Mini-ITX

Mini-ITX is a motherboard form factor which has been designed to produce quieter and smaller computers. Electronic devices like computers contain a motherboard which is basically a circuit board that contains the circuitry required to perform the basic functions of the device. You can find different motherboards from different vendors and these motherboards are available in a form factor called as ATX.

The VIA Technologies created the Mini-ITX standard in 2001 and a Mini-ITX board is around one-third of the size of the traditional ATX board. The considerable reduction in the size is achieved by soldering the components to the board instead of attaching them to the sockets. Removal of number of expansion slots also results in the reduction of the size.

The processors used in the Mini-ITX motherboards are not made by Intel as they are clones of Intel's Pentium architecture and these processors are comparatively smaller in size. However, they retain full compatibility. These processors run at a much slower speed and so, a less amount of heat is produced as the amount of heat produced by a device is directly proportional to the speed at which it runs. As a result, bulky cooling devices found in ATX systems are not required in Mini-ITX systems and this result in further reduction of size. To date, three generations of VIA's Mini-ITX boards have been developed and all current VIA boards use an x86 compatible CPU.

The simple cooling requirements and the small size make Mini-ITX boards very valuable as they are often found in number of systems. A Mini-ITX board is even used in computer-based home theater systems and they're also found inside toasters and antique wooden radios.