Question i9-12900K Mini-ITX board

[davidgamer90]

Hey, I am building a SFF PC with an i9-12900K.

I am trying to choose between:

ASUS ROG Strix B760-I Gaming WIFI
and
ASUS ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming WIFI

I have read the Z series board is what I need for overclocking, which I will not be doing anyway.
Would there be any other downside of going for the B series board?

Also considering there is a massive price difference for me if I had to go for the Z series board.
If needs be I will just have to save up a bit longer for it, if there are no other downsides then I could go ahead with the B serices board today.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[logainofhades]

I would ask why you have chosen a 12900k for such a build. For an ITX build, a B series board is fine, as you do not intend to overclock. Only caveat is that said board still has a good power delivery system.

 

[davidgamer90]

I did not really choose it, as I got the CPU for free from a good friend that upgraded

 

[logainofhades]

I did not really choose it, as I got the CPU for free from a good friend that upgraded

Free is always good. It would probably be in your best interest to undervolt it, once you get the system up and running.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jjopjkJzxA

 

[hotaru.hino]

There's more differences between a B and Z series chipset than overclocking capabilities, but it mostly has to do with port availability and capabilities. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1700#Raptor_Lake_chipsets_(700_series) That said, most people should be fine with a B-series board.

Also you may want to consider power limiting the CPU. By default it'll want to run up to 241W and trying to cool that off in a SFF computer is extremely challenging. TechPowerUp did a performance review on various power level settings if that interests you.

 

[TerryLaze]

Free is always good. It would probably be in your best interest to undervolt it, once you get the system up and running.

Undervolting just allows the auto overclock to go even higher, you don't want that.
Also it is considered overclocking and many mobos have protections against it making the CPU super slow when it's enabled.

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/10ojbbq/intel_undervolt_protection/

Also you may want to consider power limiting the CPU. By default it'll want to run up to 241W and trying to cool that off in a SFF computer is extremely challenging. TechPowerUp did a performance review on various power level settings if that interests you.

Yep this, limit it to whatever your cooling can easily (quiet) handle, unless you don't care about that because it will be far away in a corner or something.
Only that cooling is not really an issue, as long as you are ok with 100 degrees C , the CPU will just run as high as possible up to the power limit you have set.

It's only an issue if you have really bad cooling that won't allow the CPU to get decent enough performance.

I know you said SFF but if you can fit in an ag400 it will cool it fine and give you pretty much full performance.

 

[davidgamer90]

I am not worried about cooling as it will have a custom water loop.
I am only worried about the capabilities of the motherboard.

 

[35below0]

As said before, check VRM power delivery of any ITX board. It seems to me that z6/790 boards have better VRM than B series. That would be one reason to buy a Z board.

Also, the chipsets themselves are different but it's up to the motherboard manufacturers to kit out the actual motherboards. Some offer much less than the chipset is capable of, but usually the "flagship" z boards are more feature packed and better built.

If you're worried about wasting money, don't build a SFF. It costs more just by itself. Sorry.

 

[logainofhades]

Undervolting just allows the auto overclock to go even higher, you don't want that.
Also it is considered overclocking and many mobos have protections against it making the CPU super slow when it's enabled.

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/10ojbbq/intel_undervolt_protection/

Undervolting improves temps per jay's video.

 

[davidgamer90]

As said before, check VRM power delivery of any ITX board. It seems to me that z6/790 boards have better VRM than B series. That would be one reason to buy a Z board.

Also, the chipsets themselves are different but it's up to the motherboard manufacturers to kit out the actual motherboards. Some offer much less than the chipset is capable of, but usually the "flagship" z boards are more feature packed and better built.

If you're worried about wasting money, don't build a SFF. It costs more just by itself. Sorry.

I tried to the best of my knowledge to compare the 2 boards myself. If there is anything else you see besides the overclocking that could handicap my performance on stock speeds please let me know

P.S Buiding a SFF is what I want.

 

[35below0]

I am not worried about cooling as it will have a custom water loop.
I am only worried about the capabilities of the motherboard.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bc...ini-itx-lga1700-motherboard-z790i-aorus-ultra

Z790I AORUS ULTRA (rev. 1.0) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Lasting Quality from GIGABYTE.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards bring together a unique blend of features and technologies that offer users the absolute ...

www.gigabyte.com

or
https://pg.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z790I Lightning WiFi/index.asp

Compare to your Asus picks.
Between them i would take the z790I model.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I tried to the best of my knowledge to compare the 2 boards myself. If there is anything else you see besides the overclocking that could handicap my performance on stock speeds please let me know

P.S Buiding a SFF is what I want.

How "small" are you going for here? Mini-ITX by itself doesn't imply it's small, even if you go with a case that can only accept Mini-ITX boards as a lot of them are the same size as Micro-ATX cases. To me small is a sub 15L case like a Fractal Design Node 202 or Terra.

I know this is deviating from the original topic here, but I want to make sure your bases are covered.

 

[TerryLaze]

Undervolting improves temps per jay's video.

It does, but only if the auto overcloking is turned off, otherwise the temp headroom is being used by the auto overclock to auto overclock even higher.

 

[TerryLaze]

I tried to the best of my knowledge to compare the 2 boards myself. If there is anything else you see besides the overclocking that could handicap my performance on stock speeds please let me know

P.S Buiding a SFF is what I want.

You have to look at reviews that will tell you how much power (watts) the mobo can go up to and what temps the mobo (vrms) has when doing so.
If you are only after the 125W base power then you don't have to worry about anything because pretty much any mobo will do that, if you want to be able to run the CPU at max turbo for long periods of time then you have to read reviews and see which mobo will be better at that.

 

[davidgamer90]

The case I am using is the 11L Dan A4-H2O with a 240 mm rad and 2x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM Fans