Three Sub-$100 LGA1150 Mini-ITX Motherboards

[RedJaron]

I'm going to guess the reason you can't download updates through the UEFI over Wi-Fi is because it doesn't have the capability to store and remember SSIDs, passwords, etc. A simple TCP/IP protocol for the LAN port is easy to store in the BIOS, however, and will work with any network with a DHCP server.

Just a guess, I've never actually used the board.

 

[quadrider21]

Mini ITX boards are looking more and more appealing for my next low budget gaming rig.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

We have built an i5 system with a GTX 970, SSD, and HDD on a good PSU in a Thermaltake Core V1 for a very easy build. What more do you need for a $1000 gaming system?

 

[goinginstyle]

Yet another motherboard article without an Asus offering. Did you guys piss them off or something as your coverage lately in roundups has been than less than stellar with none of the manufacturers being represented completely. You say you requested boards from everyone, so what is the reason there is not an Asus or MSI board in this roundup?

 

[Crashman]

Yet another motherboard article without an Asus offering. Did you guys piss them off or something as your coverage lately in roundups has been than less than stellar with none of the manufacturers being represented completely. You say you requested boards from everyone, so what is the reason there is not an Asus or MSI board in this roundup?

This roundup? Read what he said about some manufacturers not wanting to be in the roundup. Overall? MSI appears to be missing some reviews because it's over-extended on others (we have four reviewers now).

 

[ceh4702]

This is a nice article and all but There are suppose to be some 1151 socket motherboards coming out for sky lake chipset. When are we going to see some of them? I don't expect a lot of budget boards for them to appear too quickly, but the release date is suppose to be this summer and it is already May. Are there motherboards and CPU's available for testing? Is Intel trying to keep you from doing articles till a certain date or what?

 

[jtd871]

I respectfully disagree with the article's conclusion with respect to the H81 board not meriting an award. The only omission that might matter to anybody is the lack of a usb3 header. Other than that, the "extras" offered by the other 2 boards may not be worth ~$50 in price difference. I also beg to differ with the conclusions that OEM tiny systems are a better deal for the majority of this site's viewers, given how many like rolling their own rigs. This board is IMO a value leader, since all the benches showed that this board is otherwise identical to those at ~twice the price when it comes to performance on the tested metrics.

 

[Onus]

It's a plain vanilla business board, and is not bad, but simply does not distinguish itself from competitors. IMO the two SATA ports is the real deal-breaker, even for a home build. I won't disagree with H81 in a roll-your-own home rig, but it needs to have a couple more SATA ports (unless the user has a NAS).
Businesses have to have better reason to build their own than this board offers. By the time you've added the OS cost, and considered the inevitable DOA/warranty issues (time is money), I don't think it makes economic sense (except perhaps in a Linux environment).
Ok, you could slap a RAID card in it and use it in a server, where it would be a perfectly viable choice to use the IGP, but how many people might do this (in a business environment, you'd want a RAID-5 on a dedicated card, so the H97's onboard RAID give no advantage)? That segment is so small I didn't see an award there. At best, it's "as good as," but not "better than" alternatives.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

That sounds like a good plan.

I have decided to invest in a second G3258, so I can do a comparison, in case one is unusually good or bad. I will report as thoroughly as I can on my findings. I will use the same test suite that you did, plus the e3dbm, so I can stress individual core/thread combinations for comparison to i5 and i7 CPUs.

 

[de5_Roy]

here's an idea: how about amd's mini itx mobos? using amd a8 7600 (or slightly pricier 7700k) as the base apu. 7600's igpu should be much more powerful than pentium's.

 

[Onus]

I'm not certain, but I believe a similar AMD project is in the works.

 

[logainofhades]

I used the H97 board for a mini-itx 1231v3 build, awhile back. No complaints here.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($231.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($319.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill Neutron Mini ITX Desktop Case ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($72.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Acer H226HQLbid 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($126.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1314.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-19 10:55 EDT-0400

 

[Onus]

Update!
The G3258 I used would not hit 4.2GHz even on another H97 board with more robust VRMs including heatsinks, however a second one reached 4.2GHz easily. So, I am confident that the poor OC I got is because of the chip, not the boards.

 

[RedJaron]

As soon as I'm done with these Z97 boards, I'll send you one to use as an OC bench to stress your stuff more than these lower-budget parts can do.

