FM2 ITX

It sold out fast, I'm glad I was able to nab one. Hoping I'm happier w/ it than my ASRock board.

I would have/should have waited on the ASRock, but it wasn't clear if anybody else would release an FM2 ITX at ALL this year. Now, I know better.
 
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sliverstorm said:
It sold out fast, I'm glad I was able to nab one. Hoping I'm happier w/ it than my ASRock board.

I would have/should have waited on the ASRock, but it wasn't clear if anybody else would release an FM2 ITX at ALL this year. Now, I know better.
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I know what you mean, I did the same thing. Its hard finding good MicroATX AM3+ boards or ITX FM2 boards. I hope Amazon gets a shipment soon.
 
ASRock has just put out a bios update for their FM2A75M-ITX that improves system compatibility, whatever that means. I have updated to the version 1.8 and didn't really notice any difference. I've been using this board for a few weeks now and really want to like it, but in the back of my mind I'm wondering when it will go poof.
 
You are probably ok. You don't really have any options right now. You can't return it because its not broken. You could sell it at a loss if you want but what is the point. If it is working well then consider yourself lucky.

Also if you really are worried you could get a squaretrade warranty for it.
 
Just got this from Amazon regarding my MSI FM2 ITX order: Delivery Estimate: Monday December 3, 2012 - Monday December 10, 2012 by 8:00pm

It still shows as out of stock on the webpage but it might show up in stock soon.
 
Now Amazon's website is saying:

In stock on December 1, 2012.
Order it now.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
 
Funny enough, the ASRock board is back in stock. I wonder if the new bios patches ASRock has been putting out have fixed some of the issues. I think they are up to bios v1.9 now.
 
MrSmegzabush said:
I was keeping an eye on these Asrock ITX boards for a while, and now its showing Discontinued.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157340

I guess next up is the MSI, but not holding my breath. F'n AMD's motherboard partners are loosing my business faster than AMD's performance/heat deficits are.
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+1

I am still pissed over 9xx chipsets only being on ATX motherboards, and I don't even think anyone has launched 1 new 9xx model in the last 12 months.
 
runs2far said:
+1

I am still pissed over 9xx chipsets only being on ATX motherboards, and I don't even think anyone has launched 1 new 9xx model in the last 12 months.
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People wonder why the damn PC industry is falling apart because it has not even attempted to evolve in the past 10 years in terms of form factor. Intels NUC's and Ultrabooks are probably one of the biggest jumps in this regard. ITX and Micro ATX should be by and large the majority of of system builds by 2012 with SFX power supplies becoming more popular than they are. AMD has to embrace these smaller form factors if it wants to live.
 
MSI ITX mobo back in stock on Amazon. 3 left as of this post.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2VJIQE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

I hope I get mine next week.

I agree, I personally would like all my systems to be ITX or smaller. I don't need a case with 6 hard drive bays. It is ridiculous how most cases have an inordinate amount of drive bays. I just need a 2.5" bay for an SSD and a slim DVD/Bluray bay at most. I use a home server (also ITX) for storage/backup purposes.
 
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Got my MSI board today, it's going well. BIOS is missing a few options I had wanted, but the board is behaving much better.

By the way, be careful with that WIFI device sticking out of the back. I dinged mine up a little when I was maneuvering the board into the super-dinky case I picked.

runs2far said:
+1

I am still pissed over 9xx chipsets only being on ATX motherboards, and I don't even think anyone has launched 1 new 9xx model in the last 12 months.
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Does it matter? The higher tier Fusion hubs (remember, the fusion parts get paired with A55/A75/A85, so I can only assume you're talking about the A85 not the 9xx) mostly offer things like more PCI-E channels and more SATA channels. Just how many PCI-E x16 slots and SATA ports do you need on your ITX mobo?

