Why is a uATX board a disadvantage if one only uses one slot for video, and there is still room for one more adapter if needed (which few people will even need). In looking at photos of builds posted on this forum, it is rare that there is any other adapter slot being used besides for a video card (in fact, I don't recall seeing a photo of any build using another adapter slot in addition to video, and some don't even have a video card becasue of on-board video).nutball wrote:I think the point is that the Mini is bigger than many cases that take full ATX boards, whilst having the disadvantage of restricting you to using uATX boards. Less choice is rarely a good thing. It's really only in the very recent past that uATX boards have been up-to-scratch spec-wise, even now there are often compromises on specs and/or cost.
The only benefit of a uATX board is that it allows for smaller builds - that benefit is entirely negated if you put it in a case larger than you could achieve with full ATX.
If one wants the features of a P18x (bottom PSU, sandwich panels, etc) and look of the gunmetal case, then the Mini P180 is noticeably smaller than the nearly identical P183. I will never even use all the expansion capacity of the Mini P180 or uATX board.
Regarding whether uATX boards are only recently full featured, I can't imagine anyone buying a used board with a new Mini P180, so that doesn't seem like an issue any more. But I am not sure it ever was an issue since this is a forum about Silent PC's, and many of us are looking for low noise and high efficiency, and not necessarily at the most mb features, most hard drive capacity, etc.