Best mini-ITX board for overclocking ?

[nateluk]

Im building my new PC and wanted to overclock my i5 4690k to about 4.3ghz and was wondering what mini-ITX board would be able to do this with good power delivery

 

[legend001523]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz97ngaming5
maybe this one, not alot of choices for mini itx, i can give you micro atx recommendations, but not mini

 

[Vitric9]

the Asus Z77,Z87,Z97 I-Deluxe are very well regarded and is a good product line for the mainstream PC. http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97IPLUS/

 

[nateluk]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz97ngaming5
maybe this one, not alot of choices for mini itx, i can give you micro atx recommendations, but not mini

recommendations for mATX boards for OC ?

 

[legend001523]

Asus z97 gryphon, built with military spec materials and 10 year warranty I believe

 

[nateluk]

Asus z97 gryphon, built with military spec materials and 10 year warranty I believe

ideas for a nice mATX case under 100 ?

 

[legend001523]

err the evga hadron air?

 

[nateluk]

err the evga hadron air?

Isnt that mini-ITX ?

 

[legend001523]

corsair 350D

 

[Rammy]

Remember that at ITX level very little is standardised so the "best" board will be the one that suits your build the best.
What I mean by that is that your motherboard+case+cooler can't be taken in isolation, they have to be considered as a single combined item.

Good examples of this -

• 
  ■ MSI ITX boards are more than capable of hitting a moderate overclock like 4.3Ghz but their cooler support is generally very weak due to putting the CPU socket near to the PCIe slot (This also applies to previous generations of Gigabyte boards).
  
  ■ The Corsair 250D is pretty popular right now and it's easy to see why - it looks good and has some nice features but it's also pretty inflexible with regards to components. You definitely want a motherboard with a clear "top" edge (this applies to other ITX cases like the Hadron Air too) as this is where the main exhaust fans are. You are also more or less forced to use a closed loop cooler like a H100i, which isn't cheap, as air cooler support is near to non-existent.
  
  ■ Asus Z87/Z97 boards are generally regarded as among the best, with the Maximus Impact being essentially the (incredibly expensive) best ITX boards around. They do however feature upright daughterboards which free up space on the board but can impede airflow or limit cooler options in some cases.

As a side note, if you don't plan on overclocking much at all, why not avoid the extra cost/hassle and just go for a stock i5? It'll give you extra funds for other components (or just leftovers) and is quite likely to give you a better build overall.

I'd also generally avoid anything that uses words like "extreme" "gaming" "military" as it's all marketing nonsense to charge you more money. If you have money to burn and want something pretty then go ahead, but for a sensible purchase you can make your money go a lot further. There are exceptions to this, as sometimes these premium lines fall to reasonable prices, but if your goal is a small overclock then it's likely a big waste of money.

 

[legend001523]

^ op wants a board for overcloxking

 

[Rammy]

^ op wants a board for overcloxking

Yeah but he's planning on overclocking within the stock turbo range of the CPU - leaving it stock speeds is going to make near to zero difference in performance so there's a definite argument for ditching the 4690K altogether (if he doesn't already have it) and opting for a cheaper version.

If he does want to stick with overclocking then as I said it'll really depend on which case+cooler he had in mind, but something like the ASRock Z97E-ITX is a relatively safe bet as it's well priced in most places, has good CPU cooler support and decent case suitability too.