Legit Reviews posted a review on the ASRock Z77E-ITX Mini ITX Motherboard
Not horribly long ago, Nate built himself a system based around a mini-ITX motherboard. We learned then that you could build yourself a pretty wicked system despite using such a small form factor. Since his article, several other companies have brought Intel Z77 mini-ITX motherboards to the market. Small form factor PC's seem to be growing in popularity since you can run all of the latest gear. Today we are going to look at our first Intel Z77 mini-ITX motherboard to come across my bench. The ASRock Z77E-ITX is, as the name suggests an Intel Z77 motherboard which supports the latest Intel 22nm 'Ivy Bridge' processors in the LGA1155 package. The key feature to the ASRock Z77E-ITX is clearly the mini-ITX small form factor. The mini-ITX form factor is extremely small when you are accustomed to ATX and eATX motherboards. The ASRock Z77E-ITX measures only 6.7in x 6.7in or for our friends across the pond 17.0 cm x 17.0 cm. Compare that to a board like the ASRock X79 Extreme9 which is a full ATX motherboard and the Z77E-ITX is dwarfed in comparison.ASRock Z77E-ITX Mini ITX Motherboard Review
ASRock Z77E-ITX mITX Motherboard Review
Despite having a much smaller PCB, the ASRock Z77E-ITX doesn't carry a lower cost. The ASRock Z77E-ITX is currently available for $149.99 + $7.56 shipping over at Newegg.com. Though it is a lower cost than some of the other mini-ITX motherboards.You may be paying a premium for the size, but if you want a small form factor PC it is well worth it. Due to the limited real estate on a 6.7"x 6.7" PCB we do miss out on some of the features available on the larger form factor motherboards. Though not as much as one may expect to miss out on. We will be going over the features and lack there of a little later on, but as a teaser we are missing out on the expansion slots, and two of the typical four DIMM slots. If you're not planning on running AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI that shouldn't be an issue. ASRock did decide to use as much real estate as possible on the Z77E-ITX, even using the back of the PCB for a mSATA slot!