 

[Onus]

Lol, please don't! My current project is a series of individual reviews, and it looks like I will have six or seven boards in all to do.
The H97M-Pro raised this second chip to 4.2GHz on only 1.2V. The VRMs are heatsinked, and I had to search around to even break 30C anywhere on the motherboard. The CPU hit 80C though, during Prime95, so it probably isn't good for much more, regardless of what the mobo can do.
At least one of the [B85] boards I'm testing only has 2 VRM phases, so I'll see what that one can do.

 

[cenpjas]

Hello!, I am happy to see more Mini-ITX reviews, and would love to see ITX pop up in Graphics, Proccessor and Motherboard best performance for the money articles.

However... I notice on your summary sheet you mention a PCIe 2.0 x16 on the Gigabyte board, I presume although its not mentioned this is the mPCIe slot for M.2 & WiFi?

I also presume you can if you so choose upgrade the WiFi cards that come on the boards?, as you can buy some quite tasty ones.

Additional I consider having to buy new antennas so I can get an acceptable WiFi performance not an insignificant issue on the H97M as this does make the board more expensive (and the extra £20 for a better wifi board if it proves no good).

I can not help noting an earlier post before mine (dbyer) "What you did not mention was that it has a special gold plated USB port for which its power can be disabled. This is ideal for connecting to a high end audiophile USB DAC." This is a 'big' feature as many non-tech folk I know want to create there own budget studio computer not just an HTPC's. Form factor wise, the Gigabyte with its M.2 requires less space and will more easily fit into the super slim Mini-ITX cases.

As for over-clocking, I have no interest in over-clocking a cheap board, life is to short. It is nice that all 3 boards tested seems to have better than average components.

Tnx for your Article, keep 'em rolling.

 

[Crashman]

Hello!, I am happy to see more Mini-ITX reviews, and would love to see ITX pop up in Graphics, Proccessor and Motherboard best performance for the money articles.

Wow! OK, there isn't such a thing as Mini ITX for graphics cards, though we frequently review SHORT graphics cards which are designed for short cases. Best Motherboards has Mini ITX boards. And Mini ITX covers everything from the weakest to the strongest processors, we just reviewed a Mini ITX LGA 2011-v3 board!

However... I notice on your summary sheet you mention a PCIe 2.0 x16 on the Gigabyte board, I presume although its not mentioned this is the mPCIe slot for M.2 & WiFi?

Isn't this the article that explains how Intel is artificially limiting the CPU's PCIe 3.0 controller to 2.0 mode when used with its cheapest chipsets? Yes, if it's x16 it's the graphics card slot, period.

I also presume you can if you so choose upgrade the WiFi cards that come on the boards?, as you can buy some quite tasty ones.

You see the mini PCIe and M.2 slots listed by type on boards that have them, you can install a module of the matching interface in these slots

Additional I consider having to buy new antennas so I can get an acceptable WiFi performance not an insignificant issue on the H97M as this does make the board more expensive (and the extra £20 for a better wifi board if it proves no good).

I recommend that, if you can afford it, you get a remote antenna. Or buy a board that has one. But if a remote antenna isn't practical (you move your system around a lot, or whatever), then stick with the stick-type antennas

I can not help noting an earlier post before mine (dbyer) "What you did not mention was that it has a special gold plated USB port for which its power can be disabled. This is ideal for connecting to a high end audiophile USB DAC." This is a 'big' feature as many non-tech folk I know want to create there own budget studio computer not just an HTPC's. Form factor wise, the Gigabyte with its M.2 requires less space and will more easily fit into the super slim Mini-ITX cases.

As for over-clocking, I have no interest in over-clocking a cheap board, life is to short. It is nice that all 3 boards tested seems to have better than average components.

Tnx for your Article, keep 'em rolling.

You're welcome!

 

[vishalaestro]

As far as i know ,using ddr3 will damage the memory controller of the skylake processor.skylake supports only ddr4 and ddr3l which is 1.2v

 

[logainofhades]

As far as i know ,using ddr3 will damage the memory controller of the skylake processor.skylake supports only ddr4 and ddr3l which is 1.2v

These are not even Skylake boards, nor was it even mentioned. so not sure where you are going with this. Not to mention this review was almost a year ago. Please don't necro old threads /closed