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LAYOUT
When it comes to mini-ITX motherboards, it's tough to criticize any choices
made in layout. With so little room to work with, fitting all the standard ports
is an achievement in itself.
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Layout.
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The components on the GeForce 8200-ITX are packed in tight. There is a bit
of clearance between the CPU socket and chipset heatsink, but apart from that,
each piece is separated by a millimeter or two of space at most. The board has
two DDR2 memory slots and four SATA ports; IDE and Floppy connectors have been
left out to save space. The mini-ITX form factor allows one expansion slot,
with Zotac opting for PCI-E 1x instead of PCI. Half of the board's capacitors
are solid-state, a compromise between stability/longevity and cost.
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At an angle.
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The chipset heatsink is not very tall but it does take advantage of the area
occupied — the fins are thin and numerous. The amount of voltage regulation
circuitry is limited and lacks extra cooling — this is probably why 125W+
processors are not listed on Zotac's CPU
test report. Intel's mini-ITX
DG45FC is similar; it lacks Core 2 Quad support, probably for the same reason.
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Trace side.
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On the trace side of the motherboard there is a large plastic (but metal-reinforced)
CPU back-plate. It is a bit overkill for a board of this type, but welcome nevertheless.
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Back panel.
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The back panel has only a basic set of outputs. There are no advanced features
like eSATA or FireWire, but wireless (802.11 b and g) and HDMI are available
through the included adapters.
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