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Small Form Factor Motherboard Sizes

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UnseenMenace

UnseenModerator
Joined
Apr 23, 2001
NANO ITX

The nano-itx board were origionally designed by VIA and have a form factor of 120mm x 120mm, they are ideally suited to ultra small digital media and mobile entertainment devices.
The nano-itx board usually have an embeded processor and intergrated graphics with MPEG 2 decoder and MPEG 4 acceleration.
Due to size restrictions nano-itx have DIMM slots.
 

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VIA Mini-ITX

The Mini-ITX mainboard form factor is a highly integrated native x86 mainboard measuring only 170mm x 170mm and enables the development of an infinite variety of small form factor PC systems. More than 33% smaller than the FlexATX mainboard form factor, the Mini-ITX is aimed at the development of Thin-Clients, wireless network devices, digital media systems, set-top boxes and more.
 

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microATX

microATX (also known as µATX) form factor is a small motherboard size of 244 mm x 244 mm. Compared to full ATX, microATX has reduced the amount of I/O slots but a smaller power supply can be used.

Micro-ATX Image
 
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flexATX

The FlexATX measuring 229mm x 191mm is a natural evolution of the Intel's microATX form factor which was first unveiled in late 1999. The FlexATX addendum to the microATX specification addresses the requirements of only the motherboard and not the overall system solution.
 
This sticky is a work in progress, if you have any more information regarding any of these motherboards, or know of any other SFF motherboards please post in this thread
 
Do with this as you will...

There are also SBC's (or single board computers).
It used to be that these were relegated to being a tiny motherboards made to mount on a PCI based backplane for clustering purposes, but no more!
In my searches last night I came across standalone SBC's that had all the normal bells and whistles that the VIA Epia line does (including their processor), some even take a Pentiums or AMD's Geode CPU, but they're in a 3.5" form factor, much the size of a harddrive!

Hard to tell where these little gems can be purchased yet, I've only found distributer links that don't name prices, and require a membership to order.
The hunt will continue!

Here's the teaser site from last night: http://www.ieiworld.com/en/product_IPC.asp?model=WAFER-Mark
Hit the " 3.5" Wafer " link in the left menu and you can see all their super small boards...Geek Viagra :D
 
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asusradeon said:
what size board do shuttles use ?


i believe the shuttle boards are proprietary boards. - called BTX i believe there are also a few other 'standards' that they use. of note is that if you have a shuttle case you will need to buy a shuttle replacement mobo, or do some modding if you want a new mobo in that nice shuttle case

there is also the DTX standard being pushed by AMD

from wikipedia

On January 10, 2007, AMD announced a new standard form factor for SFF motherboards, called DTX. The dimensions of DTX motherboards will be 203mm×244mm, while microATX are 244mm×244mm. A shortened version, Mini-DTX, will measure 170mm×203mm

In designing DTX, AMD sought to address the following issues:

* Manufacturing cost:
o DTX will allow up to four motherboards to be produced from a standard printed circuit board panel (Mini-DTX will allow up to six motherboards per standard panel)
o DTX motherboards can be manufactured with as few as four layers of PCB wiring.
* Backwards-compatibility. DTX motherboards are smaller than microATX boards, but backwards-compatible with them. In other words, DTX motherboards will fit inside cases designed for microATX boards. This will reduce the hurdle of transitioning from microATX to DTX for SFF computer builders.
* Standardization. If DTX becomes an established standard, SFF builders (both commercial builders and hobbyists) will have a wider range of interchangeable cases, motherboards, and power supplies to choose from.
 
ok here is another one - Pico-ITX
from the article (via linuxdevices.com)

"The forthcoming Epia PX media-oriented motherboard will clock in at just 3.9- x 2.8-inches, which provides "half the surface area of its already-tiny 4.7- x 4.7-inch Nano-ITX" standard and looks utterly dwarfed beside the 6.7- x 6.7-inch mini-ITX."

via_epiapx_1-sm.jpg
 
what about baby AT? Wasn't that the size of micro ATX? Sorry for bumping an old thread but it is a sticky.
 
I think it would be cool to build a SFF gaming system, with a real PCIe Graphics card. What type of boards do laptops use?
 
This is largely for one of my stranger modding ideas, but is there anywhere one can buy the ultra small motherboards such as those used in the MacMini, the one VoodooPC box, and the new Shuttle computer that looks the the original NES? None of those places lets you buy them as barebones, and it seems a little less than cost effective to buy the full computer with the intent of using just the guts.

Even the Flex ATX boards are a little big for what I'm thinking, but these ~6"x6" boards the various companies are using would be great.

