FM2 ITX Motherboards!

tutu · 5 Dec 2012 at 20:48

fizban1980 said:
Yeah, I supposed its gonna be tricky with new mobos. Judging from pictures just announced zotacs itx fm2 gonna fit nicely but probably will be over £100.

I gave up on this build probably till next amd apu generation and going for intel in sg05 case.

Thanks for taking time to share your experience

The Zotac would be perfect (well apart from lack of CIR).

If your going for a HTPC - then AMD is the place to be. I have 23.976 Hz in Media Player Classic. This means 0 dropped frames!! Compared to Intel, you get a dropped frame every 5 minutes.

AMD are to transition to 28nm next year. A6 5400K is really great for 50 quid.

StarmanUK · 8 Dec 2012 at 20:07

Hey tutu, I was considering building myself a HTPC to replace my now defunct Boxee Box. I have a budget of approx £200-300 and would prefer a Mini-ITX any suggestions of build out?

tutu · 10 Dec 2012 at 19:27

StarmanUK said:
Hey tutu, I was considering building myself a HTPC to replace my now defunct Boxee Box. I have a budget of approx £200-300 and would prefer a Mini-ITX any suggestions of build out?

I would look at maybe:

A6 5400K
MSI FM2 ITX or ASRock FM2 ITX motherboard (both a bit of rip off but not more choice)
Streacom FC7 EVO
Any DDR3 1866 RAM (say Samsung Green 2 x 4GB) - 4GB will be fine for Linux
SSD - any 32GB SSD (for Linux), 64GB for Windows (for a bit of spare room)
Streacom IR receiver or ASRock CIR header (or external USB IR receiver)
MCE Remote or use a Harmony remote
Any cheap Blu-ray drive (laptop style with a bezel - slot load is the one I got, but costs more)
PICO 120W PSU + 120W AC Adapter

Alternatively, a Intel ITX Motherboard with a 35W or 65W CPU (Pentium is fine for 2D, you need Core i3 for 3D)

Or if you prefer, get a mATX case like the popular Silverstone HTPC cases with a cheaper ATX PSU

For software, Windows 8 + XBMC Launcher or XBMCUbuntu or OpenELEC

StarmanUK · 10 Dec 2012 at 19:51

Thanks for the advise!

bungie240 · 2 Jan 2013 at 18:56

Legion said:
Just a heads up on the Asrock board, I bought 5 last week for builds.
It has a load of IC's on the back of the board that will interfere with backplates from every cooler manufacturer.

I ended up cutting down an AM3 backplate I had lying around for my build (still in progress)
That was to support a Noctua NH-C14, even more headaches then as the way it orientates on this board, it blocks the pci-e slot and precludes the use of tall ram as the heatpipes stand over the ram slots.

Turning it 180 degree's, it then wont fit the case heh.

I had the cooler lying around so no big deal.

Going to be a headache finding decent air coolers to fit this board under 130mm (needs to be for case it's going into)
A BeQuiet Shadowrock Top Down is almost as good as the Noctua but could have the same issues on this board, I doubt any 140mm top down is going to work in my particular build.
I may just use a Scythe Big Shuriken 2 with a BeQuiet Silentwings 120mm fan on it, works great for overclocking IGP@ 1150 and a 4.2ghz CPU overclock in a silent build I did on an Asus F2A8M-PRO.
The Asus board is pure class, such a shame they haven't got an ITX board ready just yet.

I must also point at that at this time the Asrock board won't clock ram (over 1600) that doesn't have an XMP profile for the speed you want. (i.e selecting 1866 requires that ram to have an 1866 XMP profile)

I have some really good sets of Samsung green that do 2600 on Z77 and 2400 with tight timings on an Asus F2A85M-PRO.

On this board they won't go over 1600 no matter what you try, I've been given a few beta bios's by Asrock to try, but the board just won't post with any memory that doesn't have an XMP profile for the speeds higher than 1600.
I've ordered some Gskill Ares 2133 with tight timings so we'll see how that goes when it arrives on Tuesday.

They've truly dropped the ball here with this, I hope to god they get some proper manual ram overclocking working and implemented fast.
The best gaming gains are fast memory and upping the GPU on Trinity, overclocking the CPU only really matters in non GPU bound games.

Lastly the board has no active cooling, I'd strongly recommend you get some Enzotech mosfet sinks if you plan to clock this board.

This is a budget board (UK price gouging has inflated it beyond it's real market price), it does have potential though, if they get ram overclocking working properly it will be a killer little board.
I'll just use it until Asus get their fingers out and get a Deluxe board with proper socket orientation out.

Roll on Asus Deluxe lol.

@Legion / Ive got a asrock fm2 itx board and wanted to mount a decent heatsink, would this Am3 backplate work http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169118

Legion · 2 Jan 2013 at 21:13

bungie240 said:
@Legion / Ive got a asrock fm2 itx board and wanted to mount a decent heatsink, would this Am3 backplate work http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169118

Yes, but it will need to be trimmed to miss the IC's on the back of the board.

Prolimatech Samuel 17 doesn't use a backplate and works well.
Corsairs new H60 also works well on this board. (but that brings other problems with no air going over the mosftets / power circuitry.)

Everything else half decent that uses the AMD backplate will have to have the backplate trimmed / chopped up entirely (depending on what it is)

I'd also strongly urge you not to overclock the board without getting some cooling on the mosfets, such as Enzotech MOS-C10 mosfet sinks.
There's a high probability of damage to the board if you don't heed this.

Jokester · 2 Jan 2013 at 21:17

I've got the Samuel 17 on my Asrock ITX board, does a great job, but I think it'll clash with anything but the lowest profile RAM (I use Samsung Green).

