ASRock Working on a Haswell Mini-ITX Gaming System
ASRock is showing off its new mini-ITX gaming system that it is working on, and it looks quite nice.
ASRock clearly sees a market for mini-ITX gaming computers and has shown off its mini-ITX system that will be based on Intel's upcoming Haswell chip. The system's eye-catching enclosure was designed in collaboration with BMW design and was kept sleek through the use of a PCIe riser that allows the GeForce GTX 680 GPU to be mounted horizontally rather than vertically.
The system features the impressively well equipped Z87E-ITX motherboard which uses a 6-phase VRM to give the LGA1150 CPU its juice and includes two DDR3 memory slots, a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and a mini PCIe 2.0 slot in which rests the WiFi and Bluetooth card. Connectivity is handled through six SATA3 ports, one eSATA port (at the cost of one SATA3 port), six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear I/O, two through the front I/O header), 7.1 audio with Optical TOSLINK, Gigabit Ethernet and a PS/2 port.
The system will utilize Lucid Virtu's graphics switching software which enables both the on-die HD 4600 Intel Graphics and GTX 680 to be outputted through the system's HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI ports.
Although we can expect the system to come to market around Haswell's launch, we still have no information on its options, pricing and regional availability.

...it's GOT a 680. What more do you want?
...it's GOT a 680. What more do you want?
Hahah I think he didn't even read the article lol. This is exciting, I've always had a mini-ITX system in mind for my next build but the options were very limited at the time. I'll just wait after the PS4 and Xbox 720 hit the shelves until I build my Mini-ITX monster, then I'll be the envy of all my console gamer friends buahahah.
An AMD system with 7870 LE aka "7930" would make a lot more sense.
You can buy risers. They're mostly used in server chassis, but they're available.
What amazed me is that the GPU is the largest component by far. It was 2x the volume of my mITX MB. Maybe about the same as the MB, CPU and cooler combined. After the GPU the PSU was the next biggest component and I got a very small PSU. While putting the GPU on a riser is certainly part of the answer, I think the end game is for the GPU and the MB to get combined completely so you just add the processor of you choice.
I paid ~$300 for my GPU. I'd pay another $100 easy if the GPU was a standard mITX MB. Nvidia has been building MB for years, why not just do the whole thing?
Is that even correct anymore? Aren't Haswell CPUs going to have their own VRM on-chip?
An ASUS 7970 Matrix Platinum?
Haswell will have the voltage controller on chip. The VRM will still be on the board.
Eh? VRM=voltage regulation module, which is a voltage regulator, or controller, so...
What i'm saying is, that if the CPU's VRM is on the CPU itself, instead of the mobo, then the mobo's VRM isn't "giving the LGA1150 CPU its juice", even though it might be providing power to the other components.
I too went with a mITX system. There are some very good cases coming out now with good air cooling. As for Overclocking I believe it was either Toms or Anandtech who did an article on an overclock mITX build. By a good margin from stock too!
The ITX certainly needs a far better look but, it's a start. I like the idea of being able to add a new CPU & new GPU in a console.
Now, we just need to include a hybrid HD/SSD.
...it's GOT a 680. What more do you want?
A good card that doesn't double/triple the price of the box?