And yes I realize that I accidentally put this first in the overclocking mobo section. That's what happens when I try to browse the Internet while in class, I suppose.

happy.gif
 
Hey,

Surely pretty much a legacy thread here, since it looks like in a OC forum the SFF are rather unpopular, since the general mentality is, as bigger as more OC. However, people have to take into account that OC is never without risk, no matter how huge a tower and how good the cooling, there is so much factors which are unseen. Usualy, a small OC is the better OC in term the full power isnt needed on a daily basis. Even some SFF systems can handle a small OC.

Anyway, The reason why the super small boards are hard to get is because most users who buy those systems usualy aswell want a proper and small design and are usualy not a buyer of "pieces from the scratches" because most SFF buyers do not care a lot about power. In order to be more effective, and aswell cost effective, a intergrated solution would be cheaper and make the system even smaller (best example are Notebooks). Ofc huge board always look very promising, and then the people think, because it got alien tech which is, according to the manufacturer, totaly foolproof. they can OC up to the heaven. And at some point its all burned down, so, even the highest hyped product got its limits and rather drive save.

However, there is indeed the power users who wish to buy something small but still with lot of power. Those doesnt truly have a lot of options because most super small factor boards are either not very powerful, or there simply is no one around with a few very rare exceptions. One of those exceptions are the Shuttle SFF boards, and me as a long time user of those Shuttle systems am pretty happy about theyr quality. They might be pretty expensive but you always get what you pay for, and in that term, the quality does suit the price, that im sure about.

However, theyr strongest flagships usualy come as a barebone version. Not only the board but there isnt more than a case, board and PSU incl. cooler. Some may only want to buy the ultra small board which isnt possible because the entire design is proprietary, yes its mcro ATX but not fitable on standart cases, so there is no reason only to sell the board. Its not a standart size, its a proprietary shrink Shuttle made, which will need a special case. I dont say its impossible to build a very own case, but it will pretty much be a freak product and the cost wouldnt matter at all, at such a "custom single piece", if it does, then no one would ever start to think about, custom will always be the most expensive stuff at such a level.

So, the official version is a barebone and i own theyr currenlty strngest flagship. I made a test and am truly surprised what kind of power its able to handle inside such a small case. For example the Asus P8P67M-Pro may look good but its nowhere near the power which the new SX58H7PRO could handle. Its able to use a LGA 1366 CPU and triple channel memory. Its far above the Asus board in performance, actually in benchmarks the Shuttle board can keep pace with huge Asus Rampage boards, its simply impressive. The only true bottleneck it got is the higher temperature (equal to a stock cooler), and that it only can fit and handle a single GPU, however, i dont think any mini ATX user want more than 1 huge double slot GPU, since it will be impossible, just to much heat.

I would be interested what kind of alternate stuff is around. However, as it seems most manufacturer of micro ATX got the mentality to provide a small and cheap media center and arnt haivng any focus to make it very powerful, thats why Shuttle seems to be the almost only option for power users who want to go small. Im open for alternate stuff, if someone know something else.. i dont know someting comparable with same size. My system and all its tests can be seen here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=678584 (please note, it may be unavailable for some time, but you can see the same topic on overclockersclub).
 
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i believe the shuttle boards are proprietary boards. - called BTX i believe there are also a few other 'standards' that they use. of note is that if you have a shuttle case you will need to buy a shuttle replacement mobo, or do some modding if you want a new mobo in that nice shuttle case

there is also the DTX standard being pushed by AMD

from wikipedia

On January 10, 2007, AMD announced a new standard form factor for SFF motherboards, called DTX. The dimensions of DTX motherboards will be 203mm×244mm, while microATX are 244mm×244mm. A shortened version, Mini-DTX, will measure 170mm×203mm

In designing DTX, AMD sought to address the following issues:

* Manufacturing cost:
o DTX will allow up to four motherboards to be produced from a standard printed circuit board panel (Mini-DTX will allow up to six motherboards per standard panel)
o DTX motherboards can be manufactured with as few as four layers of PCB wiring.
* Backwards-compatibility. DTX motherboards are smaller than microATX boards, but backwards-compatible with them. In other words, DTX motherboards will fit inside cases designed for microATX boards. This will reduce the hurdle of transitioning from microATX to DTX for SFF computer builders.
* Standardization. If DTX becomes an established standard, SFF builders (both commercial builders and hobbyists) will have a wider range of interchangeable cases, motherboards, and power supplies to choose from.

So Intel sold out BTX to shuttle, I wondered what happened to BTXs. I know of the DTX board, but who sells them??
 
I love the small form factor ever since I built my own system that was smaller than the MAC mini and out performed it...
Howabout PC/104 and PCIE/104 which containtains a PCI Express bus
Here is a list of PC/104 vendors: http://www.pc104.com/
I've owned two shuttles, and I think 4 Mini-ITX systems now. Not great for overclocking, but if you want to put a computer capable of playing 1080p video into a case smaller than a DVD drive...
 
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