Legion · 2 Jan 2013 at 21:19

Jokester said:
I've got the Samuel 17 on my Asrock ITX board, does a great job, but I think it'll clash with anything but the lowest profile RAM (I use Samsung Green).

It's fine with standard ram, as long as it's not the tall heatsinks.

bungie240 · 2 Jan 2013 at 23:05

Legion said:
Yes, but it will need to be trimmed to miss the IC's on the back of the board.

Prolimatech Samuel 17 doesn't use a backplate and works well.
Corsairs new H60 also works well on this board. (but that brings other problems with no air going over the mosftets / power circuitry.)

Everything else half decent that uses the AMD backplate will have to have the backplate trimmed / chopped up entirely (depending on what it is)

I'd also strongly urge you not to overclock the board without getting some cooling on the mosfets, such as Enzotech MOS-C10 mosfet sinks.
There's a high probability of damage to the board if you don't heed this.

Thanks for your reply.

I was thinking of getting Noctua NH-L12 but have opted for Scythe Kozuti, read this will fit the board!

I've got some enzotech C1 mosfets on the way, what parts of the board are best to put them on? Will be using double sided thermal tape.

How did you trim the backplate, what tools was used? Do you happen to have a picture of the trimmed backplate?

Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

Legion · 3 Jan 2013 at 09:17

bungie240 said:
Thanks for your reply.

I was thinking of getting Noctua NH-L12 but have opted for Scythe Kozuti, read this will fit the board!

I've got some enzotech C1 mosfets on the way, what parts of the board are best to put them on? Will be using double sided thermal tape.

How did you trim the backplate, what tools was used? Do you happen to have a picture of the trimmed backplate?

Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

You put the Enzotech's on the VRM's, it's a line of 8 small chips inbetween the 4 pin power and the cpu socket.

I cut my AMD backplate down with a Dremel, no pics sadly, I don't bother unless it's a build log which I cba with these days, I'm too busy.

visibleman · 3 Jan 2013 at 11:17

Is there any information on when the Zotac A75-ITX B will be available? Or likely to be available?

Seems to be taking an age for decent mITX FM2 to surface

bungie240 · 6 Jan 2013 at 09:37

Legion said:
You put the Enzotech's on the VRM's, it's a line of 8 small chips inbetween the 4 pin power and the cpu socket.

I cut my AMD backplate down with a Dremel, no pics sadly, I don't bother unless it's a build log which I cba with these days, I'm too busy.

Thanks for the info.

Got the scythe kozuti and it fits nicely, would not mind trying a mild overclock.

What type of overclock have you got on this board and what settings were changed to achieve a stable OC?

Thanks

Legion · 6 Jan 2013 at 10:09

bungie240 said:
Thanks for the info.

Got the scythe kozuti and it fits nicely, would not mind trying a mild overclock.

What type of overclock have you got on this board and what settings were changed to achieve a stable OC?

Thanks

The Kozuti is designed for small spaces, it's no better than the stock cooler other than noise.
I really wouldn't advise you tried overclocking both the CPU and IGP with it.

An IGP increase to 950mhz might be doable.
If you really have no idea how to clock the board, read some trinity reviews to get familiar with the settings.

bungie240 · 6 Jan 2013 at 20:45

Legion said:
The Kozuti is designed for small spaces, it's no better than the stock cooler other than noise.
I really wouldn't advise you tried overclocking both the CPU and IGP with it.

An IGP increase to 950mhz might be doable.
If you really have no idea how to clock the board, read some trinity reviews to get familiar with the settings.

oh ok.

Do you think this Scythe Shuriken Big 2 Rev.B would be a better option? Not even sure if it would fit!

Chrisoldinho · 9 Jan 2013 at 20:14

I went with the MSI FM2-A75IA-E53, seems like a strong board, and prefer it to the ASRock one.

chippy08 · 9 Jan 2013 at 21:04

Dont get the Asrock get an Asus

Legion · 9 Jan 2013 at 22:00

chippy08 said:
Dont get the Asrock get an Asus

We'd all like to mate, but Asus don't make FM2 ITX boards.

bungie240 · 20 Jan 2013 at 20:41

Hi, can the new Thermalright AXP 100 fit Asrock FM2 ITX board?

Thanks

WoZZeR · 13 Feb 2013 at 20:45

Legion said:
My Gskill Ares 2133 cas 9 kit finally arrived this afternoon for my Asrock FM2A75M-ITX build.
Happy to report it's running at 2133 with the XMP profile timings of 9-11-10-28 2t, after failing miserably at clocking my good Samsung Green kits at anything over 1600mhz

This little board flies with this ram and an A10-5800K @ 4.3ghz, IGP currently @ 1085.

I can finish the build now I know the only thing holding it back was that it just doesn't like manual ram tuning.

Get some Enzotech mosfet sinks if you plan on clocking this board.
With no active cooling on the mosfets out of the box, they do get hot, very hot!

Very helpful posts about the memory, cheers.

I was struggling with the rather feeble manual that comes with the ASRock, it seems to imply you can get memory speeds of 2600.

I may go with the same memory as yourself.

bastic · 7 Mar 2013 at 10:58

I have sent back my asrock after reading about exploding boards...
And it wasn't too stable anyway...
What I didn't like was BIOS and settings....when you had 24000RAM in it- or anything faster then 1866, you were loosing GPU settings in BIOS.
As long as with ram at 1866 GPU at 800mhz was stable then with faster ram GPU even at 800 was crashing...
Am thinking about MSI now or asrock but with A85. But this mobo is hard to get in UK....and even more expensive than one with A75...