6 Mini-ITX boards + 1 ATX in a single case

[Herc130]

I am seriously considering getting 6 of these http://www.jwele.com/motherboard_detail.php?419#_spec





and pairing it up with 4850e 45w cpu's, 2 sticks of 2gig ram and a pico-psu. Total for that should be @ $335 per set-up. There are other options using Intel G45 or Nvidea 8200 NB mobos that will decrease it the price to @$300 per set-up, but they do not have a PCIe slot on the mobo. As far as I know, this is currently the only ITX FF board that has PCIe. I am pretty sure for my needs, any of the onboard graphics options from these three will do fine as I would only use it to box Everquest with most things set to low, so am still deciding if I really need a PCIe fallback. I think all the onboard graphics solution are 65nm and low wattage, at least the 780G and 45G is, not sure about the 8200. I think at full load, this set-up would be less power hungry then some light bulbs, which would be great, because I already know how much it cost to run 6 ATX computers which makes doing this build actually feel economical to me even though I already have all the hardware to box all I need lol.



I will either build the 6 ITX boards in its own case, stacking each mobo upwards or I will add it into a case project I am already doing and have 6 of these ITX boards along with one ATX for my main computer.





pretty sure I can bend some aluminum that will attach each mobo right behind a 120mm fan and then figure out a way to make the cableing look clean.





Has anyone used an ITX board to play Everquest or WoW? What were your experience? I am trying to figure out if I can go with an even less powerful onboard graphics, because some of those boards look alot better for what you get for the money and would reduce each set-up cost to only $200 per unit (even less considering these use regular DDR2 and I have a shit load of that sitting around. The one I linked with the PCIe slot uses SODIMM), which would seriously make it easier on my wallet both in initial purchase and future energy savings. It's just, the best of these boards use Nvidea 7100 onboard graphics, which I think may still be good enough and it's not like I plan on using these ITX units to do anything but bot army with.

[Xzin]

Make sure it has an x16 ELECTRICAL slot. I use Micro-ATX dual core boards. Works great and actually faster than standard ATX boxes. 7100 will probably not be fast enough. That is a VERY underpowered on board video.

[Herc130]

The J&W 780G ITX mobo is PCIe x16, although it runs it at x4. It will take any PCIe X16 cards and I think even running at x4, it will not be humanly noticable if even noticed on a bench compared to x16 full atx boards. The 780G onboard video is suppose to be really good for an onboard solution and is an AMD HD3200 equiv. I have seen a couple benchmarks and the G45 is pretty much on par with the 780G, maybe even better (supposedly @ 8400 equiv) and supposdly the Nvidea 8200 is just a little behind. So I'd think these will run Everquest fine for what I need, maybe even better then for what I need. I have played EQ on my old Dell 700M laptop which had an Intel Extreme Graphics 2 solution and 2gigs ram. I'd say it played well enough to use as a boxxed account set-up. I think a GMA 950 solution would do even better and I think the Nvidea 7100 is @ the GMA 950 level or maybe higher although I am not sure on this. Hard time trying to find reviews on the 7100 onboard solution (other then the actual vid card).

It's just they make a very nice looking ITX board that supports 4GB ram and can run a 35w intel CPU, but it only comes with the Nvidea 7100 graphics solution and a PCI x1 slot. Although it sells for $60, where as the G45 and Nvidea 8200 sells for $130 and the 780G is over $150. I am not looking to use these machines to do much, would just like it powerful enough for EQ and as low wattage as possible. Might just go MATX as well, difference is ITX is 6.7' x 6.7" and M-ATX is 9.7" x @9" (they have em as low as 8" and as high as 9.7") and I can fit 3 ITX side by side on my case, but only two M-ATX, so if I go M-ATX, it's almost a given I will won't be putting it in the case I am making now, which is no big deal, I can construct some other solution. My only real concern is if the M-ATX will take more wattage to run.....I would think it would not, because it will basically be the same NB and CPU, just a bigger board and full PCIe x16 support

[Herc130]

Loaded my U810 ultra portable laptop up with Everquest and ran around. It is doable on that and I only minorly tweaked it down. Am pretty sure I can lower settings even more to have the game run more smoothly. As is, it will work, but plays the game very jerky like

The U810:



5.6" screen 1024x600 res

800MHz cpu

Mobile Intel Express 945GM (which I think is a GMA 950)

1gig of ram max (it's soldered in...the laptop is smaller then a DVD disk)

4200RPM harddrive

and I have it running on Vista premium.



