Advice on mITX gaming monster!

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Gnoma

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Aug 21, 2010
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So, I want to come as close as possible, in terms of performance in games, to a i7 + X86 system with a 5970 card, only using the mITX standard.

I've read up some and found three boards that looks to rise to the challange. But there are some questions un-answered.

Gigabyte. This board is recommended by many and some a raving about its ability to overclock. The only concern for me is that some (bit-tech i.e.) said it underperformed in games, possibly due to a PCIe flaw in the card. Anyone got any insight to this? Are there any benchmarks with this board vs full ATX boards using Battlefield Bad Company 2 i.e.?

Zotac just release their C-E board with support for 8xx processors. Seems good on paper and looks promising but I've never heard of this manufacturer before reading up on ITX and that worries me. I don't want to risc having an unstable system. Stability is almost more important than performance since i really, really, really hate playing computer support guy.

Finally the DFI board, the only P55 board wich should be a better pair for the i7 processor. But company gone, meaning non existent support if I fry the board. Sigh.

Then there is processors. As far as I've understood having a large L3 cache makes games run smooth. It's supposed to be the new "trick" while developing games much seen in Bad Company 2 i.e. So, I guess that would make the i7 865K my top option for this?

GPU, I want a 5970 or GTX 480, it should run fine on the boards rite? With all the wattage flying around I mean. For cooling I am thinking Noctura or H50, I guess Noctura since the extra cooling on other parts than the CPU might be a benefit since I am aiming for a Da MOM box, with close to no spare room.

Any thoughts, suggestions or other words of wisdom? I mean, doesn't Angelina Jolie ever give up adopting? I mean, come on!
 
I did, and thanks for confirming that it is possible. Now, have you any insight in the whole bit-tech review's talk about the PCI-E port being some kind of bottle-neck, making the board not suitable for games?

Have you by any chance used another board with the hardware, running some tests etc?
 
Gnoma said:
I did, and thanks for confirming that it is possible. Now, have you any insight in the whole bit-tech review's talk about the PCI-E port being some kind of bottle-neck, making the board not suitable for games?

Have you by any chance used another board with the hardware, running some tests etc?
Click to expand...

It's only a minor bottleneck if you run two or more cards in SLI/CrossFire. Anything less will not saturate a PCIe 2.0 x16 connection, even the GTX480 or the HD5970 (which has an internal, 48 lane, PCIe 2.0 chip).
 
Don't think it is as simple as that.

Check out the comments or the conclusion here: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mo...-ga-h55n-usb3-mini-itx-motherboard/comments/2

The comparative performance of the Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 (when we tested it with a Core i5-750 CPU) is very good - we consistently saw it at, or near, the top of our performance charts. Unfortunately the same can't be said in the gaming tests, which saw the H55N near the bottom of the performance pile. [...] the Gigabyte board can't translate the extra GHz to fps, as the H55N failed to improve much on its dismal showing in Crysis even with the i5-661 ticking over at 4.4GHz. Clearly there is something amiss with the PCI-E connection of this board.
Click to expand...
 
I'm not really concerned either, if there was a difference compared to other boards that was in any way meaningful, there would've been a big outcry from the user base about it :) Yet until now, I had never even seen that "issue" mentioned anywhere.
 
Ok, I am so close to pulling the trigger now. So, Gigabyte beats Zotac (mostly because of history with quality boards and BIOS), i7 870+ is the way to go to get proper L3 cache and 4 cores, GPU is 5970 the mother of all on ITX (since I can't SLI).

What about cooling solution? Air for silent or H50 enough? I might want to clock it and see what I can get stable but might go back if I don't need it.
 
If you get a top-end GPU like the HD 5970, it really doesn't matter much which way you go with the CPU cooling noise-wise. H50 will be inaudible against those cards, and chances are so will be any decent after market aircooler that you can throw in there.
 
Gnoma said:
Ok, I am so close to pulling the trigger now. So, Gigabyte beats Zotac (mostly because of history with quality boards and BIOS), i7 870+ is the way to go to get proper L3 cache and 4 cores, GPU is 5970 the mother of all on ITX (since I can't SLI).

What about cooling solution? Air for silent or H50 enough? I might want to clock it and see what I can get stable but might go back if I don't need it.
Click to expand...
The H50 is the quietest solution I have found that allows for moderate OCing. Obviously the NT06 or something would work and be silent but it runs hot.
 
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