PDA

View Full Version : Has anyone gone the mini ITX route?

Mahlon
10-15-2012, 05:55 PM
Now that there are some fairly good mini ITX boards out there with 16 GB Ram space, (and EVGA's coming out in November) and a pretty solid 450 psu from SilverStone, has anyone considered doing a complete mini ITX for serious modeling/animation?

I need a rig that is both poweful and something I can attach a handle to the case and hoist into the back seat of the car along with the assorted periperals.

I've thought about a laptop, but not sure I want invest super amounts of money into that when I could build a small rig, more powerful for far less -- as long as it's fairly portable (i.e. lifting it in and out of the car once daily +monitor, keyboard, and mouse).

Seems to me the mini ITX enclosure is the biggest hurdle. Obviously the smaller the better. But finding one that will get rid of the heat and house a long graphics card: that's the problem. The SilverStone SG series (SG05 is the smallest and I'd love it if that could work; just worried about the heat) could work.

Anyone else thought about this now that gaming is forcing the evolution of miniITX?

P.S. Micro ATX might be a way to go, but finding a small enough mATX case is pretty hard.

Best,
Mahlon
olson
10-15-2012, 07:04 PM
No. Just no. At the very least I'd go with microATX instead of Mini-ITX. What would be the point anyway, a case big enough to hold the graphics card would be five times bigger than the Mini-ITX motherboard assuming it would even have a PCI Express slot (which most don't).
Mahlon
10-15-2012, 08:17 PM
Thanks, Olson,

It would definitely be tricky power-wise, too. But there are several miniITX motherboards sporting PCI Express 3. They're a lot more sophisticated than the boards of yor. The Asus has 4 USB3, 2 SATA 6GB ports, LAN, eSata, DVI/HDMI/Display Port, Bluetooth, WiFi etc. etc. and supports 16 GB in dual channel. Pricey for what it is, but it is robust in spec.

Even, and enough power could be a problem. But I've read of a few people using a gtx 670 in an SG05 in gaming situations with SSDs and i5. Wouldn't plan on any kind of overclocking. Noise could be a problem, too, but I've not read many complaints.

Might be an interesting build to try. Suppose parts could always be repurposed for an HTPC if it really, really didn't work out.

I've done microATX a number of times, and it's just not small enough for portability, to me.


Mahlon