HTPC form factor: m-atx or m-itx?

[Linkex]

So my old htpc just died. Its needed replacing for a while now, so now is a good time. The old one was a standard ATX MB/case, this time I am thinking either m-atx or m-itx.

As I understand it, basically m-atx is a small version of a standard PC, same rough power requirements etc, where m-itx is smaller and has lower power usage, but with lower performance at any given price point?

Assuming my main concern is keeping the price low, which is the better route? Will a basic m-itx system have enough grunt to do media centre, watch videos, netflix etc?

Anything else I need to know about m-itx vs m-atx?

 

[T345]

Why don't you re use the case and PSU etc
M-ITX will pwn at everything
(Type in M-ITX gaming rig)

 

[tjp148]

Will a basic m-itx system have enough grunt to do media centre, watch videos, netflix etc?

Yes with the right CPU including onboard graphics and definitely yes with a dedicated graphics card...

Look out for CPU coolers clashing with RAM/PCI slot positioning. (physically less area, but i'm sure you knew that! )

 

[GeX]

Have a look at the Zotac Zbox ID82; quite a lot of grunt in a small space. Shame about the HD3000 graphics, but hopefully they'll follow it up with an Ivy Bridge chip.

I have a Zbox AD02 which is based on the AMD E-350 APU platform. It has a weak CPU (Think Intel Atom) but has a decent GPU core in there too. It can handle all 1080p playback where the software can actually make use of the hardware decoding. Unfortunately this excludes Netflix and Sky Go - as they both use Silverlight (and VC-1 instead of h.264) and so cannot correctly shift the work to the GPU. Medium quality playback is fine, but HD looses AV sync very quickly.