens sometime soon uh we're waiting for those ITX boards but for now for Intel at least because you can buy Intel X boards currently uh try to find one around 100 to 140 bucks you'll be good to go there if you have any additional questions about ITX boards be sure to leave those in the comments below myself or someone else can help you out I try to read as many comments as I can initially after uploading uh every video because you know I'm just trying to do you guys a solid for being so quick to watch the video it's my way of saying thank you there if you like the video be sure to give it a thumbs up thumbs down for the opposite be sure to click subscribe button if you haven't already I will catch you in the next video where I review a 1080 TI in a very unorthodox way this is Salazar Studio thanks for learning with usI get asked this question a lot Greg what are the pros and cons of choosing an ITX form factor for my next PC bill so I figured I would dedicate a video just to this question it is one of the first things I think you should decide on when you're looking to build a PC what form factor motherboard you want to go with that will ultimately decide the size of your PC you can you know build some pretty big PCS with ITX form factors but it would look kind of weird throwing an ITX motherboard into a huge you know ATX case don't don't do that so the first pro of a mini ITX form factor is as its name describes a small footprint check this out it's smaller than the span of my hand if you put it next to an ATX motherboard it is dwarfed and that's a good thing if you choose something like this it's because you want small you want portable all of those things come in one small package when it comes to motherboards now a trade-off to this and this applies to most ITX boards is peripheral placement now I'm talking about HD audio USB 3.0 things like that some of those locations on some boards can be very inconvenient and it'll make your cable management look terrible so I recommend paying close attention to where those ports are on the ITX board before you purchase it I had a gigabyte ITX motherboard with its USB 3. way over here worst placement for a USB hub period because that cable that ugly black cable just reached all the way across the board looked terrible went over my Ram over the heat sink it was terrible uh and I would not have purchased that board if I had looked closely up front so I recommend you do that before jumping on an ITX board now this board doesn't have it too bad the only odd placement is in the case of the HD audio port which is just above the x16 slot typically with ATX boards all that's below like I said uh but the x16 slot here is at the base that's where it will almost always be for for ITX motherboards and that's because you have your rear IO to the left and your 24 pin Ram slots all that good stuff on the right now another negative for ITX form factors and this applies to most boards is overclockability assuming that your chipset allows it this is the azrock fatality z270 ITX gaming motherboard and its overclocking potential is decent I'm able to get my 7600k to about 4.7 4.8 I I was able to get it to but it it crashed in Prime 95 but I could still game okay uh but that's okay that's a decent overclock but it's not what it could be with an ATX board I've been able to get the same processor to 5 5.1 GHz on comparable ATX z270 boards this one just isn't packing the power phase delivery system that is needed for those kinds of stable overclocks again though you're you're trading off those kinds of things for the small form factor and it's difficult to get rid of that heat in a small case anyway something else I suggest you look for in your next ITX motherboard is built-in Wi-Fi if it doesn't have it don't buy it that's my rule of thumb and here's why if you're looking for a portable PC which is usually what most people are looking for when they decide to go with an ITX motherboard you want to have Wi-Fi you might not have your PC in the most strategic place for which your ethernet cable can reach so if you have Wi-Fi you can rely on that just for simple streaming things like that assuming your Wi-Fi capability uh at home or in your office is strong enough but if you don't have it and let's say later on down the line you do want it how are you going to do that unless the board has a Wi-Fi a dedicated Wi-Fi card on the PCB itself you can't just plug in a Wi-Fi card into a PCI slot because the only one you have is the 16x you can make it work if you didn't have a graphics card in there but then that kind of defeats the purpose of an ITX gaming PC so you have to weigh all of these things before making a decision with a board like this there are many compromises involved with ITX boards like I said but Wi-Fi is one that I do not recommend you make another compromise many manufacturers are willing to make for their ITX boards is fan support pay attention to how many fan hubs you have built into your motherboard if you don't have enough for the number of case fans you're willing to include in your build you're going to need to buy an extended Fan Hub that has six or so ports on it that's going to cost you an extra 20 or so bucks so if you can find one that has the number of fan ports that you're willing to you know use uh just go ahead and buy that one it's better than buying a separate unit and having to run all those cables from behind your case this keeps things nice and tidy now something I haven't personally run into but that I know others have experienced it makes sense on paper is diminished audio quality because everything is so tightly packed into this form factor the audio chips the different layers that are built into those chips are often interfered with by other electrical components on the board it's it's actually a pretty complex uh explanation if you really want to get down to it uh and it some of it's Way Beyond me you have to actually study electricity and magnetism to understand how audio interference Works to that extent uh but you will have in most cases with ATX boards slightly reduced audio Clarity you'll have some kind of background static in there just because everything is so closely packed together ATX boards obviously can fix that by spacing that that real Tech audio chip whatever it might be far far away from other components that are Extremely Loud far away from inducers particularly so do keep that in mind it's not something you can just test before buying one uh but if you can find something that has like you know 5.1 7.1 support most of the time those are going to be better than the ones that just have the simple you know headphone microphone and then whatever else on top for my htpc Builders out there who are choosing ITX for their form factor of choice that makes sense I'm glad you are but who aren't using a dedicated graphics card for video support you might want to pay attention to the type of a HDMI interface you have built into the ITX board if it's 1.4 you're only going to get 4k at 24 FPS but if you have HDMI 2.0 and a compatible CPU kbl lake is a good choice for that then you can stream at 4K 60fps that's that's a that's a deal breaker for a lot of people honestly but it's something so subtle and so on the DL for a lot of Manufacturers that it's difficult to find newag is very good about listing all system specifications Amazon is a bit more finicky with that but try your best to figure out whether it is 1.4 or 2.0 that will make a world of difference in your fluidity I guess and now we've come to the last compromise of ITX boards you've probably figured it out by now if you've been shopping around for a few days it's price and it costs more to buy an ITX board for a few reasons the manufacturing process is a bit more difficult because everything is so tightly packed look there there are as many resistors and other things going on in the back of this board as there are on the front of the board and that's because space is so limited on a board this small but with that said if you can find one for anywhere between 20 to 40 bucks more than its ATX counterpart you're getting a good deal on the board I don't recommend spending 200 bucks on an ITX board unless you really need whatever it is that board offers that others don't most of the time 100 to 140 bucks is a good price for a motherboard from Intel that has an unlocked chipset right now we're still waiting on am4 if that happens sometime soon uh we're waiting for those ITX boards but for now for Intel at least because you can buy Intel X boards currently uh try to find one around 100 to 140 bucks you'll be good to go there if you have any additional questions about ITX boards be sure to leave those in the comments below myself or someone else can help you out I try to read as many comments as I can initially after uploading uh every video because you know I'm just trying to do you guys a solid for being so quick to watch the video it's my way of saying thank you there if you like the video be sure to give it a thumbs up thumbs down for the opposite be sure to click subscribe button if you haven't already I will catch you in the next video where I review a 1080 TI in a very unorthodox way this is Salazar Studio thanks for learning with us\n"