Moosh said:
I personally would like all my systems to be ITX or smaller. I don't need a case with 6 hard drive bays. It is ridiculous how most cases have an inordinate amount of drive bays. I just need a 2.5" bay for an SSD and a slim DVD/Bluray bay at most. I use a home server (also ITX) for storage/backup purposes.
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The size you want is micro ATX. Not as small as ITX, but availability is good enough for "all your systems" to conceivably be micro ATX. A good micro ATX case can still get pretty darn small, too, without getting to the point where (like this build I'm doing) you spend a half hour maneuvering the board into the case and another hour painstakingly running wires.
 
sliverstorm said:
Does it matter? The higher tier Fusion hubs (remember, the fusion parts get paired with A55/A75/A85, so I can only assume you're talking about the A85 not the 9xx) mostly offer things like more PCI-E channels and more SATA channels. Just how many PCI-E x16 slots and SATA ports do you need on your ITX mobo?
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Well I was a bit off topic, as I was referring to AM3+ boards an the fact that the 9xx chipset has never been made available on mATX and the manufacturers have not launched any new 9xx boards since Bulldozer launched.

Guess I can't blame the motherboard manufacturers, as there is no reason to launch new 9xx boards. Piledriver works in existing boards and AMD has no new chipsets/features available for AM3+, I would just wish they would make one mATX 9xx motherboard.
 
runs2far said:
Well I was a bit off topic, as I was referring to AM3+ boards an the fact that the 9xx chipset has never been made available on mATX and the manufacturers have not launched any new 9xx boards since Bulldozer launched.

Guess I can't blame the motherboard manufacturers, as there is no reason to launch new 9xx boards. Piledriver works in existing boards and AMD has no new chipsets/features available for AM3+, I would just wish they would make one mATX 9xx motherboard.
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Damn, you're right, that bites. Yeah, I didn't even consider a mATX board for my vishera build, so I wasn't aware...
 
sliverstorm said:
The size you want is micro ATX. Not as small as ITX, but availability is good enough for "all your systems" to conceivably be micro ATX. A good micro ATX case can still get pretty darn small, too, without getting to the point where (like this build I'm doing) you spend a half hour maneuvering the board into the case and another hour painstakingly running wires.
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I have a micro atx case right now and would like it to be smaller. It is definitely possible, its just that there are hardly any AMD ITX options for FM2 and no options anymore for AM3+. I had to stick with an AMD 880 chipset microatx board for my FX 8350. I can't get the latest chipset on a microatx board let alone an ITX board.
 
Just installed MSI ITX FM2 board with new replacement AMD A10-5700. No more graphical glitches.

The only issue I have is the Noctua fan rattles. I have tried loosening to screws on the heatsink to see if its warped, making sure wires are not touching the fan blades and wiggling the fan blades with my fingers but is still rattles. I seem to be on a bad luck streak. The rattling is not really loud but its loud enough to drive me crazy, especially since the machine is relatively quiet. The rattling gets louder at higher fan speeds.
 
Moosh said:
Just installed MSI ITX FM2 board with new replacement AMD A10-5700. No more graphical glitches.

The only issue I have is the Noctua fan rattles. I have tried loosening to screws on the heatsink to see if its warped, making sure wires are not touching the fan blades and wiggling the fan blades with my fingers but is still rattles. I seem to be on a bad luck streak. The rattling is not really loud but its loud enough to drive me crazy, especially since the machine is relatively quiet. The rattling gets louder at higher fan speeds.
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The fan itself? Weird. I'd drop Noctua a line. Maybe record a quick snippet of video.
 
Wow, I have that case, I may try to copy you. Does the A10-5700 GPU overclock to 1Ghz? Im more interested in GPU even if I have to Underclock the CPU.
 
MrSmegzabush said:
Wow, I have that case, I may try to copy you. Does the A10-5700 GPU overclock to 1Ghz? Im more interested in GPU even if I have to Underclock the CPU.
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I don't know, but it is a 760MHz clock by default (the A10-5800K is a 800MHz clock). You'd be looking at a clock increase of nearly 35% which is pretty big.

I'd suggest if you really need maximum GPU performance, consider getting a A10-5800K and downclocking and undervolting the CPU cores to keep thermals down. A good starting point might be to match the A10-5700's frequencies, and then volt down. Most everyone has been able to hit 1.25V on the A10-5700, and I've taken mine down to 1.15V successfully on the ASRock board.

Remember though, the MSI ITX board doesn't have VCore adjustment, so if you get that board downclocking is your main avenue for reducing temperature.
 
sliverstorm said:
Remember though, the MSI ITX board doesn't have VCore adjustment
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Wow that's like a shot through the heart for lowering wattage for sff. (Edit: I checked the online PDF manual, how sad.)
 
