Mini-ITX: Two Cases And Four Motherboards Compared

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Comparison Table And Test Setup

Comparison Table

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Manufacturer iBase Intel Zotac Zotac
Model MI950AF DQ45EK GeForce 9300 ITX WiFi GeForce 8200 ITX WiFi
Socket LGA 775 LGA 775 LGA 775 Socket AM2+
allowed CPUs up to QX9000 Series 65W TDP up to QX9000 Series up to Phenom II X4 955
Voltage Regulators 4 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 3 Phase
Chipset Intel Q45 + ICH10DO Intel Q45 + ICH10DO GeForce 9300 GeForce 8200
RAM 2 x DDR3 2 x DDR2 2 x DDR2 2 x DDR2
Ethernet I Intel 82567 Gigabit LAN Intel 82567LM Gigabit LAN RTL8211CL Gigabit LAN RTL8211CL Gigabit LAN
Ethernet II Intel 82574L Gigabit LAN Row 7 - Cell 2 Row 7 - Cell 3 Row 7 - Cell 4
WiFi N/A N/A 802.11b/g via USB VIA VT6656 802.11b/g via USB VIA VT6656
Panel Connectors 2 x  Ethernet6 x USB1 x RS2321 x eSATA1 x DVI-I1 x Sub-D 1 x Ethernet6 x USB1 x eSATA1 x DVI-I1 x DVI-D 1 x Ethernet6 x USB1 x PS/21 x eSATA1 x DVI-I1 x Sub-D1 x HDMI1 x Antenna 1 x Ethernet6 x USB2 x PS/21 x DVI-I1 x Sub-D1 x Antenna
Expansion Slot 1 x PCI 1 x PCIe x1 1 x PCIe x16 1 x PCIe x1
Onboard Connector 4 x SATA 4 x SATA 2 x SATA 4 x SATA
Pin-Header 4 x USB3 x RS232 4 x USB 6 x USB1 x RS232 4 x USB
Audio ALC8887.1 Channel3 x RCA Jacks1 x Front Panel Audio ADI AD18825.1 Channel3 x RCA Jacks1 x Front Panel Audio ALC6623 RCA JacksSPDIF Optical + Electrical1 x Front Panel Audio ALC6623 x RCA Jacks1 x SPDIF Pin-Header1 x Front Panel Audio
Accessories 2 x SATA1 x RS232 Bracket 2 x SATA1 x DVD-I, 2 Sub-D 2 x SATA 2 x SATA1 x SATA Power1 x DVI-to-HDMI

