pentium 4 mini-itx system?

**emdzey01** · 09-20-2005, 01:01 AM

ive been searching a lot and i can't find all the answers that i need to decide whether or not i'm going to purchase a p4 mini-itx board...

p4 boards have 20pin atx connectors on the motherboard, whereas p4-M mini-itx boards only have either a 19v dc-dc input, 4-pin power connector or 4-pin p4 atx power connector.

what would happen then if i used a p4-m mini-itx (e.g MB890 P4 mini-itx) on an opus 150watt power supply? where's the 20pin atx connector going then? do i really need it?

what about for power management support? i'm using a via m10k right now and it's doing real good in terms of automatic startup/shutdown with the opus, which i think is because the motherboard has the "S3" power management option, which i couldn't find on the p4-m motherboards.

here's my point. i'm dedicated on rebuilding my cpu with a pentium 4 OR pentium-m processor, coupled with a mini-itx motherboard, and still be able to power everything else with my opus 150.

any thoughts on what components i should use? i'd also like to hear from other p4-mini-itx users on here, as well as p4 microatx users, most importantly how they power their system (using an inverter's out of the question for me)

this may look like spoon feeding, but the reason why i'm doing this is because all my searches haven't given me a definite answer and it would be great to gather all the information and try to put it in the FAQ Emporium as well.

thanks guys, your help is always appreciated.

**EsKALad** · 09-20-2005, 01:19 AM

yes its possible. im using a insight via mini itx p4 motherboard with a pentium 4 1.7 ghz chip mobile. it runs at 1.2 ghz but only consumes 35 watts. so i kept the 12v rail ralatively open for a p4 system. im also running a bu 303. touchscreen 8 inch lilliput. fullsize 200gb 7200rpm and slim dvd player. all powered off the opus 150 with NO Problem. i tried using a fullsize dvd rom but thats when it was too much. so i went back to a slim dvd which only pulls off thr 5v rail. i hope this helps. good luck.

**Enak** · 09-20-2005, 11:48 AM

This board looks good: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=2#p1630

**emdzey01** · 09-21-2005, 12:44 AM

yeah it does, but where can i find it here in the US?

**Enak** · 09-21-2005, 04:20 AM

Not sure, but I think that store will ship worldwide.

**Maximus** · 09-21-2005, 05:00 AM

Come on, don't be afraid, you can trust us europeean guys

I bought my MB from Taiwan, Soundcard from Japan, GPS from Canada, Harddrive from The Netherlands, CPU/RAM from Sweden, 1st monitor from Germany, 2nd from Sweden.
So I'd say mine is a fairly international carputer

The only thing I regret is sending the MB back to Taiwan, that's when they fried it, and it would have been much easier dealing with a local retailer.
But they didn't exsist so I didn't really have any option either.

/M