Where have all the mITX mainboards gone???

[snitzle]

Hey all, looking to build a Hadron game machine and have been "holding out" on buying the mITX mainboard for it. My own indecision (i.e. waiting for the "perfect sale") may be my downfall at this point, as it appears that almost EVERY mITX board is disappearing from Newegg's inventory!

I "missed" the Newegg sale on the EVGA Z97 Stinger AC ($129 after rebate) and missed one of the MSI mITX boards before that. Now it seems like every decent mITX board is out of stock at Newegg (MSI, EVGA and ASUS), with some or many never to return!

So what gives? Why are all the mITX boards draining out of stock, possibly not to return? Is there something going on with the mITX platform that I don't know about, or have they just become so popular that the shelves are bare and I just have to wait?

Incidentally, it seems that many of the ASRock boards do remain in stock at Newegg. However, as I have been out of the system building "loop" for the past 10 years or so, I am very unfamiliar with this company. (When I left off in the early 2000's, Soyo, Shuttle and IWill were still major players in the game; MSI was then a secondary and still unproven brand; ASUS was already on its way to becoming the "standard" by that time.)

So, should I just go with one of these "new" (to me) ASRock boards?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[MeteorsRaining]

Not sure why the availability of mITX Motherboards is dropping, but ASRock is definitely a top tier brand. The boards are good quality wise and generally a good value/money as well.

 

[nismoguy82]

If you're just building for regular light/casual gaming loads, just grab a budget Asrock. Should be fine IMO. But if you're going to push it to extreme with overclocking etc., don't go budget on it.