SPCR

The Asus P8H67-I DELUXE recommended here only 10 months ago has been discontinued. Does anyone happen to know whether Asus has a MB that replaces it? It is impossible to navigate their web site in a way that would be useful for such a search (e.g., to start by specifying that the MB needs to be mini-ITX).

That's a problem. Few of these motherboards seem to stay on the market for very long.

See:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_ ... 7I_DELUXE/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131709

I just took in a Gigabyte H67 Mini-ITX fir warranty work. No one seems to be selling it any more.

In fact these seem to be the only H67 Mini-ITX boards available now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... Mark=False

I personally bought the ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT, which is a surprisingly good board (unless you expect to do overclocking on it), including the remote which can turn the PC on and off :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157268

The ASRock does look nice, and the price is reasonable. I don't need overclocking, but I do need Wifi (and I can't use the PCIe slot because I have heat pipes that block the slot).

3beezer wrote:I do need Wifi (and I can't use the PCIe slot because I have heat pipes that block the slot).

Get the TP-LINK TL-WN722N Wireless Adapter High Gain IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Up to 150Mbps
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833704045

It is the highest rated wire wireless adapter on newegg. It uses just a single 2.0 USB plug.

3beezer wrote:The ASRock does look nice, and the price is reasonable. I don't need overclocking, but I do need Wifi (and I can't use the PCIe slot because I have heat pipes that block the slot).

In that case :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157239

It is pretty much the same, except it's H67 chipset this time, it does have WiFi and a bit crazier 4-pin power location (which could be a good or bad place, depending on your case). The remaining stuff shuld be identical.

But beware of one thing, these boards sometime throttle themself because of heat, so before you will buy one of them, search for this issue around the net. I personally didn't notice it, but i didn't overclock or use a high end CPU either (i am running a G530 on the Z68M-ITX/HT with XBMC, which pretty much means i got 35W from the socket with idle or SD content playback, 37W with HD content playback and 39W with extremely demanding HD content playback - Samsung Oceanic).

faugusztin wrote:But beware of one thing, these boards sometime throttle themself because of heat, so before you will buy one of them, search for this issue around the net. I personally didn't notice it, but i didn't overclock or use a high end CPU either (i am running a G530 on the Z68M-ITX/HT with XBMC, which pretty much means i got 35W from the socket with idle or SD content playback, 37W with HD content playback and 39W with extremely demanding HD content playback - Samsung Oceanic).

3beezer what case are you putting the board into?

faugusztin: Thanks for the suggestion. The specs look good. Yes, I don't like the 4-pin power location either, nor the location of the SATA connectors. And there's a header plug that appears to be obstructed by the wires to the Wifi antenna sockets. I'll probably give it a try anyway.

ces: The HD-plex H3.SODD

The obscured header is the third USB header, so unless your case has 6 front USB ports, it shouldn't be a problem.

If you are doing a new build you might want to wait a dew weeks to see what Ivy Bridge has. Not only should it generate less heat... but apparently you will have the ability to govern how fast it runs through the operating system. That means you can take a regular 4 core and run it in the H3.SODD. If it turns out it is running a little too hot, you can adjust the governor on its speed.

All the Sandy Bridge chips idle at around the same wattage. I would expect the same for the Ivy Bridge.

One open question is whether you will need a K chip to make use of the adjustable TDP on the Ivy Bridge chips.

3beezer wrote:ces: The HD-plex H3.SODD

I see both ASRock boards are on the compatibility list of that case, which is good. But i personally find 325mmx298mmx60mm a bit too big compared to my PC-Q09 265mm x 200mm x 110mm .

@ces: Ivy Bridge... First, Ivy Bridge CPU will be AFAIK there at April 29. Then we talk about ITX boards, which usually means they show up in market 2-3 months after the initial launch. And then the board must be compatible with the case, which could again be a problem.

Can't you use an Ivy Bridge CPU in a mobo designed for Sandy Bridge?

3beezer wrote:The HD-plex H3.SODD

faugusztin wrote:@ces: Ivy Bridge... First, Ivy Bridge CPU will be AFAIK there at April 29. Then we talk about ITX boards, which usually means they show up in market 2-3 months after the initial launch. And then the board must be compatible with the case, which could again be a problem.

Yes, But...
You are asking a lot of the HD-plex H3.SODD case's cooling. The Ivy bridge will bring less heat and more control over that heat. For this particular application, that may be worth waiting for. Otherwise it may be like buying a set of shoes that don't quite fit... that you will never be fully happy with.

wayner wrote:Can't you use an Ivy Bridge CPU in a mobo designed for Sandy Bridge?

Yes. But we won't know the gotchas until it is actually on the market.

faugusztin wrote: But i personally find 325mmx298mmx60mm a bit too big compared to my PC-Q09 265mm x 200mm x 110mm .

I have the larger (taller) PC-Q09 case. I got it on sale and am saving it for the Ivy Bridge. The 325mmx298mmx60mm seems to be smaller to me. I guess you really don't know until you are able to hold it in your hands.

But I was feeling a bit jealous. I now feel a bit better about it. Thanks.

In case anyone else is using the HD-plex case, you might be interested to know that of the 14 MBs listed at the HD-plex web site as compatible with the H3.SODD, 9 have apparently been discontinued. Of those, only one provides Wifi, the ASRock H67M-ITX/HT which faugusztin suggested. I will try that board next and pray that something else will be available when ASRock discontinues that one.