Asus p8h61-i mini itx mobo -- any thoughts?

[sikonawt]

Hi all, I'm putting together a mini itx build for my gf and am a little stuck on the mobo selection. The ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe seems like a safe bet in that it is quite well reviewed as far as I can tell, but it's quite pricey at $150. Unfortunately most of the less expensive mini itx mobos are seriously lacking in reviews. I couldn't find any for the P8H61-i, which is about half the cost of the P8H67-I Deluxe on newegg.

The overall end pricepoint of the system is going to be about $800-900, just for a frame of reference -- core i5 2400 or 2500, 8gb ram, 1tb hdd, gpu in the $100-$150 range and most likely SilverStone SST-SG07B-W for the case/psu.

 

[itxgamer]

I've had a chance to use the Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3, the Intel DH67CF and the ASRock H67-ITX. I wouldn't say that any of them are lacking. They're limited. But that's mainly do to the limitation of the H67 chipset itself. $150 for the ASUS board is pricey, but if it's in your price range, go for it. If you want to save some money, both the Gigabyte and the ASRock (no wireless) are both solid boards and well priced. I've run them both with an i5-2500k and a Radeon 6850. No complaints about the ASRock. I don't care for the double HDMI on the Gigabyte, but it might be a 'want' for some users. Check out some of the ITX builds here. It might give you some more ideas.

The H61 model might be an option. It has less features so its cheaper. No Wifi. No SATA III (6Gbps). No eSATA. No SPDIF. And I believe only 6 PCIe lanes (the H67 has 8). In a quote I found from Intel:

In the end the H61 series is designed to be an entry level board chipset and will not allow many of the performance features that you may find with the H67 or P67 series may have available.

If those features aren't necessary, save some money and go for the H61.

About those serious lacking reviews, unless your reading reviews on a site focused on small form factor systems, ITX boards never review well. They're always being compared to larger formats that have more space and therefore more features. Just something to keep in mind when researching your components.