Mini-ITX board

[tom.humphrey]

I'm looking at downsizing my rig, and have come a bit stumped with choices on motherboard. I would ideally love something like the Asus P8Z77-I deluxe, however only with the cpuspeedstep working (Have read that it isn't), and also a Thunderbolt port.

So anyway I'm really left with two options. Either the Gigabyte Z77N-Wifi, which again doesn't really fulfil my requirements however would be an easier install and also a cheaper option, until a board that does hopefully comes out.

My other option would be to go for the EVGA mini-iTX board. There is still no release date for it or pricing options however is rumoured to costs similar to the Asus board, but the rumoured release date keeps on getting pushed back and back, so also put off a bit by that.

To have a board that ticks all the boxes it would need to be:

1. Mini-iTX
2. socket 1155
3. Z77 (probably)
4. Thunderbolt
5. HDMI, Not fussed about any other display port.
6. 16GB DDR3 RAM
7. USB 3.0 Header
8. As many SATA ports as possible
9. Oh and of course as hackintosh friendly as possible

Has anyone got any advice at all? Have wondered just going for the Asus p8H77-I just as a tie over as well, however gigabytes H77 launch hopefully will just be around the corner as well. So am a bit stumped as to what to do.

Thanks in advance.

Also I cannot see the point of not including Thunderbolt on a mini-iTX board, does anyone have any insight (other then cost of the board going up). Just from my point of view it could add so much functionality to the board, as you could attach so many more PCIe devices using it, to a simple high spec mini-iTX, just my idea behind it anyway.

 

[toleda]

I'm looking at downsizing my rig, and have come a bit stumped with choices on motherboard. I would ideally love something like the Asus P8Z77-I deluxe, however only with the cpuspeedstep working (Have read that it isn't), and also a Thunderbolt port.

Speedstep works on the Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe. Interested in where you heard it did not. With macmini5,1 sysdef, I get:
8/5/12 11:59:51.000 AM kernel[0] MSRDumper PStatesReached: 16 23 31 38 40 41

 

[tom.humphrey]

Interesting, read it in here that the cpuspeed wasn't working correctly although might have inferred what GED meant incorrectly

What does not work for me:

Sleep & Cpuspeed does not work for me. I understand that there are hacked UEFI bios that I could use, but I did not try those as sleep is not important to me.

The two USB 3.0 ASmedia ports are disabled in the BIOS. I have enough (4 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0) ports already on the motherboard.

The built-in Wifi + Bluetooth are not recognized. I use wired Ethernet, so no need for Wifi. And I use a $10 USB dongle for bluetooth.

But if that does work then this is probably the best board to go for. Unless the EVGA turns out to have a thunderbolt port, which contrary to rumours apparently it doesn't...

This was from Ged's prodigy build which can be found here

 

[toleda]

Interesting, read it in here that the cpuspeed wasn't working correctly although might have inferred what GED meant incorrectly

But if that does work then this is probably the best board to go for. Unless the EVGA turns out to have a thunderbolt port, which contrary to rumours apparently it doesn't...

You won't see a mini itx motherboard with TB this year. Current information regarding ged issues:

SpeedStep requires native power management; either a patched BIOS or a patched AICPUPM.kext. By the way, all AMI BIOS have the problem (i.e., EVGA; not clear what BIOS is on the GA-Z77N-WiFI)

SpeedStep: patched BIOS (painless), see Asus 1155 Patched BIOS Repository.

USB3.0: ASMedia 1042 working, see Hopefully near universal USB 3.0 driver for 3rd part controllers in 10.8.x

WiFi: Replace with Atheros, see [Guide] Airport - Half Mini PCIe

USB Bluetooth: Bluetooth Adapter Database - tonymacx86 Wiki

 

[tom.humphrey]

Cheers Toleda.

I'm thinking about going for the p8H77-i just purely as it is cheaper, and will upgrade hopefully when thunderbolt boards come out. I don't currently really overclock. I shouldn't run into any problems on this board that are different to the p8z77-i deluxe should I?

other then there isn't a patched BIOS for it. Not fussed about via audio as I have MM1's which use usb.

 

[samisnake]

cant flash a modded bios on that board.

via audio, but if you are using hdmi with toledas 10.8 applehda guide, i believe that doesnt matter anymore(?)

 

[tom.humphrey]

Cheers Toleda for the time, I'm just going to go for the Z77 and have a nice little build.

Thanks a lot for time and input.

 

[mister_spaccato]

Gigabyte's z77n-wifi is about to be released, and it should be the most hackintoshable mini-itx board available. Check this article: http://www.tonymacx86.com/159-exclusive-hands-gigabyte-s-upcoming-mini-itx-motherboards.html

 

[tom.humphrey]

Thanks mister, I did see it but I'm just not sure it is worth it with I/O config and other details about the board. I have hacked many Asus boards before and they have always outperformed the two gigabyte rigs I've had, so not too fussed, and if I can mod the BIOS then it should be great.