Test Setup

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System hardware
Hardware Details
Performance Benchmarks
AMD Platform I(Socket AMD2+) Zotac GeForce 8200 ITX WiFi (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: Nvidia Geforce 8200 BIOS: 2K090202 (02/02/2009)
Intel Platform I(LGA 775) iBase MI950AF (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: Intel Q45 BIOS: 1.42 (09/08/2009)
Intel Platform II(LGA 775) Intel DQ45EK (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: Intel Q45 BIOS: 0101 (09/28/2009)
Intel Platform III(LGA 775) Zotac GeForce 9300 ITX WiFi (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: Nvidia Geforce 9300 BIOS: 1.42 (09/08/2009)
CPU AMD AMD Phenom II X2 550 (45nm, 3.1 GHz, 2 x 512KB L2 and 6MB L3 Cache, TDP 80W, Rev. C2)
CPU Intel Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (45nm, 3.33 GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, TDP 65W, Rev. E0)
RAM DDR2 (Dual) 2 x 2GB DDR2-1200 (Apogee AU2G732-12GH001)
RAM DDR3 (Dual) 2 x 2GB DDR3-1600 (Corsair CMD4GX3M2A1600C8)
Hard Drive Western Digital VelociRaptor, 300GB (WD3000HLFS) 10,000 RPM, SATA/300, 16MB Cache
Blu-ray Drive LG GGW-H20L, SATA/150
Power Supply Enermax ERP425AWT (Pro 82+)
System Software & Drivers
Operating System Windows Vista Enterprise Version 6.0 x64 Service Pack 2 (Build 6000)
Drivers and Settings
AMD Chipset Drivers Radeon 9.4
Intel Chipset Drivers Chipset Installation Utility Version 9.1.1.1020
Intel Graphics Drivers Version 15.13.6.64.1908
Intel storage Drivers Matrix Storage Drivers Ver. 8.8.0.1009
Nvidia 8200 Chipset Drivers Nforce 15.49
Nvidia 9300 Chipset Drivers Nforce 20.14
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3D Games Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmarks Details
Far Cry 2 Version: 1.0.1 Far Cry 2 Benchmark Tool Video Mode: 1280x800 Direct3D 9 Overall Quality: Medium Bloom activated HDR off Demo: Ranch Small
Grand Theft Auto IV Version: 1.0.3 Video Mode: 1280x1024 - 1280x1024 - Aspect Ratio: Auto - All options: Low - View Distance: 1 - Detail Distance: 1 - Vehicle Density: 1 - Shadow Density: 0 - Definition: On - Vsync: Off Ingame Benchmark
Left 4 Dead Version: 1.0.0.5 Video Mode: 1280x800 Game Settings - Anti Aliasing none - Filtering Trilinear - Wait for vertical sync disabled - Shader Detail Low - Effect Detail Low - Model/Texture Detail Low Demo: THG Demo 1
Audio Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmarks Details
iTunes Version: 8.1.0.52 Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min., Convert to AAC audio format
Lame MP3 Version 3.98 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert wav to mp3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 kbps)
Video Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmark Details
TMPGEnc 4.6 Version: 4.6.3.268 Video: Terminator 2 SE DVD (720x576, 16:9) 5 Minutes Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, 6-Kanal, English Advanced Acoustic Engine MP3 Encoder (160 kbps, 44.1 KHz)
DivX 6.8.5 Version: 6.8.5 == Main Menu == default == Codec Menu == Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading Enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search == Video Menu == Quantization: MPEG-2
Xvid 1.2.1 Version: 1.2.1 Other Options / Encoder Menu - Display encoding status = off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 Version: 1.6.1 MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264) MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2) Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16 Bit, 224 kbps) Codec: H.264 Mode: PAL (25 FPS) Profile: Settings for eight threads
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Version: 4.0 WMV 1920x1080 (39 sec) Export: Adobe Media Encoder == Video == H.264 Blu-ray 1440x1080i 25 High Quality Encoding Passes: one Bitrate Mode: Vbr Frame: 1440x1080 Frame Rate: 25 == Audio == PCM Audio, 48 kHz, Stereo Encoding Passes: one
Application Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmarks Details
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8 Version: 8.5.287 Virus base: 270.12.16/2094 Benchmark Scan: some compressed ZIP and RAR archives
Winrar 3.9 Version 3.90 x64 BETA 1 Compression = Best Benchmark: THG-Workload
Winzip 12 Version 12.0 (8252) WinZIP Commandline Version 3 Compression = Best Dictionary = 4096 KB Benchmark: THG-Workload
Autodesk 3D Studio Max 2009 Version: 9 x64 Rendering Dragon Image Resolution: 1920 x 1280 (frame 1-5)
Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64-bit) Version: 11 Filtering a 16MB TIF (15000x7266) Filters: Radial Blur (Amount: 10; Method: zoom; Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark sysmbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar)
Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional Version: 9.0.0 (Extended) == Printing Preferenced Menu == Default Settings: Standard == Adobe PDF Security - Edit Menu == Encrypt all documents (128 bit RC4) Open Password: 123 Permissions Password: 321
Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 Version: 2007 SP2 PPT to PDF Powerpoint Document (115 Pages) Adobe PDF-Printer
Deep Fritz 11 Version: 11 Fritz Chess Benchmark Version 4.2
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmark Details
3DMark Vantage Version: 1.02 Options: Performance Graphics Test 1 Graphics Test 2 CPU Test 1 CPU Test 2
PCMark Vantage Version: 1.00 PCMark Benchmark Memories Benchmark
SiSoft Sandra 2009 Version: 2009 SP3 Processor Arithmetic, Cryptography, Memory Bandwith