A Reasonable Price: CPU And Motherboard
Mini-ITX and Intel: When The Price Is Right
We decided to build this rig using an Intel Ivy Bridge-based CPU. Keeping cost in mind, a 3.2 GHz dual-corePentium G2120 emerged as our only real option.
As long as two cores are enough, the Pentium offers great performance. And while AMD sells quad-core parts for about the same price, they don't fare as well when it comes to cooling and power consumption, both of which are important considerations in such a compact space. This time around, it just had to be the little 55 W Ivy Bridge-based Pentium.
The Right Motherboard: MSI B75IA-E33
MSI’s B75-based B75IA-E33 is a newer board that offers everything we could want from a mini-ITX platform in this price range. Although the form factor limits any motherboard's available features quite a bit, MSI manages to give its B75IA-E33 a logical and usable layout. Even the UEFI menus are arranged nicely. We found this to be a perfect fit for both the build and budget we had in mind.
While there aren't many bundled accessories to speak of, MSI's B75IA-E33 includes all the essentials. The unexpectedly large manual is easy to navigate, though the text labels in the schematics could have been larger.
| MSI B75IA-E33 Technical Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Processor Interface | LGA 1155 |
| Chipset | Intel B75 Express |
| DDR3 Memory Support | 1066/1333/1600/1800/2000/2200/2400 MT/s (DDR3-1800 and up are overclocked settings; Ivy Bridge-based CPU required) |
| Memory Channels | Dual |
| DIMM Slots | 2 |
| Maximum Memory (GB) | 16 |
| PCIe x16 | 1 x PCIe 3.0 |
| SATA 6Gb/s | 1 |
| SATA 3Gb/s | 3 |
| RAID | N/A |
| LAN | 10/100/1000 |
| TPM | Yes |
| USB 3.0 (Back) | 2 |
| USB 2.0 (Back) | 4 |
| Audio Connectors (Back) | 3 |
| HDMI | 1 |
| DVI | 1 |
| VGA | 1 |
| Form Factor | Mini-ITX |
| Approximate Street Price | $110 |
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