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xorbe said:
Wow that's like a shot through the heart for lowering wattage for sff. (Edit: I checked the online PDF manual, how sad.)
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Yes, I was disappointed too. Fortunately the board is doing a good job of managing my 65W APU, so I haven't really needed to tweak it. Compared to the ASRock board, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. :)
 
I just got my 5800K setup in a mATX system that is going to be my dad's Xmas in a few weeks. Ive got his on a ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M. I've got the Vcore down to 1.25 so far no problems. I've been playing PlanetSide 2 on it and I am still GPU Locked even with 2133 Ram and GPU at 950mhz but not as stable as I like it. Ive got my Kill-a-Watt hooked up now and it peaks at around 120W so Im kind of skeptical of ITX (even though i do have a 3.5 drive and ODD drive installed too.)

Silverstorm

Did you end up having that NH-L9a Noctua blowing towards or away from the board?
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Ugh, the Zotac is an A55 board. No native usb3 or native sata 6gbps, but it does have 2 x usb3 so it must have an extra chip. Not deal killers I guess. Here's the manual:
http://downloads.zotac.com/mediadrivers/mb/man/pa262.pdf
It has "cpu over voltage", "cpu core over voltage", "nb over voltage", and "memory over voltage" ... no explanation of options at all in the manual, so no idea if it can undervolt or not. Someone will have to report back ... (edit: I don't see any multiplier controls for underclocking.)
 
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The Asrock board is not bad at all, I think some people have just gotten unlucky. I love the system I built with it and could not be happier. Posted up a detailed review on Newegg if interested. Underclocks very well and runs cool.
 
practal said:
The Asrock board is not bad at all, I think some people have just gotten unlucky. I love the system I built with it and could not be happier. Posted up a detailed review on Newegg if interested. Underclocks very well and runs cool.
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You don't have the large-power-draw-from-wall during bios or full load issue?
 
Moosh said:
Zotac FM2 ITX available here: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-A55I-BE
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I would not touch that turd with a ten foot pole after my experiences with Zotacs in the ITX motherboard area.

xorbe said:
Ugh, the Zotac is an A55 board. No native usb3 or native sata 6gbps, but it does have 2 x usb3 so it must have an extra chip. Not deal killers I guess. Here's the manual:
http://downloads.zotac.com/mediadrivers/mb/man/pa262.pdf
It has "cpu over voltage", "cpu core over voltage", "nb over voltage", and "memory over voltage" ... no explanation of options at all in the manual, so no idea if it can undervolt or not. Someone will have to report back ... (edit: I don't see any multiplier controls for underclocking.)
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Expect nothing.
 
I have the ASRock board as well, and it seems "stable" enough. I do however have the high power draw in the bios and TDP is all over the place during normal use. It will spike from 50w up to over 100w and then back down again.
For my next build I ordered the MSI board. I ordered it from ITXCanada. They said it would be in within a few days (we'll see), so I'll post my observations once it's in.
I did see on Facebook that the MSI boards got delayed in shipment due to the dock workers strike on the west coast. Now that it's over, boards should start showing up near the end of the month.
As for the Zotac, I had a LGA775 Zotac mini board and it was great, so I wouldn't snub this one. It couldn't be any more flaky than the ASRock.
 
Okay I decided on the MSI (w/o V control) and a 5700, and picoPSU. Now only if I could find MSI in stock. ShopBLT says 12/27 which is probably the same for everyone?
 
xorbe said:
Okay I decided on the MSI (w/o V control) and a 5700, and picoPSU. Now only if I could find MSI in stock. ShopBLT says 12/27 which is probably the same for everyone?
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Where are you shipping to? Amazon might get a few in stock. They allow backorders, so if they are getting them in ones and twos you'll never see them listed as in stock on the webpage- I'd suggest placing an order, and then if it doesn't ship by the time ShopBLT gets em in stock, cancel when you place your order at ShopBLT (or wherever)
 
I did what silverstorm said. I got my MSI from Amazon and am very happy with it. I never thought to undervolt it to save power. Is it possible to add a feature like that with a firmware update or is there a physical chip missing from the motherboard?
 
Moosh said:
I did what silverstorm said. I got my MSI from Amazon and am very happy with it. I never thought to undervolt it to save power. Is it possible to add a feature like that with a firmware update or is there a physical chip missing from the motherboard?
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I think it's always variable to meet the chip's vid, but they just don't expose any manual control from the bios.
 
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