which motherboard?

[Pob255]

Ok I'll admit it, I did something stupid that I should never of done, as seen in this thread https://forums.hexus.net/retail-ther...oard-16-a.html
Short story, After a great deal on a Asus H81M-P-SI motherboard was found I ordered one and planed a build around it, bought all the other bits I needed . . . only to have no motherboard (avoid encore they have customer service) so now I find myself locked into a build form factor, socket and such but lacking the key central part.

I've been looking around for alternatives so far I've got these ASRock H81M-DG4 or Gigabyte H81M-S2V both on amazon £50ish (they are within £1 of each other)
Both lack the usb 3 header that the asus board had
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81M-DG4/
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard...-S2V-rev-10#ov
any opinions as to which is better? features one has the other doesn't that I missed?

so anyone else got any other suggestions?

current limitations/parts
i5 4460 socket 1150
2x 4gb 1600mhz ddr3 240pin
itx case, 2 expansion slots so these mini-DTX boards fit even though they are called mATX, a standard mATX board will not fit.
2x sata ports, one needs to be 6gbs, hdd+ssd will be used

[MrJim]

The Gigabyte board has a better 7.1 audio codec (ALC887) vs the 5.1 audio (ALC662) of the Asrock, if that's important to you?

Could you use a USB3 board in the X1 slot to add a USB3 header? Or use a cable like this if not (you would of course lose the two rear USB3 ports in the process...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Port-US...cAAOSw~OVWw-6G

[Pob255]

nice spot although sound past stereo isn't an issue

I'd prefer not to have cables running back through the case, a card will be ok although adding another £10-15

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Pob255 has this case:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kolin...ca-02f-kk.html

So it can take a slightly larger 22.6CMX18CM motherboard.

I had a quick look at Ebuyer and saw this Biostar for £36:

https://www.ebuyer.com/655712-biosta...-micro-h81mhv3
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/...#specification

[Pob255]

yep it's called miniDTX form factor dimensions are 203 × 170 mm, it was an open standard form factor created by AMD back in 2007 for the small form factor market, but was never widely adopted.
It's backward compatible with ATX hence it will fit into an mini-ITX case that has 2 pci slots.

miniDTX is the largest form factor that I know of that will fit, flexATX is slightly too large (229 × 191 mm)
I'd except miniITX too but I've not found one for sane money

I'm not sure about the Biostar, nice price on it, lacks the usb3 header, biostar doesn't have a great rep for quality and that layout?
I think that the layout is the thing I least like about it, but I think it's growing on me, thanks

One thing I did find was the ECS B85H3-M9 http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pro...nuID=1&LanID=0 B85 chipset on miniDTX, but I cannot find one for sale

Annoying because I remember so many nice 1150 itx boards for reasonable cost, but they are too old now I guess so cost is high even 2nd hand eg asrock B85M-ITX which was $50 if I remember correctly

[scaryjim]

... biostar doesn't have a great rep for quality ...

I've used Biostar boards for a few low-cost builds and never had any issues with them; build quality and reliability have always seemed to be fine.

[MrJim]

I've used Biostar boards for a few low-cost builds and never had any issues with them; build quality and reliability have always seemed to be fine.

I'd put Biostar's reputation above that of ECS, personally

[Pob255]

Ok I've ordered the biostar motherboard
And a pci-e usb3 card pff ebay, but coming from Taiwan so will be a few weeks :/

[Pob255]

Update, I've got the motherboard, installing win10 now, been a bit delayed because I couldn't find the ssd.

Overall it's not too bad, little basic but fine, the 4pin power socket is in a really annoying place for cable management and the system fan is 3pin on;y with no fan control in bios

[MrJim]

Update, I've got the motherboard, installing win10 now, been a bit delayed because I couldn't find the ssd.

Overall it's not too bad, little basic but fine, the 4pin power socket is in a really annoying place for cable management and the system fan is 3pin on;y with no fan control in bios

I've got an ITX motherboard with the 4 pin power socket in the same location. Getting access to it once you've got a large air cooler in place is a complete pain, so I bought one of these to make life easier:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T8-Sleeve...IAAOSw5KtaZcPW

Cable management is difficult to be sure - why they can't put the 4 pin socket on the edge of the motherboard like just about every other board is beyond me.

Edit!

Maybe something like this might help with fan control?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/HQ-Black-45...d=162920689631

[Pob255]

cooler is not quite the issue, granted with cooler on it's impossible to get to, the rear case fan covers the edge of it from above.
This is one of those cases where you want to put the motherboard in and plug in the power before putting the cpu cooler on, in mITX that's the better way to do it.
And the case is very open so it's not an issue.

I've got an old arctic cooling F12 1600rpm fan in there atm at full speed it's a bit loud, so I've added a resistor speed limiter and it's near silent now
I might swap it out with a old sycthe S-Flex or leave it as is.

Still this board is not great for cable layout, the 24pin at the top as well makes routing more tricky in an ITX case
But ITX cable management is always a pain, if this was in a mATX case I don't think it would be so bad, although 24pin cable length might be an issue in an mATX tower with bottom mounted psu