[SOLVED] first attempts to dive into itx / motherboard sidegrade . . .

[theateam794]

hello.

quick background
had HUGE case for years and finally wanting to get rid and switch for something a little smaller and easier on the eye and spotted some itx stuff I am interested in.

I already have an itx case I got in a sale (elite 110) from what I can see the power supply would hover above partially covering the cpu fan by maybe 1/3, I also measured clearance and the psu hovers almost exactly 80mm above the motherboard surface.

my cooler (wraith spire) if mounted measures almost 80mm from the board surface and I 'think' maybe that can drop by around 5mm if the rbg strip is removed.

Q1/I have never built SFF before, has anyone here fitted the wraith spire inside an elite 110? would this be ok on heat etc with above clearance?

secondly my current board is a b350 looking around I was going to get an itx B350 but for a little more (like 20 or so) seems like I could get a newer b450 (both are ASRock+Fatal1ty)

Q2/is it worth it for the extra features and maybe some future proofing or or should I save myself a bit of money ? or maybe suggest a decent itx board

Thanks!

 

[Eximo]

I think when doing Mini ITX you want a fully featured board. You only have one expansion slot, so you are pretty much stuck with what you get. Premium audio, lan, and WiFi in case you ever need it. These days you can get Mini ITX boards with multiple M.2 slots (some on the back) and that is invaluable for saving space in a case.

When in doubt, check partpicker. Not sure this is exactly the parts list you have in mind, but you might be able to get a feel for how much free space is there.

https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/#c=...024,1025,1169,1167,1212,1213,1214&e=64&page=1

 

[theateam794]

awesome thanks for posting that site, a little browsing and pretty sure this guy chose the same everything I had in mind!

looks pretty tight, will the positioning on the cooler / psu mess up airflow ?

also still looking for opinion if I should get a b350 or b450 board? the case really has all I need in terms of expansion, just going to be running a single sata ssd maybe add a second one at some point

thank you!

 

[Eximo]

That particular user has the PSU fan facing up I think, which is better than having the two fans pulling in opposite directions a cm apart.

Personally, I would pick up a nice Noctua low profile cooler.

Or get yourself an SFX power supply and a ATX to SFX adapter plate. Then you would have that much more room.

 

[theateam794]

I plan to get a low profile cooler at some poitn I just don't want to splash out on everything all at once

also with the chipset one friend told me that unless I want to use a 3900x I should just get the cheaper b350 board but I read the b450 have better auto clocking ? really don't know if they are leading my astray as they had given me incorrect advice in the past.

 

[Eximo]

I wouldn't say they are wrong, the newer boards should do a better job with the latest model chips. Some testing so far has proved this to some extent, but we are talking like 50Mhz in most cases.

I would not buy B350 at this point, the cost difference to get B450 is worth it for the better memory compatibility support, and potentially PCIe 4 support if I recall. So far the motherboard manufacturers are doing a good job of expanding support all the way back. I would bet money on AMD doing at least one more token release for AM4, besides the 3950X, and the motherboard manufacturers might not bother with the oldest boards for that round. They will be spending their resources on upcoming DDR5 boards and CPUs some point soon.