If that can run it, I am pretty sure the new Atom ITX combo will do better

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813121360



Thats the mobo and the CPU. CPU draws 8 watts! I think the IGP draws @ 40 watts, board will do around 10watts or so, a 5200rpm 2.5" hdd will be around 10 watts and a 7" TFT LCD I found on ebay for $75 (add a $35 controller also) claims 12 watts max draw and I think all this is at load. At idel, it will be less.Much less. So..@80 watts (while playing) per set-up and a cost of $250 each...forgot to add in a pico psu for $50 each as well (also, for OS, I have a technet membership that I paid $99 for.....so I am set for OS's already and have 10 keys for each different MS OS's and would use XP pro 32 for these boxxes). Thats on the low end for performance but it is also probably the most efficient set-up for energy savings and I think will run EQ well enough for boxing, considering my U810 laptop does



Very very rough and incomplete sketchup of what I have in mind



there will be a second set of three mobos above the bottem ones. Pico psu's are very small and take up nearly no space. Those 6 green rectangles are the back side of the 7" LCD modules, the harddrives will either be mounted right on the intake/exhaust fans I will add or above the top set of mobos. The box is 20" wide x 10" high, but I will have to make it sligthly wider. Also, was thinking I should raise it up a little so the bottem screens arn't just above the desk. Anyway, that is roughly what it will be, but still much to think over and change around. Here is a size comparison



Or I use a 780G, G45 or 8200 IGP board that should easily play EQ, along with a 35w (intel) or 45w (amd) cpu. I will use @30watts more with the CPU on these boards, but save about 20watts because these IGP's are the new more efficient ones, so probably end up at @100watts at load, have a much more capable box that will run the game smooth, but cost @ $100 more per build.

[Multibocks]

that is sweet! I'm impressed with some of the stuff people come up with on this board. I'm a loser, I make one machine do all 5 accounts and just opened my wallet asking them how much they want =/

[Griznah]

This is looking really sweet! keep the info coming :)
Have you concidered some small SSDs? You can fit everything on a 32GB for your setup, but I guess it will break the budget?
Anyways, awesome!

[Kicksome]

are there any PCI (not xpress) video cards that run wow half way decent? I like the fact that the atom board and chip is only $80.

[Kaynin]

Also make sure your airflow is good. 5 of those babies would produce a lot of heat, and you need a spacey enough compartment with well placed fans to get rid of that heat.

Sounds like an awesome idea though. A bit of a 5 in 1 box pc. xD If I had more spare time on my hands, I'd so build a custom case for something like this.

[Kicksome]

Did you see this motherboard? It's the new intel one. Intel BOXDG45FC LGA 775 Intel G45 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard


It has a Intel GMA X4500HD graphics card onboard which is decent - you won't need to replace it.

[Herc130]

SSD's are nice, but I am not of the thinking that it does much for gaming beyond load time. Load time is not really an issue. They do use less energy, but for the $$, I'd rather go with a laptop 2.5" HDD.

There are supposedly 8500GT, 8600GT, 9500GT and 9600Gt's in PCI (non express). I have even seen pics of the Albatron one, which I think are the only makers of these, but I have never found any for sale and I have looked everywhere. The PIC cards I have seen for sale, best ones are the NV 5200, AMD 2400 and 9250. However, I am not so sure these are much of a step in the right direction compared to the IGP GMA 950. I find it very silly that Intel only offers the dual core atom (or any atom) combined with the 945 chipset. No doubt they will release it with the G45 sooner or later. But considering my single core 800MHz cpu, 1gig ram, GMA 950 laptop running vista can play EQ ok, I have no doubt that the Atom 330 dual core 1.6GHz cpu, 2gigs ram, GMA 950 running XP Pro will do it significantly better. Also, even though EQ is the older game, WoW should run better at lower settings ( no idea how the expansions change this if at ll), because from what I understand, WoW uses much less polycount.