Mini ITX

**nemowolf** · November 27th, 2007, 11:38 PM

anyone have a site that sells Mini ITX motherboards other then newegg. Their selection is so limited and i know there are manufacturers out there that im kinda disappointed.

Any had any experience working on one of these systems?

**ShyguyXPC** · November 28th, 2007, 12:00 AM

Logic Supply

http://www.logicsupply.com/

Directron.com

http://www.directron.com/miniitxmb.html

been wanting to get one for a while, even bought a 1.3GHz Pentium M, only to find the board I was going to get to swap out the Celeron M, had the damn CPU soldered on... but eventually will get one, one of these days.

Edit: another supplier I forgot about...

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.-108/it.C/.f

also check out www.mini-itx.com for news, info, & reviews in the Mini/Nano/Pico ITX world as well.

**nemowolf** · November 28th, 2007, 02:04 PM

I answered my own question searching through the rest of Logic Supply's site and found they offer PSU boards as well.
Okay, so im checking out all these computers and they all reference how little power they use. Which brings me to a question i hope you can in turn answer ...

Ive seen them use power bricks and some of these look like they use standard power supply connectors for power. How the hell do these things work for PSU's? How can i tell if the Mobo im buying comes with a brick or needs its own PSU?

Also, im looking at 3.5" SBC boards as well. Do you have a supplier for those as well?

**ShyguyXPC** · November 28th, 2007, 05:27 PM

I know there is some, & used to have a link for them, but that was on my old system & lost those links.

you should be able to find some, just do a quick google search for Mini ITX Motherboards, should be a couple of suppliers that come up for some of the SBC boards.

as to the PSU question, most Mini ITX boards I've seen have the ATX connectors onboard & just utilize a miniturized circuit board with mosfets & whatever usual components are needed, that connect to the motherboard like that... & usually there's a power cable lead that the wall plug connects too. some cases have the lead, & psu I think connects to it I think... there's still quite a bit as far as specifics go, for these systems That I'm still learning.

(here's an example that can better show how some of these PSU's connect... click the image thumbnail of the product on this page... http://www.logicsupply.com/products/powerkit150 )

Trying to remember but I think it was the Pico PSU's that had a PCI slot bracket with the plug connection on it? but not sure, let me quick look. OK, nope, it wasn't that kind of plug, but does have an external lead with some sort of ring shaped bezel thing (LOL, I have no clue what its called

)

But yeah, then the power brick I believe plugs into that & powers the PSU, the PicoPSU's design eliminates many of the extra cables & circuit boards that accompany the other designs. if you go to Logicsupply in the PSU section under power supplies, you can see the 4 different models of PicoPSU's, & take a look at the images there.

LOL, nevermind, about thePSU stuff, didn't see that you answered your own question, just clicked the link in my email inbox to the thread & hit reply LOL...

**nemowolf** · November 28th, 2007, 08:14 PM

No worries. Ive done a lil mock up of the general size of the Mini ITX and its a bit bigger then i need for my application.

I got the idea from a case mod sent to me a long time ago for a whiskey bottle case.

http://metku.net/index.html?path=mod...ypc/index_eng4

And i thought to myself that it didnt sound like a bad idea. Now im trying to pull it off in my own application but i want to expand into other types and sizes and shapes of bottles too. For instance, a round bottle/jug of wine. I know the jugs are going to be big enough but maybe a larger "Sake" style bottle might be interesting. I was thinking of taking it to a glass cutter and having them place groves so i can slide the mobo in and out of place inside.

The main problem im having though is that at 6.75" on the thin side thats a huge diameter i have to find for a bottle. Then there is the 6.75 inches for height that shouldnt be a problem but potentially could be depending on the size of the bottle.

A 3.5" SBC card actually measures at 4"x5.75" which is much more doable for this type of application. Before i can go bottle shopping i want to know what size i can feasably get. Fitting the PSU and the HD shouldnt pose a problem as they are seperate components and equally miniturized. (im thinking adapter for 3.5" to 2.5" so i can get a laptop HD in there)

**ShyguyXPC** · November 28th, 2007, 10:22 PM

depending on what you actually need for processing power & what not, look into nanoITX & Pico ITX, surely one of those will work for size, especially PicoITX.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-ITX

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico-ITX

**nemowolf** · November 29th, 2007, 01:23 AM

huh, those are much more suitable for the size im looking for. I plan on using Windows Home Server as my OS of choice so im not terribly sure what sort of system specs it requires. I imagine that what ever Vista Home Basic needs is all it needs as well.

Honestly, i get caught up in the ghz since im all in a fluster about dual and quad-cores for my own gaming machine. I started thinking about what the system reqs are for Wink2k3 Server and all it needs is a 700mhz recommended or min i dont remember which so a 1 gighz Nano ITX or Pico ITX should work. I'll do a bit more homework on this and see what i can find.